2 week post op. 2nd TKR left knee..Not doing so good yet!!

I found nerve pain the worst so asked my gp for Lyrica that stops nerve pain. I found pain very bad for at least 6 weeks , I woukd watch Netflix all night when i couldnt sleep, and catch up when I could . Good luck , I had mine done a year ago butnot staples anymore here they use glue . You may ferl better once out .

Hi Melissa,

Sorry you are suffering you know you just need to keep up your physio and icing your knee and taking painrelief repeatedly, for some short time of relief.

Do you think you could have forgotten how bad it was first time round? Its possible from what i have read on here you just have to tell yourself it is early days and it is.

Sleep when you can ,i have read here that some suffers sleep in their recliners at night,and no two surgeries are the same keep up with all you can do and sleep will come ,i always think you can put up with a lot as long as you get your sleep it is important for healing process

I have no experience of my own to fall back on yet

as i am still waiting on a date for my ltkr hopefully know more when i see surgeon on thursday .

You know what you need to do better than i do just hope i have helped in some little way to push you in right direction and not to be hard on yourself ,you can moan to me any time.I trust you will feel better soon x

my first few weeks were hell. sleep was not great. some people and some knees do better than others

Thursday will be one month for me. I was not informed how difficult and excruciating the pain and swelling would be after surgery. Not to mention the huge bruises. It is better now than 4 weeks ago but no where NEAR the pain relief I expected to see. The pain meds you get are a JOKE. The pain was so bad it was affecting me mentally and emotionally. I am not a crier but have been crying way to much. Last night we got our first snowfall. Hubby says come over here and see this...It is gorgeous looking at the glistening snow and the lights shining on the pond. So of course I burst into tears. Are you able to elevate your legs at night? I have an adjustable bed so I can get my legs up and level. Then add the ice pack before I go to bed. I am up 4 or so times a night changing the ice packs and trying to walk off the numbness and pain. It will get better but it's not like a normal surgery. Instead of me getting better everyday. I find I have pain everyday, If I do my exercises and ice it feels a tad better. But 5 minutes after I take the ice off the pain and tightness is right back. I am blessed to have my hubby to take care of me and the house . I am trying a CBD cream around my incision and it helps some. So far no one has come up with anything to lesson pain or swelling. Hoping you have less and less pain . Keep us posted. Hang in there!!

HI Melissa

im so sorry to hear you are still suffering terrible pain from your recent op. i had the same experience where my first knee was some what of a breeze ( i only realised this after the second knee was replaced ) and the second gave me so much more pain especially for the first few weeks .

i found actually resting the knee and doing a lot less with it than i did with the first one did help with the pain a lot . i spent the first two weeks trying to rest the leg , only gently bending the knee and supporting the leg weight when moving from the bed or sofa. i iced and tried to keep the knee still taking pain relief as often as i was able . It was such a huge difference in experience to the first knee.

it sounds silly but i also used some meditation breathing especially when i couldnt take any additional medication for a few hours and it did help me to feel like i could bear the pain when it got intense.

I also slept up right for the first two to three weeks on the sofa as the harder surface versus a matress gave me more support and i found if i didnt move my knee the pain was reduced a lot .

its so difficult when you had such a relatively easy experience with the first knee to understand how the second can be so different . there were times with my second that i questioned why i had it done and i was exceptionally emotional

however it does get better as i mentioned in my previous message . three weeks post op my pain subsided enough for me to start physio and moving around much more . i will admit my ROM was a lot less than the first knee for about 10 weeks and i had to work so much harder on getting my knee to bend guided by my physio and it really hurt and made me feel sick (ROM anything more than 90 -95 was hard to achieve )

i read on a forum listening to your body and rather than continually pushing it do what causes you less pain was the way to go so i stopped pushing myself as hard and spent more time giving my knee deep tissue gentle but regular massage every day for 15 minutes in the morning and i actually found being kinder made a massive difference . gradually i got more ROM as the massage loosened up the scar tissue and now i work at the gym on strengthening more on both legs.

i hope your pain subsides soon Melissa and i know i have said this before and i had read it lots before my second op but no two knees are the same and i had to keep reminding myself this especially when i struggled with my second .

that said now 18 weeks on i love them both and cant believe how amazingly different my quality of life is now versus 8 months ago. so dont give up faith you will be ok

take care Alle x

Hi Melissa it is still very early days. I didn't sleep for weeks! I took tramadol, voltarol suppositories and paracetamol! I iced every 2 hours for 20mins and did my excersises! I got up in the night for at least an a hour. The first 6 weeks were the worst! You have done it once and will do it again! Just think by the summer you will be walking pain free! I am on the waiting list for second knee and have to dose up with pain killers to walk out of the house! I can't wait to be pain free!

Remember there's no gain without pain!

Hang on in there and take each day at a time!

HI Mel,First six weeks are shocking and sleep doesn't happen often, but mel its only been 2 weeks you need to ease off with any expectations and try to relax is so early for you .Keep icing and keep the heel/toe exercise going when your lying down the pain will ease,try your GP for stronger meds if it too bad you know this is a phase you need to stay positive and strong and once you pass it you'll forget it.Think ahead pain free walking ,this is the price we all have to pay for that im afraid. im 9 weeks friday and apart from stiffness in the knee first thing and a little swelling still hanging around all's good.The knees will never ever feel 'natural' again after all theres over 2kg of metal and plastic in them but the freedom they will give you is priceless.keep posting melissa and stay positive (i know its not easy at times)good luck.

Hi Mellisa

I had my left tkr 5 years ago and my right last may 25th 2018

sorry to say that pain is part of the healing process so you will have to tough it out it will get better just keep bending it and taking the meds at regular times try not to allow breakthrough pain it's hard to control if you do .. so meds is the key here.. as for ice my trick was 2 support tubes..over knee get some of those cool box ice pack and slip them in between the support tubing it's cheap and does the job perfectly elevate leg using ideally a.memory foam pillow when you in bed or just trying to relax .

So meds bending and support and give it time you have had major surgery our bodies need time to adjust and so do you .. good luck.. I am pain free now you will be soon .

Sam

I used a TENS machine... It helped get me through the times between taking my pain relief and worked for me. Not everyone finds it does but it's not expensive to buy... I had it because I used it before my knee replacement. I also found gentle massage good. hope you feel better soon!

Melissa, i'm 10 weeks out now and things are so much better. nights can be tricky but drugs pillows and ice ice ice is the key. I'm STILL shocked at how underprepared i was for the scale of this recovery. I'm only having panadol osteo 3times a day but one plexia (lowest dose long acting) before bed..cutting this down this week.

I have had some horrible withdrawal symptoms from the pain meds. Whole body sort of heightened muscle agitation/irritability with very poor sleep. Nothing to do with my knee.

Has anyone had this?

I took the meds as prescribed at regular time intervals and reduced quite quickly. I knew i was sensitive to many other ordinary drugs but NEVER thought this could happen to me! I can't even drink alcohol. WHAT a journey