Knee replacement in three weeks and one day

    Has anyone out there done this already?  I will be posting my adventure on here.
    I anticipate 3 days of misery, three weeks of "at-least-this-is-better-than-the-first-three-days" and progress, three months of intense work to get my new parts in optimal working condition.  That's if all goes as planned.
    No general anesthesia, just conscious sedation. I should be released 4-5 hours after surgery; again this is if all goes as planned.  
    Hope to get to know some of you better as I share this here.

 

Good luck with a short, productive, and bearable recovery period and an improved quality of life in the end!

My mother works in an Operating Room and I actually used to also work in the hospital. Knee replacements were a "bread and butter" procedure meaning that they were very common and straightforward.

The vast majority of people who have gotten total knees done were thrilled at the end result. In my neck of the woods, they have you standing and walking on the new joint the same day.

My two cents would be to follow the physical therapy to a T. If you put in the work, you will most likely have the best result possible. Every once and a while we had someone come back in because they did not work the knee and ended up having to bust through scar tissue to get their range of motion back. You don't want to be that person.

I hope you have a good procedure and a quick recovery!

Good for you!! I wish you a swift and productive recovery.

Several people in my family have done this, and my mother recently replaced her hip. The one thing that seems to be absolutely imperative is to do the physical therapy religiously. It will hurt anyway, so do the therapy (besides, everything probably hurt even worse before the surgery!!).

And the lesson everyone seems to learn the hard way, including myself-- take the meds during those first days on the timetable prescribed, even if you're not hurting. When I had my hand done I left the hospital (after a nerve block and general anesthesia) with 4 different kinds of heavy-duty painkillers, two specific to bone trauma and cancer, staggered around the clock. When I asked the surgeon if it wasn't overkill she laughed and said bone surgery is a whole different ball game. And it was. You don't want to be agonizing waiting for the meds to kick in.

I wish you swift healing! Most everyone says it's the best decision they ever made. When I was in high school I knew an old farmer who had both his knees done at 70ish and went on to become a country dancing phenomenon (at least in our corner of rural NJ)!!

Everything Tereza and Timothy just said.   ALSO, your doctor may advise that you take some over the counter medication for pain. …Such as Tylenol or aspirin .  It is common for folks to think that is silly when they are on four major pain killers. Two things to remember …meds have multiple functions, and there is such as thing as break through pain.  The human body can be more than a little strange. Sometimes an OTC med will knock out pain that one of the more serious pain meds don’t seem to be handling. I have seen too many people in agony because they refused to take the OTC med.

My step mum had her knee replaced a few years ago and her hip 3 weeks ago. For the hip they have her exercises to do before the surgery which really seems to have made the past surgery physio easier.

Don’t forget arms /neck /shoulders too as crutches really can cause stress and pain in these.

Best of luck

John F Dean wrote:Everything Tereza and Timothy just said.   ALSO, your doctor may advise that you take some over the counter medication for pain. …Such as Tylenol or aspirin .  It is common for folks to think that is silly when they are on four major pain killers. Two things to remember …meds have multiple functions, and there is such as thing as break through pain.  The human body can be more than a little strange. Sometimes an OTC med will knock out pain that one of the more serious pain meds don’t seem to be handling. I have seen too many people in agony because they refused to take the OTC med.

I have heard that knee replacement is much more painful than hip replacement. A friend who reacted to some of the pain meds was in a very bad way for a while and almost refused to have the second knee done. She only went ahead when the doctors figured out a safer pain med approach.

A different friend's sister didn't have a replacement, just an incredibly serious break. Timing your exercise periods to coincide with when the pain meds are most effective was critical to her recovery. You can only learn that timing through experience! Some "exercises" were more painful than others, so she learned to be extra careful with the timing of those ones.

A general rule which may or may not work for this surgery, is that short, frequent exercise periods give better long term results.

I had one knee done last Oct. I am getting the pre-scans For the other knee done this Friday. Mad at myself for not doing it sooner. My experience was no pain the first three days and when the surgery anesthesia wore off  the pain came on. Bearable but definitely noticeable. The physical therapy after a month allowed me to make a full rotation on a recumbent bicycle and after that for me it was smooth sailing. I actually worked for a few hours starting the second day after surgery. Elevate and ice, I was given a ice machine when discharged, get rid of area rugs to prevent catching on them. I was able to discard my handicapped placard after 6 weeks. Do not stop moving, being static is not a good idea.