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Knee replacement setback

Posted , 13 users are following.

vickie15389
vickie15389

I had TKR on 12/18/17. While very challenging at first, I recovered very well (so they tell me) and returned to work at 6 weeks out. I gradually stopped pain meds and only used Tylenol except for the occasional norco here and there. THEN...I had a conference that I attended last week. There was a lot of walking and a few flights of stairs here and there. I didn’t feel like it was terribly bad at the time, but by day 4 the pain increased quickly and with vengeance. I went to my Dr when I returned and he drained 60 cc of fluid and gave a shot of lidocaine. That helped that day but back bad as ever now. I’m a 58 year old female. Has anyone experienced a setback such as this?  I am in so much pain and now emotionally spent as well. I could just curl up and cry and would if it may help!  Any suggestions?  I continue with ice and rest but no luck. 

1 like, 72 replies

72 Replies

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  • barb31990
    barb31990 vickie15389

    Posted

    I took my 12 weeks as recommended. This surgery is intense and your body needs to heal. There can be many setbacks. I sufffer from stomach issues from the meds which has slowed my healing . Plus not sleeping through the night yet. I go back to work in one week and I am getting nervous.

    Rest and take care of your body.

  • nwf477
    nwf477 vickie15389

    Posted

    Sometimes you have to go back whether your ready or not but I would think if you explain your situation and or get a note from the Dr,( sounds like kid stuff ) you should be able to limit your activity. You might even have to say that what your doing is too much and even though I am doing my best now how would it be if I wound up back in the hospital. Work is very important but you only have one body and no matter how tough you may think you are this is a major surgery and it is going to hurt.
  • vickie15389
    vickie15389

    Posted

    Dr called me back just now. Said to double up on pain meds (which I really don’t like to do) and go back to using the walker at least thru the weekend. Said wants me to have a bone scan next week to rule out a fracture. I would have thought I would have had to fell to have a fracture but maybe not. Has anyone had one of those?  P.S. I am so glad I found this page....while it can’t help my pain....it is helpful to talk to people who REALLY know how it is. Guess I’ll double up on the Norco for now and worry about the bone scan sad. Much thanks to everyone!
    • Delboy1735
      Delboy1735 vickie15389

      Posted

      ...guess the fracture can occur during/after the op depending how strong your bone was. It’s ‘by the way’ but months before the possibility of my second op my surgeon advised me to stop having cortisone injections as they can weaken the bones so a scan can only be a positive suggestion.
  • nwf477
    nwf477 vickie15389

    Posted

    Bone scan are easy you go in for the Appt. they inject some radioactive fluid in your vein as it collects in you knee area you will see images of your knee. This takes 30 minutes then you have to wait 3 hours and you come back and they take more images. If something is wrong it will show up as the Dr.'s call it Hot Spots or as I thought it was glowing. The scan will show if there is a problem but I will not be specific as to what the actual problem is.

  • sue64229
    sue64229 vickie15389

    Posted

    Hi Vickie

    Im so sorry for your setback, I really feel for you.  It is only a setback though. You have done so well, getting off pain meds and being back at work already.  I can only reiterate with the others and say it’s too soon but I also understand you needed to get back to earn a wage and look after your kids.  Don’t give yourself a hard time, it will get better.  When you read through what others on the forum have to say about their own tkr’s, it sounds, to put it bluntly, like a “ p*ssing competition”.  That others experience a lot more hiccups in their lives besides the total knee.  I guess we all feel a bit sorry for ourselves but it’s expected.  It’s a HUGE operation to get over and you’ve done so well.  I was one of the “ lucky” ones.  I had bilateral tkr’s 2 yrs ago and have done quite well but I still take strong pain killers so, to some, I’m not doing well at all.  I’ve never worried about my ranges of bends etc.  I left hospital with a 90 degree of bend on one and 100 on the other.  And have never had another physio session since leaving hospital.  I can do most things pain free.  I don’t know why people keep on about the degree of bend etc.  most people who have the operation are older so unless you want to climb mountains and compete in marothons, if you can squat, kneel and hold down a job, I think you’re doing ok in my book.

    Anyhow, I think you should be proud of what you’ve been able to achieve in such a short time.  You’ve just overdone things and your knee will calm down.  Just rest, ( if you’re able to with young kids) and do what you must to be kind to yourself.

    Best wishes

    Sue xx

     

    • vickie15389
      vickie15389 sue64229

      Posted

      Thank you Sue.  I have been doing well until all this. I am still hopeful that after a weekend of rest I’ll come out the other side more hopeful.  Thanks for the encouraging words. It really does help more than you know! 😍

    • Delboy1735
      Delboy1735 sue64229

      Posted

      A completion sounds about right. We are all going through the healing process following a pretty radical op. ‘best take the advice posted on this site regardless of whether or not it suits what you are going through. I’m only too glad I’m not having to go through some of the radical surgery we all read about. Knee surgery is in most cases, elective surgery and hardly life or death.
  • robert40911
    robert40911 vickie15389

    Posted

    Hi Vickie I had a TKR in February and a manipulation 2 weeks ago for my bend i must admit you are a fighter and a strong woman to be able to go back to work after such a short time. I have intense pain and some swelling and I hear from my therapist and doctors it is to be expected and will get better. I have not thought about work but I know the time is going to come where I have to return so thanks for the info about work.
  • MiXCSkier
    MiXCSkier vickie15389

    Posted

    I had a similar work situation - in my case I went to a conference (4 hour flight) for 3 days at 3 weeks out and did fine (lots of icing and keeping up with PT etc and resting in hotel room).  Then at 4 weeks, walking the dogs, doing great, broke my knee cap and know I'm in a knee immobilizer for 4 weeks.

    so, just goes to show, things go up and down.  I think you don't necessarily realize after surgery how vulnerable you are to accidents and other things that can set you back in addition to the knee itself.

    just though I'd post this to give people comparisons on different levels of recuperation and timelines for returning to work, meetings, walking, ..... or not.

    no wonder the docs are so vague about what post op is like!

    • colleen5963
      colleen5963 MiXCSkier

      Posted

      MiXCSkier

      I had a total knee replacement the end of January and was doing pretty good A week ago I twisted my leg going in and out of the car I have had pain ever since that knob at the bottom of your knee is all swollen I was wondering how did you know that something was wrong with your knee and you needed to go see the doctor hope you can help me

    • nwf477
      nwf477 colleen5963

      Posted

      If the pain goes away after a couple of days odds are you are okay. If it still hurts really bad and its lasted more then a couple of days I would call the Dr. There have been times I twisted or fallen on my bad knee and it hurt like ( fill in the blank ) but after a couple days thing s would settle down. I have called the Dr. numerous times when I had my first couple TKR's and now I wait no sense of getting worried if its not needed. Hope this makes sense?

    • nate1990
      nate1990 MiXCSkier

      Posted

      The docs are vague because the post op is so variable. Best look to 6 months to  year. I am kneeling down when gardening with no problem. A relative hasn’t been able to kneel down following an op 3 years ago. ...he didn’t persist with the, sometimes, painfull therapy. Keep excercising whoever reads this. Cheers.
    • MiXCSkier
      MiXCSkier colleen5963

      Posted

      lol oh I knew!  My dog bumped into my knee just at the "right" time, somehow, and it twisted and I crumpled in a heap of screaming.  So it was pretty clear a trip to ER was warranted.  Luckily the TKR parts were all undamaged.

      I would call your doctor and ask for their opinion.

    • colleen5963
      colleen5963 MiXCSkier

      Posted

      Thanks for your reply I hope my TKR is also undamaged I have an appointment with my doctor on Tuesday so hopefully I will know better by then thanks again I also have another question I twisted my knee last Monday and I've still been doing my exercises and bike not full strength but doing them I wondered if you did exercises when you hurt your knee before you saw the ER or do you think maybe I should calm down until I see the doctor?

    • MiXCSkier
      MiXCSkier colleen5963

      Posted

      Well, I went right to the ER.  If the exercises aren't hurting, I, personally, would keep doing them, unless they hurt or cause more swelling.

    • colleen5963
      colleen5963 MiXCSkier

      Posted

      update went to the doctor yesterday about the twisting I did on the leg with theTKR the knee is fine no infection but because of the pain caused by the twisting he gave me a cortisone shot which definitely helped he also wants me to follow up with a pain management doctor about my lower back pain and the burning in my leg now it's up to me to do what is hardest patience patience patience tip- if you have burning and own a Clarisonic use that on the burning spot it definitely calms the nerve pain thanks for all your input

    • CHICO_MARX
      CHICO_MARX colleen5963

      Posted

      This is why there is a list of no-nos...

      https://patient.info/forums/discuss/do-s-and-don-ts-after-a-tkr-a-typical-list-541794

      All of them involve either pounding or twisting the knee.  Long term participation in these activities could dramatically reduce the life of the implant.  However, one-time "accidents" will cause some pain and swelling.  Ice, elevate, yadda, yadda...

      Alternatively, I called Donjoy (the major brace manufacturer) to see if they had a brace for TKR patients that would absolutely, positively prevent the knee from twisting.  Behold the Donjoy Defiance.  I'm saving my pennies...

    • MiXCSkier
      MiXCSkier CHICO_MARX

      Posted

      I used one of those back in my ultimate frisbee days, to keep my knee from twisting, since I had blown out my ACL.  Guess what happened .... I blew it out again.  OF course I was playing utimate, so I suppose it would provide some support if you didn't actually do twisting sports.  That was also over 2 decades ago...

    • colleen5963
      colleen5963

      Posted

      Good morning I have a follow-up question about my lower back problems caused by the twisting of my leg my general practitioner had me have a CAT scan and they say I have a lot of arthritis in my sciatica and he recommended a cortisone shot because I'm in such pain and having such a hard time getting an appointment soon for this shot the sciatica problem is on the same side as my tkr I was advised that maybe I would rather go see a chiropractor have any of you gone that route with success?

    • Delboy1735
      Delboy1735 CHICO_MARX

      Posted

      Our UK ops are free. They have already been payed for and are continuing to be paid for. We’ve already contributed our £££s

    • vickie15389
      vickie15389 colleen5963

      Posted

      Hi Colleen,

      I too experienced lower back pain shortly after my TKR. I also had a previous back surgery in 2006. I went to chiropractor and he said it was very common for this to happen, as your body had been used to misalignment and once straightened back up caused issues. He made me agree to 12 sessions to measure success. I will admit after 4-6 I was not impressed. His approach is massage therapy (that part was great), then laying on a traction bed, then seeing him. Shortly after 6 weeks I started seeing much progress. Now, at 12 weeks I’ve had a total turnaround!  While it is still not 100%.....it is so much better. Had I not had the setback I think I would be better yet. I am currently in another 12 session run. I’m convinced I will come out the other side much much better

    • colleen5963
      colleen5963 vickie15389

      Posted

      hi Vickie

      thanks for your input it makes me feel better about going to my first chiropractic appointment on Monday besides my tkr recovery pain and the back pain I have been experiencing for the last few weeks I some days that are very down and I keep thinking things aren't going to get better so after hearing from you today and your take on your chiropractic visits it definitely Has Lifted my spirits I hope I come out of my appointments as you have thanks again and best luck on your journey

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