Just learned I will need total knee replacement surgery for both knees "sooner than later" as the doc said.
If any of you out there have gone through this surgery, I'll appreciate hearing about your experience. In particular, how long did it take you to get back to work, and back into the pool? How long before your knee(s) were pain free while swimming (and turning!)? Are you happy you had the surgery? Did you experience any problems with blood loss? How long did you go to physical therapy? Anything else I should know before signing up for this? :confused:
Thanks!
wow, lucy, you must either be superwoman or very young! That sounds very encouraging and I am so happy for you. How long were you on pain pills? How bad was the pain, and how long was the pain intense? Sorry, but I'm not as brave as you. :(
Hi Renie - I'm neither young (darn it) nor Superwoman (and, darn it). As far as the pain pills, my prescription for them said to take 1 or 2, every 4 to 6 hours. I took 2 together one time, on probably the first day I was home, but didn't feel good as a result, so never took more than one at a time after that. I don't remember the pain ever being intense...mostly the knee ached, and it was hard to get comfortable. The pain pills allowed me to get comfortable. I never felt a "high" from them. I stepped down the usage from every 4 hours to every 6, then gradually stretched that out until the original prescription of 100 pills was done, in about a month. I did get one refill, but used only about 5 pills, then never needed another one. The surgeon's staff said to take a pain pill before physical therapy, but the physical therapist disagreed, because he wanted to see the true level of pain during each exercise. I did take a pill after PT, during the 1st month. PT was 3 times per week for a month, then twice a week for another month, then once a week for the 3rd month.
Are you scheduled for the surgery yet? All I can say is that I am VERY happy I did it. I almost never think about that knee as being a replacement and not the original. Good luck!
