Burning after total knee replacement

Hi @cami, Welcome to Connect. I am 9 months out from my right TKR but did not experience the burning sensation. I did experience some pain at night due to not being able to position my leg in a comfortable position. My surgeon and care team kept emphasizing the importance to me of icing and elevating. I thought I was doing it enough but I really wasn't. I did find that putting a pillow under my mattress at the bottom of the bed to elevate the leg a little did make a difference for me.

Hoping some other members can share their experience with you. Did your doctor and therapist offer any suggestions to help with the burning?

@cami I'm 12 months post-op of bilateral TKR. I remember the intense burning pain, when asked to describe it I said imagine a hot branding iron being pressed against your knee. It was excruciating! Especially at night. The things I did was to ice 20 min, off 20 min until it would ease up. I also continued with pain meds. Sometimes at night I would get up and walk around the room and that seemed to help. It does gradually get better so hang in there.

Do you still have the burning pain? I see it’s also been 1 Year since your surgery.
I had a total knee replacement on 11/21/19
Right now I have the burning and stiffness, I’m concerned it’s not going to get better.

I am 7 weeks out from left TKR. I have an awful lot of stiffness just above the knee joint and occasionally "zings" that feel like burning in different parts of my leg at different times. I also get numbness in different parts of my leg at different times. My surgeon says ROM is great " 0 and 115. He just lifted up my leg, bent it back, straightened it out and said "you're doing fine. Did not address any of my concerns etc. Not sure how I'm supposed to know what is normal and what is not.

@jvalart21 @lhruza you are both still pretty early in your recovery. I didn’t have a burning sensation but I did have intense pain for about 6 weeks which very suddenly lifted, almost overnight, so don’t despair.
My pain was so intense for a while that my surgeon was seeing me frequently. We were both relieved when it went away. Now that knee never bothers me. My flex is around 120, not as good as I would like, but livable. I know he can improve the flex with an outpatient procedure but I don’t think it’s important enough to go through recuperation again.
JK

The doctors have so much pressure from above not to prescribe anything for pain so they don't believe their patients, say we're being a baby or a drug seeker. They no longer stand up for their patients. They would know right away if someone was a drug seeker if they were educated to know what that behavior looks like. But no one is teaching that properly in medical school. It as obvious as the nose on your face if you've been trained in it or if you've seen drug-seeking behaviors in your own family. And there's a huge difference between what that looks like and what being in pain and needing help looks like. There's no excuse for a medical professional not listen to their patient. It's basically torture. There's no excuse for under treating a patient in pain or not believing your patient. Why would you go into the medical profession unless you had compassion and empathy? Didn't you do it because you care about helping people? If you don't have empathy you have no business being in healthcare. I'm sorry for what you're going through with your pain. I believe you 100%. There are people everywhere this is happening to; you are not alone. It's so sad the way things have gotten these days. I found a group on Facebook that rallies and speaks with our legislators about mistreatment of chronic pain patients. I'm praying that the government will start listening to us. Addicts get handed anything they want on a silver platter. Chronic pain patients get treated like an animal up for slaughter.

I had TKA Dec 18, 2019. Now 2 months , my ROM has gone abit, I have constant swelling, burning and nerve pain. The Dr stopped my pain meds Jan 6th, still have a lot of pain, throbbing, swelling and now burning. He’s more concerned with numbers, the PT I went to was cruel. I missed about 6 days due to either the weather or being sick/ vomiting or diarrhea. I go to PT twice a week, she says I’m doing great, that it’s a long process, and not to give up. I see his PA this week to get something for the pain, I was only taking 1 Norco a day. None of this was discussed with me, either by his office or the Dr. I try to take one day at a time but it’s very difficult with the pain and swelling. Thanks for listening !!

@constantpain13 I don’t think the doctors are to blame. Not only are they under pressure to limit opioids, but they have seen or been told that some people can get addicted in an extremely short time. My doctor knows me pretty well and used to be more forthcoming in prescribing something when I needed it, but not any more.
I have been on oxycodone, OxyContin, hydrocodone, dilaudid, and one other and never had a problem just stopping. These were due to two knee replacements, severe pain after an ablation to destroy malignant lesions in my liver, and a liver transplant, all very legitimate reasons for needing pain relief, particularly since the only OTC pain reliever I can take is acetaminophen.
Listening to a doctor friend I think he’s been sort of brainwashed into thinking that addiction happens very quickly, but maybe it does for some people. If it can happen that quickly and easily they can’t risk it.
JK

I am almost an exact copy of your issues. My ROM is 120 and 0 so I'm good there.The burning and what I call "zingers" from the nerve pain is awful. No more pain meds and I can only take tylenol because of kidney issues. Ice, heat, ecercise, nothing ever helps much. Only twice since the surgery have I had about 10 minutes where there wasn't some kind of pain.

I had my TKR on November 14, 20 19 and I have had quite a bit of pain mostly at night. The burning pain did not start until December. It does it burn all the time but when it hits it feels like five wasp are stinging me. I can’t sleep at night, it’s usually 3 o’clock or 4 o’clock before I can go to sleep at night. I have been back to the surgeon and he re-X-rayed my Knee and said it was okay. I just wish the surgeons would tell you what to expect, even though I know everyone is not the same