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10 months later... losing ground. Has this happened to you?

Posted , 7 users are following.

purplerlover
purplerlover

Lets see 10 months in. leg is still swollen, hard as a rock at times. Pain is almost as bad as it was right after surgery. I went to PT, do home exercises not having any improvement , it is actually getting worse. Still can't do stairs comfortably have to have stair rails or I am going no place. When my knee is swollen it is painful to bend over and pick up anything. It hurts all day every day, Never under a #7 for pain.

I got a second got a 2nd opinion and this surgeon had NO IDEA why it was still swollen and painful this long after surgery. He took xrays, said everything looked good and in place. He suggested a few blood tests, it is not infected. was going to drain fluid, but said there was not much there. It gets really hot at times.So now he is saying he will see me at a year year and a half. This is my Life now he tells me. NO IT ISN'T"T!!! I refuse to give up and settle for a lifetime of pain and swelling. Not an option. I can't be the ONLY person this has happened to. I have tried compression socks, they go above my knee roll down and apply a tourniquet to under my knee. Before my surgery I was told the blood in my leg was pooling. The Cardiologist did several painful needle procedures that all failed, one he had to abort as he was hitting a nerve every time he stuck a needle in my leg. He said I had Venous Insufficiency. He wanted to do both legs. Up to this point I had no problem with my leg other than the knee. A friend 's daughter had the same procedure ,on the same day, both knees,a week later they were all swollen looked like my knee. She was diagnosed with Lymphedema, Do you think that's a possibility? What kind of Dr.would I need t confirm it???? This was in reply to one of Chico's posts. He suggested I repost it to see if I could get some feedback. Thanks in advance for any insight.

0 likes, 14 replies

14 Replies

  • jean02698
    jean02698 purplerlover

    Posted

    Do you have a family doctor that you can discuss with.

    • purplerlover
      purplerlover jean02698

      Posted

      My family Dr. is a joke. He is o.k. for colds etc. but I always go to a specialist when I can. He is so conservative, he "doesn't feel comfortable" prescribing anything that would help with my pain. I asked him about CBD oil and he acted like I was a drug addict. "Oh no I can't approve that, it's against the law'. Not in Michigan. If I wasn't so afraid of it I would try it. You can get it anywhere now, thing is which is better grade ?

  • roberta73387
    roberta73387 purplerlover

    Posted

    I am sorry to hear you are going through this. Just sharing, 9 yrs ago I went in for a meniscal repair and opened my eyes to a Meniscectomy, what a surprise. The surgeon and may I add the only orthopedic surgeon in Farmington, Maine said it couldn6 be repaired, it was like flags flying in the breeze. I noticed many varicosities after the surgery which I brought to his attention at my post surg visit. His comment, which is hard to forget, 'How would I know, I'm not a vascular surgeon". what an experience. I made up my mind to improve myself because clearly after the surgery there is NO HELP.

    • purplerlover
      purplerlover roberta73387

      Posted

      Roberta, what kind of surgeon was he?Unbelievable!!!! How did you come out after surgery? Did you seek a vascular surgeon??? The original surgeon I have is just like a used car salesman. They are all over you to make the deal. First time there is a problem they don't know you!!!I At least I know what kind of Dr. to look for now. Thing is if I find a vascular surgeonhow do I know if HE knows what he is doing???? So sorry you had to go through that.

  • jamesAB
    jamesAB purplerlover

    Posted

    I am 11 months post RTKR. The swelling virtually disappeared at 10 months. I have no, or negligible, pain unless I put too much weight on the leg - I can only walk slowly with a Walker and like you I need stair rails to haul my self upstairs. Flexion is good but extension isn't. However, things are slowly improving and day by day the pain is easing and the weight-bearing capacity of the leg increasing. I hope in both our cases, it is just a matter of time.

    Good Luck, Jim

    • jamesAB
      jamesAB CHICO_MARX

      Posted

      I did try that a while ago, Chico, but it made my knee quite sore. However, I think it might be time to try again!

      I'll let you know how I get on.

    • CHICO_MARX
      CHICO_MARX jamesAB

      Posted

      Yeah...let us know. If you find another way, share it with us. A bunch of us on the Forum need #2 done and we're all not looking forward to it. Any help you can share would be greatly appreciated.

      PS: Look up the COOLIEF website and locate a doc near you. Could help with the pain.

  • Deigh
    Deigh purplerlover

    Posted

    I am also at the ten month point and was in a similar situation as yourself with swelling and pain associated with that. It is slowly getting better, but a couple of weeks ago I had reached the point of despair it was so bad. Here is what worked for me, and I am now feeling so much better. I have tried everything over the past ten months, including going to my surgeon three times, who referred me to a pain clinic, my family doctor, massage therapist, acupuncture, naturopath, physio therapy, etc. About a month ago I started forcing myself to ride a stationary bike every day for minimum of 10 minutes, I started walking every day for 40 minutes to work the muscles in my legs, and at the advice of my naturopath, started putting castor oil on my legs from my ankles to top of my legs, which is wrapped with saran wrap to help the castor oil react, and then low heat applied with a heating pad. I was told for a minimum of 10 minutes you should apply heat, but I keep it on and just watch tv and relax. I sleep with the castor oil and wrapped legs every night and it has made a huge difference in swelling and pain.

    • CHICO_MARX
      CHICO_MARX Deigh

      Posted

      WOW!!! Had not heard of the castor oil treatment. We should all remember that. I would suggest creating a post with a title something like "Castor Oil Treatment for Post-TKR Pain". That way, many more people would see your story instead of it being buried in this thread. Please do this for all of us. (Note: Would compression leggings work instead of Saran Wrap???) Thanks...

      PS: Here's the exercise plan to rebuild all the supporting musculature...written by a pro just for us...

      Post-TKR Muscle Rebuild

      A lot of people don't understand that a great deal of post-op pain comes from the body sub-consciously shifting the work to other muscle groups and away from the knee musculature (quads, core, glutes, hip flexors, etc.). Without doing the full muscle rebuild, that "other pain" just gets worse. Gotta do the work to regain full leg strength. Else, you get this...

      Post-TKR Other Pain

      The work really pays off. Riding a bike is a great warmup but the strength work must be done to finish the recovery.

    • purplerlover
      purplerlover Deigh

      Posted

      My knee, at 10 months is getting worse. I have the tourniquet feeling back and is getting tighter every day, Pain and swelling still bad too. I use the ice machine 3 times a day and sleep with it. What do you think I should do about the ice? Can't imagine sleeping with the oil and saran wrap on my leg every night. MAYBE just put it on while I watch TV in the evening, I have sensitive skin. Do you think I could still try it? Does it warm up your legs? And then heat? I am on the NUStep every day several times a day. I do between 4,000 amd 7500 steps a day with my Fitbit. No way could I walk 40 minutes straight with my knee in this shape. BUT I am not a quitter. I will try the castor oil and saran wrap. does it matter what kind or how cheap the castor oil is? Thanks so much for the idea....Will let you know how it works out. YOU ROCK!!!!!

    • Deigh
      Deigh purplerlover

      Posted

      Every one of us is different so I can only suggest what has worked for me. I was at the point that you are at, in that I thought this would never get better and when I did think it was getting better, it would suddenly become unbearable again. I don't use ice much anymore because I found that I wasn't getting relief from doing so. You might be different and that helps you. As far as the castor oil, I bought a good quality oil which I purchased in a health store. It was not expensive, $15 Canadian and it is a very large bottle. I don't have an issue sleeping with the wrap on my leg, which I thought I would. Wrapping your legs also prevents the castor oil from getting on bedding or other items, after all it is oil. But if you can't sleep with the wrap, the oil and heat will still be effective. It has reduced the edema in my knees and legs so much that I can actually wear shoes that were too tight after surgery. The IT band pain has completely disappeared and I have some tightness still in the knees, but nothing in comparison to what I was dealing with before. If you Google castor oil for inflammation there is some information online. It even helps to grown eyebrows and eyelashes. I was amazed with all the things that castor oil is good for. I was also told that when walking to make sure that I walk on my full foot, meaning putting your heal down and then walking off the ends of your toes as a full step. We tend not to do this naturally. I could feel the muscles around my knees when I started to do this, but it didn't take long before I felt the effects of the muscles loosening and pain reducing. I had a great surgeon who did a fantastic job with my surgery and I was excelling at my recovery, then the swelling and tightness hit me and that took me down, so I do understand what you are going through. I hope that you soon find some relief. Keep reading this forum as it did give me comfort to know that what I am going through was common, even though my surgeon professed to not having a patient ever go through this in over 30 years. I have found those in the medical field don't think outside the box and I was left alone to discover what would work. I spoke to anyone who might have an answer, but for me massage and the castor oil seem to be the two things that have worked. I hope you feel better soon. It will improve and I am prove, I was so sure that this was how I would be the rest of my life, but know I have newfound hope.

    • Deigh
      Deigh purplerlover

      Posted

      I forgot to mention that I had bilateral knee replacement, so double the pain, double the inflammation and double the feeling of despair when no medical doctor had an answer. Also, my naturopath told me to stay away from wheat, and night shade vegetables as they add inflammatory properties to your system.

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