How to deal w/intense night pain from total knee replacement surgery.

@crankyknee I am as mother of 3 that are all grown. I watch my 4 grandchildren 3 days a week. Thank you so much for your kind words. I will always except prayers. I will say the last 2 days have been l been a little better

@rvince I appreciate your words. I started physical therapy yesterday. I am going to do whatever it takes to make this worth it. It's just sucks how much it truly hurts. Thank you

@nativewhisp
Use the ice as you are going to bed and again during night when you wake up. It needs to be continued for weeks in combination with the pain meds. Keep a record of when you take the meds so you are on top of the pain.

@cunnim01 thank you so much. It's so hard to remember Ice. But I will start being more regular on that today. I did start logging my meds recently. Thank you for your words and advice

I had my 2nd knee replacement in May (10 weeks ago) and my experience with this one is just like yours. No problems during the day but the constant dull pain at night keeps me awake. Tylenol helps but I don't want to take it every night. It's been 9 months since your initial post. Did you find anything helpful and have things improved?

I’m coming up on 5 weeks post-op, having a similar deep ache in the thigh muscles at night. I have found wrapping a heating pad around my thigh for ~30 minutes has helped a lot. Also a session of TENS with electrodes at inner and outer sides of knee can help. I’m trying the magnesium gummies now, as I also get a lot of muscle twitches on the operated side, especially when lying on my back. Side lying is better at least for short periods.

My TKR was at the end of April. Yes to night pain. I'm pretty sure it was 8-10 weeks because I just couldn't get comfortable. Ice would come off my thigh at night. My ortho has always said just keep moving. I have found that this is true especially during recovery from TKR. If I've been sitting at the computer or watching TV I sometimes notice a strange need to move my leg. If I stand up and walk around the house, march or do a couple of minutes of exercises it helps. The past couple of week I have actually noticed a lessening of pain and have gotten some sleep. At some point I did take Aleve when I felt some of the pain was muscular rather than inflammation or nerves trying to regenerate. I cleared that with your MD before doing that and stopped several of the prescriptions I had been given but didn't seem too effective. I also began walking outside to help and last week began going to exercise classes in addition to my PT. The movement does help. I'm now about 13 weeks out. My pain and the ability to retract my knee are not yet where I want them to be but it is much better and the pain on the outside of my knees is now gone. Considering the alternative of losing mobility without the surgery I will eventually get where I need to be. Best to you all.

Just one piece of advice. Many talk of keeping your leg above your heart, etc. My surgeon, who is incredible, gave me no such instructions. It may help that my advice is find a way to sleep that lets you sleep -- whether that is on your back, on your side, on your stomach, etc.

I took Trazadone in addition to oxycodone and Tylenol. I can’t take ibuprofen but that works better than Tylenol and aspirin.
I was religious about using the ice machine and I slept on my side. I was in incredible pain and couldn’t sleep either. I finally was told to increase the oxycodone so was able to sleep four hours (?) until it wore off and I could take another dose. I’m four months out and didn’t think I could survive the pain but it’s fine now and I am playing tennis, walking and swimming daily. Keep the faith and stay on top of the meds and ice!

The night pain is very difficult. I went through it for months and slept very little. I had tons of swelling and thick scar tissue and had to have MUA. It still took more months to get the large amount of swelling to dissipate which is tied to the pain. I felt very isolated, always tired and not able to go to dinner, etc. as the pain and swelling did not allow me to sit comfortably. I was not prepared for this amount of pain, lack of sleep, etc. for so many months. I am still not entirely pain free (16 months from TKR 13 months from MUA), but ROM greatly improved and sleep is better but still not great. I have been in PT for almost 2 years, 7 months pre op, and walk a lot and do some PT daily. Movement definitely helps as does ice. I have been told at this stage to also try heat which I will do. I was told not to use heat the first 6 months or so. I did not take the pain meds for very long as I felt sick, but in retrospect probably stopped too soon. My PT has also shown me how to do some simple exercises which focus on nerve gliding which seem to help with the pain. I am certainly better than 3 and 6 months ago and hope to improve in the next months. Remember, everyone is different and this is not a walk in the park. Takes a lot of patience and for some longer and more than others. It can get exhausting and frustarting. It is often hard for others to understand what you are going throug. Hang in there, you will get there!