Hello everyone. I'm new here, since yesterday, ha ha.. I'm not sure what I should be writing exactly or where to put my "background". But I will do it here and if it's not the right place, please let me know.
I'm a 46 year old white female. I had a TKR in June of 2006 on my left knee. I had problems from the start including almost dying in the recovery room from a mistake made with anesthesia. Then with the machine they hooked up to me in my room to make my knee bend. It was so painful but the nurse, well he just told me I had to do it and if I didnt then I would suffer the consequences. He was telling this to me in the middle of the night while I was heavily medicated. I then went through all the PT and had to have deep tissue massage which is one of the most tortuous treatments I have had done. I still had continued severe pain and swelling and poor range of motion. This continued without improvement or relief. In November 2006 I went for a second opinion to an Ortho doc that specializes in TKR that "go wrong". He found that they put in the wrong size knee joint. I underwent a second TKR in December of 2006. I now have better ROM but continued swelling and pain and numbness now as well. I have been seeing a pain doc and psychologist now. My Ortho doc that did the second surgery said that everything looked fine and he didnt know what else to tell me. At this time, I'm am still in constant pain, anywhere from a 5 to a 9, and it's exhausting as you all know.
I work for our local hospital as a medical transcriptionist now. I used to be an EMT but am unable to perform those duties anymore. I have two daughters; ages 23 and 18, and one new granddaughter (there's my ray of sunshine!) I just want to be "normal" again so I can enjoy my life and my family.