Two weeks in from tkr

Yes unfortunately that is very normal. I'm at week 8 and my pain has only just started to subside I don't guard it as much. The tightness is due to swelling rest, ice and elevate and make sure you keep doing your bending exercises. Don't weight bear on it too much at this stage because it only increases the swelling so a bit of a vicious circle. But I can't stress enough the importance of keeping the joint moving so keep doing the exercises. Good luck and keep in touch on here X 

It does get better.

Are you taking all the pain medications prescribed by your hospital?

The first two weeks are the hardest, but you will need patience!

Try and think positively about the experience of pain, not easy, I know, but it will help...

The pain has a kind of sense and logic to it, and what is more it comes with a lovely resurfaced knee! It doesn't feel lovely at the moment, but it will in time, and you will reap the benefits, you need to choose to keep thinking this.

This surgery is major, and hopefully you were warned it would be painful afterwards.

It is not a wild, crazy, untreated, tyrant of a pain. A pain which is screaming out from deformed bone, and annoyed surrounding tissues, who are being thoroughly irritated by the whole state of affairs. Or from a leg struggling to cope with uncomfortable alterations in the way it has to deal with the forces placed upon it. Unable to move as freely as it was designed to move.

Surgical pain is not nice, but it is at least a pain which moves in the right direction.

This pain, unpleasant as it is, is just part of something which will get you mobile in the long run.

The pain experience is a matter of something needing to be managed, but no more than that. It is not unpredictable. Your knee joint has been sawn and drilled... not a nice thought, but it helps to make sense of the experience now to bear this in mind...your body is making adjustments to it’s new situation.

The pain needs to be accepted. But it is a lot easier to accept pain when it has some good purpose, which you can appreciate. But keeping on top with medication makes all the difference. Pain which is purposeful is not the same as pointless pain.

Are you in UK and have you seen a physiotherapist?

Normal?  IT'S EXPECTED!!!  At two weeks, you've just started a year-long journey.  From the movie Rocky III...

Interviewer: What's your prediction for the fight? 

Clubber Lang: My prediction? 

Interviewer: Yes, your prediction. 

[Clubber looks into camera] 

Clubber Lang: Pain! 

The first 30 days are like the seventh level of hell.  Manage that time with meds, ice and elevation.  You will start PT somewhere in there and should already be doing your ROM work at home...

https://patient.info/forums/discuss/tkr-rom-work-at-home-620053

Getting to 0 / +120 can take 8-12 weeks (3 months).  Most people are off the major opioids in 60 days and have downgraded to Tramadol or Ibuprofen by that time.  Then you have to rebuild your dead quads, glutes and core to start walking normally again and to climb stairs without holding onto anything.  A full recovery usually takes a year.

The tightness you feel will vary day to day and decrease over time.  It is not unusual to feel some residual tightment all the way to 18 months.  Normal.

Yes it is normal, ensure you elevate, ice and not stand for very long at anyone time. Once you have been walking / standing use your ice pack. I am 9 weeks it is easier but still get the same. According to peolpe on here it can last for 12 months.