I'm a 65-year old male who's 26 and 25 months post bilateral TKRs. My (right) knee is far worse now than it ever was pre-surgery. The difference isn't even close, and I greatly regret having chosen surgery. It's not a mischaracterization to say the surgery has caused great harm to my body and left me with permanent, life-altering impairment, much as an auto accident or war injury might affect someone. My other (left) knee isn't as bad, but it too is still worse than pre-surgery.

The worst problem by far with my right knee is its significant loss of flexion. This loss is approximately 20 degrees, so it can now only bend to 95 degrees, at which point it comes to a sudden, extremely painful, dead stop. This decrease in ROM makes doing many routine activities difficult or even impossible because of pain and simply not being able to bend the joint enough. These include putting on or taking off pants, socks, and shoes, going up or down stairs, getting into or out of a seated position, getting into or out from a car, bending over to pick up a fallen object from the floor, etc. Kneeling with thick neoprene knee pads is possible and acceptably comfortable, but getting down into a kneeling position is difficult. Getting up from the ground is MUCH more difficult and requires significant upper body strength to push up from the ground and grab a stationary object to get an assisting hand hold to pull up from.

Fortunately, the extension on both knees is excellent, 100%.

I attended all the in-home and outpatient physical therapy sessions my Anthem Blue Cross health insurance would cover, probably 36 visits in all, and performed the prescribed exercises at home regularly in the early months following surgery. To date, I've also attended numerous visits with the orthopedic surgeon who operated on both of my knees, and he and I have maintained good relations. I've also had appointments with several other orthopedic surgeons in order to get their second, third, and fourth opinions, but none of them has been able to confidently diagnose the underlying cause of my condition nor offer new ideas for possible treatment. They all trust my testimony and can feel the "dead stop" my knee comes to when manipulating it with their own hands. The operating surgeon says I doubtless have significant scarring and fibrosis as a direct result of surgery, but doesn't know how it can be addressed without attempting to remove the hardened soft tissue by surgery.

I'm not posting this to advise anyone from getting a TKR since I know many patients do indeed report very positive results. I'm simply doing so to report my OWN personal experience and situation and to advise due diligence being as well informed as possible before deciding to get surgery or not.