Am going into Hart. Hosp Mar 10 for a left knee.
Anyone had knee replacement?
What is recovery tiime? Pain etc.?
Had it done in 2016 at St Francis
I was to stay from Friday to Monday but I got up Friday afternoon and hobbled into the bathroom to do my business - the nurses were amazed and after bitching me out my doctor called me and asked me why and how did I feel. I told him it was cool and that I wanted to try the crutches right away - He told me I couldnt go home until I could climb up and down ten stair steps. I called my daughter who came to the hospital, we asked if she could take me around the corridors - I went to the rehab room with the steps and with a nurses help I got up and down - I went home the following morning
It was cumbersome the first 5-8 days but if you keep practicing with crutches and without - I did it continuously and never committed myself to the bed - always sat up in a chair and in my study and in the rec room 0 doing my exercises - March Madness was on so it was a good time.
I had an inhouse rehab person come 3 days a week and we worked hard
I was in sports rehab in 3 weeks of the operation and driving in 4 (It was my left knee)
My doctor was fairly amazed being I was 59 at the time but was always very active.
It all depends on how you approach it - if you don't have a large threshold for pain it will take you a long time
The only parts I did not like was pre operation prep when they dug into the area and my back with a needle - talk about pain - and post operation when I found it difficult to swallow because of the tube they stuck down my throat - thought I was chocking at times
The knee is great - there is some pain at times but the whole leg is screwed up from years of soccer and being a catcher in baseball plus I had a compound fracture of the same leg in 1991.
Best of luck - the recovery time depends on how hard you want to work at it and what your tolerance for pain is. I never took the pain killer only extra strength advil.