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Ankle pain at night?

Posted , 5 users are following.

kel40
kel40

I had my thr on 5th jan and have been getting on fine,what has started waking me in the night is pain in my knee,ankle and back.i understand my back hurts due to sleeping on it and my knee because it is swollen etc still but does anybody know why my ankles now started to hurt? Its almost like it locks and stiffens up.

Has anybody else had these troubles after surgery?

0 likes, 9 replies

9 Replies

  • AnnieK
    AnnieK kel40

    Posted

    I am guessing your ankles hurt because when one joint is debilitated, such as after joint replacement surgery, the other joints have to do more work to compensate. After my THR, my other hip, both knees and both ankles were hurting to some degree or another, due to the extra weight they all had to bear. I have some OA in all of them, and they were protesting! As your hip gets more able to do its normal job, pain in other joints should ease.
    • kel40
      kel40 AnnieK

      Posted

      Thankyou anniek i do hope so as the pain is awful.
  • AnnieK
    AnnieK kel40

    Posted

    Another thing, kel, about the sleeping. Are you sleeping flat on your back? To take some of the pressure off of your back, you sleep at a bit of an incline and put pillows under your legs to lift them up. That might even help with your ankle pain, too.

    If you are having very difficult pain at night, then your surgeon or GP should be able to give you some pain relief meds. You are only two weeks out from surgery and it sounds like you are undermedicated.

    • kel40
      kel40 AnnieK

      Posted

      Hi anniek.yes i am sleeping flat on my back which im finding very difficult,last night i used my v shaped back pillow which helped alot and i actually managed to grab a few more hrs sleep!
    • AnnieK
      AnnieK kel40

      Posted

      Glad to hear that! I found that sleeping (or actually the lack of it) was the hardest part about recovery for me. Another thing that was helpful for me in the early weeks was to let myself fall asleep whenever my body wanted to, not just at night. Even so, I couldn't sleep for more than 1 1/2 hours at a time and didn't get more than 5-6 hours of sleep in 24 hours until I was allowed to side-sleep at 6 weeks. So if you are getting more than that, you are doing well in my book!

  • beth2509
    beth2509 kel40

    Posted

    Because "the hip bones connected to the thigh bone, the thigh bones connected to the knee bone... " or whatever the song is! They are all bits, but it's one body! All the muscles, nerves, tendons, sinews  and whatever else connect, and that's why you can hurt your foot and get a headache! Ain't life wonderful??? If you've stopped them, try going back to some ankle pumps to get the blood moving. My ankle also swelled up, but I didn't even notice that until shoes started falling off. Also, a warm compress on the ankle. Not cold because that causes your extremities to begin to shut down, and what you want is to just relax them.

  • renee01952
    renee01952 kel40

    Posted

    hi kel, 

    how are you doing? 

    Joining Annie and Beth here regarding the painful ankles --- as you are starting to walk (attempting to ditch the crutches) your knees and ankles, back and even shoulders are doing their best keeping you in balance - 

    a lot of wobbling is going on before you take your first step - 

    more and more parts of my body started to make their presence known -

    my ankle was also very swollen for a long time - my wrists were painful because I held on to my rollator for dear life ...

    we do this automatically, you see ... nothing natural and smooth going yet -

    still be gentle with Kel, okay ... 

    big warm hug

    renee

     

    • kel40
      kel40 renee01952

      Posted

      Hi renee.i had ditched one crutch while indoors but have now gone back to 2 for a week or so to see if the ankle pain fades atall.i had a call from my g.p yesterday who said these knee and ankle pains can be a common thing after hip surgery so i think i need to give it time.

      Thankyou for your kind words x

    • beth2509
      beth2509 kel40

      Posted

      Your body will tell you when it's time to ditch supports. You'll find yourself automatically doing things without thinking of it. I recall that one day ( at the time on one crutch) I heard the phone ring, got up to answer it, talked to someone, hung up, went into the kitchen and washed up - then thought "where's my crutch?"!!! That's when I decided that a stick around the house would do. And I have lost that before now too. Given how bad my ankle is, that just demonstrates how strong my hip has become. Around the house I now manage without the stick, but I always have one around just in case I need a bit of extra support.

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