Chronic Pain members - Welcome, please introduce yourself

Hi pkindron .........Oh wow, you sure said a mouthful! You are 100% right! No matter what ever happened to me, from pnemococcal pneumonia (my Dr. wanted me to go to the hospital, but I said "I'd be taken care of at home" .... HAHAHA), to torn ligaments in my ankle which he watched closely and kept cast in case I needed surgery, to flu, intestinal flu ....... you name it ..... my now X always went to work saying .....
"oh, you'll be OK, the kids will help." Now this was during the school year and they were gone, plus they were 8, 7, and one was not even born yet! Invincible? I don't think so. You are right on.
abby

@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.

@pkindrom, thanks for the info and photos. I presume your response was to my message. This whole thing, despite having a renowned ortho surgeon, is scary because if it ends up as bad as the first is, from a different ortho, then I will be miserable. Plus, as I said right now I am not ready for yet another recuperation after the two months of recuperation from my transplant. I try to be very active doing pool exercises and my recumbent bike and I know those will have to go by the wayside for a while.
JK

@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.

Hi ..... yes, I "think" I could tell the weather with the first TKR but it's hard to tell because it hurt anyhow. I live in the very western part of Virginia, right below the Blue Ridge Parkway. I don't think they know what we're going to get .... some say 8" and some say 12" .... with all their fancy equipment I guess it's hard to know if the mountains will "protect" us or if it'll come right over and make a huge "deposit" on Harrisonburg.
I'd LOVE to go to FL.
abby

Hi, I,m introducing myself as virtuous69. Have read some of your posts and glad to have friends in common to talk to. Seems I have alot of what you folks have, such as Fibromyalgia, all the degenerated spinal issues along with arthritis. I can throw diabetes 11 into the box as well.

Not sure how to start a new discussion but have an issue:. Today is a beautiful mildly warm day in San Jose. But every Spring around March I get sick to my stomach and have body aches that don't appear to be Fibro. I think it's allergies-- everything is in bloom. Anyone else have this seasonal problem? I always thought that pollen allergies were just sneezing and watery itchy eyes.Am I the only one who gets the tummy and body aches this time of year.? I never remember to start nasal spray in February.

Wow, symptoms sound like mine. I take Clonazepam for sleep due to Fibro, but I get frequent side, upper abdomen and back spasms that are horrific. Am told the connective tissue between the ribs and chest wall pain is called costachrondroitis. It's a real beaut!