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Trouble sleeping after TKR: What helped you sleep?

Joint Replacements | Last Active: Apr 28 10:46am | Replies (127)

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Good evening @mom4twins4me, I would like to add my welcome to Connect. You are very brave. I only know one other person who has been awakened by pain and discomfort at 4:00 a.m. after just one TKR. And that would be me. You on the other hand have two knees to take care of. I talked with my surgeon about the night pain and he acknowledged that it happens. Mine always began around 4:00 a.m. The trick is to have whatever medication you need or other treatment devices, placed at the head of your bed so you don't have to get up and walk around. My surgeon gave me Ambien and I hated it. I quit cold turkey and called my to tell him that we needed to find another option. Well, after a while with consistent sleep habits, it just went away. We call that taking a "poof" as in "Poof, go away....you are gone."

My real comfort was Miss Roxie, who got up to go outside and then came back and planted her self right alongside me. I don't know why but that really helped. Of course, so did the medical cannabis tincture. I added this picture because it shows you how she can take a pillow and twist it about until it becomes a bed. Sometimes when she would come back inside to find me still in bed, she just looked at me with a sense of almost disgust....like....what are you doing still in bed? She was my constant companion through all the surgeries. I couldn't have done it without her.

I also learned about fascia. The tightened fascia around the surgical area becomes layered and restricted. With gentle and soothing pressure, an MFR therapist can separate the layers and release the restrictions. If you have not tried MFR therapy, you may wish to give it a try. Here is the link to the website.
https://myofascialrelease.com/
If you are already awake with no chance of going back to sleep you may profit from doing the "legs up the wall" yoga pose. If you are interested there are images on youtube or just google it.

And I will say goodnight with one of my very favorite Roxie images. Sleep well. Let me know if there are any other tidbits of my experience you might like to share.

May you be free of suffering and the causes of suffering.

Chris

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Replies to "Good evening @mom4twins4me, I would like to add my welcome to Connect. You are very brave...."

Thank you for that informative post & that beautiful picture of Roxie. 🙂 I forgot to tell everyone my other problem sleeping @ night.. I have two of my fur babies that like to lay between the legs! LOL..Cats. Very good info you gave me. My physical therapist told me to massage these knees.. I do not want scar tissue building back up.. I too have my tylenol above my bed if I need it.. I feel very blessed to be walking & have walked one hole of my golf course yesterday.. Its coming just slower than I want.. 🙂