Night pain!!!

Hi Ruth I am 3 weeks on my second knee the first one was 9 months ago. I think night pain is a problem because we haven't anything else to focus our minds on. I have found that ice helps a lot but that means disturbing my husband to go downstairs for some. Other than that I have played around with my medication and leave enough to be able to top up in the middle of the night. I take 2 Tramadol with 2 paracetamol 7.30am and 1pm then drop it to 1+1 at 6pm finally just 2 Tramadol at 10.30pm leaving me 2 paracetamol for the middle of the night. I still wake up several times and adjust pillows under my lower leg etc I must be a real fidget 😬. But this does seem to get me "chunks " of three to four hours to start with and then possibly two to three hours at the next rest. I do find I'm waiting for my morning pain relief though. Of course moving can help but then you waken up more. Failing all this give up and read or watch movies!

hope you find a way through it, it really is a nightmare!

You have a really helpful answer already, so not much to add from me.

You could read my knee storý...it's so long its bound to send you off! 😀😁

I found my tablet with relaxing meditation music and comedy a good help at night.

You may like to go to my profile by clicking on the image next to my name. I kept a journal of my own knee replacement journey, and I have been told by several people they found it helpful to read, or skim through. (You may need to copy and paste the link I include in my profile in your browser, as the site does not allow external links to be posted.)

I had a period of several weeks when it was hard to sleep. I put lavender oil on my pillow, and then a bit later on used olabas oil, which helped as I seemed to be a bit congested. I found if got too tired in the day it was harder to sleep. Over tiredness seemed to raise my anxiety level and make it harder to relax. As well as the practical issues of the operated leg I think mentally anything you can do to relax is good. Full lung breathing, as done in yoga, is worth learning if you are not familiar with it already. Lots of you tube videos on that.

I'm 4 weeks doing well, also, except also having trouble sleeping.  I think it's that you end up in positions that are painful to the surgery site and have to move around, but of course you have to be careful, you can't just "toss and turn" in bed like usual, at least I have to carefully lift up the covers from around my leg, move a pillow or two around, get the leg in a new place, then adjust the rest of my body and the pillow(s) and coves all around it.  Then try to sleep.  I did have to sleep on the couch for the first two weeks because the sheets and covers we had set up in our bed was just too heavy and "binding" for my surgery site.  On the couch, with a fleece blanket it was easier to kind of rustle around if I needed to.

I agree about the medication and taking whatever you've got at a time to maximize helping you sleep.

Pain meds, pillow between the knees and the secret ingredient for a good nights sleep is.......amitriptyline 😋

I have found  having me electric blanket on all night on night mode helps. Also pain relief just before bed and ice just before bed. 

Hi Ruth,

I'm nearly 5 weeks post op too and took Tramadol day and night for the first 2 weeks.  It didn't seem to do much for the pain so I cut it out and tried to manage without pain relief.  After a further 10 nights of dreadful sleep (and despair at the endless pain!) I rang my GP and he prescribed Dihydrocodeine and told me to take 2 x 30mg at night only if I could manage WITHOUT  during the day, which I can.  My life has changed!  I am now sleeping through the night without waking and feel much better during the day as a result.  I know this painkiller won't work for everyone, but I think it's worth trying a few until you find the right one for you.

Time your meds so that you've taken the painkillers at least 1/2 hour before you hit the sack.  That will help.  Assuming you're on some sort of opioid, you can ask the doc to add a muscle relaxer like Flexeril.  Voltaren Gel (RX in the US) is a GREAT topical anti-inflammatory and painkiller.  Some of these tips might help too...

https://patient.info/forums/discuss/trouble-sleeping-post-tkr--539591