Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire One week out from total knee replacement …..

Best of luck for a good outcome.

Two words,

Do your physical therapy with a vengeance, like a mad man, until you are about to pass out. Then do more. You will recover more quickly and thank me later.

Oops, more than two words.

Wife is four weeks out. Has had a ton of pain. Totally compliant with PT, both at the rehab facility and at home. Still not quite as far along as Doc would like but she's been working very hard. Twenty years ago she had nine months of chemo that required four days in the hospital for each infusion due to how toxic and high dose it was. Several surgeries and bone marrow biopsies. Followed that up with a bone marrow transplant.

In the years that followed she was hospitalized with pneumonia several times and was septic twice. Been through a lot and always seemed to tolerate pain very well. The TKR, however, was a whole different ball game.

She was supposed to get the other knee done in a month but she's saying she'll never do it. Found research that indicates those who've had a bone marrow transplant don't do as well with TKR. That might explain her difficulties.

I had mine done 7 months ago glad I did now.There we’re times in the first month that I wished I didn’t do it.You won’t sleep very good the first couple weeks I slept the best in a recliner.It will get better good luck

Wishing you well. It will get better. It just takes a while.

Wow! Never had to experience anything like that, I here that is pretty rough…..and then the physical therapy starts!

Praying for you partner…..less pain and a fast, complete recovery! 👍 memtb

I have had both my knees replaced.my advice is for people who have not had surgery yet. My doctor had me start doing exercises 6 weeks before surgery to strengthen all my muscles. I went home same day that I had replacement on my second knee. Lots of ice and exercises at home and physical therapy 2 times a week. Cut back on pain meds soon as possible. I didn’t use a walker after one day and was driving in a week. My doctor really believes strengthening your muscles before surgery is very important. I have several friends who have had knee replacement by same doctor as I did and all have come out almost as good as I did. I was71 when I had second knee done and now walk like I did when I was 40.

Make sure you do the therapy...it will determine your ultimate range of motion in that knee.

Yes, strengthening your leg muscles is definitely a must before they do that surgery.


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Good luck with it.

As others have said, pain pill (or Advil/Tylenol at least) 15-20 minutes BEFORE your PT sessions to give them time to start working.

Then, when you think you've done the PT thoroughly, ask the PT person if you can go another minute or two on each exercise, especially the stationary bike. If they tell you 5 minutes, ask if you can go 6 (or just forget about their little timer) . 10 minutes, do 12. Push yourself as hard as you can physically go, once you get the OK from the doc to do exercises.

When they get to bending your knee to check the angle, you want it to be better than they expect. You'll thank yourself later.

Having said all that..............................I didn't think the pain was all that bad, comparatively. I had two major rotator cuff surgeries that also involved biceps tendons and bone spurs, and they hurt way more than the TKR.

One scheduled for April and next as soon as he will do it.

Concerned that it is going to ruin my Deer hunting for the year!

I have had three surgeries on my RT knee. Last one was to replace it. I sure hope it WAS the last one. It does get better, it does. Do your PT as mentioned before, it really pays off. Right off the bat, it really sucks, Keep up on your meds, you don't want to play "Catch up". But not to worry, you will prevail..........

KB

I had both knees replaced at the same time in February of 2013. They got infected and I had to have a pic line in and got antibiotics for forty days.

I didn't have much pain. The worst thing for me was having my feet on something when lying down to keep my legs straight. If you don't do that, you might not be able to straighten the legs later.

Good luck.

When's your deer hunting start?

I had mine done in March I believe and was hunting elk in Oct. Probably could have gone earlier, but that's when the tag was for.

Do the PT as thoroughly and in as dedicated a manner as absolutely possible and I doubt you'll have issues.

Praying today for relief and a successful procedure.

5 years out from my second TKA. It hurts some in the beginning, but it gets better. Don’t measure improvement day to day. Week to week is more realistic.

March 29 for me too. Left one first. Pretty nervous about it.

My left one is ready for replacement now.Found out last week after an MRI on my right knee,I'd be better off replacing it too.Large radial tear in posterior medial meniscus,subtle fraying of the lateral meniscus,chondral abnormalities,Baker's cyst.Doctor said as invasive as it would be to repair it,he recommends replacing it.So maybe this year I will get both of them done.I've been taking 600mg of Ibuprofen twice a day for almost a month now and that has been working better than anything I've tried.It has really helped with the pain and my mobility is much better.

Kind of haste now.

Before a few big surgeries I had, i settled on about 3 of my best stand sites.
I went in with a friend and prepared ground blinds, cleared some shooting lanes
Just something simple. 3 sides of burlap and some brush and already had a chair there at each covered in plastic.

I knew my situation would be rocky but it was great to have at least some place to park my ass and call it better than nothing. Whatever it takes

Everyone is different and also different in our perception of pain.

Your 8 might be a 3 to me. Or Vice versus


How many motorcycle crashes and how many times ya been bucked off and stomped by a horse

😃