I woke up from TKR with a total numb leg from the knee down. Like it was a sleep. was told it can happen, it's normal by several knee surgeons. They put a leg stabilizer on so I could stand up. Well it wasn't normal! my TKR surgeon pinched off the popliteal artery behind my knee which supplies all the blood supply to your toes before it circulates back up.
It took my primary to say not normal and ordered an ABI test (blood pressure ultra sound of your legs) which showed very little pressure in that leg. Then had angiogram that showed the artery was blocked behind my knee. Had surgery to open up the artery and a large dead dried blood clot was removed. My foot went from numb, purple and cold all the time to pink and warm again. Since it was 2 months of no blood flow to my foot I did end up with some cell and tissue damage and still have some numbness in spots on the bottom of my foot and is a little sedative to almost everything. I have to wear socks and shoes all the time. But at least I have my leg. When I went back to my TKR surgeon he told me "Why did you wait so long to get it fixed...you could have lost your leg". I also found out since then he put in the wrong size plastic spacer and that is why my leg goes out on me sometimes. Plus my knee cap fractured from lack of blood flow as well, so I have a chip floating around in there.
Good Luck with your knee issues. I am now 3 1/2 years out and he was supposed to be the best in the business!
Lori Aakre