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Debilitating pain 6 months after knee replacement

Joint Replacements | Last Active: Feb 22, 2023 | Replies (117)
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@patient1746

I had knee replacement surgery on November 26, 2019, and cannot endure the 10-level pain during PT to increase range of motion. Oxycodone painkillers do not help. My PT is now suggesting manipulation. What is your husband’s current status?

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Replies to "I had knee replacement surgery on November 26, 2019, and cannot endure the 10-level pain during..."
babette | @babette | Dec 28, 2019

I'm so very sorry to hear you are going through this and you should not be! You're barely a month out from your surgery.

There is a lot of discussion out there about PT, its efficacy, whether gentle or aggressive is best, etc. When I was recovering from my first knee replacement many months ago and having trouble with PT, I was lucky enough to find bonesmart.org. Here are their guidelines for PT and exercise post TKR:

https://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/post-operative-exercise-–-the-bonesmart-view.25463/https://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/bonesmart-philosophy-for-sensible-post-op-therapy.37103/

When I had to have my TKR completely redone, I found a surgeon in Boston who is against aggressive PT. He said it should not be painful. You can push to the point of discomfort, but then stop! Pain is your body's way of saying something is wrong. You have a lot of inflammation and tissue trauma from the surgery, aggressive PT just adds more trauma.

I hope you can find a PT who understands and practices gentle PT. I did and it has made all the difference as I recover from my revision.

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glasgow46 | @glasgow46 | Dec 28, 2019

I’m sorry you are gong through that pain. When I had first TkR in 2018, my pain level was 3-9 for first 6 months or so. Had to stay on stronger meds, and keep getting lectures about possible addiction, but was able to wean off slowly. We don’t get physio after TKR here, so my PT consisted of me following book, and I was told to back off if pain, I still do same ones one year later.I checked out the link from Babette, and most of those exercises I didn’t do, other than bed slides and lunges at slow pace.I used book, did pool walking and recumbent bike.

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