Partial Knee Replacement: Post-op pain

Yeah @l2consulting - glad you had a good day. Will you let me know when you see if you can get PT earlier?

I am having spasm type pain at night behind my surgical knee. I am 4 wkss post op. Is it from my hamstrings?

My knee started “spazzing” in hospital before I was released. My Doc gave me a low, short-term prescription for Valium and it worked. I took it as needed for about a week after I was released.

I am 5 wks post op PKR and i am experiencing tightness and pain behind my knee

PKR 5/10/22

Hi there, so I had a PKR on the outside of my right knee due to severe arthritis. Surgery went well and so did recovery for first 5 weeks. Then at 6 weeks out of nowhere I started having pain again. The pain is similar to the arthritic pain I had experienced before which is like burning sporadic pain. Only the pain is on the inside of my right knee and it permanently aches to the point I don’t sleep or I wake up in pain. Ibuprofen helps but I don’t really want to keep taking it. I am mobile generally although am still going up the stairs one at a time with both feet. I am concerned because I am scheduled to have my left knee done in the middle of July and am worried my right knee won’t be strong enough. Doctor says he thinks I irritated the MCL which is where it hurts. It is extremely tender to touch. I just feel more miserable with pain now than I did prior to the surgery and the constant aching is making me feel overall crappy. While so realize everyone has their own pain threshold and recovers differently, has anyone else experienced anything similar with a PKR? Any advice or comments greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Hi @ndoud and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I moved your post to a conversation about Partial Knee Replacement so you can connect with other members. Partial Knee Replacement: Post-op pain: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/three-weeks-post-op/

You might also like to read another discussion here: Partial knee replacement: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/partial-knee-replacement/

Are you having searing pain, throbbing pain or tightness?

Has anyone out there gotten a traditional partial knee replacement surgery? I’m almost three weeks out and feeling discouraged from the pain. I know I have a long way to go. Any advice on what works for the pain? Should I have gotten the minimally invasive surgery? Would there have been less pain? Any success stories out there from a traditional partial knee replacement surgery? I’m taking oxycodone, tramadol, Tylenol, Methocarbamol…..

Hello @tchandek, Welcome to Connect. I think pain following any major surgery like knee or partial knee replacement will have some pain following the surgery. You will notice that we moved your post to an existing discussion on the same topic here:
--- Partial Knee Replacement: Post-op pain: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/three-weeks-post-op/.

If you click the link above it will take you to the beginning of the discussion where you can read what others have shared help with their pain. I had my right knee replaced and did have pain following the procedure along with some swelling. What really helped me the most was icing and elevating the knee often during the recovery process along with doing the post op exercises.

I'm assuming your surgeon or care team gave you some PT or home exercises to do after the surgery. Does that make the pain worse or have you been doing more than the recommended exercises?

Thank you, @johnbishop! Your comments have helped. I have been icing my knee and elevating it as much as I can. Elevating it hurts after awhile. I’ve started PT. The PT exercises definitely hurt. I hope I’m not pushing it too much. Thank you again!

I was sold a PKR which failed the first time the nurses got me up. Found out later that the surgeon doesn't do many - now I know why. First time up on my leg it went crooked from the knee down. When ever I would move leg you could feel something snapping and hear it too, though the nurses would tell me they didn't hear it.

Surgeon hoped the scare tissue would keep it in place but it didn't. For 4 months I suffered...anytime I extended my knee in therapy it would go out of alignment. Since the knee was off it didn't get any better. Doc wanted me to do a complete TKR at 4 months (that is the time that Medicare no longer looks at it as a failed surgery. Didn't know that then).

This was during Covid and it was hard to get apts. etc. Doc. told hubby that he didn't tie the stitches tight enough as the wound was bleeding! Had second surgery, which I was charged for all over again - the hospital even tried to bill me for showing me how to take care of myself after the surgery. The truth there is the nurse came in, said, Oh, you know this you were just here and left, but tried to charge me anyway.

2 years later I still have problems with let, pain, etc. since the knee was brutalized twice...nerves etc. A second surgeon says it is lined up okay, but he would have handled where the bone grafts were done differently to make them more sturdy. This is the first time I have had a doctor tell me flat out that the first surgeon should not have done what he did to me. He actually said that I didn't need to stay with him and his practice, I could go elsewhere BUT not to go back to the first surgeon.

Have to have other knee done and am terrified. New surgeon has been giving me cortisone shots, but they are so, so. He is very well qualified and caring. As he says, no one tells you when to have surgery except you. The first surgeon really didn't bother about me., ,was only interested and pushing me to get the second knee done.