Does you doctor give you anything for pain? If it were me, I would at least take a prescription dose of ibprofen before my physical therapy appt. But that's me.

Good luck with that. May the force be with you so you can make it though all that pain.

God Bless

Thank you. I am feeling a little better today, but still in a lot of pain. I take OxyContin, ibuprofen and Tylenol along with lyrica and Baclofen.

I had to use one when I had a Tibia Tubercle Ostiotomy w/donor bone transplant. It was my 15th knee surgery, 8 on the left and 7 on the right. So I had a lot of scar tissue as well.

In the TTO they basically rebuild your knee alignment and use Donor Bone in the front to bridge your patella to your tibia so it aligns and tracks properly. Out of 15 knee surgeries that was the most painful, hardest to recover from and longest it took to get use of my knee back. It took about 9 months before I could walk without a hip to ankle brace.

But after the surgery I couldn't bend my knee due to added pain from all of the scar tissue so I had to use a JAS Splint to get my range of motion to a point where I could do normal PT. It is very painful and I was on Morphine and Oxycodone PRN for BT pain at the time as well as Ibuprofen and Flexeril. It took some time but it finally got better.

I always took a PRN pain med before each Session, as I knew the pain was going to be a 10. And I iced it immediately when I got home. As soon as I was able I also did Pool Therapy, because it was a lot easier to work in the water, without my body weight putting pressure on my knee.

Hope you recovery goes quickly,

Kat

Thanks Kat. I had a TTO in 2002. Your right. Pain wise related to surgery, it was the worst and took a long time to heal from. In fact I still had the screws in when they did the knee replacement. They had to remove them. The knee replacement surgery was easy, it’s just the bracing soreness and other old injuries that’s making this hard. Best wishes for your knees too.

Yeah I have the permanent screws, because they couldn't use my bone, they had to use donor bone and a larger than normal length of it. My son freaks out because you can put your fingers on the front of my upper tibia on the donor bone and feel the screw heads. lol I have a Degenerative Joint Disease and Advanced OsteoArthritis, so my knees are crap and have been since I was born.

I need to do knee replacements and hip replacements, but my bones are in such poor shape, their not really sure how successful it would in my knees and my Ortho has said he's pretty much guaranteed they'd have to be redone in about 10 years. So I was like, "Yeah, I'm good, pain has been part of my life since I was 17 and I'm used to it. Until it just gets unbearable I'm good with my normal daily 5!"

I did the TTO in 2008 instead of a knee replacement because I was so young, we figured we'd see if that worked first and then if it didn't they could always do the TKR later.

Prior to March Pandemic2020 I was doing "Plasma Rich Protein Therapy" and that helped some. I know they don't offer it everywhere. I stopped all of my hardcore Narcotic Chronic Pain meds 3 years ago, detoxed myself off Morphine and Oxycodone in 3 months, so I now use other Therapies and non-narcotic meds to manage the pain.

I’ve never heard of Plasma Rich Protein Therapy. I had sub partz shots and cortisone injections, but nothing helped. I was doing ok until I tore my ACL in October 2019 and it went downhill from there. The TTO worked for a long time. I’ve had pain most of my life too. My knee problems started early childhood, I can’t remember how many full leg casts I had. I had reconstructive muscle surgery on my knee at 15. And it lasted until my late 20’s. Then I had to have surgery about every 5 years until the TTO. In 2002. The new knee replacements last up to 25 years. I am young enough that I may need another one later in life.

I knew there was a risk when I had the TKR, but splinting 3 hours a day had been painful and I have 2 more months to go. I hope that I can reach my goal, but I know there’s a chance I may lose some flexibility. As long as it relieves the constant pain in my knee. Like you, I have some structural,issues, I shattered the lower part of my spine as a passenger in a head on collision which caused some pretty extensive nerve damage and now a lot of arthritis in my lower spine. I also fractured my neck and ended up with arthritis in my upper spine. I am taking low.dose narcotics and other meds to control the amount of pain. I would like to quit, but I can’t take all the pain.

Hope you had a nice Christmas.

PRP (Plasma Rich Platelet Therapy) is done by taking blood from the patient, and then putting it through a centrifuge. The Plasma Rich Platelets are "spun" out and separated from the platelet-poor plasma and red blood cells. Then the Plasma Rich Platelets are injected back into the patient at the site of the injury or diseased joint.

Its not a "standard" treatment and not offered everywhere, but for me it helps. I live in the "meca" State of medical research, in Chapel Hill, NC, so if there's a treatment out there its pretty easy to find someone between UNC Chapel Hill and Duke that offer it.

Its' not cheap and insurance doesn't always cover it, or much of it, and you don't know if its going to help until you do it, it effects each person differently. Since I got off all of the heavy drugs, I use various types of therapies to keep the pain manageable.

Winter is my hardest time with the cold and rain/snow, so I'm not super active during those months.

You and I are like 2 peas in a pod. lol I was born with the Degenerative Joint disease that causes most of my pain, I was in hip to ankle braces until I was around 3 1/2, and didn't walk until I was almost 3. I've also broken my back in a sledding mishap, and from that I gained Peripheral Neuropathy.

The main reason I stopped the heavy meds was because they were having a negative effect on my other illnesses, i.e. kidney disease, liver disease, lung disease and my teeth among other things. And I'd been on them so long, they didn't do much most of the time, I had so much referred pain from having developed such a high tolerance to the drugs, I found that when I stopped them, the pain was in less places and manageable 75% of the time. I still have to take PRN Oxycodone a few times a year, usually during the year when the pain is worse.

Take care,
Kat

We are like two peas in a pod:-). I wore an ankle brace as a child. I never learned to crawl, I suspect because my ankle and knee were bad. Then I had leg casts almost ever year til I was about 15 when I had my 1st knee surgery. In my 20s I shattered the lower part of my spine and fractured my neck in a head on collision as a passenger. I wore a leg brace because of partial paralysis for 5 years, but when I got married to my second husband, I didn’t want to walk down the isle in a brace, so I worked with some friends to strengthen my leg and go through some rehabilitation. I still have some problems with my leg. I have degenerative disc disease and arthritis throughout my spine and neck. I did have one back surgery, but they can’t really help me at this point I also have arthritis in my knees and left foot. I had avoided opiates until this last year, but in modification. I only take them as needed.

Take care and stay safe.

When someone had as many surgeries as you have any exercises that hurt this much should not be forced. Ever.
Scar tissue has to be broken down by massage and then coupled with gentle daily stretching, because forcing the scar tissue to tear just creates more scar tissue.
The massage has to be a daily routine along with tolerable exercise
Hugs