shin and calf pain folliwing TKR

That makes sense Oldfatguy.(I feel so disrespectful saying that!!. I had knee no. 1 done 8 weeks ago so for 4 weeks I eoukd have been heavily favouring knee no. 2. I have been pushing the rehab a bit too. The ice has been well used!

Ha ha, that's cute Sandra, but I feel the same way calling him old fat guy too

Anyway, it was interesting hearing you have pain in your shin & ankle too because that's exactly where I'm having pain ( same leg as TKR) and it IS worse than the TKR pain at times. What scares me though is that I'm way ahead of you (16 1/2 weeks) and don't know why the pain is starting now!

I suspect the foot & ankle pain ( in my case) is arthritis but I'm hoping the shin pain is due to what old fat guy said and will eventually go away. 

You are a brave person having both done so close in time. You are still in early stages but it sounds like you are progressing well despite the shin & ankle pain.

Good luck on your journey!

Don't worry.....it all started a few years back when friends would ask how I was doing I would reply "just a steady 20....$20 short, 20 years to old, 20 lbs to heavy" . one of th decided I was an old fat guy

Hello Betty

i too have the pain in my calf and ankle  and suddenly my knee seems to have stiffened up again I'm 10 weeks post op

but what old fat guy says definitely makes sense 

Jean 

Hi all, what old  fat guy says always makes a lot of sense 😊 . I know I've harped on about the pain in the back of my thigh and calf for ages. I'm sure that's caused by the nerves and muscles realigning now I've got a straight leg. It was bent for ages before the op. I've decided to stride out and walk through the pain yesterday and today and it seems to have worked. This afternoon things seemed a lot looser. I suppose it is better to keep moving as much as possible and maybe I was holding myself tense because it was painful. I hope it's a sign things are improving anyway. Jen (17 weeks today) 

So glad to read this. I am 8 weeks post TKR and this pain down the front of my tib/fib to the front of my foot is excrutiating, keeps me awake at night, my knee is free of pain, this post knee discomfort of feeling tight when I have iver donevut I can bare but thusvis hell. I use ice packs all the timev

Hi Sandra, do you get the pain when you're resting or just when you're walking? I'm suffering from pain at the back of the leg down the calf but mine is really only when i walk. Mine doesn't seem to have improved in the last month - I'm 17 weeks post op now - so it's very frustrating. I've been told it's muscle weakness as my leg was so bent before the op so maybe that's the case with you too. I keep doing exercises to strengthen the muscles but progress is very slow! 

Mine is when I am resting. I feel fantastic when I walk. No pain, and all the stiffness goes. Just feels a bit tight. And it's really good to get out of the house. Of course then I overdo it.....yada yada.....

Isn't it strange how we're all different? I've just been out to the shops again and decided to stride out and walk through the pain, telling myself I was building up muscle. I still got the pain but I wasn't as miserable as I was yesterday 😊 I suppose we both need to pace ourselves in our different ways but it's hard when you want to be back to normal isn't it? Hope your restful day has helped you.  

I just feel so much better while I am walking. But I can't sleep at night. I've decided it's just that I can't get comfortable on my back do lie on my side with pillows but the knees twist and HURT. Nothing to to with walking.I agree, it us really hard wanting to be normal and nor being normal. I am not patient and dn going a bit crazy.

Mine is when I'm resting too mainly during the night 

I find myself getting out of bed and walking round to ease it ....but I've also developed sciatica in the TKR knee 

Hi there. You are only two weeks out you say so maybe you are expecting too much too soon to get back to work, especially for a standing job?

I have had some bad aching pain in the back of my calf and burning pain on my shin on and off. Some days better than others and much worse at night. It's gradually improving but I just need to be patient. I am three weeks since op and although I wouldn't say it's gone, it is less painful than a week ago except when I overdo it. Overdo it in my case means either too many exercises or sitting too long with my leg in one position. Either way it swells up during the day and hurts more at night! Having said that I am more mobile each day. Persevere with the exercises as I find that takes the edge off the pain. Good luck!

Knees and fingerprints ......everyone is different and healing is at a different pace. Over the years and having undergone numerous complete rehabs I have gotten to know over 2 dozen people who have undergone tkrs on both knees. So far I have never met anyone who claims both the same except for one lady who had trouble with both. I think you Are expecting too much too soon. Just keep up the exercises and get plenty of rest. Don't push beyond normal pain. Keep in mind this is a process and you can't whip it just because you try and will yourself into recovery. Back off the excercises for a day or two and increase the icing

I don't know if anyone is still looking at this post but part of my pain stemmed from getting a baker's cyst behind the replacement knee and took a couple of weeks to subside, but after that was when I started with the sharp and aching pain in the front of my shin which is even tender to the touch. The back of my calf started hurting too and I noticed pain to stand had started. I was very bruised in my calf and front of legs and thigh from surgery from tourniquit used to minimize blood flow, but the bruising had cleared up. I noticed not all drs. use the tourniquit method. I tried both heat and ice on the shin but it seemed to irritate it to the touch from both. Since some of the posts are older I was wondering if some of your pains have stopped yet. I am 4 1/2 weeks post op on right knee and am tired of not being able to get sleep at night. I do massage lightly sometimes as well.

Hi there

I am now three months in and have had almost no pain since about seven weeks in.

I found the night time pain suddenly improved significantly and I could sleep through from about six weeks in. I started to massage the scar with some cream at around six weeks in and although it was a bit sensitive at first it really increased my mobility once the sensitivity decreased and I massaged it more firmly. By the way the thought of massaging my knee at four weeks in would have freaked me out so don't worry if you can't imagine doing this at the moment.

Thank you, I guess i was getting anxious about the pain and luckily when I went to physical theraphy today the sessions were very gentle and I did not experience as much pain afterwards and there did seem to be a little less sensitivity. I'm still very irritated by materials touching my knee but will give it more time and realize that I have a way to go.

I had TKR 12 days ago and expected to be in pain fir a while. I did not expect the searing constant pain in my buttock and all the way down the leg I had the TKR on. The calf muscle is excruciatingly painful. I think I probably have sciatica. I have tried icing, heat and Voltetol cream but nothing really helps, the pain medication barely touches this pain. Has anyone found anything that helps please - I'm desperate.

Since I first posted 4months ago I have been to a couple specialist to try to get some kind of relief. They did an EMG Friday morning... the results showed that there is some neuropathy but not enough to cause the pain I was experiencing. The Dr had put me on Lyrica at my first visit which made me very tired so I cut it down from 3 to 2 a day.  It does seem to be getting better the Dr said I just need to give it some time that all people heal differently so that is what I am going to do. If it doesn't subside in a few weeks I will be visiting him again.

Aileen65 are you better now? I am 13 days out and I am having the same problems.... JUST TRANSITIONING FROM THE THOUGHT THAT I need to rest...To... I need to work through this pain.... Please tell me that you are now better and what you did that helped you.

I'm having some pain on the left side of my knee and behind my knee as well from time to time but nothing is bad as that. 8 weeks out. What caught my eye on your post was that I also had a tkr 8 years ago and it was so much easier than this one. I have felt like a wimp on this recovery. I am doing much better now though, but still have days of struggle and bend and straight aren't great yet. None of this was an issue last time. I agree, sounds like you're going back to work much too quickly. Although I was able to go back last time this time there would be no way. Best wishes.

I am back again to report in.... here it is October 30 and the pain is worse then before. I can barely stand to walk I use a cane at work when I am not pushing my mail cart around because I lose my balance on top of the fact that it hurts like heck. My big toe is now hurting for some reason.... that just started in the last few days. My leg hurts from about 4 inches above my knee all the way down my calf and across my foot. This is all on the outside of my leg and part way around my calf. I am going crazy with this pain I am so damn miserable all the time I just don't know what to do I had the surgery in mid January. I am going to call the Dr who did my other knee to get a consult with him.... someone needs to figure this out. I had my knee done so I could do more things but now I do nothing because I am in so much pain. 

That kink of pain can come from the spine. Can you get you Dr to order an MRI of your lower back and see if you are having sciatica problems. When the major pain is out of the knee an down the leg its more than likely something occurring elsewhere. Sciatica is one of the big culprits. We spend so much effort walking to avoid knee pain we start screwing up other parts of the anatomy

I am 3 weeks post op,,, I am having the same issue with my calf below TKR.starting late evening is when the worst seems to occur,and gets more aggravating as bed time nears.Dr says it is normal pain, however no body at time can tell my what causes it. I noticed the pain the day of surgery and has continued since. I hope this will go away soon,,loosing sleep and getting tired of the pain,,, that pain pills do not help.

 

really relieved to find out that I wasn't alone. I am about 16 weeks post tkr and was doing okay until the shin and foot pain started a couple weeks ago. It is so painful, worse than the knee, and is very difficult to walk. My surgeon said to use the cane, did X-rays and nothing appeared wrong. Has something to do with the site where they put the post during surgery. Pain really is just a little right of shin but goes down over the top of my foot. Hurts to touch at the spot to the right of my knee. Just wondering how long this will last and what I can do about it. Taking ibuprofen but don't tolerate the oxycodone very well. Nothing seems to really completely relieve the pain.

I was in tremendous pain as well and thought it had something to do with the fact that the muscles and tendons had to get used to the new metal but found that this surgery cause my sciatica to flare up badly. The therapist was telling me it is because I was taking on driving to therapy and I was using my muscle there but it was unbearable and I asked my doctor, altho I do not like taking rx meds, but he prescribed something other than oxycodone and it helped, not got rid of it totally but enough to allow me to fall asleep for a little while. It eventually went away as I would also put ice one it for a little while as well as I could tolerate but I was about 18 or 20 weeks out.

This is exactly what I am experiencing , 8 weeks postvop TKR when I saw my consyltant two weeks ago he totally ignored my symptoms. It is so sad that we have to come on social media to have answers, not prepared pre opp very well as so many of us have unanswered questions. I don’t know what I woukd without the support from such sites, thanks all.

I don't know if you saw my post, but I went through the same thing.  First it was my ankle and then my shin and calf.  X-rays didn't show anything.  I was back to using a walker and every step was excruciating.  I pushed for an MRI and they found two stress fractures and a severely pulled muscle in my calf.  I was in a boot for five weeks and have had it off for a week now.  There is still pain in both areas but nothing like what it was before Christmas.  Be your own best advocate and make your doctor listen!  God bless!