Experiences and recovery timeline after full left knee replacement surgery

[janeylou25]

I am having a full left knee replacement next Monday and I am getting rather nervous about it now.

I wondered if anyone could share their experience of this procedure and what the recovery time was like?

I appreciate everyone's recovery will be different.

Thanks in advance.

My mum had this done a few years ago, I think it was 6-8 weeks recovery. It’s a big operation but she’s had the replacement for years and it’s not needed to be replaced.

Not sure what to say about the procedure apart from the fact that I think it involved a big blood transfusion.

Recovery after care I can’t recall much about it, but she has rheumatoid arthritis.

I had full knee replacement 2 years ago.
I didn’t have a general anaesthetic, just a spinal. I was terrified of this option but it was fine . It meant a much quicker recovery. The nurses helped me walk to the loo an hour after I got back from theatre !

Top tips :

Take pain killers regularly in the early days. Don’t wait for the pain to come. Stay ahead of it

Do your physio exercises several times a day. This will be painful . I used to take pain killers, wear ice pack for 20 minutes , then do the exercises.

It really helped if friends or family did the exercises with me. If I had to do 20 repetitions I was ready to give up at 10 but they made me carry on until 17 ( 13 if they were feeling kind ! )

Walk a little further each day. My neighbour came with me. We walked past one house , then 2 houses etc building up each day.

You need to put the work in to get a good recovery. Pleased I had it done. I am now pain free and fully mobile
Be brave xxxx

Not sure what to say about the procedure apart from the fact that I think it involved a big blood transfusion.
it's very rare to need a blood transfusion during/after a knee replacement.

My mum had this done, like a previous poster she had a spinal, not a GA.
Make sure you have everything set up at home before you return, make sure you can reach the things you need- it sounds simple but my mum struggled with it.

Do the exercises and don’t get frustrated if you don’t make progress as fast as you want.

Really consider a walking aid, my mum was sent home with crutches, but she was 71 and didn’t have the strength to use them. I got her a 3 wheeled walker with a little seat on it, it really helped.