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Pain Management at 15 months for Total Knee Replacement.....thoughts?
I have been having issues for months with swelling (I think) and my muscles just don't want to get strong surrounding my new knee. There are times that actual top of my knee will hurt as well and I still have the band feeling along with feeling like I have a baker's cyst behind the knee. My surgeon is done with me though he recently did give me a cortisone injection to see if it helped but the last one didn't do to much and he won't give me another. He's now sending me to pain management to discuss nerve ablation which I am not crazy about or pain meds either. I am taking 500mg Naproxen occasionally and Tylenol arthritis as well as 900mg of Gabapentin at bedtime. I am faithful to do all my stretching, riding my recumbent bike (10-15 minutes), stairs etc.. but the soreness and stiffness I experience can be overwhelming at times. Has pain management helped anyone? Or am I just going to experience this the rest of my life. I'm only 62, very active and do most all I did prior to surgery except get up and down on the floor easily. Any thoughts, suggestions or why I still experience what I do would be greatly appreciated.
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Thank you so much for your kindness and thoughtfulness in your reply to me. I am very happy for you that you had such wonderful success with all of the replacements that you have had! I am sure that you put in a lot of PT work with recovery from the surgeries, but it is terrific that you are now pain free!!! I just saw my surgeon a few days ago for a cortisone shot to my left knee and it now feels so much better! I realize that it is only a temporary solution, but as long as I can have an injection for that knee every 3-4 months, it really helps!!! I asked him about the replacement knee and he had me do an x-ray and showed it to me. Everything is in place the way that it should be from his surgery. I asked him if it is possible to develop arthritis around the replacement and he said that yes, he has heard of that. I don’t question his expertise as a surgeon at all. I think that it is just my body and how it has responded to replacement. I do think that I may have arthritis developing around the replacement. That is the way that it feels to me. I am 74 and have had four or five surgeries in my lifetime for a variety of issues, so I have made peace with myself to not have any more surgeries. I do understand the need for so many people to travel out of state for quality care but here in Boston, we do have excellence in two or three of the Boston hospitals. Once again, thank you so very much for your kind reply to me. I am happy for you that you are pain free!!!