Post Knee Surgery Pain

Knee surgery can be simple or complex, and the pain that accompanies it can be mild enough that a simple dose of Tylenol can fix it, or it can be so severe that morphine alone seems to be able to numb it. The amount of pain a person will feel is as personal as their sense of smell, it can vary from patient to patient. Knowing what kind of surgery you are going to have, and what the pain expectations are, can help you make a better recovery.

Function

• Pain is a response the human brain and body have developed for self-preservation. When the body encounters something that is harmful or dangerous, nerves send signals to our brain that say "Ouch!" or "Hot", or a host of other messages. These messages than cause us to stop, pull away, or get out. In the case of surgery, a procedure is being performed on the body that will ultimately help it, but the short term result is severe pain, and in normal circumstances, even the highest pain tolerance could not endure the messages being sent to the brain. This is where medication comes into play.

Time Frame

• During the operation, the anesthesiologist will be giving you medications to keep you asleep and control your pain. Upon waking, depending on what kind of surgery you have had, you will still be groggy and pain medicine will still be in your bloodstream. If you have had major knee surgery, you will be hooked up to a morphine pump, which you can self administer as needed. It will not allow you to overdose, as it is timed to prevent you from doing so, but you can hit that button for the pain as often as you feel the need to. In milder surgery, you are often sent home with medication to take after so many hours. Be sure and follow directions and take the pain medicine as instructed, especially immediately post op.

First Few Days

• The first 48-72 hours after surgery are always the worst as far as pain goes. Usually, any anesthetic that was injected into the knee joint will wear off around a day or so after the procedure, and the full measure of pain will set in, sending screaming messages to your brain that things are not as they should be. The pain pills you are given are pain blockers, they dull the signals being sent to your bran concerning the pain. Because you are ingesting them, it takes times for them to get into your bloodstream. So taking them as instructed is hugely important to their efficacy.

First Two Weeks

• After your body "adjusts" to some of the trauma and pain it is experiencing from the surgeries and physical therapy, the havoc that the pain was causing in your brain will lessen. It is still important to take the pain medications you are prescribed, but after those first few days, you may not need to take quite so many, so often. It is important to control the pain, but not to become reliant on the pain medicines to function. The key to knee surgery recovery is to have your body adjust to its new functions. This can and will happen, it just takes time and effort.

After 6 weeks

• Use of pain medication should be eliminated after six weeks or so from the operation. Occasional use of prescribed pain medication for hard physical therapy sessions, or for a day when the knee is especially painful is acceptable, but to continue to use the medication as it was originally prescribed is not only unnecessary, it is dangerous. Narcotic pain medications are very addictive, and the body can rapidly grow dependent on them. Once you have cleared week six of your recovery, it is time to start taking over the counter medications, such as Advil, Tylenol, Aleve, and other anti-inflammatory medicines. Check with your doctor for dosing and side-effect information.