Other Pain After a TKR

People with all sorts of injuries very frequently feel ancillary pain somewhere.  Our brains are wired to avoid pain so it automatically tries to protect the painful area and move the ability to perform some action to another muscle group in the body.

For people with knee surgeries, we subconsciously change out gait, shifting the way we walk and therefore putting the pressure on some other muscle group.  Why?  Because the main musculoskeletal structure that enables us to walk properly is centered in the quads, glutes and core.  Unfortunately, after a knee op and weeks upon weeks of disuse, those muscles have all atrophied...dead.  Ever see someone's arm just out of a cast for 8 weeks?  Toothpick.  Same with your muscles.

So we've shifted our gait and the brain has compensated for the knee pain.  The problem is that it has moved the responsibility of those muscles to others...lower back, hip and pelvis...or...groin and inner thigh...or...calf and ankle...or...others plus combinations.  Very typically, our hips, pelvis and SI joints go out of alignment, pinch the sciatic nerve and we have a wonderful case of sciatica.  Simple chiropractor fix in a few weeks of treatment,  Other times, people report extreme calf and ankle pain.  Here, many people get an inexpensive AFO support to help them through the rough period.

Also, some patients report having one leg measured shorter than the other and rush out to spend hundreds on custom shoe orthotics. STOP!!!  When your hips are out of alignment, it causes that length discrepancy.  Always see a chiropractor or your PT before spending the money!!!  It's probably just a hip alignment issue.

ALL OF THIS IS NORMAL...but people get freaked out.  Deep breath...normal...

My approach to any of this is to go the cheapest, non-invasive route...including NO RX DRUGS!!!  Allopathic (western medicine) docs just love to throw pills at problems when there are better, more natural choices.  I always start with a chiropractor for an alignment evaluation.  Treatments help over time.  I have also found acupuncture to really help in some painful circumstances.  If nothing helps, see your ortho for a next step.

Just know that a lot of this pain is typical and normal as our bodies shift position and muscle groups to avoid pain.  Find the root cause and fix it.  To fix the dead muscle problem permanently, here's the plan...

https://patient.info/forums/discuss/post-tkr-exercising-565527

PS: Worst Case Scenario - I did have one situation over 5 years ago where the sciatica was so bad that nothing helped.  Chiro, PT, pain shots...nothing.  Saw my neurosurgeon who found a bone spur at L4 that was literally "crushing" (his term) the sciatic nerve root at L4.  Simple spur removal and laminectomy.  Residual pain gone in a few days.  Yeah...sometimes the pain comes from a more serious place...but that's very rare and not as a result of knee surgery.

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