Thanks everyone for dropping in...
MOONLIGHT! How are you doing, grrrl? LTNS!
moonlight wrote:Hi Buns,
It's been a while since I checked in on the McD forums. Congratulations on getting your knee surgeries! I've heard from others about how much better they feel and are out-of-pain! That's the most important part. I hope you continue to have a quick recovery. You will be a new lady come Jan 1st! Your McD diet will help you heal faster, too!
The soup sounds lovely. That's great that Wylie knew what to serve you. He sounds like such a sweetie.
I just put on a split pea soup in the crockpot for tomorrow. I've been off the McD plan for a few months, really mostly just off the MWL plan. I am hoping to make some progress on the MWL plan and lose a little more weight.
Take care,
Moonlight
I never could have believed it a month or two ago, but my surgery knee is feeling pretty good. It's a little stiff and some pain when I first get up, but the pain corrects as I walk. The stiffness could take a while to rectify,. It is bearing full weight with no problem, but it's kinda hard to tell if I'm limping or not, as I'm using a crutch to support the right knee LOL Sure looks like limping, but truly it is not the surgery side.
The date is set. October 14. We changed doctors, and here's why.
The surgeon Dr. H came into my exam room at the office with his fellow...a doctor who is practicing with him...and said "yup, your x-rays show it is bone on bone and you need the surgery. I want you to take a full month off work, and use a walker or crutches for balance. Not help with weight bearing, The leg will be able to bear weight, and you'll be walking the day of the surgery. Let's get you scheduled" and off he went. No lie, that is ALL we were told.
Of course, I could've researched Total Knee Replacement a bit, but I didn't.
The surgery went well, I was set up with a leg motion machine in my hospital bed along with a cooling device. Due to a nerve block (which I was not informed of...wasn't informed of ANYTHING. Seriously) I wasn't feeling painful at the hospital, just a bit uncomfortable. My thigh was aching badly and they told me that was tourniquet pain. A PT came to watch me walk and to show me how to do stairs on day two. Then they sent me home.
THEN the pain set in and it was so much more than we expected. It was HELL. I remember the first night home, I was in the bathroom sitting on the toilet and sobbing. The thought in my mind was "I don't want to do this!" but it was too late. I was in it, period. If I wanted my old knee back, too bad. The deed was done.
I had oxycodone and tramadol for "as needed pain relief" (again, no one sat down with me and explained. Upon discharge from the hospital, I was handed a stack of papers describing what each medication was for and how to take it.) I was also prescribed Warfarin as a blood thinner ON TOP OF meloxicam which I had been taking for a year for the original injury to my left knee. Turns out, meloxicam is a blood thinner, and taking it with Warfarin was super risky. Which we found out two weeks in, from the surgeon's freaking PA!
This is how that happened: I was shoveling opioids into my face as fast as allowed. Every six hours for oxy and every four hours for tramadol. I was keeping track and didn't think I was taking too much...and the pain was absolutely horrendous. Whatever opioids I was taking didn't seem to be doing it. SO, we started being "proactive" and "staying ahead of the pain" so instead of 4 hours, I was taking Tramadol every 3.5 hours, and oxy we kept at about six hours, but probably more often than that, and mostly at night when the pain was worst.
Well, we went through the first prescription and needed a refill. The surgeon's fellow okayed it, no questions asked, no information given. Then we needed another refill, not for the same opioid. Again, they just called the refill in without talking to us or instructing us. When we needed a third refill (mind you, this was inside of two weeks) it was a weekend and the PA took 30 minutes out of his Sunday afternoon to talk to us. This was the weekend prior to my two week check up and was the first educational communication that we had with this team.
After lecturing us about opioid usage (the first verbal instruction, though the information was available in the packet that they handed us at the hospital, again without going over any of it with us) he told us that truthfully, nothing "manages" the pain of the first two weeks. He pointed out that if I was taking enough opioid to necessitate a third refill before my two week appointment, I was taking too much. He said "there is no getting ahead of the pain" and the medication was strictly as needed for pain that already exists. Not to try and prevent the sensation of pain.
In discussing everything with us, he discovered that I was taking meloxicam and Warfarin at the same time. These are both blood thinners and he speculated (no firm diagnosis, just his thoughts about it) that the surgery site hadn't stopped bleeding due to the drug combination and that might be where the extreme pain was coming from. He told me to quit the meloxicam immediately and prescribed Celebrex (an anti-inflammatory that DOESN'T interact with Warfarin)
He also told us, the first person to do so, that after the two week mark, the pain tends to reduce substantially. That was nice to know, two days before my two week mark. And he was right. About two weeks after the surgery, the pain reduced immensely.
So, meloxicam plus Warfarin aside (and yes, the surgeon and his team had a list of all medications that I was currently taking. Not many, tbh. Meloxicam and Tylenol) the lack of education from this doctor made a majorly invasive surgery with a LOT of pain as the aftermath even worse. E.g. if I had known ahead of time that the pain will be excruciating and will start subsiding about two weeks post-surgery, would my dangerous intake of opioids even been a thing? Not knowing was really scary for me and Wylie.
And wtf with the refills? Overdose is a real thing, never mind addiction (I'm very mindful of that) Did they not think to ask why we were refilling the tramadol so fast?
Anyway, we decided to head for the UofU, which has a world class orthopedic center. The US Olympic Ski Team uses them, along with dozens of basketball players and other athletes. Mind you, Dr. H knows what he's doing. Technically he did a fine job, but the lack of communication is a no for me.
We had the x-rays and met the surgeon. He spoke with me about my options and his nurse came in afterwards to give me what I wanted: plenty of upfront information about what would be taking place, about the epidural for during the surgery, and the block for immediately afterwards. About the drugs they would be prescribing, about the level of activity that they wanted out of me for the first two weeks (not much, just walk every hour and do knee bends...the exercise regimen will be provided)... she gave me a packet with lots of info AND THEN opened it up and went through it with me.
I had blood work done and the nurse had ZERO problem finding a vein. Heh. First time for everything, right? They swabbed my nose for evidence of staph or MRSA. (also a first) Tested positive for staph, which means a little more care on the body wash protocol PRE surgery. I would have been surprised if I didn't have staph inside my nose LOL they say it's everywhere.
Anyway, we walked out of that appointment feeling like someone had explained things and told us what to expect. Mostly the nurse said "it's gonna hurt and you gotta be tough" LOL but that's more than we got from ole Dr. H.
that's all for now.