Posted , 6 users are following.
Did the knee keep you awake any night, some nights, or every night or what?
Was it only hurting when you walked on it, or some of the rest of the time or nearly all of the rest of the time?
Did it give way much before you requested TKR?
Did painkillers help before TKR?
Did you ever try ice or heat before TKR and if so, did it make any difference?
Did you try a brace before TKR?
Roughly how long had the osteoarthritis been disabling you before requesting TKR?
I'm just wondering if how bad it was before TKR makes any difference to how we think of the recovery.
0 likes, 13 replies
lynn53216 chris00938
Posted
Chris, I had RA in my knee before surgery but they thought it was osteoarthritis before the surgery and my knee was really bad, I tried everything. I could not sleep at night, could hardly walk, tried shots, brace, therapy and nothing worked. I am in my 12TH week post surgery, still a lot of swelling, tightness, but I am sleeping better. I have about 6 more weeks of therapy . Bend is about 116 to 118. Still using ice and resting a lot. I can tell when I do to much because I can't rest at night.
chris00938 lynn53216
Posted
It sounds as though you're progressing nicely now Lynn. Thanks for the details! When I was given a brace I found it impossible to use because a) it was SO tight that I thought it would give me a DVT and b) the arthritis in wrists meant I couldn't do it up, so I never really used it!
Good that you're sleeping better now:-))) I think that makes all the difference! It does sound as though it's much better now, already, than it was before the op!
lynn53216 chris00938
Posted
chris00938 lynn53216
Posted
Yes, you need to get on a list as soon as you realise you're going to need surgery on that other knee Lynn. I actually got referred for both at the same time, so when I went to be signed off for the first I could then get signed on for the second. I hope you can get the second one sorted as soon as possible. It changes our lives completely to have these ops once we've recovered. I hope your swelling and tightness goes, although I was told to expect swelling for up to a year and mine is still a bit swollen.
lynn53216 chris00938
Posted
chris00938 lynn53216
Posted
That's so good that x-rays are showing it's not too bad Lynn. Hope the therapy works well for you!:-)))))))
lynn53216 chris00938
Posted
Laura3333 chris00938
Posted
Did the knee keep you awake any night, some nights, or every night or what?---some nights
Was it only hurting when you walked on it, or some of the rest of the time or nearly all of the rest of the time? ---When I walked on it, and bent it, and fried to get in and out of car.
Did it give way much before you requested TKR?----Oh yes a lot.
Did painkillers help before TKR?---No, not really.
Did you ever try ice or heat before TKR and if so, did it make any difference?---Tried both, didn't help at all.
Did you try a brace before TKR?----No.
Roughly how long had the osteoarthritis been disabling you before requesting TKR?---For years, I just put up with it. It kept dislocating, and was unstable, that finally decided me.
chris00938 Laura3333
Posted
Thanks Laura!:-)))) Initially mine hurt when I walked on it. Not so much when I bent it without weight on it though, BUT then it started hurting ALL the time and I remember sitting on the sofa with the pain searing and no position helped, no tablets helped - nothing helped. I know someone else mentioned this, but at that point I felt it could have been amputated and I'd have been better off - I realised then that I'd got nothing left to lose - the time had come for TKR's.
Incidentally, when I asked for my brace, no-one had suggested it, despite the knee giving way, but they did happily give me one. Shame I couldn't use it.
cynthia89958 chris00938
Posted
Hi Chris - you will soon be an expert with all this research, lol!
?My knee started "clicking" years ago. I used to walk and jog a lot then!
?About 10 years ago, I used to go to the gym with my daughter and it started my knees hurting! The left got better but the right not. Went to docs then physio, phys found patella was out of track. No treatment, just exercises and painkillers then.
Over time. knee used to hurt, stiffen up after sitting / driving etc. Occ. gave way - fell a time ot two.
?Got worse last few years. Could not walk far without pain and locking up. Had to use a walking stick.
?Used to wake up once or twice nightly with knee pain.
?Could not straighten out knee last year due Bakers' cyst. Walking got bad. Was dragging rt leg as used to catch it on things.
?Painkillers gave me digestive bother and liver enzymes went up, so preferred other remedies. Used heat more than ice, though ice more now.
No brace, no injections etc.
?I went to docs last year with the cyst which ruptured and I had calf pain, so went to get that checked and was referred to assessment centre. They showed me x ray of bone on bone knee and asked questions and referred me to surgeon.
?As we have spoken on here, you know I have not had the best recovery. I am sorry I had to have the surgery so far but things were not great before either!
x
chris00938 cynthia89958
Posted
Phew Cynthia, yours sounds a long history of problems - this surgery, even though it's been tough, has got to be best for you in the long run! It sounds as though the patella out of track has caused excess rubbing on that knee, doesn't it. I do find this all interesting. I wonder if mine was related to loose ligaments - there was bone on bone on my x-rays about 8 years or so ago, and on the inside of the patella too. When mine started it was both knees and both wrists at the same time and the pain was horrendous. I was walking with two sticks and struggling - I really felt I needed a wheelchair! I did buy a mobility scooter. Gradually it eased a tad though - still horribly painful but just a tad better for a little while. Then it came back with a vengeance and the shock was when it was hurting ALL the time, not just when I walked on it. I truly hadn't realised that it was going to get worse than it had been! It's a bundle of fun, isn't it! NOT! Sitting in the car today it was the unoperated knee throbbing - the operated one is behaving beautifully, bless it:-))))
martinarvelo chris00938
Posted
Pain started quite suddenly in May, just as we went on holiday to england! Made any sustained walking extremely painfuyl. Pain during the night, but not unbearable. Put up with it until October, when I had an arthroscopic intervention, which actually made it worse, meaning that as well as the dragging, burning pain, there was also a very painful 'click' if I bent the knee. Went to see surgeon in January, who said ' ' Yep, bone on bone. . nothing for it but an operation. one week later, in the heatre listening to the chop chop bang ban whizz . . . . Arthroscopic operation on the same knee ten years ago, which worked like a dream. Twenty years ago, sudden excruciating pain and heat in the knee . . unknown origin. so hot, all the skin of the knee fell off in one large piece! i think that was the possible start of it all . . .Didn't take pain killers for the pain because of enlarged liver . . .I always felt it was going to give way, but it really didn't do that except twice on stairs. . Never used a brace. . .Didn't really expect the weeks after the TKR to be some incredibly painful . .never, ever known pain like the nerve pain in the thigh. ope I never experience it again.
chris00938 martinarvelo
Posted
Oh boy - that left me with an audible gasp! It all sounds horrific!!!!
I felt as though mine was going to give way and it did, several times. Once I was in the front garden sawing a bit off a butterfly bush, thankfully wearing the wrist supports with a metal bar in (because of the arthritis) and one knee gave way, and sent me lurching backwards on to one wrist. I was standing on paving but managed to stagger, flinging the saw in the other direction, backwards, until I hit a bush where I landed flat on my back LOL! Husband was trimming the hedge, so I had to wait until he stopped before I could call him and ask for rescue. Another time I'd told my son that my knees gave way but he didn't take me seriously and one day insisted on passing me his baby daughter in her car seat, ignoring my comment of 'my knees might give way!'. Yes, one gave way, but fortunately I fell against the side of the front door so no damage done to her!
Talking of enlarged liver, I went for a routine blood test at the same time as having staples taken out and there was sudden concern about slightly enlarged liver. Then I googled it - of course, it was something to do with the TKR! You'd think doctors might have realised!
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