I fully confess that I am a coward and that I did everything to put off knee replacement surgery for over four years. It got to the inevitable point where I begged my doctor for the surgery. I needed to walk without pain. I needed the freedom to travel.
The short answer to the fundamental question is: Yes, I would do it again. And I would also recommend the surgery to anyone that is experiencing significant knee discomfort. It wasn’t easy surgery and it remains a focus of my current life (more on that later), but the results are well worth the efforts and the fear I felt pre-surgery and my avoidance techniques were unwarranted.
Lots of my friends have interviewed many doctors before selecting the one that they could communicate with. Others (like former President Bush) traveled to other locations to have the “state of the art” surgery done by what they thought was the foremost expert. I instead wanted a local doctor and one who was recommended by other experts, including physical therapists and other local doctors—the one that, in their opinion, had the best results for their patients. I didn’t need hand holding.
Plus, it made me want to go back to outpatient therapy immediately following the surgery, rather than relying on the in-house services, which are generally provided by your insurance the first few weeks following surgery. Those that do outpatient therapy using the machines and expertise offered often recover faster. So, use Uber or have someone drive you to outpatient physical therapy as soon as you can.
So, what is right? For me, I did everything I was told to do. I stayed in the surgical center for two nights to make sure I had all the information I needed. I did get up myself to go to the bathroom and walk the floor immediately following the surgery. I did take my pain medication (including Hydrocodone for a couple of weeks) right on schedule so that I could keep moving.
Yes: I worried about taking too many drugs, but I worried more about being sedentary and not being able to get the knee to work. I used the ice machine and the calf massager at least twice a day. I slept in those awful compression hose. But all of it meant that I got my mobility back fairly quickly. I didn’t really need a cane or walker after the second week. I have been walking on my own since then—including up and down stairs.
Sitting at my desk at work is still hard. I got a standing desk so I could change my position, but if you sit too long in any place it doesn’t feel great. When will this end? I have been told that it gets better after three months and that in a year it will be great. But at 3:00 a.m. in the morning, that is little consolation.
Plane travel will require me to focus more on what is going on with my knee. I will need to watch for swelling and I will need to get up and walk. I have tried not to attend evening events for a while. Standing at a cocktail party is no fun right now and sitting at a long dinner can be very uncomfortable. If I am in a long meeting, I reach for an extra chair so I can put my foot up. Then I get up every half hour or so to walk around. It may be distracting to others, but it gets me through the meeting.