Today the visiting home physical therapist switched me from a walker to a cane, though I am still supposed to use the walker at night, or when I am tired or if I am particularly sore. The surgery was just under a week and a half ago, and the physical therapist says she thinks I’m over the worst of it. She will come for the last time on Monday, and then on Tuesday I will begin physical therapy at a local place in town, and on Wednesday I will see the surgeon and he will remove the bandages and see what’s what, AND THEN I WILL BE ABLE TO TAKE A SHOWER.
MOST of not-being-able-to-take-a-shower has not been as bad as I’d thought. It isn’t as if I’m working up a sweat, or even going outside. Every day or two I take a stack of washcloths and a lot of time, and I manage to end up feeling fairly fresh. But my hair. My hair! Ug. I tried using dry shampoo, but if anything that made it worse. I’d thought about going to a salon to get it shampooed, but the reason I qualify for a home physical therapist is that the surgeon declared me medically housebound for two weeks: I am not to leave my home, not only because I’m temporarily disabled but in order to avoid infection and illness. So then it feels iffy to leave to get my hair washed. A friend has offered to help me wash it in the sink, and that’s one option; another friend is sending me a shampooing shower cap, so that’s another option; and there is also the tough-it-out option.
The pain has been a significant issue to deal with, especially now that I am expected to taper off the 0pi0ids. I have been extremely lucky so far in life, and I don’t have experience with dealing with pain that goes on for so long. I only know how to take a pill or rest or stretch, and if those don’t work I am out of ideas. I did ask the physical therapist if there were any soothing exercises I could do (it seems as if we are focusing primarily on strengthening and upsetting the knee), and she said not really. She said heat can be helpful, but the surgeon does not want me to use heat on this incision; she said light massage can be helpful but probably not very. She said the knee is kind of a tricky joint for soothing after surgery; mostly we really do just try to strengthen it and bother it.
Right now it hurts most when I rest it, or hold it still for too long; there is no comfortable sitting/lying position. In some ways this is an advantage: it makes it easy to get up and walk laps around the house every hour, as I am supposed to do; and it makes it pretty easy to make myself do my physical therapy exercises three times a day even though I hate them and they hurt, because moving the knee makes it feel better overall. But it makes sleep difficult. I will startle awake, NEEDING to get up and move the knee. That is not restful. And it huuuuuurts, and it KEEPS HURTING, and as I say I have led a lucky life and so I am short on coping mechanisms. If this were going to go on much longer, I would investigate coping mechanisms. But I suspect there are not many good ones: the people I know who have chronic pain do not seem to get to the point where they’re like “Yep, no big deal, just endless pain!”
By the way, if you are hoping to be distracted from an upcoming looming event, may I recommend knee replacement surgery? Other surgeries may also work. The visiting home physical therapist said she’d see me for the last time on Monday the 20th, and I thought, “The 20th. Why does that date ring a bell?”
Thanks for the update, Swistle! I’m so glad that little by little things seem better. I hope it keeps getting a little more manageable every day.
I really wish I had something helpful to say about managing pain but…I’m not much good at it either. Sometimes a hot shower will take the edge off for a few minutes…but you would have to be able to shower to try it.
I am curious what your experience of pain and recovery is like for this surgery compared to your C-sections (as someone who has also had c-sections and will at some point need new knees.) Although it’s true that the recovery pain of the c-section was tempered by the great joy of no longer being a million months pregnant and also the distraction of having a brand new child. None of that comes to bear with the knees.
I would say this feels significantly worse than the c-section recovery—though, as you say, there was such a HUGE relief and elation and distraction involved with the post-c-section recovery! But also, I think my c-section recoveries may have been easier than typical, because of the way I have heard other people talk about them. I am long-torsoed and I wondered if that helped: nursing didn’t bother the incision, for example, because I held the baby higher up than that.
I am glad you are recovering mostly well. I wonder if cannabis would assist in the staying asleep part? Though you probably do want to move it. Maybe it would make you more relaxed and less annoyed to be awake. Like “ooohhhh colors! Let’s move my knee. Snoozles” I don’t know. You would also have to be somewhere that would be easy to get and idk that you do.
I am NOT looking forward to the next 4 years plus. Rapidly losing faith in humanity AGAIN. And also thinking the world is on a 100 year cycle and I really was not born in the best part of that. 1940s and 50s seem the more ideal part of the cycle. And then I worry for my 2009 born uterus having child and there we are, not thrilled (understatement ) again.
I am glad recovery is going mostly well, but I hope the pain subsides soon. A coworker had both knees replaced over the course of the last year, and she had similar complaints that resting/not moving was often the most uncomfortable. I’m not sure if that is of any solace, but it is sometimes helpful to know “oh yes, okay, this crappy part is not only my crappy personal experience.”
At the risk of being bossy- Let your friend come wash your hair. She wouldn’t have offered if she didn’t want to help.
Oh, that sounds hard. I have a small suggestion that may or may not help at all, and I’m only offering it because it IS small and it’s something that isn’t necessarily super obvious. When I have bad toothache, I sometimes hold an ice pack in the webbing between my index finger and thumb, because that’s some kind of reflexology point for headache. It doesn’t stop the pain, but it’s kind of like it’s a distraction from it, if that makes any sense. It helps me sleep a little bit longer.
So I wonder if holding an ice pack elsewhere might help you, as an occasional thing to add to your arsenal? It wouldn’t make things worse, at least. Google says the reflexology / acupressure point for knee pain is a bit further down that same leg. https://mydoctor.kaiserpermanente.org/ncal/article/acupressure-for-knee-pain-1682355 so you could try there, or you could just try holding it in your hand.
I feel for you – I’m glad you got this done but you’re in the middle of a very difficult couple weeks. <3
Ugh, I’m sorry. Is icing not a thing? I had a friend who had a knee replacement and she rented an ice machine to have in the room where she recovered. Like you, I have some chronic pain but nothing that’s kept me awake and most of it goes away if I don’t move. It must be really hard to give up the pills that make the pain go away. I had percocet for a gum graft and it was scary how awesome it made me feel.
Icing is a thing! I have an ice pack I’m using 30 minutes on, 30 minutes off.
(the machine can ice it for you while you are sleeping, from what I have heard; I am not sure if that is an Approved Use, but some people definitely do it)
My elderly mother had a shampoo shower cap and it was AMAZING! Highly recommend. Hope the worst is behind you and you feel better every day. xo
Glad for the update and really hope the pain improves soon and that you can get some sleep. The closer we get to Monday, the better surgery seems as an option to be able to ignore it – ha!
In my experience, this is way too early to try to get off the pain pills. Stretch them out, for sure. I found that I needed them at night several weeks longer than I did during the day after knee replacement. I think I took them at night for about six weeks after the surgery. My doctor was fine with it, he didn’t want me in pain. And I don’t like how they make me feel, so I was motivated to get off them as soon as was reasonable. I would ask your doctor if you can keep taking them for a bit longer, you heal better if you’re not in pain. Glad you’re making progress! (and I too am dreading Monday)
I’m so sorry that you’re in pain. One and a half weeks does seem fast to taper off the pain meds. I also know people who have used a shampoo cap and loved it. Well, hang in there – I’m sending you all my best wishes for a full recovery. ❤️🩹
Swistle, the thing about hair would be the worst part of not showering for me too. I feel like you could get pretty freshened up in every other area but hair! Dry shampoo never works for me. It always looks clumpy and weird.
I’m so sorry you’re in so much pain. There will be a time after this! In the meantime, I hope it starts to lift.
Oh boy, this whole situation sucks, at least you are past the surgery part! I hope your recovery continues apace, without setbacks. Do you think some aromatherapy/generally pleasant smells would help? Not that it would DO anything, but it would be a pleasant distraction. Distractions are invaluable. My husband has a huge work project going on that involves him working nights and being on call, including going in yesterday at 8 pm on three hours of sleep, and it is indeed a good distraction from any other impending events.
Oh! When I had a really bad break to my humerus (basically snapped it in half right below the ball that connects it to the torso, do not recommend) something that I found helpful was a TENS unit — if you don’t know what that is, go.ogle can tell you. Full disclosure, they apparently don’t work (have the desired impact on pain) per randomized controlled trials but … I nonetheless found mine helpful. They basically administer a very mild electric shock (feels like vibration, not painful) through several stick-on pads and the idea behind why they might work is that they sort of confuse your nerves which get distracted by the mild shocks and forget about the pain. I mean, they didn’t eliminate pain for me but they did make it less severe, without any downsides. And one other upside — if you are using one, you have a small control unit + wires + things stuck to your body (I put them on my arm below the break) so you can tell your children or any other curious souls that it’s the device you use to communicate with the mother ship ;).
It sounds awful, but with a little progress. I hope it continues to get better.
Being in pain all the time is so fatiguing. I’m having some dental issues right now (not comparable in any way to your situation) but after wondering why I am so tired at the end of the day when I think I’m sleeping fine, I finally realized, it might be the pain.
I’m sorry you are still in pain; hopefully it will go away rather quickly as you heal.
Let your friend come wash your hair; in addition to making you feel more human/cleaner it will be a distraction from the discomfort for a little bit
I have heard such good things about the shampoo shower caps that I have considered buying some just in case. Please report back.