Ship, only your doctor (or Josephine, our forum nurse) can tell you about carrying and lifting restrictions. But have you discussed your plans to return to work with your surgeon? From what you wrote, you expect to be back to caring for 9 children less than two weeks following major surgery to have BOTH knees replaced. Although many factors come into play for each person's individual recovery, that seems very ambitious to me....even WITH a helper. Unless, of course, your helper is going to completely take over the child care duties while you go about your therapy and rest needed for recovery. Just be sure you have a "Plan B" just in case your recovery is a bit slower than you plan. For one thing, you will be on pain meds probably for longer than 2 weeks and that could pose some liability issues for you when caring for someone else's children.