You're very lucky you can travel. Scoliosis and spinal stenosis make it painful to sit and walk far. I don't sit st home. Takes classes at gym for yoga and Pilates. Painful but I work thru it. I volunteer at my grandsons elementary school once a week to read to the students. I'm not doing everything I want but I refuse to give in to pain. Be well

Good for you edieguinn ..... you can be very proud of yourself for your tenacity.
abby

I agree with you. We all experience pain differently. Perhaps having a short description of pains and letting you choose which one feels like what you have. People who talk about their pain to family and friends are seen as negative and self centered. It is so wonderful to have a group you can talk to about your pain without feeling over overbearing; without feeling judged.

I totally agree with you judy ..... I've had a total knee replacement 4 years ago, and then had to have a "revision" (meaning they redo the whole thing but with longer posts), and my kids seemed to think that Mom was invincible .....at times it hurt like crazy and I wouldn't take the Vicodin the Dr. gave me (too much family history), so I'd take 4 Advil. They could not understand why I was tired and needed rest, nor why I had such pain in my knee. That makes it really hard on the person experiencing the pain. It negates it and makes us sound like we're just using it to complain. They have no idea.
abby

@amberpep

Abby, you're absolutely right. People have weird ideas about chronic pain. I think my wife and I pretty well share empathy. She has pain in her knees and hip and shoulder, so she doesn't minimize my pain. Brain pain is harder for her to handle. She's never been depressed, and certainly never suicidal. She doesn't like that my depression pulls her down, or at least it used to. She decided that she wasn't going to let me do that to her anymore. I know that, understandably, it's hard to live with someone who thinks about dying every day. I rarely say anything about it because it would upset her.

Those who have supportive spouses are specially blessed. I know people who have chronic pain and chronic mental health issues, whose lives are hell because of the way they're seen and perceived and treated by the very people who are supposed to love and care for them.

Jim, not a hypochondriac.

@amberpep, your post interests me because of your knee replacement. I had my right one done about five years and am way overdo to have my left one done. My right one hurts very frequently and it really has poor flexibility. My ortho (a different one than the last one who botched it) is hoping that after the left one is done it will take some pressure off my right and help it. I'm not so sure but I will give it a try.
What do you mean when you say they put in longer posts, is that what they generally do for a revision? I think that would make my knee even worse. I am very interested in your experience.
I agree, people downplay your pain. Because right now, thanks to lots of exercise strengthening my supporting muscles, I am not visibly limping, but it still does hurt frequently, yet people say I'm walking fine, why would I do a knee replacement? I am scared of a second one since the first one has not been great but I rushed into that one since i was in pain 24/7. This time the doctor who I am seeing is very highly thought of, a top-notch doctor. Having had a liver replacement I cannot have a lot of medications, and Advil is out of the question. Of the non-prescriptions pain killers I can only have a limited amount of tylenol.

Hi there ..... you've had a rough go of it .... I'm sorry. After the first TKR, it never felt right, even after several rounds of PT, TENS therapy,
something called Integrative Manual Therapy, some fluid withdrawals, and then I took a spill on my kitchen floor. After 2 years of non-stop "stuff" he said the only other thing we could do was do it all over again ... a total revision. When they do that, they take the entire implant out and then when they put the new pieces in the long metal posts that go up the femur and down the tibia are considerably longer than they were before. I don't know exactly how much longer, maybe an inch or two, but that's a guess. Anyhow, after that and after PT, my knee feels like nothing has ever been done to it! It's wonderful. But, I am absolutely sure I am a better weather forecaster than the guys on TV. I can tell a day or even 2 ahead when we're going to have bad weather by that knee ... it hurts. I asked my Ortho. Surgeon about that and he said that when the barometric pressure drops the tissues swell and put pressure on the appliance. The two together are what causes the pain. Like, right now here, we are to get a big dumping of snow tonight and tomorrow, and I knew that 2 days ago without hearing the weather. I've done a lot of research on-line about revisions, and you probably can find more information there too.
Take care and feel better.
abby

I'm so sorry you are having problems with your TKR. I have had 1 replacement on my right and 1 TKR on the other knee. If you can't take many meds for pain, I can't imagine what you are going through. I have included a photo of an original and my revised TKR to help you visualize the revision. They have been making so many improvements that it is amazing. While even the best TKR will not be quite as good as the original knee, I have much less pain now after 3 knees! Hope the pictures give you a better idea of what a revision might look like. Be sure to get the very best doctor who specializes in knees and get several referrals about that doctor. Good luck and keep up PT, even on your own. Joan.

@amberpep, thanks for the info. You sure had a bunch of things happening to you, thank goodness your knee is good now. Interesting about forecasting weather, could you do that with the first knee too? I will have to pay more attention to when my bothers me.
We are due for snow tonight too, where are you? I am in NH. Not looking forward to more, the reports say up to 20". I'm ready for winter to end. I never could understand people moving to FL, but now I can, although I still would not.
JK

@granny998, I think I responded to the wrong poster, so thank you for the info and pictures. As I said in that post, I have a great deal of confidence in the ortho I am using. When I first went to see him, in the waiting room there were people from a number of other states there to see him. That scheduled surgery fizzled when I was on the table ready to be wheeled in to the OR, IV in arm and everything, due to a low platelet count, which was diagnosed at the time but turned out to be from my liver.
It is miserable to not be able to take many painkillers. I think, maybe, that some of the stronger ones are OK! Not sure about that but before transplant at various points I had both oxycodone and oxycontin, plus something else and I can't remember the name. Oddly, they kept me awake all night, staring at the ceiling! I had these pharmaceuticals before and they did not bother so I assume my malfunctioning liver was the reason why. Even with the new liver though I cannot take ibuprofen or aspirin, except for one baby aspirin a day.