Heat or ice at night

Hi Cathy!

I sure can relate to your two hour sleep schedule! This was true for me for MANY months following my first TKR and then my second TKR! It is difficult night after night of being awakened by pain or swelling or stiffness or, more commonly ALL THREE!

I tried all the regular things --icing, compression stockings, elevating my legs, taking more medication. Each helped for an hour or two. THEN, awake again!😲

One night I just got up and CLEANED OUT a shelf in our bathroom! I focused on the shelf like I would as though it was daytime rather than the middle of the night. I got tired, so I went back to bed. I woke up about four hours later! That was the first time I had actually slept more than two hours at one time!😁

Of course my husband thought I was CRAZY cleaning out a bathroom shelf in the middle of the night, but, hey, it WORKED!

Since then I have cleaned more shelves, had a cup of tea on the deck, peeled potatoes, and all kinds of strange middle-of-the-night adventures to distract myself. On each occasion I tired myself out enough to break the two-hour wake up schedule and end up getting more restful sleep. Just MOVING and STRETCHING rather than laying in bed AWAKE helped me.

I offer this as a way of distraction pain management. Crazy? Maybe. It worked and CONTINUES TO WORK for me!😊

Wishing you success!💟

Hi Cathy,

I am 6 months post op.

I did find sleep very difficult. I never used heat. I used RICE - Rest; Ice; Compress; Elevate.

Pillow between my knees was a must, otherwise not a hope if sleeping.

It was not until about 12 - 14 week's that I felt a real improvement. Try to measure improvement week by week rather than day to day.

Swelling and stiffness will continue on and off for 12 months or more and come out of the blue.

The good news, I have absolutely NO pain whatsoever now. I went for a 2 hour hill walk (easy slopes) a week ago, I kept expecting pain and it didn't come. What a fantastic feeling, on beautiful Glendalough, just walking and walking. It was fantastic. Well worth the surgery and effort. Doing the exercises as prescribed is key, BUT do them at your own pace, your body will tell you how far to push it, no one else.

Patience is genius, keep at it at your own pace, it will pay off.

Take care?

Alan

Five weeks is SO new, things should start to get better going into the sixth week. Sleeping is one of the many things we don't get after this surgery. ICE and ELEVATE!!! NO heat!!!. I was on Oxycodone for the first couple of weeks but it 'tied me up' for 10 days and I ended up taking a killer laxative. They negelected to tell me this would happen. The Oxycodone also messed up my stomach. Dr switched me to Tramadol. I would take one or two during the day and made sure I had one to take at night. Later on about six weeks, I started with Extra Strength Tylenol, which worked better than those other pain meds. Try stretching very slowly when in bed and see if that doesn't help some. This is one bear of a surgery and it will take a good year to fully recover from it. There will be good days and bad days. You will take one step forward and two back BUT there is an end to it all. Have you started PT yet? That will be another milestone in the road to recovery. It won't be pleasant but it should not out and out hurt. Slow and steady is the way to go. Don't get depressed and think things aren't going fast enough, time is on your side. We all got through this and came out 'to the light at the end of a dark tunnel', so hang in there. That's what this forum is all about...you can vent, post about accomplishments, feelings of depression, sleeplessness, etc. This is a great place for us!!! PS: I had my TKR the 27th of April 2015 @ age 68. I didn't think I'd ever get through, til I found this group.