Double Knee Replacement Helpful Hints

This post comes with the disclaimer that this is from my perspective only and what worked for me, may not work for you! On April 23rd I had double knee replacement surgery in Fargo, ND. The surgery was on Wednesday and I was discharged on Saturday. Arden and I decided that I should spend a week with Kirsten, Joey and Steph because therapy could come right to their house. They graciously moved a recliner to their living room, gave me Olivia's bedroom and waited on me hand and foot. So now nearly 8 weeks later, what have I learned from 1.Many people ask me why I had them both done at once. Both knees were equally bad and I wanted only one hospitalization and recovery time. My sister Kay had both knees replaced at once at about my same age and she had an excellent recovery. She is my inspiration! 2.How to decide where and when to have surgery? I originally scheduled my surgery for Minot but the surgeon was hesitant to do both knees at once so I changed to Fargo where Dr Matthys assured me he would do both at once unless there were problems with my blood pressure, heart or with the anesthesia. Two of our daughters live in Fargo and their house could accomodate me with few stairs if we decided I would stay there for some therapy. Our house at Van Hook has a lot of stairs. 3.Although it hurts, do all of the recommended therapy and more if possible! Hurting is short term and it's so important to think long term and to aim for the best function possible. I had good range of motion prior to surgery so my therapy progressed well with few glitches. I spent a week in Fargo following discharge from the hospital because the therapy group I contacted said they would come right to the house. Exercise start prior to surgery to get you used to doing them and to make sure you have as good a range of motion as possible. I did the exercises described in the information from the doctor for about a month prior to surgery and also made a pre-op visit to the therapy group. I chose them simply because their office was close to my daughters house. After I spent a week in Fargo with therapy coming to the house, I went to Stanley which was a half hour drive from our house. The therapists had very different approaches. The one in Fargo moved my knees for me...often pushing so hard that I cried. The therapist in Stanley asked me to show her what I could do and she was always amazed and didn't have to push me any further. I had some nausea from my pain medications so had to cancel a couple of sessions. In addition I continued to do exercises on my own and to work hard at being independent in walking with a walker, dressing and bathing myself. The therapist in Stanley simply asked me to bend as far as I could and it hurt but I made huge progress. My goals were to walk without a cane and to reach 120 degree bend in both knees and to also be able to have my knees flat against the mat. I reached these goals by week 4 so I was discharged from therapy. I continue to ride a stationary bike 15 minutes, twice a day and to work on balancing on one leg. I pedal the bike both forwards and backwards. I will add short walks to this regime. Whenever my knees start to feel "tight", I know I need to stretch them more. 4.Needed equipment included a toilet riser, bath stool, and a walker. They were essential for the first couple of weeks. I also needed a sock aide for putting on the compression stockings and ice for my knees. The hospital sent home ice buckets connected to pads and a pump...these worked well but someone had to fill and hook up the buckets for me. The first couple of weeks, therapy and a shower were all I accomplished and I was wiped out from those tasks. If you are a "doer", it seems odd (and somehow lazy) to only accomplish those two things and to sit the rest of the day. It's ok, it's what your body needs for healing. 5.Loneliness and boredom were huge problems. With other surgeries, all I had to do was to take the pain meds and sleep or rest. Even though I was weak, I started feeling better after 10-14 days. With joint replacement I had to work at my therapy as well as take pain meds and rest. It is best not to push yourself too much as that will cause more pain and swelling and healing needs to happen. The key is to find the right balance. Regardless, there are huge chunks of time for watching TV and playing on the computer and it gets old. My attention span was short so reading a book or even watching a movie was difficult. I had friends and relatives visit but I didn't always feel up to that either. The 30 minute trip to Stanley for therapy was difficult at times as my legs always felt best when they were elevated. The 5 hour trip home from Fargo was brutal. The truth is that I was the only one who could go thru this. Arden (and others) empathized and wanted to help but I had to do it and endure it. It was kind of like being in labor....no one else can do it for you and you just have to get thru it. Sometimes the best part of the day was bed time because I could say I made it thru another day and I knew I was another day closer to full recovery! 6.The biggest eye opener was how painful this was and how long I was in considerable pain. I wish I hadn't worried about being on pain killers. I tried to reduce them almost as soon as I got out of the hospital....BIG MISTAKE! Because I am a nurse, I have seen people who were addicted to pain meds or who were still wimping out years after surgery. I was NOT going to be that person. In hindsight I would have taken both the short and long term narcotics as often as possible for the first month. I was nauseated and had no appetite and lost 20 pounds in the first month but that was ok because I needed to lose weight too. Many narcotic pain meds also cause constipation and dry mouth and fogginess but they provide blessed relief and sleep and that's what you need. I have a high pain tolerance and found that I didn't always recognized that I was having pain. One day I found myself shivering with cold and it finally dawned on me that I was in pain. I didn't always recognize that restlessness was a big sign of pain too. 7.I did stop all narcotic pain medication at about 5 weeks and that was when I started to have trouble sleeping. This lasted about 3 weeks and led to many long nights. I tried ZZZquil with little relief. Melatonin helped me to get deeper sleep so I felt refreshed. Prior to surgery I would easily get 8-9 hours of sleep. After I stopped the narcotics, I was only getting 5-6 hours of sleep. I tried not to nap during the day because I wanted my sleep to come at night. Sometimes I had trouble falling asleep and sometimes I would fall asleep only to wake up an hour later and not be able to go back to sleep. I also seemed to have restless legs which I had had in the past for which I took iron. I had stopped taking the iron because of my nausea. The nausea went away when I didn't take the narcotics so I was able to start the iron again. I also started Magnesium supplements and took over the counter pain medications, used topical ointments such as Icy Hot and sometimes just got up and played computer games until I felt sleepy again. During this time I slept in another bed because I didn't want my restlessness to wake my husband. I tossed and turned until my bed looked like a tornado. There is lots of talk of this sleeplessness on the internet but few answers. I am now sleeping 7-8 hours a night but often wake up 6-8 times sometimes for up to an hour. At least I feel human and am able to think during the day which I couldn't do before. So if you have had knee replacement surgery or are thinking of it, just hang in there, it will get better. My surgeon said that most people don't thank him until they reach the 3 month mark so we will see if this is true. God Bless you in your journey!!