Things I wish I’d known before knee replacement surgery, but wasn’t told.

1.  I entered the hospital at 7:00 a.m. to have my right knee replaced. I walked back out sometime after 1:00 p. m. to go home.
2. The surgery was done in Nampa by a robot operated by Dr. Richard Davis, 910 NW 16th St., Suite 205, Fruitland, Idaho, 208-452-8100.
3. I had my post-operation prescriptions phoned to Walgreens in Ontario. We picked them up on the way home, and I had a sub sandwich there. (I'd been fasting since the evening before the surgery).
4. I declined the prescriptions for the heavy-duty pain killers. My surgery was on Thursday. I took Tylenol Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but probably didn't need it that long. I had no pain. I quit Tylenol on Sunday, and threw the walker and cane away on Monday.
5. I used ice packs for a day or two. That was probably not enough. My leg swelled considerably, and turned purple.
6. The medications I took included Doxycycline for a week to prevent infections, Celecoxib for a week to combat swelling, and baby aspirin to prevent blood clots. Two weeks following surgery I'm still taking the aspirin, but nothing else. The Celecoxib has a whole list of possible side effects. One is that it can make your stomach and bowels bleed. I took the last Celecoxib Wednesday evening, a week after my surgery, and was distressed to have a very black stool on Thursday. By the next Tuesday it was clearing up.
7. I was perfectly capable of driving before a week was up, and did so. Getting my right leg into the driver's seat was much easier than getting it into the passenger side of the vehicle. My right foot had no trouble using the accelerator and brake.
8. Two weeks following surgery my leg is stiff, but I have no pain. I'm not walking normally, but I concentrate on heel and toe, upright posture, and proper bending of the knee. I think my gait looks good. It's just slow.
9. After a week or so I adopted my own physical therapy routine. The rule is that every time I get up to go to the bathroom, I thereafter have to try lowering myself into an easy chair with the goal of having that leg achieve a 90-degree angle. At two weeks I'm almost there. Stretching those muscles hurts, but I make myself sit a little bit farther out each time. Then I stand up, hang onto a table, and lift and bend my leg as far as I can 20 times. I'm then exhausted, and go lie down again.
10. My nights have been spent on the couch. I can't find a comfortable position in bed. Two weeks is up. Tonight I'll go to bed with a pillow between my knees and see if I can sleep.
11. The pillow helped. I used it for a week.
12. A month after surgery it's still difficult to find a good sleeping position for my leg, and I still am not walking without being constantly aware of my knee. But things are getting better.
13. One month after surgery I removed the last of the glue holding the suture together.
14. I achieved a 90-degree leg angle on the 18th day. A month after surgery I'm to 120-degrees.
15. Three months after surgery I'm still doing my own physical therapy. Every time I use the bathroom, I follow that with the routine outlined in #9 above. I bend the knee just as far as I can stand it, and count to 60. It hurts like crazy, but I'm close to achieving a 145-degree angle. I maybe look like I'm walking normally, but I'm still aware of every step. My cousin says that full recuperation is going to take a year and a half. I've actually had four short episodes where the knee has felt perfectly normal. That's very encouraging. I've been comfortable in bed for quite some time now.
16. At six months from surgery I'm still aware of every step. I have begun making myself do stairs normally, rather than one at a time.
17. 7 ½ mos., doing stairs normally, leg doesn't bother me in bed, awkward on uneven ground.