pain after total knee replacement

[abigail1962]

I am 47 and had total knee replacement in May of this year, all went well and I was released by my doctor and therapy after 5 weeks. As of a week ago I have started to have a great deal of pain in the knee and stiffness and very sore on the outside to the touch.  i have not injured it and do use the stairs and walk in my home on a daily basis.  why would this start giving me such pain. I had a check up 3 weeks ago with x-rays and all looked well. I have started using pain pills again and am fighting with the pain on a daily basis, I think that my Dr thinks that I am imaging this because I was fine before.

[kmf212]

Have you found any relief yet?  My Mom is having the very same issues.  Her surgeon is just blowing her off, not offering any pain relief medication.  She's not nuts, and either are you.

We just don't know where to turn for relief.  Any ideas are welcomed!
Good luck to all of you having the same issues.

I find it interesting that these surgeons all tell you how you should be feeling, without listening to how more than one of you actually feel.  We don't want to hurt their statistics on having "successful surgeries".

[abigail1962]

Thank you for your words of encouragement,  I have in the last week gone back to the full therapy that I did with the therapist I am hoping that this will help.  I can fight through the pain to do the exercises with the hope that I will be back to the way that I was just a few weeks ago. I have remained very active it just seems the more I do the worse it gets.  I will keep at it as u have suggested with the hope of a great outcome . Thank you again for your support .  This site has offered me many kind words of encouragement and I am so glad that I joined it.

[carolanivey]

Hi Abigail,

I've had hips replaced, not knees, but I have several friends and family members who've had knees replaced. Five weeks is not enough to fully recover from a knee replacement. It takes months of diligent, daily exercises to regain full use of the knee. If you quit too soon, things can go backward pretty quickly, as you're finding out.

Insist on getting back to see a therapist, or find a way to continue to do the PT on your own, at least twice a day. Keep at it even if it hurts - knees take a long time for the complex structures to heal. Get on your feet and stay as active as possible. Backing off at this point really will result in a case of "use it or lose it!"

Good luck!

[abigail1962]

Thank you ,  I hope that is all I need to do   I can handle that .

[GettingOlder]

Same thing happened to a neighbor and she ended up going for a cortisone injection that cured the problem and the pain. Good luck!