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Exhaustion

Posted , 15 users are following.

elaine94716
elaine94716

hi everyone.  Me again...I'm 8weeks post TKR and not doing too badly apart from the usual sleepless nights, stiffness and ache at back of knee, etc etc but I wondered if anyone else experiences getting  to about now (7pm) ish and feeling absolutely exhausted, and every part of my body hurting?  I had to go to bed this afternoon and slept for an hour but still feel dodgy.  Is it still my body recovering from the operation?  Lord knows how I'm going to be able to go back to work in four weeks time - not gonna happen.  

0 likes, 39 replies

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  • andrea30334
    andrea30334 elaine94716

    Posted

    hi elaine im nearly 10 weeks and exactly the same!!! at 17.30 tonight I could quite cheerfully have gone to bed but 2 weeks ago I went to see my cons and he told me it would be mid july beg aug before I could return to work and he said even uf your knee seems fine youve been deprived of sleep and been physically exhausted and you neef to get better AND then rest!!!!! which makes sense really???
  • mandy35295
    mandy35295 elaine94716

    Posted

    Oh dear, I'm only pkr on day ten, and by five pm I've had it, I don't go to bed, no point, can't get comfy,,  I no you had tkr but this all last so much longer than I thought, 😞
  • Oldfatguy1
    Oldfatguy1 elaine94716

    Posted

    Right, you are still getting meds out of your system, rebuliding lost blood and trying to get your strength back from a couple of weeks of sliding downhill immediately after surgery plus your appetite has probably been minimal. Make sure you are getting plenty of fluids. Not flushing the system and dehydration is the biggest culprits of energy loss. I'm now 9 weeks out from having the hardware removed to fight the staph and the last 0 days I have started feeling a littler closer to normal but still very weak because I can't actually rehab the leg as it is immobilized and I ant put much weight on it.  6 more weeks to get my strentght back and get ready to have the new knee reinserted.
    • elaine94716
      elaine94716 Oldfatguy1

      Posted

      Thanks oldfatguy.  When you look at it like that I suppos it's  no wonder I my exhausted.  I hope your next operation is successful.  What is staph?  Sounds like you've had a terrible time. X
    • mandy35295
      mandy35295 elaine94716

      Posted

      I was going to ask the same thing but didn't like to, I assume you got an infection in your knee?
    • Oldfatguy1
      Oldfatguy1 elaine94716

      Posted

      There a number of variations of staph....ranging from a simple infection that gets into the system or systemic to MRSA a bacteria that eats hunks of tissue and can be fatal. What I have is called staphepi or a bacteria that lays on top of the epidermis. The day after my tkr revision (replacement of the original) I fell and broke my femur. A hip to knee plate had to be inserted next to the bone on the outer side of the leg and held in place by 8 screws. Everything went well up to this point, then the plate began to irratate the inside of the skin and had to be removed . apparently a tiny bit of the bacteria entered the incision either on a little bit of skin or hair folical

      28 days later I was very I'll, running a high fever, nasueaus and dehydrated. Surgery was immediate and the disc between the tibia and femur portions of the prosthesis was removed, area flushed and a PICC line

    • martinarvelo
      martinarvelo Oldfatguy1

      Posted

      MRSA is a big problem in UK hospitals. . that's partly why they chuck you out as soon as possible!  thank heavens it wasn't that which got into yous system!  they don't talk about it over here in Spain, but it's probably around just the same.
    • Oldfatguy1
      Oldfatguy1 mandy35295

      Posted

      Inserted and antibiotic infusions started. After 8 weeks of infusions I went to oral antibiotics

      After 8-9 months the antibiotics apparently quit working and the staph was back. This time they had to open the knee,take out the entire prosthesis flush, insert packets of Antibiotics and then put in a temporary plastic spacer, sew me up and start the antibiotic infusions again for 8 weeks. I am 1 week out and have to wait till June 22 to get another new knee inserted and start the rehab all over again. Surgery 11 plus radiation over 12 1/2 years. Outside of blood clots, staph is the most dangerous part of the surgery. I was 65 when this started now 78

    • elaine94716
      elaine94716 Oldfatguy1

      Posted

      Oh my god sounds hideous poor thing.  I really hope you're on the mend now.  Take care and thanks for your comments xx
    • Oldfatguy1
      Oldfatguy1 martinarvelo

      Posted

      There are so many things out there. A high school class mate of mine got that rare flesh eating bacteria and they had to start amputating body parts. She finally begged them to stop and she was dead in 2 weeks. She was a retired federal immigration agent, single, marshalled at a golf club in California and played a lot of golf. No one ever figured out where she could have lickedvit up. Our nephew is an infectious disease doc and he told me everyone is covered with staph and it won't bother you unless your body can't fight it naturally

      It that's the case it can kill you. I know medicare has now spent over $250,000 on efforts to clear this up on me. My doc says this proceedure has a 95-98% success rate.

    • mandy35295
      mandy35295 Oldfatguy1

      Posted

      Omg you poor fella, you really have been through it,. I had m.r.s.a 7 yrs ago in my stomach, I had 14 of those disgusting staples holing my hysterectomy wound closed, but when 3days out of hospital, my wound split apart and those horrible staples just ripped through me. I was on really strong antibiotics for months. My experience was minor compared to what your going through, but horrendous whilst I was going through it. They wanted to give me staples for my knee. no chance. You will get there, I'm so sorry for you , keep your spirits up. 😷
    • martinarvelo
      martinarvelo Oldfatguy1

      Posted

      The over use of antibiotics has a lot to anser for. Over here in Spain until a couple of years ago it was easy to buy in the chemist (pharmacy!) without a prescription, and peope used antibiotics for anything. . a cold?  antibiotics. Sore throat? antibiotics!  So we have bred a whole new breed of super infections. . . .
    • Oldfatguy1
      Oldfatguy1 mandy35295

      Posted

      One of the little discussed areas about tkr's is the strange attraction the prosthesis has to infections. Somewhere in the myriad of instructions, the one about making sure you discuss this proceedure with dentists and urologists. Oral bacteria's and the ones created through the urinary track are easily drawn to the metal in the prosthesis. In my case, the bacteria came from the epidermis and the culture grew internally and then was drawn directly to the metal in the knee. They can't just take it out, sanitize it and reinsert. They have to throw it away and start all over with a new one.
    • Oldfatguy1
      Oldfatguy1 martinarvelo

      Posted

      They were never OTC in the US but have been over prescribed. I had rheumatic fever 64 years ago. It progressed from a serious tonsil infection. I would go by the Dr's office 3 days in a row and get a shot of penicillin. The infection would go away for a few days and then it would be back and the process would start all over. I went through this from early Jan to early April. Then they took me completely off the penicillin and up jumped the rheumatic fever. 3 months of bed rest and it cleared up but sure as hell, a few years later another infection, this time from being cut by a baseball cleat and boom, it came the penicillin. Took em years to learn
    • Oldfatguy1
      Oldfatguy1 mandy35295

      Posted

      That had to be terribly scary. Its such a nasty mess when it breaks loose. Certainly good to know you have that behind you. I feel comfortable that they have this behind me now and just have to go through the uncomfortable rehad process for what will be the 5th time
    • martinarvelo
      martinarvelo Oldfatguy1

      Posted

      Another thing my surgeon mentioned was the danger of chiropodists. . . and as it is pretty difficult to reach your toenails to cut them to begin with, it's quite a likely possibility that one would use them . . but unless they sterilise the tools they use, and are careful not to cause any damage to skin, it is a possible point of entry for an infection . . Over here, when people have their nails done they often remove the quick, instead of just pushing it back . .and my sister in law nearly lost a finger to infection for having that done! there are so many weird infections around now. . . I read on a Canadian site that they no longer recommend antibiotics before dental procedures for TKR patients . . . . . I'm acraid I would take no notice of that myself!

       

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