I had a total knee replacement in November 2015. Like you, I wanted to hold off initially. When I walked into the pre-surgery info briefing, I looked around and saw a bunch of geriatrics. They were OLD. I said to myself, maybe we're being a bit premature on doing this. And when I had the last appt with my surgeon, he said there are two ways we can proceed. Plan A is to take out the cartilige that's giving me the problem. That sometimes will last up to 3 years. Plan B is a total knee replacement. I said then let's go with Plan A. That's when he said that in my case, Plan A would only last six months. Okay, then what I asked. Plan B, he said. So we did it.
The surgeon makes an incredible difference. The nurses would ask me who was my surgeon and I'd tell them. Each time, they said "You're lucky". Finally the following day, I mentioned to one of the therapists when she gave me that reply that they probably said that to all the patients. She thought for a moment and said, "The man in the bed next to yours has been here 24 hours longer than you and can barely make it to the bathroom at the foot of the bed. You were doing laps around the floor the afternoon of your surgery." It makes a difference.
As someone already mentioned, stay ahead of your pain meds. They gave me some kind of pouch with a drip feed into my leg. That ran out on Sunday evening and I was really happy to get rid of this thing. The next morning was my first physical therapy session. I was in a rush to get in the car and didn't take my pain meds during the night like I was supposed to. By the time I got to the physical therapist, I was in so much pain that I was ready to cry. I learned a lesson that day that I never had to repeat.
Your effort in physical therapy will make a lot of difference. I had my appointments twice a week. I'd push myself to the point I was in pain afterwards till the evening before the next appointment...then I'd do it all again, pushing myself and then hurting for the next several days. But I was able to ride my Honda NT700V to the physical therapy sessions in about three weeks. Four months later, I was hiking with my daughter and son-in-law on a 4 mile hike with no problems. A couple years later, I took a trip on my bike tn a cross-country trip that led me through Zion National Park. I hiked up to the East Observation Point. Here's a picture. You start way down at the bottom where you can't even see the road, just a stream bed.
I could never have done that with my OEM knee. Bottom line...if you need the joint replacement and don't get it...you're keeping yourself from experiencing a lot of life.
Chris
