Lost a Month

[jteneyck]

Beautiful clock!  As one who has had total knee replacements on both knees, I can sympathize with your ordeal.  I can attest the first couple of weeks is a pain management struggle.  My advice is to religiously maintain the physical therapy schedule.  Once the scar tissue has healed up, it's hard to regain any range of movement.  For me, the physical part of recover was about 3 months, but the mental part took about a year before I could walk, negotiate stairs, and all without thinking about it.  I'd do it again in a heartbeat, because I have so much more freedom of movement without pain.  I can walk 10 miles in a single trip to Disney without any knee pain.

Thanks for all the kind words, everyone.  I had a feeling someone among us had also had a knee or two replaced.  I seem to be on the same path you experienced but hope I can forget about the new knee a little sooner.  I will be in CO to ski in early Dec, 5+ months after surgery, and hope the knee is up for the task.  I'm up to walking a mile w/o stopping, or pain, it just starts to swell up and get stiff, and then I need to ice it for a while.  My PT guy gives me something new to do almost every visit to up the challenge, which I do religiously twice a week, and every day on my own. I checked off another personal milestone this week by being able to go downstairs the "normal" way, but still hanging onto the handrail for support.  When I can do it without thinking about it too much, I'll know I'm well on the way.  I plan to mow my lawn again next week when it needs it, using my commercial Scag walk behind mower, and that should help give me an idea of how I'm doing in the real world.  

Like you, I'd do it again in a heartbeat and may very well have to with the other knee at some point.  The pain of the recovery is short term.  The pain from the old knee was constant and only getting worse.  The reality of not being able to have a normal life by even the most modest of standards, much less ski and hike, made it a pretty easy decision.  


I have most of the plywood panels glued up for the new clock.  Being able to slice veneer and make plywood with any species and thickness needed is a real advantage in making these clocks.  I'm excited to start machining parts.  

John

[AHill]

Thanks for all the kind words, everyone.  I had a feeling someone among us had also had a knee or two replaced.  I seem to be on the same path you experienced but hope I can forget about the new knee a little sooner.  I will be in CO to ski in early Dec, 5+ months after surgery, and hope the knee is up for the task.  I'm up to walking a mile w/o stopping, or pain, it just starts to swell up and get stiff, and then I need to ice it for a while.  My PT guy gives me something new to do almost every visit to up the challenge, which I do religiously twice a week, and every day on my own. I checked off another personal milestone this week by being able to go downstairs the "normal" way, but still hanging onto the handrail for support.  When I can do it without thinking about it too much, I'll know I'm well on the way.  I plan to mow my lawn again next week when it needs it, using my commercial Scag walk behind mower, and that should help give me an idea of how I'm doing in the real world.  

Like you, I'd do it again in a heartbeat and may very well have to with the other knee at some point.  The pain of the recovery is short term.  The pain from the old knee was constant and only getting worse.  The reality of not being able to have a normal life by even the most modest of standards, much less ski and hike, made it a pretty easy decision.  


I have most of the plywood panels glued up for the new clock.  Being able to slice veneer and make plywood with any species and thickness needed is a real advantage in making these clocks.  I'm excited to start machining parts.  

John

Glad to hear you're on the mend!  One piece of paperwork I got prior to surgery listed all the "Don'ts" which included snow skiiing.  When I asked my orothopedic doc about that, he said just avoid lots of movements that induce shock into the knee (pretty much stick to the bunny slopes).  Sudden shocks like running and certain sports aren't kind to the bones to which the prosthetic is attached, since the prosthetic is much stiffer than the bone and might induce a crack or fracture in the surrounding bone.  I had my replacements done 2 years apart - the last one when I was only 61 years old.  Good news is that the current designs supposedly last around 25 years and the thing that wears out is the polyethylene pad that the upper prosthesis bears on.  Then they just have to replace the plastic - not the whole prosthetic.  So, much less invasive.

Hang in there!

[EdL]

I know the feeling of losing a month.....last year when I had blood clots in my leg. 2 weeks in the hospital, 1 week in a rehab place then gimping around with a walker.
Poof, 1 month gone.

Ed