Knee replacement surgery question

lrrifleman

lrrifleman

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Greetings!

After 34 surgeries in 15 years, I had hoped that the need for anymore surgeries had passed. Unfortunately, I was advised by my orthopedic surgeon that my reconstruction in '16 has seen better days, and I am looking at a knee replacement.

I have a general idea of what is involved, and that I should be back up and walking within days of the procedure, and fully recovered in about 3 months. However, I have 2 questions:

1) how long after a knee replacement would one have to wait before the doctor clears you to resume driving?
2) what type of restrictions does one generally encounter between the actual replacement and being discharged by your doctor?

As always, thanks in advance for your help!
 
I had the right one done on 01-31 of this year. It has been a bear to say the least. They had me up walking the afternoon of my surgery, and making laps, that evening. BUT, I probably over did it the next day at 500 steps before being discharged. Had the surgery on Monday, started PT on Friday the same week.

Two weeks before I was released to drive, as I said it was the right.
I was told by the Dr,
Do not run on it!
Do not kneel on it.
Do not jump on it.

Before you have it done, work on your strength and flexibility for sure. I didn’t, and I was in therapy for 3 months.

TOO many PLFs at Benning and Ft. Bragg, soon to be renamed I hear ����! I really need to get into the VA and get disability rating. VA paid for most everything, top notch Dr also.
PM me if you need anymore info.
Regards, Rick Gibbs
 
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lrrifleman said:
...
1) how long after a knee replacement would one have to wait before the doctor clears you to resume driving?
2) what type of restrictions does one generally encounter between the actual replacement and being discharged by your doctor? ...
Click to expand...

Re driving, it depends on which leg it is. Assuming you have an automatic transmission, if it is your left leg, and you only use your right foot, the doc will clear you to drive in a couple of weeks, with the caveat that you should not drive while on oxycodone. If it is your right foot, it will be longer.

You need to be able to move your driving foot quickly, and to hit the brakes hard if need be.

I don't recall what my doc told me. Had my right knee replaced last summer. I was driving again in about a month. In my opinion, it's a judgment call.

Re restrictions encountered between the replacement and discharge by doctor, if you mean discharge from the hospital, your ability to walk is restricted in the sense that you will need support (a walker and/or crutches) and you will walk very gingerly. If you mean between the op and when the doc says, "Your done. Come and see me in a year," it's a gradual recovery process over months. Two and half months until my doc said that to me.

Lotta good info on knee replacement in this thread: Ice Water Machine for Knee Surgery Recovery
 
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After my right knee replacement, I was cleared to drive a bus after six weeks. My surgery was right before the lockdown, which made it difficult to get in all the necessary physical therapy, so I am still a little gimpy on stairs, especially descending.

The first day after the surgery, my knee felt great, almost no pain. Then the painkillers wore off, and the nest couple of nights were really unpleasant.
 
Roughly 50% of the people I know who had knee replacements had problems (some very serious) and the rest did not. I do not like those odds. That's why 15 years after an orthopedic surgeon told me my knees needed to be replaced, I still have the originals. Yes, they hurt (bad at times) but I can still walk, something two people I know either can't do at all or has trouble doing.

I keep hoping they will come up with a way to replace the meniscus and leave the rest of the joint intact. Either money is holding it up (my belief - too many Dr.s, hospitals and companies making money) or there's really a legitimate reason why it can't be done. Either way, I'll probably never see it.
 
My injuries are the result of a '97 Fleetwood hitting my Harley head-on. Since I took my first post-accident steps, I've not been able to run.

Honestly, I don't want the replacement, but I am at the point where I need the replacement. Currently, I can't really walk, I shuffle. The bad knee (right) is hyper-extending and reverse buckling, despite the fact that I am wearing a brace! Pain is bad, it got worse once I was told that I had an actual problem (stretched ligaments).

In the previous surgeries (mostly musculoskeletal), I have only taken 2 percocets. I don't like taking pain pills. I don't know if it's good or bad, but for most of the post-accident surgeries, I've never felt pain.
 
I had both knees replaced in the same week 11 years ago. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made, because it has worked out great. My knees are still functioning like they did when I was 20.

I experienced no pain post-surgery, and have had none since, except some brief but endurable pain during physical therapy. Because I spent a full week in the hospital, I had access to powerful I.V. painkillers that made my immediate post-surgery experience pain-free. Once home, I had a plentiful supply of hydrocodone, which allowed me to continue my pain-free status. Fortunately, I was able to wean myself from it after three weeks.

Frankly, in my opinion there is no excuse for doctors to allow their patients to experience any pain. The chance that they will become addicted is very small if they are given sufficient painkillers, but the chance they will suffer in misery is 100% if they're given insufficient painkillers.

To answer your questions:
1. I had to wait 6 weeks after surgery to get clearance to drive. However, my home visit physical therapist discharged me to outpatient therapy after one month, so I probably could have gotten clearance at that point if I'd needed to.

2. Pre-discharge activities were determined by my home visit physical therapist. Between twice-a week visits, she prescribed in-bed exercises and time with the walker. One day she shoved the walker aside and said it was time to walk without it. That was scary! She tied a sturdy canvas "transfer belt" around my waist and said she'd hold me up. Since I easily outweighed her 2 to 1, I was a bit dubious, but it worked out fine. The next visit she had me chugging up and down my driveway, and the following week, she discharged me to outpatient therapy. Ten weeks after surgery, I flew to California for my 50-year high school reunion, and had no problems. I was essentially back to normal.

One final bit of advice. You may be given pre-surgery physical therapy exercises to do. Do them! I attribute my very favorable outcome to having spent 3-4 hours a day doing those exercises prior to surgery. Their purpose is to stretch your shriveled-up ligaments, tendons, and muscles so that the artificial knee hardware will fit properly. I think that those who don't do the pre- surgery PT are more likely to have a painful post-surgery experience.

My best wishes to you for a favorable outcome!
 
I had my left knee resurfaced/replaced last July and am having my right done this July. The first two weeks are uncomfortable. After that, it’s tolerable, then at about 2 months you kind of forget about it. At 6 months you are about done healing. Since there is no test for pain, the doctor will generally disallow driving if on narcotics, but be vague on giving an exact release for driving. I was driving at 3 weeks.

If you wake yourself up at night and don’t participate in life very much, get it done. I’m 76 and will not succumb to a recliner!
 
I think I need to clarify some things.

My first orthroscopic knee reconstruction occurred about 10 weeks after the accident, and failed miserably before I was awake from the anesthesia. That was in 2007. In February 2008, my shoulder was reconstructed, and I have had absolutely no issues with the shoulder since.

In 2016, I had the second orthroscopic knee reconstruction, a procedure that lasted 13 hours. During this procedure, I was provided with donor tissue/ligaments. The surgeon that rebuilt my shoulder has made the initial diagnosis, and it is that the ligaments are extremely overstretched. I am now a major fall risk.

Currently, it seems as though I have been fortunate to get 6 years out of the donor tissue.
 
Had both done the same day 3 years ago, pain was 9 out of 10 for a couple weeks. Couldn’t take walk any more, we did 2 miles a day and hunting was tough. I welcomed the surgery, seems the people that did the therapy recovered nicely and I have met a bunch. I think I was able to drive after 6 weeks when I could move my foot from petal to petal comfortably. I was walking with a walker the day after surgery. The walker lasted a week and the cane made no sense. I was released from the hospital Sunday morning after a Friday surgery.

The surgery was the best thing I ever did. I can hunt for 4-5 hours after small game like I did 30 years ago. Did my therapy 3 times a day, each session was 1 1/2 hours long. Went to the rec center for a year after 3 months doing leg exercises only religiously. No pain now, just some occasional stiffness which I can do some stretches to relieve. Your recovery depends on you and you’re attitude. Good luck, Larry
 
lrrifleman said:
Greetings!

After 34 surgeries in 15 years, I had hoped that the need for anymore surgeries had passed. Unfortunately, I was advised by my orthopedic surgeon that my reconstruction in '16 has seen better days, and I am looking at a knee replacement.

I have a general idea of what is involved, and that I should be back up and walking within days of the procedure, and fully recovered in about 3 months. However, I have 2 questions:

1) how long after a knee replacement would one have to wait before the doctor clears you to resume driving?
2) what type of restrictions does one generally encounter between the actual replacement and being discharged by your doctor?

As always, thanks in advance for your help!
Click to expand...

I work in recovery and we usually send people home the same day after they pass PT/OT and urinate. Most dc orders have driving after follow-up and it's usually two weeks. Listen to the instructions you are given and what your body say's it can do and you should be fine.
 
lrrifleman, I had my left knee replaced in 2019, and will probably have the right replaced later this year.

One of the things I learned is that each case is different, and each patient's experience is unique. I had a very long recovery three years ago, and could not get the range of motion back in my knee for a number of months. I was able to drive after about two weeks.

A couple of months after my surgery, I was still in Physical Therapy. A lady about my age was also in PT there for her new knee, bouncing around like a teenager. I asked her how long ago she'd had her surgery, and she smiled and told me it had been two weeks...

Good luck to you.
 
lrrifleman said:
My injuries are the result of a '97 Fleetwood hitting my Harley head-on. Since I took my first post-accident steps, I've not been able to run.

Honestly, I don't want the replacement, but I am at the point where I need the replacement. Currently, I can't really walk, I shuffle. The bad knee (right) is hyper-extending and reverse buckling, despite the fact that I am wearing a brace! Pain is bad, it got worse once I was told that I had an actual problem (stretched ligaments).

In the previous surgeries (mostly musculoskeletal), I have only taken 2 percocets. I don't like taking pain pills. I don't know if it's good or bad, but for most of the post-accident surgeries, I've never felt pain.
Click to expand...
I hope you fall into the 50% of people I know who had no problems. Best advice I can give: work as hard as you can in the physical therapy sessions. They are painful but you get out what you put in and are perhaps the most important part of the process! Best of luck with your procedure and remember, the doctor who has done the most number of replacements may not be the best at doing them! Ask nurses and medical staff who they would go to if they needed to have their knee replaced. ;)
 
I agree with swsig. I had both knees replaced in Dec 2019. No one ever "released" me to drive. I drove myself to PT when I felt I had adequate range of motion and mobility. I went from barely able to walk through the grocery store to easily walking a one-mile route about 10 weeks after surgery. I don't know that I'd recommend both knees at the same time though, awful hard to get up and down without a good leg to stand on. Range of motion is somewhat limited but no pain when standing/walking. Just strain when transitioning from sitting to standing. What no one warned me of is the numbness in the knees/legs from the surgery.
 
swsig said:
Frankly, in my opinion there is no excuse for doctors to allow their patients to experience any pain. The chance that they will become addicted is very small if they are given sufficient painkillers, but the chance they will suffer in misery is 100% if they're given insufficient painkillers.

!
Click to expand...

I've had several surgeries and I always tell the doctor there is no evidence that pain promotes healing. Larry
 
tops said:
I've had several surgeries and I always tell the doctor there is no evidence that pain promotes healing. Larry
Click to expand...
I don't agree with that when it comes to physical therapy. Good PT will cause pain because it's working areas that are injured or have to be stretched. The pain shouldn't be unbearable, but it will be there. If you slack off the PT because of the pain you won't get the full benefit of therapy. By all means, take pain meds if needed to get through the therapy but do the therapy!
 
tops said:
I've had several surgeries and I always tell the doctor there is no evidence that pain promotes healing. Larry
Click to expand...

My surgeon told me that post-operative pain slows the healing process, and that I should keep ahead of the pain by taking pain meds as soon as I felt pain coming on. Once the pain takes over fully, it's hard to "catch up" using the meds. Of course, he was not referring to transitory pain that is experienced during physical therapy. That kind of pain comes with the territory, and it's well worth it to regain normal knee function. As those above have said: Do the PT!

Prior to surgery, I could not stand in place for more than 15 seconds without extreme pain. The first surgeon I went to, who was highly regarded, flat out turned me down, saying my knees were beyond his ability to help. Fortunately, he referred me to a "surgeon of last resort", who installed the successful replacements. I can now spend up to 3 hours standing on my range's firing line without any problems. If you enjoy your range time, and you need new new knees, it's well worth a few weeks' inconvenience to get you back on the line again.
 
Tops, the knee replacement is the surgery that in PT if you don’t go into the area of pain, you won’t have as good recovery. You need to bend the joint before scar tissue forms. Don’t have knee replacement if you don’t visit the painful area of PT. Larry
 
Jebus35745 said:
Tops, the knee replacement is the surgery that in PT if you don’t go into the area of pain, you won’t have as good recovery. You need to bend the joint before scar tissue forms. Don’t have knee replacement if you don’t visit the painful area of PT. Larry
Click to expand...

I stand by me original statement. Pain will not speed up the recovering or healing. There is no good reason for being in pain when there is medicine to relieve the pain. I have had a back operation with bolts, metal, donor bone and my bone. Metal in one foot and the other ankle tore up. One knee tore up twice and the other knee one time. One shoulder tore up. PT and I are old friends.
I was told a few years ago that both knees need replacing but I can still get to the table and bathroom by myself and at 80 I'm betting my knees will outlast me. :D Larry
 
Jebus35745 said:
Tops, the knee replacement is the surgery that in PT if you don’t go into the area of pain, you won’t have as good recovery. You need to bend the joint before scar tissue forms. Don’t have knee replacement if you don’t visit the painful area of PT. Larry
Click to expand...
Yes.

What I did last time around was I would time my consumption of oxycodone so that I could get a good, effective impact just as I would hit the PT clinic and the PT guy would get to mightily stretching/bending my knee.

He was impressed with how quickly I gained flexibility. (127° is where I think I ended up, if memory serves. Anyway, better than before the op.)

On the oxycodone, I read up on, and listened to, all of the concerns re potential addiction. I wrote down the time and amount every time I took the stuff. I never exceeded the max dosage/interval timing per my surgeon, though there was a week or so early on where I was often at his max dose/timing. I tapered off gradually.

I watched it very closely, and think I managed it well. But I am with those who believe less pain is better than more pain, and have no desire whatsoever to prove unnecessarily what a tough guy I am. (I always explain that to my dentists, too!)
 
Tops, you have been through a lot. Imagine, both knees replaced and I was allowed one oxycodone every 8 hours. The Tylenol didn’t do much but I took them anyway. I wanted ibuprofen but had to avoid them for a while, they work for me. It hurt but I made it, the first month went very slow. Larry
 
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