Well tomorrow I will get a new knee. I hope that I will be ready for next springs trip. Any words of advice or wisdom for me

My paddling partner recently had that done. Stay aggressive on the rehab and you should be clicking your heels as you go down the portage!

dd

I seem to be short of wisdom, so I won't offer advice, but you do have my best wishes.

Be faithful to doing the rehab physical therapy they want you to do. Be sure to do it regularly.

Good luck and wishes for quick recovery, Bob!

Repeating others, do the exercises. And may the recovery go well.

I have had both done, just follow your PT advice on rehabilitation and work hard at it, but don't push too much (or you will have other problems) You will be good to go by next spring, easy!

Bruce

Fresh batteries in the remote, and do your physical therapy.

Plan your spring trip with someone in decent shape!! That way they can help carry your gear. ;) good luck.

By spring you should be just fine. As everyone has said, do your exercises, and not just when you are at PT, but every day at home, too. And after you have " graduated" from PT, keep doing them for a few months.

I have had both knees done. The second one is a better knee than the first, but they are both huge improvements to the way they were before. I have not regretted my new knees at all.

Now I wish a spine replacement were as simple. :-)

Good luck to you. Remember when you start the PT that it does get easier! Really it does. Hang in there.

Keep in mind that there are certain things that you will no longer be able to do, as it is an artificial joint, not a new Mother Nature model.
I think there is a 35-45 pound weight limit, and you should not subject it to a pounding motion like jogging.
The doctors impress on you to never fall on it!
The pain will be gone, and you will feel much better within 6 months, like it never happened after one year.
I had both replaced, 1st one in 2001, the 2nd in 2006, and they feel great. :)

I am a physical therapist. I am not going to claim to be the next guru of knee replacements, but I work in an aging rural clinic where I probably have a couple knee replacements on my caseload at any given time. A few things I tell my patients would be:

-your recovery is going to be a little uncomfortable. It's a bone injury, and along with that you are going to have that bone pain, a deep ache that is affected by changes in activity, increases in activity level, or weather fronts for the 10ish weeks it takes for the bone injury to heal

-you will experience soreness, that is normal. Your knee will be sore while you stretch it, muscles will be sore after you do strengthening exercises, those are both normal. You should not have pain, and there is a difference. If you have sharp pain or pain that lasts more than an hour after treatment, let your therapist know, you may need to back off a little.

-you will get more effect from a 5 minute stretch that is uncomfortable than a 30 second stretch that is painful. Prop your knee on a footstool with your toes up and let it hang there to stretch extension, or use your uninvolved leg and pull your involved foot back under the chair you're sitting on to gain flexion. You will have less discomfort and reach full motion sooner if you spend a lot of time doing 2-5 minute sets of uncomfortable stretching during the first four weeks post op. After that stretching becomes more painful and requires more force to reach the same results

-if you want your knee to be doing well a year from now, get the muscles around it as strong as you can. Strength around the knee will reduce the amount of stress through the new joint as well, helping it to last longer. Don't stop strengthening until you can step down from a 6-8 inch step on the involved leg in a smooth, controlled manner without assistance from a rail or cane. If you're really active, bump that up to 10-12 inches.

-listen to your knee, sooner or later it's going to get sore from activity, new exercises, or weather. If that happens, it needs a day or two of rest, so give it some rest. Just make sure you do enough range of motion to make sure you don't lose ground on those days

Sorry, that got long! I hope some of it is helpful. Good luck!

Ask them for some pics of the surgery. I have 1 of my knee. Talk about holy s...

Do your therapy as they tell you, don't be afraid to take some pain meds but don't take more than you need. If you feel the need to kick someones butt use the other foot. FRED

One more thing that has been very helpful for me. Just a suggestion. I ride a stationary bike almost every day. I find it keeps my knees flexible and makes them feel much better all day. I try to get 30 minutes morning and evening, and it really makes a big difference in maintaining the ease of motion. A good excuse to watch TV or read a book, too! :-)

After the replacement it was difficult to get back to the biking and I had to approach it very gradually. The first time I could make a full rotation was cause for celebration, actually! But starting with one minute and increasing slowly from there (on the days when I wasn't doing what they expected at PT), was a very good addition to my other regimen.

I am six months away from my most recent knee replacement and I rarely think about the "new" knee. It is strong and flexible, pain-free, and will do whatever I ask of it. (I do not ask it to kneel, however, and I do not run or jog.) I still do stretching exercises and the biking.

My dad had it done about a year ago, it is so much better. Before surgery he couldn't walk more than 200 feet, Sunday he went on a 4 mile walk at a brisk pace with me. There were some rough moments for sure but he is very happy.
He still gets sore occasionally but for the most part the more he exercises reasonably the better the knee feels.

Before surgery my Dad asked everyone he knew the same question you did and every single friend said do the therapy, the harder you work at first the less you have to later. One of his best friends is still struggling years later and had my Dad concerned... When my Dad asked him he said you will be fine. "I treated the knee surgery as time off/break and did not do my therapy very much. You won't do that, I won't let, you" with that said his friend is still better than before the knee replacement, just not as good as he could be.

T

My dad just had his done a little over 3 weeks ago. His recovery has been pretty quick and ahead of schedule. 10 days after surgery he was able to make the 5-6 hour drive up the Gunflint to hang with the family at a cabin and sit on the dock and do some fishing. Of course he wasn't the one to do the driving and they stopped a few times so he could walk around to get his knee moving. He also had to spend roughly 3 hours a day doing his therapy (2 sessions in a range of motion machine that bent his leg for him plus 2 sessions of additional exercises).

3-4 weeks out from surgery and he moves around pretty well and is self sufficient. As for pain meds he took one of the high powered pills he was given but since then has only used Tylenol since then. Although his knee was in terrible shape and causing him a lot of pain for many years so he's developed an inhuman pain threshold before surgery.

From what he has said the knee no longer hurts at all. The only real pain he's had is in the surrounding muscles that were so weak from years of trying to stay off the knee. As he works to strengthen them they get pretty sore. However, that pain is offset by the lack of pain he now feels in his knee plus the he got rid of the pain in the opposite hip that had formed over the years from compensating for the bad knee. The Dr was initially thinking they'd have to replace the hip as well but thats looking less likely now that he's had the knee done and the hip isn't taking as much abuse.

Yup, both hands carpal tunnel surgery, both knees replaced, shoulder rotator cuff repair, spinal fusion L3-5 and I am still moving- thanks to great doctors (TRIA) and physical therapy! Oh and thank heavens for medical insurance!!!!

Listen to your doctor. Don't be tough, use the pain meds. Ice. Do the therapy. Ice. Rest. Patience. It will get easier.

Best wishes

Thank you all for your words of advice. I am now home and let the healing process begin.

Keeping you in my prayers for a full and quick recovery. Hope you will be portaging with the best of them by spring.

Keeping you in my prayers for a full and quick recovery. Hope you will be portaging with the best of them by spring.

Good to hear you are back home and are able to be on the boards again! hang in there, it really does get better.

Good luck with your new knee Bob. Hope to see you at the spring wing in Rockford.

Bob, a little trick I learned was to freeze several small bottles of water. Instead of using ICE in the machine just switch out some bottles. . I'm assuming ur using a ICE machine..

Good luck with that! I've got one more trip planned for September, then preparations for shoulder replacement surgery this winter--hopefully I can use my flyrod again someday, probably no more wood splitting though.

How are things, Bob?

quote missmolly: "How are things, Bob?"

I just had my first therapy session today and she told me that I am 2 weeks ahead in therapy

2 is a wonderful number when it comes to paddling, amore, and knee recovery!

Best wishes on the recovery, Bob. Sounds like it's going well.

quote plumbbob: "Well tomorrow I will get a new knee. I hope that I will be ready for next springs trip. Any words of advice or wisdom for me "

GOOD LUCK!

Thanks for the update, good news to continue...

Gotta keep some bend to it, to follow that grandson. Best of luck to you, Bob!

Good job!

T

Doing nothing is not an option! Keep up the good work!

I had a total knee replacement at the age of 39, 3 years ago. I got infection in it immediately. I never had an immediate reduction in pain, it was a rollercoaster of going on and off oral antibiotics over the next 5 months and the knee feeling better and getting worse. After 5 months I had a cement knee put in and took IV antibiotics 3 times a day for 6 weeks. The Cement knee was better than having the pain of the infection, but still wasn't great. After the infection was gone, I had another knee replacement done, another titanium permanent knee.
For the first time in a couple years my knee got better. I was off the pain pills in 2 weeks (except for therapy days) and I was back to work in a month and a half.
Therapy is super important!
Keep it up!

I've had three of the darn things and it never gets any easier. I had the right one done as a partial in August of 2013, the left one done as a partial in September 2014 and that one had to be replaced with a complete knee in April 2015. To add to the joy of the last replacement, four days after the surgery I suffered a perforated bowel and peritonitis. I spent nine more days in the hospital on an ice chip and water diet doing my rehab for both surgeries.

All in all the replacements have been great. I'd do it all over again if I had to.

I can't believe I just said that.