Firsthand insight on knee replacement surgery
I am 54yo. Femur-resting-on-tibia in both legs, nothing in between, i.e. NO cartilage left anymore (and plenty of bone spurs to boot). Had gotten quite bow-legged too. I had unconsciously developed a limp over time that others noticed but I really didn't.....that was my everyday way of getting around, right?
While I am certainly no triathlete, power-lifter/bodybuilder, nor am I going to Ranger School anytime soon, I do cardio four times a week and lift weights four times a week. Running and rucking I knocked off over 8 years ago; the knee issues didn't develop overnight. I would have problems walking for a couple days and then I realized I needed to shift to lower impact stuff, like biking, fast-walking, the Elliptigo, and now the Octane Fitness ZR7 running machine. For the past several months even the low-impact cardio was hobbling me, so I knew it was time.
This past Monday, Dec. 9th, I had bilateral knee replacements. Yep, a two-fer! Said "F**k it, I'm not doing this twice". The first 72 hours were a nightmare. It sucked balls! I knew what I was in store for.....mostly. I set my sights for 500m and the target was actually about 700m (to put it in a gun perspective). I am now 5 days out. I was up walking with a walker the first night, which is how they do it now. The narco-cocktail they have you on was part of what made me feel like shit, but obviously having two of the weight-bearing joints in your body surgically replaced made up the majority of the suck.
Thursday (72 hours out) I had my first out-patient PT session. Therapist was a little surprised to see me cheerful and walking in with relative ease with my walker. Lying on my back she measured flexion and extension. She did a double-take, re-measured, and called over another physical therapist to look. Told her "You need to see this, because you'll rarely see it". I was like "WTF, is it that bad?" I blew past their 72 hour expectations----considerably! Flexion was 115 and 112, extension was -6 and -8.
My point to this boring diatribe? Guys, if you are going to have something like this done being in at least decent shape will pay off in spades. Having good upper-body strength to lift/push yourself up assisting those recovering knees is a must. Decent quad strength (no, you don't have to be able to squat 500lbs) is also obviously recommended. Your view of daily life, i.e. what you expect of yourself on a daily basis, is also crucial. I am the type to push things too far, so thankfully I have my RN wife to reign that in. However, that "This is driving me crazy sitting here on my ass" mentality means what I expect is above the norm for most people who have this done. Granted, I'm not 70yo so that helps, but just your outlook and determination to get back to normal life means a hell of a lot.
Cheers fellas!
