TKR NERVE BLOCKS ?

I had the epidural, and had no problems.  I, too, had great misgivings and anxiety about it, but they were proven unfounded.

As I understand it, it's preferred over general anesthesia because there is much less risk and it doesn't take nearly as long to recover from. With general, people will sometimes wake up nauseous, and it could take a day or so just to move past that, whereas with an epidural, you can be and actually about in a matter of an hour or so.

Perhaps everyone's procedure is different, but they gave me drugs to calm me down and to block the whole experience from memory (probably not how it works, but that was the effect).  I remember everything up until going into the surgical suite, then nothing until I woke up.  I have no memory whatsoever of the procedure.

So, don't worry about it.  If you're still anxious, talk to your doc.  Or, if you can wait until the day of the surgery, talk to the anesthesiologist, who will visit with you prior to the surgery.  They will explain exacly what they will do and asure you that it will be fine.

Yes eileen ,  I had a epidural when i had my t k r , it was no problem what so ever, no side affects at all , in fact it was a nice way 2 go  2 sleep . 

ian 

I had a revision on Nov 28th and they did femor block plus epidural and general anesthesia. It worked really well

Tkr/pkr are either SPINAL or general not epidural. The injection is given thru a catheter into the SPACE around your spine. They numb u b4 the needle sticks you and a soft pliable catheter is threaded in for administration of meds. The iv in ur arm gives you meds to put u to sleep "conscious sedation". You breathe on ur own. This type of anesthesia traditionally has less complications. U wake up faster and moving quicker. Its called a nerve block because it blocks a specific area on down from the injection. You feel nothing below the level even if u were awakw BUT the sedative to sleep eliminates that. My friend woke up in her surgery, no panic, said it was" interesting". I never woke w mine.

Hope this helps. Google epidural and spinal and the picture will make sense.

I have tried to link exercise sites and othe great educational stuff but this blog blocked them all

The nerve block is placed in your thigh to block pain from your TKR. I had it up until about 4 days after surgery. It helped a lot to getting started with PT. You will love it. About the third day, it started leaking so I pulled it out the next day because the medication was running out and the pain was better. You do have to carry around a small pack that carries the medication. It was kind of a pain.