Julie, indeed, Paula is right! It is SO worth it once you get past those first early months... If you needed lessons in patience, this is great way to get those classes, I tell ya! Healing from this surgery just takes some of us a bit longer than we're used to needing in life, but I feel like the lessons I'm learning are and will be valuable over the rest of my life.
But, do learn to listen to your new knee, too; don't do too much too soon... or you end up paying for it with added pain and decreased ROM for a few days or a week, as I've found out, too, of course. If you tackle a new exercise, I was advised to do just a few of a new thing, to see how your knee likes it, before doing a bunch. Sometimes it takes a little while to learn to hear that new knee's wishes...
But, I'm 4 months out and I did a work task "test" last week: carried out (with someone on the other end) a long, concrete-aggregate bench to a customer's car. It weighed about 100 pounds and I hadn't lifted anything that heavy or carried one since prior to surgery. I did it, and had no long term regrets, so hooray! My new knee feels rock-solid and my other one, that may someday need its own TKR was creaky and my new one quiet and strong!