My husband had medial meniscus repair done on 12/31/09. Pretty much all of one side was cut away leaving level 3 and 4 erosion on the knee joint. The recovery took a few months, but over the past week and a half something bizarre is happening.
He works on his feet all day and has no problems. Once dinner is done (like clockwork), pain in the knee starts kicking in. He has the constant desire to move in, to stretch it, in order to try to get comfortable. However, if he stands...no problems! We were in wait and see mode, but plan to call on Monday to get him back with the ortho, but wondered if anyone else has experienced this phenomenon. We have tried a knee brace, heat, ice, rubs...nothing. I have him back on Naproxen, but he gets all worked up about not being able to sleep, or getting a decent sleep he is wanting his old Ultram or Percocet...and that isn't a good dependency. It bothers him during sleep; he tosses and turns in his sleep...keeping ME up!
At 34, I have 2 year old knee replacements (bilateral) and never experienced anything like this so I am at a loss. If anyone has any suggestions to make him comfortable until he can get into the ortho I would appreciate it.
Was the meniscus repaired or removed? Sounds like it was removed leaving some gaping holes in the articular cartilage. Unlike RA(I have OA and RA) OA does not erode the bone, it actually tends to build bone in all the wrong places. A torn meniscus however will erode cartilage.
So if he has developed osteophytes along the edges of the joint along with erosion of articular cartilage in the center of the condyles, he may have a very good position when he is standing but the big pain starts in when he sits and starts hitting those bone spurs along the edges of the joints. I know when mine were getting bad, I was comfortable only when sitting with my knees very bent(like sitting "Indian style") or kept somewhat straight. Otherwise I caught the bad areas.
And unlike RA that hurts in the AM, OA hurts at night.
Sounds like he might be a candidate for a uni-compartemental knee replacement....just the medial aspect.
Good luck............Jenny(14 knee surgeries and counting...bi-lat.TKR's 1999)
If it were me I would grab a pain pill if that would help him sleep and be comfortable. The only way one becomes addicted to pain meds is if you keep wanting and needing more all of the time. Even though my Ortho says no more I have pain and my PT and Internist say to take them when needed. Even the pharmacist says I won't get addicted and the info you receive in the RX says the same. I am not afraid to take a small dose to get me through my exercises and just to take the edge off.
Why suffer when you don't need to?
I used to be on 6 percocet a day, so I know they are useful My concern is the knee is driving the hubby crazy; he gets anxious about it (rightfully so) and feels too early on in the evening that he isn't going to get to sleep unless he has something in him. Of course, the office isn't in today so I can't get him an appointment to get him on the road of some kind of relief...or if not, a plan!
If he just needs to sleep and is not on any pain meds has he tried any of the PM meds? Advil PM. Tylenol PM, etc. There are many out there. I went through a spell a few years ago where I could fall asleep, but not stay. I found taking one of those about an hour before bed helped a lot. When I woke up I could fall back easily. I know a lot of people use them regularly for that reason. Worth a try.
My concern is the knee is driving the hubby crazy; he gets anxious about it (rightfully so) and feels too early on in the evening that he isn't going to get to sleep unless he has something in him. Of course, the office isn't in today so I can't get him an appointment to get him on the road of some kind of relief...or if not, a plan!
