8 weeks TKR with regrets Advice pls

Your doing far too much exercise, cut it down to half hour each day.

And rest more, elevating your knee with ice.

Hope this helps.

Sue

Try and lower your expectations based on other people's stories. You will improve. Is it better today than it was , say, 4 weeks ago? I agree to cut down on walking and exercise. If you are a heavy guy you will be putting far more pressure on the joint. It's probably not linear either. If you are twice the weight of somebody else it's likely to be 2 squared i.e 4x the pressure. In the early stages you are exercising to try and get the ROM going. Yours is fantastic at this stage and if you are getting swelling exercises are the worst thing you can do early on in my humble opinion. You can get the strength back later.

As far as sleep goes I think everyone struggles with this. I'm down to a dull ache i don't even notice by day but still haven't had a totally peaceful night's sleep. In fact the doctor gave me drug called amitriptylene which I believe is a mild sleeping/antidepressant which also helps pain in nerve endings. Seemed to help a bit.

The other issue is that you can get conflicting advice on here, from other good sites like Bonesmart and from your and other professionals. Not very helpful is it and it can leave you confused. My suggestion would be to enjoy the kindness and empathy on here and read all of the advice and decide yourself what might help, probably by trial and error. You will get better and when you do you will be better off  as I'm sure your medics would have spotted any serious problems. I reckon after three months you will notice improvements. 

I found it helpful to keep a daily diary because you tend to forget how bad it was and don't notice the slow improvements but when you look back at what you wrote about how you felt 2 weeks before you will be surprised that things have actually changed  and it gives you a boost.

Good luck my friend and we will be hoping for your improvements soon.

Dave

Hello I am 57 290lbs ( no idea what 20stone means??? I am also 6'4". Since you have never been thru this before it stinks there is absolutely nothing nice to say about how you feel after the surgery. Your situation is bad but this is my 6th time only difference between what your going thru vs what I am going thru the more surgeries you have the longer the recovery and more pain. You are doing all the right things and it may not help but patience plays a part in this as well. What you wrote is right on Monday will be 4 weeks PO. Based on my last revision ( all my surgeries have been on the L knee )at the end of the 1st month I was anxious to get out of the house go for short walks get in my car in general just wanted to be somewhat active now I hurt constantly 24/7 the best way for me to sleep is on my back sometimes the pillow just doesnt do the trick.Since this is your first ( hopefully your last ) based on my averages by the 3 month time frame you should be feeling better. If your still in too much pain I would tell the Dr. as far as what you should be doing when they are pointless all of us heal differently. If its an option a stronger pain med might help. I can relate trust me going thru this once is no fun now I am at # 6.

What you are feeling is normal. TKR is the worst surgery ever. I am 5 months post op and doing so much better, with very little pain. I sleep with a pillow or blanket under my knee which allows me to sleep and not be in pain. The jury is out to know if it was worth it and I will probably not have my other knee done as originally planned, having this site to ask questions and know that you are not alone has been a blessing.

Good Luck on your healing, you will get there.

Hang in there.. I'm 6 months out and just this week finally had a great week at work. 2 great days and 1 ok day. Thankful for the 3 days. I too was really upset,. What did I do!.. but it seems to be turning around. Hang in there. Slow down on the workouts. You got this! We got this! Try the tramadol and few hours later advail. Works for me most of the time.

Sounds like your pushing to hard my friend,there’s no harm in taking a rest day listen to your body,secondly sleep issue I couldn’t get any sleep I used to hate the thought of going to bed knowing I’d be up within an hour and back downstairs,so I went to see my GP and got some prescription sleeping pills I took one every other night to make them last and it got me through a bad stage to be honest the thought of sleeping pills didn’t appeal to me at all,but my god it was  the best decision I made your sleep is key to your recovery as well,you probably know a dark depression can creep in when your exhausted every day so get some good sleeping pills from your doctor.dont bother with over the counter sleeping aids they don’t work I tried.come on zzzzzzzz time.

8 weeks is just the beginning. I iced my first tkr for 4 months. Maybe longer for the 2nd one. I found out with the first that doing too much pt was bad. Quit killing yourself with the pt. Your numbers are great. Just relax. I did my pt with the therapist then just flexed and bent a few times each day after I got home. With my 2nd knee, because I did so well with the first, my therapist pushed and pushed. I ended up with gout in my toe. Idismissed the therapist after 9 sessions and did my own thing. I am fine now. It has been 14 months for the first knee and 10 months for the second. You have at least 2 months to go b4 you can sleep all nite. But it does get better. Hang in there. Baby steps. I thought my 2nd tkr was worse, but my kids said I complained more with the first. Lol

10.5 months post op. Biggest mistake I made. However, as soon as I broke up some scar tissue at 8 weeks, got a little better pain wise. Still swells, still stiff every morning. Ice is my bff.

Actually saw my old surgeon in another state, who said TKR do not work for everyone. He had previously done a partial on the same knee successfully. He advised keep up with exercises, etc.

Current surgeon wants to do TKR of my other knee, but no way in Hades. I can tell you it's better than it was, but far from ok. I also keep getting told by current surgeon I have tendonitis in knee that had TKR.

If that's true, I had it before he replaced my knee. So I wonder, was it even necessary? Flip side is, I still ride horses and do everything I want except run. Granted, it's not without pain, but at least I can still do it.

You probably don't want to hear this (again), but give it time. They do a number on your bones and it takes time to heal. I won't put a number on it though - everyone is a little different.

I'm 4 months after tkr patience is the word. I do exercises 3 times daily of 20 mins if my knee aches I stop, listen to your knee, it knows when it needs rest. I have the numbness and occasional pain above this too think it's part of the healing process. I have no arthritic pain now and sleeping 6 to 7 hrs a night normal for me. Still uncomfortable to lie on non operated side knee hurts when lying across the good leg so I stick to my op side. Try rubbing voltarol behind knee on a night time before bed. It helped my inflammation cos that's usually responsible for the stiffness. I also massage my scar 2 daily with bio oil or aveeno certainly helped me. Good luck it's a long journey for some so keep on going maybe reduce your exercising time to 20 mins instead of 60.

We all know how you feel. I'm now just 5 months into TKR and wish I had run from having the op.

Have now got my knee back to 121 degrees and can do everything although quite slowly. And gone back to a little tennis once a week.

I do exercise every day lunges, cycling and stretches and also go to the swimming pool, walking through water and then at the end of pool holding onto the side, pulling my legs up and out straight, then pulling my knees up and in and out.

When I go to bed each night I sit up and bring my knee up and down 12 times.

Also keep feather soft pillows each side of the bed so I can roll over and rest my knee both sides against them, although in the early stages I used to take my Cryo Cuff to bed with me.

I also hate to say it but it might be a good Idea to loose a little weight as its like an elephant balancing on 2 bricks instead of a small bird.

Anyway you know what I mean.

As for pain see your Dr as they have plenty of pain relief for you to take.

Best wishes,

Sue