And what is a person with bilateral knees to do with cars and toilets and etc?
you will get help in the hospital for moving around. You will need crutches or a walker for some time post-op.
For your toilet it would be good to get a 'riser', so that you sit much higher. Handgrips in the wall would help getting up and down, though I found I didn't need them.
In a car, the best thing is to sit in the back, with your legs stretched out across the car. You will use your arms a lot getting in and out. If you have a partner then you can engage in scenes of unmatched dignity and decorum. You get a plastic bin liner, sit on it in the car, and have your partner drag you in from the other side of the car; getting out is even better, partner and you are face-to-face whilst you are dragged forward to the door.
At home, you will do a great deal of sitting, relaxing, watching telly etc. Your plan should be to do
nothing for 2 weeks to a month, maybe more.
Sounds awful, right?
Pre-op pain is bad, crippling, horrible, demoralising, and only gets worse. Post-op pain can be as bad, sometimes in the first days. Your body is shocked -- someone has attacked you with saws, hammers and other assorted weaponry, cut bits of you off and hammered foreign material in. It's no wonder it's a bit discommoded!!
But the key fact is that the pain gets BETTER.
One's condition post-op is sometimes worse than pre-op for a few days or up to a MONTH later. One has to learn to roll with the punches, to relax, take medication, let the body do its thing and heal. It will do this all on its own. PT can be helpful with this process, but the key element is time.
But it
will happen. Millions of TKRs are done every year; this wouldn't be so if it didn't work.
My life is hugely, incomparably better than pre-surgery.
United States
