Bending Range?

[dw172]

My husband is able to bend his knee fairly well and lift his leg. Will this help during recovery? He injured his knee in high school in 1950 and ended up with his knee cap on the side of his knee. They did surgery, but his knee and leg were never right. He has no cartilage left and his leg is crooked. He is scheduled for surgery on August 19th.But if his muscles still stretch so he can bend his knee and lift his leg, wouldn't this be a good thing?
Sandie & Bill

 

[JenniferG]

All our legs are crooked to some extent, and the incision not being straight afterwards is eveidence of that. The cut in the beginning is made straight on a crooked leg. When the new knee is placed in and just naturally corrects and realigns things the incision becomes crooked. As far as bend stretch and lift helping, the more use you have I think will be very helpful. The amount of degeneration by the time of surgery can affect the recovery. I would suggest the most useful thing to help later would be any muscle and leg strengthening he can do now. Quad strengthening and stretching now will only help him in recovery. Ask the OS to presribe physical therapy before surgery. If for some absurd reason he won't there are many web sites with pre-surgery exercises. The stronger the quad muscle the better.

 

[dw172]

Thank you for the info.

Sandie