Back in the room...again!

I'm glad it went well. The pain will ease in time, just make sure you have lots of pain relief before you go home! Oral morphine and Tramadol were my saviours, and LOTS of ice packs! I normally hate hospitals, but I didn't want to leave after my TKR, it was nice being brought food regularly, and lots of coffee and biscuits, lol. Take care. :) xx
 
Well I'm home. Still really sore and unexpectedly emotionally fragile, not like me at all. The smallest efforts are exhausting. The district nurse was coming yesterday to change my dressing but I didn't know what time. I got up with OH, had a wash and got dressed, and pottered about on my crutches tidying up a bit, after which I was wiped out and when the nurse did arrive she let herself in to find me spark out asleep on the bed! Apparently it's quite normal and I just have to go with it when I feel like that. It's a hard balancing act because so many people have told me that the key to a good outcome is to get the joint moving as much as possible the first few days and to be vigilant about doing the exercises (which I am, so bloody painful) but a lot of the time I just want to sleep. Baby steps, literally. It's only been a week.

I have not wanted to weigh myself. I know I will have put some back on. The food in the hospital was actually really good and I ate more than I should have-you wouldn't normally have a meal and a pudding twice a day! That combined with being immobile must have had a bad effect, and since I've been home I've been spoiled rotten by OH so it can't be anything other than a hefty gain. But it's been so far off my radar this week, just coping with the pain has been enough. I know though I need to start focusing again as putting more strain on the new joint isn't good. All the family are down this weekend as it's my birthday next week so it's probably pointless starting before then as doubtless there will be wine and cake, so I plan to try to restart on Monday.
 
I'm glad to hear you're back home. I know what you mean about the tiredness and emotional fragility, I was exactly the same - it'll get better! I gave myself a week of eating what I wanted after I got home, then got back on the wagon - every pound gained felt like a ton on my knees at that time, lol. I didn't weigh myself for a while though. Take it steady and look after yourself. :) xx
 
I'm glad the surgery went well and that you're finally back home. I hope your recovery won't be too stressful and you'll feel better soon! Take it easy on yourself. While some food choices should probably be managed not to put too much strain on your body and new knee, I wouldn't worry about it too much... Get better first that is your main priority, the diet will come later - with more mobility. You'll be running around again in no time enjoying the summer x
 
Glad you're home. I hope you start to feel better soon. Don't be too hard on yourself at the moment - your body's gone through major surgery and has a lot of repairing to do at the moment.
 
Thanks for the good wishes. I'm having good and bad days, usually alternating. Today is a good day. Friday was awful, my first physio outpatients session. Nobody warned me how hard this would be, and I am a normally resilient person with a high pain threshold. I swear if I was a spy and this method was being used to torture me I'd have spilled everything within 5 minutes. If you have major surgery on any other part of your body you'd be resting it and healing but a good outcome from this op relies on pushing through the pain and making the joint work. Anyway, I am really trying. Had my second appointment this morning which went better, had a different physio who showed me easier ways to do the exercises to get the same result so I came away much happier. OH took me and I even managed a potter round Sainsbury's after on my crutches. Nice to be starting to feel more normal. It's my birthday on Wednesday and I really wanted to go out for a meal, but the unexpected problem is finding somewhere that has chairs with arms...not something you think about until it's a necessity to get up from a sitting position! I ended up phoning restaurants probably sounding a bit mad opening a booking with that question but have found somewhere that does and I am so looking forward to it! I know this is a diet forum and I've gone a bit off topic lately but I promise I will get back on track...maybe Thursday! In the meantime I've ordered myself some nice wide legged trousers online as the operated one is still huge and I currently look like a bag lady in my baggy trakkies so thought it would be nice to dress up a bit to go out....ended up ordering a top too. Size 20 in both but hey ho. Hopefully once I get back to losing weight I can put them on ebay.
 
You do sound as though you're getting more independent. I bet you'll be glad to just get back to normal soon. And I'm sure restaurants have had weirder questions than 'do your chairs have arms?' - maybe!
 
Thanks for the encouraging replies, and hello Echomeri, thanks for reading my diary most of which seems off topic and rambling to me!

I forgot to mention that the evening before my op my daughter provided the best distraction ever, phoning me from the car between contractions to say that she was on her way to the hospital. Caitlyn Rose, her second baby and my second granddaughter, arrived safely two weeks early after a very quick labour weighing 7lb 1oz. She is absolutely perfect and another motivation to get well and fitter so I can be fun Nanna to her, Ruby, George and Oliver.

I had a bad night pain wise, I just can't get into a comfortable position but hopefully that will soon improve. I'm determined that today will be a good day, and got up with OH, managed a shower and made some breakfast. I'm just trying to eat healthily at the moment, lots of lean protein, fruit and veg to aid healing but still having a few treats. I think after my birthday meal tomorrow I will weigh myself on Thursday morning and make a plan how to get the next chunk of weight off, bearing in mind I'm not going to be very mobile for the next few weeks.
 
Congratulations on the safe and healthy arrival of your granddaughter - all my best to your daughter as well! :)

I'm sorry you're still in pain ticketty, and that the physical therapy is not pleasant, but, as you have yourself noticed your mobility is slowly returning! It's only been 2 weeks and already you feel you could walk around a little more than you could before the op! I won't wish you any birthday congratulations yet - as it's bad luck in Europe to wish it before the day - but I really hope you enjoy yourself tomorrow and have all the pampering and treats you rightfully deserve!
x
 
Congratulations on your new granddaughter, that's lovely! :)

To be honest, I think if we knew how bad this op was going to be, we wouldn't have it, lol. I count the immediate post-op period as being the worst time of my life - but you will get through it! I found the pain at night to be the most distressing, because not being able to sleep is horrible. I still can't sleep on my side, which gets me down because that's always been my preferred sleeping position, but at least I can now sleep more or less pain free on my back. Hang in there!! :) xx
 
Thanks Minerva and Tracy. Yes, I was totally unprepared for the pain and have spent much of the last 10 days in tears wishing I hadn't had the op but yesterday and today I feel like I've turned the corner and can see light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully it will get a little easier every day.
 
tickettyboo said:
Thanks Minerva and Tracy. Yes, I was totally unprepared for the pain and have spent much of the last 10 days in tears wishing I hadn't had the op but yesterday and today I feel like I've turned the corner and can see light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully it will get a little easier every day.
Click to expand...

It really will, that's exactly how I felt, wishing I hadn't had it done, thinking I'd never feel human again! But it gradually improved, and whilst I'm still having problems as a result of still having my arthritic kneecap, I'm certainly much better than I ever thought I'd be in that post-op period. It's just such a difficult thing, as you say, having to constantly use the new joint when it's so very painful, you can't just rest it. Ice packs were very much part of my recovery, along with the painkillers! :) xx
 
Last edited:
Thank you Minerva,I had a nice birthday. Steve works half day on Wednesdays so we just went for a drive in the afternoon as the weather wasn't very nice and I decided that I was fit enough to go for a wander on my crutches round a garden centre. Unfortunately I'm more optimistic than realistic and halfway round felt lightheaded and in pain, and I could feel my operated on leg swelling so we abandoned that and came home. A couple of hours rest on the bed with ice packs and some heavy duty painkillers sorted it out so I felt well enough to go out in the evening for dinner, which was lovely. It was so nice to dress up a bit, put makeup on and feel normal. I decided to just have what I wanted to eat which was still not too bad diet wise, my appetite's definitely not what it used to be. I plucked up the courage to weigh myself yesterday and I'm about 7lb heavier than at my lightest pre Prague and pre op so not too bad considering what I've eaten and not been mobile. I'm still having intensive physio sessions twice a week and obviously still healing so I'm not going to go back to the VLCD yet. I just need to cut out the crap that's become a bit of a habit especially when I'm having a bad day. The district nurse came today and took all the clips out. God I look like Frankenstein's monster. She seemed happy with the wound though. One step further forward. Still feel like someone's pulled the plug out a lot of the time, just so tired.
 
I forgot to wish you a happy birthday, so belated happy birthday. 7lb isn't too bad - I'm sure when you're better, you'll lose it in no time at all.
 
You need the time to recover Ticketty, don't worry about any kind of diet right now, just concentrate on being healthy both in mind and body, the diet isn't gonna go anywhere! It just adds stress. Put it out of your mind for a month or so and reassess then. It will move in the right direction when you're ready, but for now, work on healing your poor knee and take it one day at a time with the other stresses in your life. Things will resolve and get easier. Sending you hugs!
x
 
Glad you managed to have a nice birthday! Ouch to having the clips out, I found that quite a painful experience, lol. There are just so many of them, aren't there?! My advice on the diet would be to not put too much pressure on yourself, but also to try not to gain, because that will hamper your recovery and the long-term health of your knee, so just take it steady. :) xx
 
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