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Cara Hoglund
HI all, I’m having a total knee replacement in two weeks, and they are talking about taking me off all herbal supplements. Now, I’ve worked hard to get off most pharmaceuticals and am only taking herbs, so this is a problem. The knee surgery is unavoidable–herbs won’t replace cartilage, and my genes are against me here. But I’m wondering how much of my herbs I really need to get off of. My main ones are those in the Respiratory EXP blend; catnip and cramp bark for sleep; St John’s Wort, Ginko, and lemon balm for mood. With frankincense, turmeric, and ginger for inflammation, and comfrey/chamomile/calendula externally as my “herbal neosporin”as I work a lt in my garden and tend to get scraped up.
Also, post-surgery, anybody have recommendations for helping with the huge scar?
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Lori Merritt
I have had both knees done this summer. Doc suggests we go off our herbs prior to the surgery. We don’t want any herbs interacting with the surgery stuff. I went off five days prior. I went right back on afterwards. They will want you to take a stool softener. Just use Doc’s Colon Constant Patience formula. It is so gentle and your bowels will return to normal very quickly. I created a Poultice spray for my scar from his Poultice tincture. It helped it heal quickly. My scars are already looking great. I also take the Bone, Tissue Cartilage tincture. I returned right away to my regular herbs and everything was fine. I have inflammation and so I’m going to make some capsules with turmeric and ginger, which are good for inflammation. I hope that will help. The best advice is to get up and walk and walk and do your stretches. You can massage you knee and that will help. I’m using wheat germ oil and a laser on my scar tissue. You can also massage it after the scar is healed over.  Good luck!!
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Thanks so much for your experience and advice! 🙂
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Dr. Patrick Jones
I agree with this response. Thanks Lori. :0)
Don't use herbs or combine herbs with medications or use them during lactation or pregnancy without talking with your healthcare provider.
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OK, I had the surgery, and everything went well. Now I’m 12 days post-op, had the follow up with my surgeon, and he says everything’s looking great. It’s too early to start puting anything on my scar b/c the fabric sutures (?) are still there covering most of it. I have some lingering numbness on my calf, which he says is normal and will return over time. I also have some residual swelling on my knee and upper calf, which apparently is also normal. Are there some herbs to help speed up the healing of the swelling and the numbness? The only herbs I’m using at this point is  turmeric/boswellia/black cohosh/devil’s claw/cramp bark blend tincture (this is my homemade formula for joint issues and inflammation) which seems to be helping a bit, but since I’m still on a lot of Hydrocodone it’s a bit hard to tell how much difference it’s actually making. I can’t start using my home version of the Poultice Powder salve b/c it has Comfrey and I (perhaps ill-advisedly) waxed my legs before surgery and am now dealing with a ton of ingrowns which the Comfrey will only make worse. Any suggestions?
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I started using the Poultice spray as soon as I removed the bandage, in my case it was after two weeks. I started the herbs even though I was on pain killers. You will feel weird for awhile. My knees feel tight and I have “charlie horses” in my lower legs. I have found that spraying Doc’s formula Muscles – NoMoSpazms Tincture stops the twisties. I also spray Hops on the painful areas and it has helped.
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Kristina
Hi Cara,
I hope you are doing well after several months post surgery. I have been learning a lot about the effects of inflammation in my own health over the last year since my jaw surgery and have also implemented using frankincense and turmeric oil. Both of these oils I took internally and have been extremely effective in dealing with swelling and pain. I continue to use them and also added comfrey and arnica externally to my knee that was bothering me and it has helped so much. Thank you for all the information you shared, it confirmed in my mind that others are benefitting from the same natural treatments that have helped me find healing. Take care!
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Donna M Schott
Since it is now a quite a while post-surgery my reply may be a bit late for an herb to assist the healing scar. However in case anyone else may be in need of this comment I’ll go ahead. This is my experience: My sister had knee surgery and the scar was slower to heal. I mailed her some comfrey salve and after using it for just 2 days she sent another photo and the difference was simply amazing. The same thing happened with a friend.
NOTE: Of course comfrey salve should not be applied to an open wound or fresh surgical wound. Wait until the wound is closed. Wound granulation-healing must start from the inside first. Applying comfrey before inside healing takes place would very potentially cause problems. Hoping this helps.1 user thanked author for this post.
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Amanda Spadafino
I have an upcoming ACL/meniscus tear surgery coming up in the next few months so this is extremely helpful. Do you by any chance know if there’s a time frame where one herbal salve might be more effective in healing different types of scars than others – for example, a healing scar, versus one only months old, versus one that is years old? I’m wondering if there might be a different ‘recipe’ for healing a new scar as opposed to a much older one.
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Rebecca Karson
This is great! I came to this forum to see if there were any posts on this topic as my husband is about to have a double hip replacement and I wanted to see how I could best support him herbally post surgery. I assume it’s the same protocol for hips as for knees. No herbs 5 or more days prior to surgery and then no comfrey salve until the wound is closed. I’m going to check out the tinctures mentioned above for the bowels returning to normal as well as the bone/tissue tincture etc. If any of you have any other suggestions, I’d greatly appreciate it.
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Thank you Lori for the additional information! Have a great day 🙂
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I have always had issues with my digestive tract/bowels and I have found in recovering from this surgery that senna tablets daily along with daily meal of proactive yogurt has made all the difference in avoiding constipation. Hope your husband’s surgery goes well 🙂
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OK, I had the surgery, and everything went well. Now I’m 12 days post-op, had the follow up with my surgeon, and he says everything’s looking great. It’s too early to start puting anything on my scar b/c the fabric sutures (?) are still there covering most of it. I have some lingering numbness on my calf, which he says is normal and will return over time. I also have some residual swelling on my knee and upper calf, which apparently is also normal. Are there some herbs to help speed up the healing of the swelling and the numbness? The only herbs I’m using at this point is  turmeric/boswellia/black cohosh/devil’s claw/cramp bark blend tincture (this is my homemade formula for joint issues and inflammation) which seems to be helping a bit, but since I’m still on a lot of Hydrocodone it’s a bit hard to tell how much difference it’s actually making. I can’t start using my home version of the Poultice Powder salve b/c it has Comfrey and I (perhaps ill-advisedly) waxed my legs before surgery and am now dealing with a ton of ingrowns which the Comfrey will only make worse. Any suggestions?
The herbs in the Memory and Alertness formula have some impressive functions for helping nerves recover function after being aggravated or injured. The Ginkgo in it will also improve circulation to the area which is good.
Don't use herbs or combine herbs with medications or use them during lactation or pregnancy without talking with your healthcare provider.
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Thanks Doc! I really need to start marking these so I get notifications when they are replied to 🙂 I’ll try the memory and alertness formula and see how that helps with nerve regrowth.
Also, not that this necessarily proves anything, but I’ve been taking my home “joint formula” internally (turmeric, cramp bark, ginger, devil’s claw, black cohosh) for a while now and I personally have not noticed any negative interactions with either tramadol, hydrocodone, lyrica, or metaxalone (muscle relaxant). Also, I’ve added back in my catnip and lemon balm tincture for sleep with no issues. Also, hops and passion flower tinctures do not seem to be causing any issues. (I’m all about the nervines.)
My scar is all but healed, so I started putting my version of the poultice salve on it (comfrey, marshmallow, chamomile, calendula) on it a few days ago. The remaining cut closed almost immediately with 2-3 applications per day. Comfrey really doesn’t mess around 🙂 I’m hoping it’ll help keep the scarring to a minimum. There’s still some swelling so it’s hard to tell at this point.
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