Knee-wise, I'm not sure. It will be 2 weeks tomorrow since the left knee surgery. For last year's TKR, I expected the worst, a lot of pain and a slow recovery. When that didn't happen right away, I assumed it would come later, with a vengeance. So I tried to stay humble and hoarded my oxycodone---for when I might really need it. I know I was never overcome with pain, so I may have understated its presence. I didn't chronicle pain level, and concede I may have had some. I was so happy not to have been wracked with agonizing pain, I may have discounted what I did have. I do remember during the out-patient weeks at Samaritan, especially when using the machines, my shin bone would throb at night, waking me up to take a Tylenol and wrap it up. I recall that for the 4 1/2 days in the hospital, my pain level was mostly zero, but I was on an IV with pain meds and probably still feeling the effects of the epidural / spinal block.
This time around is probably much the same, though I was in the hospital only 2 days before discharge in the morning of the 3rd day, and I had no IV since the first day. I have had no pain in the knee itself, but was briefly awakened several nights with temporary pain in the top of my foot, which went away when I walked around and/or took a Tylenol. Only 2 nights last week did I take a Percocet, at bedtime, mostly to help me sleep, which may or may not have happened. Last Wednesday, I noticed a pain-like feeling on the outside of my leg from hip to ankle, mild at first, but building in aggravation for the last 2 days. I took another Percocet last night, which seemed to have no effect so for the first time I doubled up and took another, which is what the the Rx is: 1 or 2 every 4 hours. This morning I felt light-headed and a little sick, maybe from the pills or possibly from eating dinner out--a rare event to eat rich food.
What bothers me is that I am not doing the exercises that cause the sciatic pain, and I'm afraid I'll lose the ground I've gained, primarily in degree of flexion. For the past year, my sole exercise has been to ride about 20 minutes on my exercise bike most days. I'd been unable to do that for years because my right knee could not make the rotation. When that was "replaced" I could ride again; the left knee was never bad enough to keep me from riding. A few days after I got home last week, I got on the bike, and though a little stiff, the left knee could make the circuit. I tried again after the sciatic nerve became afflicted, thinking it might help to unkink it, but found I could not make the rotation. So I concluded my knee was worse than before the surgery. Darn!
Today when the P.T. was here, she said the knee was doing great, better than last week, as long as the exercises and measurements were not done with me in a sitting position. She said the Celebrex would have helped with the inflammation of the sciatic nerve, but that is the one medicine that I don't have. The Ortho office was to send me some samples as the drug should have had prior authorization which didn't happen and the review would take at least a week. It should have been mailed last Tues. morning, but it never came.
Tomorrow is my 2-week appointment with the P.A. I'll ask if the office still has my Celebrex, or something else to help the sciatic pain. I'm sure he'll say I can drive, which I've already done. Who needs the left leg? I won't tell him that, though. And if, as last year, he asks me flat out if I'm glad I had it done, I might say I'm withholding judgment until I can ride the bike. Maybe the sciatic pain will be gone tomorrow. Where there's life, there's hope.
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