Loss of weight and fatigue after tkr

Thanks Jenny, it's so good to be on this forum as you feel quite alone sometimes.

Hi Roberta, well here in Australia we are coming out of winter, but spring is taking its time. Wanting to get out and walk. I am at 9 weeks now and still have fatigue but I think it's my brain, got to get in in the right space. 2-1/2 weeks is very early in your recovery. Don't do as I have done and judge your recovery on someone else's, we are all different.

Hi Colleen, I'm sorry for you and understand completely. I only lost 3 kgs. Perhaps it is normal for us to be feeling like this. Anxiety is my biggest enemy, and this I have to overcome. Good luck to you, and keep us informed of your progress. I am 9 weeks now, and not looking forward to the right knee replacement in December!

Hi Lynda, Wow 400 extra calories! No wonder we lose weight. How is your back?

I have scoliosis and it's been a real problem walking since my TKR. I'm hoping it will improve after the next TKR. It's frustrating not being able to walk for more than 30 minutes before having to take a break, but I guess I should be grateful I can do that. Wish me luck!

Lynda I feel for you with bad back. I took advice from all and sundry, and yesterday did 30 walk and 10 mins bike plus exercises, and had an awful nights sleep. Every time I moved it hurt.

When is your next tkr? Is it January? I think I told you mine is December and worry that my left knee will still be a problem as it will only be 4 months along. Good luck to you.

I know how you feel. I've been pushing my knee a bit more and it's been clunking, clicking and hurting more, but I want to really try to sort out this IT band before the next op if I can because I can foresee the same problem on that side. I haven't an official date yet, but have said January. T hey offered to do mine 4 months apart, but I wasn't ready.

I suppose one advantage is that it's all over sooner and gives the first leg a rest during those first weeks of recovery even if is doing all the work when it needs to. I know of a couple of people who had them done 6 months apart and seem to be pleased with how things are going. They were both scheduled for 4 months, delayed and then found that as they did more the other knee worsened. You can always delay if you don't feel it's the right time. I hope your knee settles down after all the exercising. Maybe give it a rest for a couple of days and just do a gentle 10 minute walk. Good luck.

Hi Lynda, I had never heard of an it band before. Happens to cyclists a lot. There seems to be exercises for that. It doesn't sound pleasant, good luck with it. Yes, I have been thinking of delaying the next knee, but at 70 want to get it over, will make the decision later.

I did my 30 min walk yesterday and alternate softer exercises, and it was a bit less painful after. Cannot do bike x 3 times a day, plus walk and other exercises, it's all too much. Next op all depends on how well the left knee can cope being the main weight bearer, at least I can do the exercises on both legs. I'm doing these exercises now on both legs in the hope that the rt knee will be strong. Everyone tells me to get it strong beforehand, something I never did before. Thanks for your reply, it's really great to have feedback.

I'd never heard if the IT band before either. My physio is working on it, but he says it's a very strong structure, rather like a seat belt and it takes a while to stretch it out after it's shortened.

It sounds as if you're finding the right way to cope with your knee. I've come to the conclusion that we just need to listen to our knees, do enough to exercise and keep them moving, but rest them when they need it too. All the best for you and your knees.

I expected to feel the energy drain with respect to the healing process. It depends what you have on your plate...I'm retired, widowed and live alone so I am content with reading, planning daydreaming. Of course I miss my activities but going in my surgeon told me to prepare for a big camping trip...boy was he on target! The folks at Dollar General must have wondered what I needed all those paper products for? But it panned out, those cans of low sodium chicken broth thank God. Saltines to stave off nausea. I gave up the painkillers 2 days ago because they destroyed me. spending 18 hrs in the bathroom trying to have a bowel movement - not fun, although it sure got my knee to bend ready or not. When it gets down to the nitty gritty it forces you to view things differently. That new winter coat I've been thinking about not so big on my wish list. My 52 y/o son was able to come home and be my primary caregiver, what a blessing. I offered to get him a trip to wherever when this ordeal winds down; wouldn't blame him if he went out for milk and kept running. I haven't exactly been a peach crying and moaning scuffling about. I thank God for my blesdings. Yup, I even have a vision for family holiday get together....

Roberta, i have to admire you, living alone and coping with all the pain and horrible discomforts. Brave lady. and of course, your wonderful son. It's a long haul, but it dies get better, little by little. keep up the exercises, they're so important. Allow yourself to rest whenever you feel like, don't overdo things. Crying and moaning - we've all done that. Be well and be strong.

Hi Jane, Yes the energy drain is very surprising isn't it. Hos is your ROM at 4 months? Mine is only Just 100 deg. at 9 weeks. This has been my problem, thinking that it would be a lot better by now, but have to realize, we are all different I guess.

Roberta, the best thing I've found fir constipation is golden linseed in Activia yoghurt. My dietician recommended 2 tablespoons of the seeds in yoghurt twice a day. It soon worked and now I need only 1 tablespoon in 1 yoghurt if I have a oroblem. It might be worth trying.

Believe it or not here (in Israel) I've never had my ROM measured so don't really know how to measure it. I don't have problems with knee slides, squats - holdin gon to the railings, leg lits or pelvic lifts. However both my surgeon and physiotherapist are pleased with me on this score and I find I am certainly no worse off than I was before the op; in fact much better. I'm 72 and wasn't a gym/sporty person beforehand, but do my exercises daily. After over three weeks of going up and down stairs like a baby my home physio helped me to go up properly and a week later, also helped me to go down properly. Since then - no looking back. In fact both he and the surgeon said I should go up and down 'for exercise' not just because I need to get or do something. So I do. Before the op, going up to bed, when I was tired and less mobile at the end of the day, the stairs looked like mount Everest and I used the banister to help pull myself up. I probably need to have the left knee done as well, but I am going back to my my regular orthopaedic doctor at my local clinic and see what's going on. At my 5-week visit to the surgeon who operated on my knee, he asked me what about the second knee I said all in due course. There's a lot to be said for a bilateral tkr - one lot of pre-op tests, one lot of meds which play havoc with your body and one lot of the nightmarish pain of those first couple of weeks, not to mention the sudden energy drains and depression.

Jane, wish I had stairs! I do step ups but not as many as you, but it seems easy. I'm 70, and am in line for rt knee for on Dec. It seems hard to find a happy medium with exercise, what is too much and what is just right. If I do too much I pay for it. I still suffer from with ibs like symptoms but am taking Ibersartin, and multi vitamin. My mental state is to blame, anxiety is a biggest enemy of your gut.

I wonder how we would have gone with bilateral knees, but as I had a dvt and ruptured Bakers cyst straight after op, I think it would have done me in!!!

Jane, I put the wrong name of the product I took for stomach upset, it's Iberagard, not Ibersartin, sorry.

thank you. I went from severe constipation to the other extreme after discontinuing pain meds. I think the body is trying to shed all the dead cells in the intestinal track. Drs never take time to talk w/you about these things. the best thing you can do for yourself is read read read, then make informed decisions. Here's a good one...Urgent Care doesn't even have a rudimentary walker just in case. my son brought me in wheel chair for xrays to rule out bowel blockage. unbelievable it took 2 staff members to assist me in bathroom to void and I'm not that large a woman.

Pain meds have a lot to answer for. I suffer constipation and terrible nausea with any opiates. My husband had a similar problem to you. We think that he had become so constipated that nothing worked on the blockage but affected all the matter that built up behind it ( sorry if that's too much information) and then he couldn't leave the house for 2 days,