@vinny Thank you so much for your post. This is encouraging and I have been trying to do some of those preparation things. I have a mini gym in my home, so the recumbent bike, a universal weight unit and a glide walker. I plan to start working out on my quads and legs extensively and also do upper body strengthening to help me with my arms for support. My surgeon doesn't want to do Bilateral, so we will do one then the other 6-8 weeks later. I am determined so I am not going to elect to not go back regardless. I have had at least 8 surgeries in my lifetime due to injuries wile in the military. The most painful was my impacted kidney stone that lodges in my kidney and caused it to blow up, it had to be surgically removed. I was on a Morphine drip and it didn't help with the pain at all. Then there was my level 3 cervical fusion. My hope is that has my bare for main and debilitation raised high enough that the knee won't be as bad. Watching now three gentleman in my church on post-op is interesting. One is 6 weeks out and moving around like he never had the surgery, one is 5 weeks out and still on a walker, one is 3 weeks out and on walker, but moving well. The one still on a walker 5 weeks out was out of church for 5 weeks, the one 3 weeks out came back to church at 2 weeks, same with the one 6 weeks out. So as
@referee54 mentioned, everyone's knee replacement recovery is different. My doctor is pretty confident with my current physical condition that I will have a quick recovery. I hate the heavy pain medication, and I have always tried to get off them as soon as I can. I hate the way they make me feel, thus I won't get into an addition issue.
I just want so much to be able to do the things i use to do. I can deal with no running, I'll walk instead. But to be able to hike, bike, ride my motorcycle, do some light skiing, able to photograph weddings again, it all has me so excited about the future. My only concern is the doctors decision to use a fixed knee implant instead of a floating. i think it has more to do with my alignment issue that has resulted from my bad knee. I hope it won't inhibit my range of motion or flex of the knee when i try to do all the stuff I mentioned. This is a step once taken you can put it back. the support I have gained here and the advice is fantastic. Thank you so much to you all.