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Pain months after Total Knee Replacement
Joint Replacements | Last Active: Dec 28, 2021 | Replies (53)Comment receiving replies
I had a TKR 9 months ago. My leg was totally fine before the surgery. After a month my entire leg from thigh to toes started swelling and from my calf down to my toes is as hard as a rock. I have been to all kinds of doctors and have had all kinds of test and no one has been able to tell what is wrong. Nothing makes the swelling go down and it just keeps getting worse. Does anyone have any suggestions of what I should do next. It is very frustrating and painful. Any suggestions would be helpful.
Replies to "I had a TKR 9 months ago. My leg was totally fine before the surgery. After..."
Hi @cmquigley Welcome to Connect.
The first thing I thought of when I read your post was a possibly allergy to the cement used in the TKR. There is a discussion about this type of sensitivity here:
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/need-tkr-and-had-positive-allergy-testing-bone-cement-and-metals/
Also a discussion on swelling and stiffness here:
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/swelling-and-stiffness-3-years-after-total-knee-replacement/
I hope one of these will resonate with you and that you might be able to find the cause of this. From what I have heard here, most doctors expect a patient to wait a year after a TKR to get a second opinion. You are getting close to that. If the surgeon who did your TKR is not supplying any answers I would seek that second opinion from a doctor at a different medical center -- doctors at the same medical center often will not contradict a colleague. If you live within reach of a major medical center the doctors there have seen virtually everything so they often are better at figuring out unusual problems.
I have had two TKRs and never had anything like that. I had a normal amount of swelling initially but it subsided fairly quickly. It is definitely not typical to still be having it at 9 months.
I am definitely interested in hearing what you can find out about this, I hope you keep us up to date.
JK
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@cmquigley, welcome to Connect. I combined your discussion with an existing discussion titled, "Nine months after TKR." I did this so you could meet members discussing their experiences after TKR. Members like, @cgbi posted their experience and symptoms with their TKR nine months after the surgery. @cmquigley, what is your range-of-motion like? Is the swelling keeping you from moving the leg? Is there discoloration with the increasingly swollen leg?