having problems with post op....

hey lindsay-
wow that narcotic you are on sounds kinda hardcore. more addictive than morphine? ouch. thats gonna hurt when you have to stop. withdrawl is not fun at all...though it sounds like you will be on the narcotic for awhile. i dont think i'll qualify for such a strong drug...i only really get pain when i bend my knee, and thats only because of the crepitus. my pain isnt constant, and when i do get it, its not excruciating or anything...nothing that advil doesnt make tolerable! sounds like you are going through ALOT of pain though, if they have you on narcotics. my doctor said that i had more of a problem with pain managment, and i have a "pain memory," which i guess is that i cant let go of the knee dislocation experiences, and since i cant let go, im constantly paranoid that it'l happen again. have you dislocated your knee/s ever? what was it like, if so? some people say that it didnt hurt at all, but that definitly was not my experience. my doctor said that everyone's pain varies because of the location of their nerves, etc.
I dont think that i have misalignment, or at least my doctor hasnt told me about it if i do...i just know that i have a bad q angle, the groove is shallow, and my kneecaps sit too high. that and im just naturally flexable.
-ruby

thanks for replying! its nice to hear im not alone....im curious though about your "pain patch." what is it? i already went through vicodin addiction from the surgery, so im a bit apprehensive about narcotics, but "herbal remedies" havent really helped. Is the clicking and popping youve had becuase of crepitus (irritation under the kneecap)? becuase thats what the doctors say i have, and its a pain. it also makes my recovery near impossible because most excersise i do (biking, stairmaster etc) makes it worse.
thanks for replying,
ruby

Hi, im 15 years old, and in the past 2 years, ive had 2 major dislocations and many subluxations. Last april, i had a lateral realease. the recovery wasnt very smooth though. First i reacted really badly to the anesthesa, and im not going to go into that, but lets just say that it wasnt pretty, and a emergency room trip ensued. After that, only two days since the sugery, i had another problem. The pain wasnt that bad, i wasnt even taking my vicoden, but then, when i stood up to get the phone, my whole knee started going veryyyyy painfully numb. It was excruciating, and even vicoden didnt even dull the pain. Another trip to the emergency room. Anyway, the doctors guessed that i had a hematoma, which is a buildup of blood (apparently one of my blood vessels wasnt caterized right), and that the blood had compressed some nerves. It was fun, let me tell you. After that the pain in my knee was alot worse. I need percosett, and even that didnt make it go away. I was supposed to go back to school in three days, and my knee was supposed to look normal in a month tops, but the end result was two weeks out of school, and 3 months for normalcy. Since the surgery, ive had other problems. My knee subluxes alot, and im pretty sure it would dislocate if i ever did anything more than walking. Also, i now have crepitus, which is irritation under the kneecap, and its painful and annoying, as well as getting worse. I was supposed to be absolutly better in 6 months tops, but its now been almost a year, and my recovery has plateaued. My doctor still thinks i have a good chance of getting better, but im beginning to doubt him, because my knee doesnt feel any better than it did before the lateral release. Recently, my doctor has talked about another operation to try, if i dont get any better. I dont remember how its spelled, but it sounds like triat, and its open surgery that involves moving the ligament to fix my q angle and putting screws in. Im really afraid to even try skiing or running or anything like that, becuase im very paranoid that my knee will dislocate and ill have to deal with the pain again. And like i said, my knee doesnt really feel any better. I just wanted to know if anyone has had anything like this happen, and if they know about the triat, and about failed lateral releases, or really anything that i ramble on about. I would really appreciate any advice anyone has to give.