pain at night

Hey Stephen, I had TKR 7 weeks ago. I heard the same crap. "3 weeks, pain should be gone" BS! I can only doze off for an hour or two at night, then it's "game on". Can't get comfortable no matter what I do. Can't wait for this all to be in the rear view mirror! Hang in there brother. "In 3 weeks, your pain will be gone".  LOL

18 weeks here. Would love a good night's sleep. I strengthen and stretch daily but little muscle. Therapists even telling me I'm an ectomorph even with everything they have me doing. Some days the discomfort is OK. Tonite it's like my knee has bubble wrap in it. It will be a cold day in hell before the right knee is done. Can't take nsaids and Tylenol doesn't cut it. And doc won't give me anything for pain. I do hope in a few weeks you will do fine. I hear this takes time, even up to a year.

"They don't tell you this in the hospital." - Stinger17, Patient.info

"I should have taken the blue pill." - Cypher, The Matrix

And you're only figuring this out now?  Just like the rest of us...no difference.  Little to no information up front; brutal recovery afterward.  I don't know about the difference in recovery times between a PKR and TKR but the pain is real nonetheless.  Welcome to the real world...

 

Translatedthat means you'll be out of their hair in a short while, then you are on your own. You are in the infancy stages a d night discomfort is the most prevalent for some time. Nerves are cut, bones are cut and drilled, muscles are severed. Do whatever you can to find a comfortable positiin, use pain meds on schedule and ice whenever you want. Whatever, don't get discouraged. This too shall pass and you will get better....it won't be as fast as you thought it would be but it will happen.

I have major swellings of a diseased knee that I tolerate during the day with meds, ice, putting my leg up the wall at the  head of the bed, but when night comes....all heck breaks loose and I thrash around like a mad woman, leaving the bed in a pile of linens, knee pillows etc. on arising and blessing the dawn so that some of the pain can be managed. I never bothered asking any ortho doctor about this as I am quite sure they don't know, but I did ask a neurologist once who had given me a grueling test on my injured arm.  I told him I hated my painful arm so much at night that I felt like doing something to chop it off permanently. He  acknowledged that all patients say similar things although he didn't know why. I even bought a medical book on the subject of my type of arm injury and the night pain is mentioned there.  I feel the same for my extremely painful knee that is tolerable on standing, but torture while resting in bed.

?All I can figure out, since the white coats either don't know or won't say, is that we have had fragile nerve fibers damaged either during the surgery or the swellings that for some reason start to act up when perhaps the muscles, and bones are resting with meds and non-movement at night.  While we are moving, we can feel all the other tissues hurting and the nerve damage is not as isolated as it is at night.  It is hard to control nerve pain. I can testify to that as I am struggling with the right amount of drug at present to give me some relief with my chronic nerve damage pains from other injuries.

?Those who have gone through TKR and partial say that this will pass and you will be glad you did it. As for me, life goes on and I am still fighting demons at night and hoping for the dawn.

I hear you, Stinger.

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I had bilateral partials done. First 3 wks hell. 1- 1.5hrs sleep at a time x when i had cpm that kept it moving. The next 3 wks improved a lot. At 8+weeks was sleeping in 3hr blocks and fall back to sleep easily after waking x on days of big exercises or PT. 14WKS out now and get a few restless night, again rt exercises, but restful.

In those 1st few weeks, i just got up, walked around and back to bed. Screamed a lot (into a pillow)in frustration but as we ALL say, IT GETS BETTER. Do your part, and your body heals in its own time.

Good luck

Hi Slinger. I 100% agree. I'm 6 weeks post Tkr on Saturday, & NOBODY told me how much it hurts either...specially at night. A full recovery seems a way ahead, but now op is done we have to do our best to get over it. I ICE mine every couple hours day & night it does give relief but by the time you get back to sleep again it starts up again. Keep positive though, it's the only way ,it WILL get easier. Good luck 😀

Stinger , your only 3wks post op. It will get better ... I slept with ice to evaluate that night pain.

I still wake from aching early morning hours. I know it's time for meds when that happens.

I also stick a pillow between my knees ( I'm a side sleeper ). Helps keep pressure off new knee.

As with most things you always feel worse at night. I believe it's the drop in temperature. I could he wrong.

Hang in there. I know it's painful now ...it's not for ever.

You may be sufrering nerve pain if the pain is really really severe . .I had Meralgia Parestetica caused by the tourniquet, mainly in the thigh area.  the pain is truly beyond anything I have ever encountered. the pain of the muscles and  knee itself paled into nothingness compared with it.  and it was ALWAYS at night. I never found a reason for tht, and after a few weeks, thank heavens, it subsided.  Still numb, though, after two years. . . Make sure you have decent pain medication . . . and hope it clears up soon.

 

I watched s UTube video before I had surgery. The guy was showing how to wrap your knee in shrink wrap to stop night pain. Seems weird but he said it has worked for both of his tkr.

Hi Stinger17, pain always feels worse at night no matter what. As soon as you try to relax it starts! This is a given, no matter what or why the pain. From TKR to migraine. No I'm not saying TKR is like migraine, tbh I've had migraines far worse than TKR pain, where even my hairs on my head hurt, light hurt but numb down one side of body!

TKR IS something else but you will get through this stage. I'm at 4.5 months post TKR now & sometimes I still get pain at night but mostly not!

I always think at night you are alone with your pain! You have nothing else to focus on when you're trying to sleep! I used to listen to my iPod when pain or discomfort struck at night. I always found if I could lose myself in the music I would relax. It's like when you have a sedative, everything is still there, just that bit further away.

There is no hard & fast answer, it's something we all have to go through but go through it you will!

At the end of the day, TKR is much better than arthritis. At least you WILL recover from TKR.

All the best, you will come through this

Marilyn

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