Ad copy

I've been Googling "knee replacement swelling won't go down" every night at midnight and I'm not even the one who had the surgery. Richard had his knee replaced nine weeks ago and every morning I have to lay there and listen to him try to get out of bed. It starts with this low groan before he even moves, like his body already knows what's coming, and then both hands on the nightstand pushing himself up while his knee locks and won't bend. Some mornings it takes him three tries and I just pretend I'm still asleep because if he knew I was awake he'd feel guilty about it. His surgeon kept saying it would get better. Be patient, give it time, the body needs to heal. And maybe that's true but watching someone you love hurt while you can't do anything about it is its own kind of awful. I felt useless. He'd be sitting in the living room at 1am with ice on his knee, staring at the TV but not really watching it, and I'd ask if he needed something and he'd say "I'm fine" in that voice that means he's anything but fine and doesn't want to talk about it. Around week five the swelling should of started going down. At least that's what the doctor told us. But Richard's knee still looked like a grapefruit every morning. He was doing his PT, doing his exercises, following every instruction they gave him, and it just wasn't getting better the way they said it would. I could see it on his face before he ever said a word, that look like he was starting to regret the whole thing. He didn't say it out loud. Richard's not the type. But he stopped talking about the things he wanted to do after recovery. No more mentioning the fishing trip with his brother. No more talking about walking the neighborhood again. He just got quiet. And for a man who usually has an opinion about everything, the quiet scared me more than anything. After he finally fell asleep one night I ended up in the kitchen on my phone doing what I'd been doing every night for weeks. Looking up stuff like "knee replacement recovery swelling won't go down" and "TKR recovery taking longer than expected" and "is it normal to still have pain 5 weeks after knee replacement. I know you're not supposed to Google medical things at midnight. Everybody says that. But when you're desperate for answers and the doctor keeps telling you to be patient, you start looking for someone who actually understands what you're going through. I ended up in this forum for knee replacement recovery. vHundreds of people posting about the same things Richard was going through. Swelling that wouldn't go down, mornings that somehow felt worse than the afternoons, people wondering if something had gone wrong with their surgery. And in a thread about managing overnight swelling, several people mentioned wearing a bamboo knee sleeve to bed. Not a brace, not those stiff compression stockings the hospital sends you home with. A soft sleeve that you could actually sleep in. A few of them said the same thing, that the morning swelling was noticeably better because the gentle compression kept the fluid from building up while they slept. One woman said it was the first thing that actually made a difference after weeks of ice and elevation doing nothing. Another said her physical therapist noticed the improvement before she even mentioned the sleeve. I ordered it the next morning. Didn't tell him. The company had a 60 day guarantee, which mattered to me because Richard had already spent money on an ice therapy machine, a wedge pillow, and two different knee braces that were collecting dust in the closet. When it arrived I just left it on his nightstand with the little card that came in the box. Didn't make a big deal about it. If I'd sat him down and said "I found something that might help" he would of rolled his eyes. He's been promised too many things by this point. He didn't say anything about it that first day. But when I came to bed that night I noticed the package was open and the sleeve was gone. Next morning I woke up and it was quiet. I didn't hear him groaning or struggling to get up, which is usually what wakes me. I looked over and Richard was already sitting on the edge of the bed like it was nothing, and his knee actually looked less swollen than it had since the surgery. Not perfect, but enough that I could tell something was different. He caught me looking and said "that sleeve thing is alright." Coming from Richard, that's a five star review. He's been wearing it every night for about three weeks now. The mornings are different. He still has stiffness, still has days that are harder than others, but that terrible swollen locked up feeling first thing is genuinely better. His PT said his progress in the last two visits has been the best since he started. He hasn't said thank you and he probably won't. But last night he asked me to order him a second one so he always has one ready while the other is in the wash. That's how I know. If your watching someone you love go through knee replacement recovery and you feel as helpless as I did, maybe try just leaving one of these on their nightstand. Don't explain it. Don't make a thing of it. Let them find it. They have a 60 day guarantee. Worst case you send it back. I'll put the link below.