I just went through what you are about to start. I had an infection in my knee replacement joint. Had the 2 stage revision surgery done. I Was admitted to the hospital on April 18, they did surgery the next day. I had no chance to get anything prepared at home as I thought l was being referred to this specialist for a consult, not being admitted.
After 8 days in the hospital, I was sent home with a pic line for the vancomycin IV daily, a long brace on my leg, and told absolutely no weight on my leg. So PT taught me how to use the walker and” hop” on my good leg. At age 75 my good leg wasn’t going to do it. That was probably the hardest part of the whole thing. I used a wheelchair to move around and the walker to get to the chair, toilet, etc. The IV was for 6 weeks, a home nurse came weekly to change the dressing and draw blood. Also, a PT and OT came a few times. The drugs were sent by ups and a pharmacist was in contact with me weekly. I was able to get the new knee replacement surgery on June 28, after 4 days in the hospital, l went home with a brace on the leg and 6 weeks of oral antibiotics. This time I was able to put weight on the surgery leg and that felt so good. The brace was more to protect the surgery wounds as the leg had been cut open twice so close together.
I go back to the surgeon tomorrow, July 25, to have the staples removed and have a one-time only visit with a PT to go over the hinged knee replacement that l got. The surgeon told me because I got the hinged knee, it will bend real easy and PT isn’t needed. Wahoo! Apparently, the infection l had made a regular replacement unstable so the surgeon switched to the hinged type mid-surgery. One other complication l had was that on June 2 it was discovered that the temporary knee replacement stuff that l had in was dislocated. They had to put me in surgery to put it back, fortunately, they were able to fix it without cutting open the knee, but they were totally prepared for it. The dislocation contributed to the unstable knee issues when the surgeon was doing the replacement and why he decided to use the hinged knee replacement. From what I have read, they often use the hinged for people that have had infections. The PT is going to go over the difference between the two and how to rehab. Sorry, this got so long but thought you might like to read my whole journey since I am just ending what you are beginning. If you go to my first post, there may be more information. My original TKR was in January 2018.