I had what is called an "Open Lysis of Adhesions and a Spacer Exchange". Basically my knee was opened along the old scar line. The doctor removed extensive scar tissue and put in a slightly larger spacer. I had pain for three or four days and then just the boredom of yet another recovery!!
My doctor stressed that if I exercised a hot, inflamed knee I would cause more scar tissue to form---especially since I had already had a large amount of scar tissue. So, for the first two weeks, I just stayed home on the couch with my knee elevated and iced. I did a few heel slides and some leg lifts, but that was about it. He told me if I do any activity that increases the swelling, I was to put ice on it immediately until the swelling went down.
At three weeks, I began formal PT, but my PT agreed with my doctor. His advice, we will go very slowly until 8 or 10 weeks. If the scar tissue reforms, at least we will know that we did everything we could to prevent it.
If I had limited insurance coverage for PT, I might have waited another week or two to even start it.
We did only table exercises---leg lifts, clam shells, heel slides for another two weeks--no weight bearing exercise at all. I did ride the bike for 15 min prior to PT. If we did anything that made the knee warm, we stopped and iced it.
I was so impatient!!! I hated the forced inactivity, but I was determined to give the knee the best chance I could give it. We started light exercise at 8 weeks. step ups---very small lift. bike for 20 min. no squats or serious weight on any machine.
I am now three years out from that surgery. I have some scar tissue there, but it does not impair my movement like it did prior to surgery. I have pretty good rom---138. Most of all, my knee is much more stable with the bigger spacer. My doctor told me that since the knee was moving a little too much with the first spacer, that alone might have caused some of the scar tissue. Am I glad I did it? Yes.
The biggest hassle was the slow recovery. The pain was really nothing compared to a TKR.