Rather said:
Accepting the unpredictability of this recovery and my inability to exert any control over my knee is much harder than it sounds when you read the wisdom from posters on these pages about the knee being in charge. And I am guessing that I will have to revisit that mantra on a regular basis like some sick version of Groundhog Day. But the experiences of the past couple of days led me to my knee’s name. Meet Journey who is deciding what my path and experience will be like and who has no customer service focus at all. No, Journey is running this show and I’ll do my best to survive it to the end.
@Rather I just read your post for the first time this morning. You have a great approach to this wonderfully and miserably chaotic and unpredictable experience. It seems you have an advantage over most of us who, like me, went into this with no idea whatsoever what it was really like. The most serious surgery I had previously experienced was arthroscopic Miniscus repair, and that was gone and forgotten well within a week. So, knowing this would undoubtedly be “considerably” worse, I generously budgeted 5 - 6 weeks for recovery from this. You hit the nail on the head when you said that accepting the unpredictability of the process, and the inability to be in control is difficult. It is very difficult indeed, but accepting it, and settling into the groove with that mindset is therapeutic in itself. Imagine my shock when I read that “short term” recovery is considered 8 - 12 weeks. I characterized those first 8 weeks as 2 REALLY, REALLY rotten weeks, followed by 2 REALLY rotten weeks, followed by 2 rotten weeks, followed by 2 miserable weeks. Someone immediately responded “Yup, I just made it to REALLY rotten, I can’t wait to be miserable”.
I am on day 17 of my 2nd TKR, trying desperately to apply what I learned on the first. But it is a well established discipline not to try not compare any two knees, even your own. Confirmed! One thing does remain constant however, and that is my general characterization of the first 8 weeks. You are 5 weeks ahead of me on this one.
I had the first one done December 10, 2018. It was about the middle of the 4th month when I began to realize more noticeable improvements from week to week. Into the 5th month, I could sometimes see significant improvements from day to day. At 6 months, I was walking a lot of the time as it nothing had ever happened. Then, at 6 months, 1 week, and 4 hours, I again walked into the hospital, signed on the dotted line, and laid down on the table, in spite of the fact that I said at about 8 weeks, “I don’t care how bad the other one is, I ain’t doin’ this again”. You did mention something about a lack of control didn’t you. Oh well, they say history often repeats itself.
Hope your recovery continues on a steady course to a strong full recovery.