Pain meds not cutting it!!

Wow, didn't know that staples were still used for knee surgery, on my TKR three years ago there were no staples used. Don't know if they glued the incision or used cat gut or something else; but never had to get anything removed later.

Had the staples taken out on the 15th....OUCH!!! to me that was worse than the surgery, really it hurt. Every. single. one. There was around 40! I think they need to do this an easier less painful way. Yesterday, the 16th. I wasn't too good, felt a bit down. Today I laid on the recliner till 10 am. Just decided to relax. I had a pain pill at 12 o'clock last night and didn't take another one till 12 noon today. Big improvement! Went for a walk and got my ROM on the CPM machine to 100 degrees. All and all a good day. Funny thing with this kind of operation tomorrow could go either way, hoping it's good.

had left knee done a month ago, nine days in patient therapy plus the two days at hospital now taking out paitent therapy.
Taking lots of pain killers too. Morphine drip while in hospital. They did a spinal block or it would have been worse.
Pain is getting better but still not pretty. Will be on strong pain killers for a while longer. Had know how painful and how long I may have passed on it. Talk to your Dr and see.what he says. I don't like being on my back and strong pain killers but it will get better for you too.

emzee wrote:
TOOBOLD I had a couple of intravenous shots of something, not sure what. Not morphine. I didn't like it so we stuck to the Percocet. Had 2 Norco on an empty stomach and that was the end of that one too. I am touchy when it comes to medications. I am feeling and doing better today. I am suppose to have home health care and home physical therapy. They said to call them if they didn't call me. I guess I will do that tomorrow. Getting around pretty good so far, doing my 6 hours on the CPM machine and icing. Thanks again. Oh my foot is swollen but told that was normal.

Glad your feeling a bit better. Do me a favor when you take those heavy meds make sure you eat something like crackers or even yogurt. They can reek havoc on your stomach. Do as the doc ordered on the CPM, but I'm sure PT will begin more active range of motion.

TOOBOLD I had a couple of intravenous shots of something, not sure what. Not morphine. I didn't like it so we stuck to the Percocet. Had 2 Norco on an empty stomach and that was the end of that one too. I am touchy when it comes to medications. I am feeling and doing better today. I am suppose to have home health care and home physical therapy. They said to call them if they didn't call me. I guess I will do that tomorrow. Getting around pretty good so far, doing my 6 hours on the CPM machine and icing. Thanks again. Oh my foot is swollen but told that was normal.

Candice, I am on the recliner and it is working out good. It's a power recliner so it makes it much nicer to go up and down. I am not a back sleeper either. I sort of lay to the side at night, helps a bit.

I wasn't able to lay on my side for probably 6 weeks after surgery. I'd think I was comfortable, but 2 minutes into it the pain was back. My PT explained that it was very common. I ended up sleeping in a recliner a lot - I'm just not a back sleeper!

Did you have a drain after surgery? I find that folks who don't have a drain have increased pain about a week after surgery as the bruising starts to come to the surface. The bruising sometimes starts fromt the toes all the way up to the back of the thigh. Also, sometimes patients have increased pain as the MD's close the wound with an anesthetic that gradually wears off.

Nonetheless,call the doctor. When do you go to your PT? They might be able to assess also. Keep icing your knee. Place a pillow between your knees when lying on your side operated leg up.

What medication were you taking at the hospital? Perocet only or were you having Morphine/Dilaudid for breakthrough pain?

Be sure you keep a good thick pillow between your knees when you sleep. I discovered this trick after my knee arthroscopy back in Feb. I couldn't stand the pain of the surgery knee "hanging" against the bottom knee. I could literally feel the lower bones slipping in the joint--very painful! Once I started sleeping with the pillow between the knee it didn't wake me up so much. When you turn over be sure to readjust the pillow. I found that I couldn't tolerate the good knee lying on top of the surgery knee, unless it was padded by my trusty pillow.

About the pain med--I'm not surprised that you are still needing pain medicine. If you ever watched a TKR you would gag (the first surgery I ever witnessed in nursing school was a TKR. I lasted only 10 minutes before I went down.) Try taking your pain med on a schedule even during the night. Set your clock to get up and take your medicine so your pain doesn't get out in front of the meds. It's so much harder to catch up to the pain once it gets a foothold.

Keep us updated. Hoping that you feel better, soon. When you call the doctor, tell them about your constipation, too.