Total Knee Replacement Pain Levels

Pain and swelling is totally subjective and you’re foolish to think that your experience will be just like someone else’s. It is an emotional and sometimes painful experience in which you’ll experiment (under medical care) with drugs and therapies to find what works best for you. Hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst. Sadly, it seems most ortho teams do NOT prepare you for the very serious pain and immobility you will experience in the first several weeks. It can be mild to horrible.

Everyone is different. Use what works.

Is this procedure also called a jiffy joint?

No Jiffy Knee is different & I understand, very good. However, all of the doctors who do Jiffy knee are too far away & out of state.

At some point, you're pain should be subsiding. You are two months out - it should be reducing by now. What does your physical therapist say? What does your doctor say? Sounds unusual, keep asking questions.

Mark I loved your wanting your old parts back! I can bike with no pain and have since my 1st surgery in 2017. I've had two revisions. Both have been 2 stage and a series of pik line antibiotics both times. All have loosened. Looking at a probable fusion this time since last revision was a hinge replacement. I wish I had my old parts back too! Other knee is not great but sure better than revised one! If anyone has had this experience please let me know. I don't think my body likes foreign objects. Wishing everyone a painless day.

Jiffy knee is really just marketing. it is a variant of the subvastus (SubV) approach which minimizes damage during the operation. Just find a surgeon who uses the SubV approach and has done many such surgeries (you want both).

Here is a thoughtful discussion of the differences:
https://drmichaelwind.com/subv-knee-vs-subvastus-knee-vs-jiffy-knee-whats-the-difference/

Dear Mr. Turner,
There are many different levels of pain and a dozen different things that can go wrong after TKR. Welcome to the Twilight Zone, where it's all a miserable mystery and everyone's experience is different!
The incisions have to heal. The tendons and muscles all up and down your leg and in your lower back have to heal and readjust. Your leg has a different alignment with the artificial knee, so you may feel off balance for a while and have to adjust how you walk. If your thigh is painful, it shouldn't be. Ask your therapist if you are walking right, because your IT band in the thigh is under a lot of stress after TKR. If it gets inflamed it can take forever to heal. I have been battling mine for months. It can be called IT band syndrome. If it keeps on, then get to a doctor for a proper diagnosis. Look up exercises on the Internet that are good and bad for the IT band. You will find differing opinions Then discuss it with a doctor who listens well and is willing to take the time to answer your questions. Don't expect anything from the surgeon! Try to see a good physiatrist who has been around a long time, say in their fifties or sixties. The young ones nowadays are enamored with technology and don't have the breadth of experience to sort through all the common, old-fashioned "-itis" injuries legs can get, like bursitis or tendonitis. If the exercises you have been doing are too intense for your particular body, then you can get an "itis" real fast. They take weeks and weeks to get over. There are treatments for them.
Another possibility is that your appliance is the wrong size or the surgeon screwed up. Get an opinion from your surgeon and also a second opinion, and demand imaging so you can see what they are talking about.
A third thing to explore is your therapist. If they don't have very much experience with TKR patients, they can really mess you up. I didn't know till much too late that there are physical therapists who are "orthopedically certified specialists" and there are some who are board certified and/or hold a doctoral degree in PT. A Google search can help you find some in your area.
You should NOT be in intense pain all up and down your leg a month after surgery. So many docs and therapists and patients think loads of pain just goes with having a TKR, but what you're describing indicates that something has gone wrong either in the surgery or the therapy. Please don't ignore your symptoms and try to tough it out. Speak out loudly and insist someone find out what's gone wrong. Otherwise the whole misery could become chronic and you might end up like me, battling chronic injury and pain in the knee and thigh and struggling to be able to walk. When complications arise after knee surgery you really need expert help. It often seems that the hardest part is getting a doc with the right experience who can recognize what's wrong, and finding one who cares enough to pay attention. Fight for yourself. You deserve excellent care after the toughest orthopedic surgery. Be a squeaky wheel!
Best wishes and may you get lucky. Let all of us on the Mayo Clinic Connect site know how you get on. There is a lot of support here. TKR is a long, depressing recovery. I have found the struggle easier because of so many kind people on Mayo Clinic Connect.

@judycat are you able to get on your knees and if you do for how long

@mioscarito1
Yes, I am able to get on both knees and kneel. I still have to give myself a push-up but I am 77. However, my traditional knee replacement 11 years ago I am also able to kneel.