@ivannafeelgood
The Medicare standard, and increasingly that of private insurance companies as well, is that to be "medically necessary" for a TKR one must have tried at least two alternative therapies and found them to be unsuccessful. The OP has done that. In his case, they worked and may have saved him the pain and potential problems from a major surgery.

I have been wearing orthotics for years. They did help with foot and ankle pain.

Last year while I was waiting for my RTKR I had a lot of ankle pain. I even went to a foot/ankle surgeon to check it out and he found it was structurally okay so I was pretty sure that it was referred pain from my non functional knee. After my RTKR that pain disappeared.

The medically necessary standard may be annoying but it also can help prevent major surgery that would be unnecessary and could cause severe pain for many months. Yes...some of us did well and had no pain after the surgery but we are a group of outliers on the bell curve for TKR recipients. Most incur pain and many severe pain so it is good to try other remedies first.

I tried shots in the knee and they didn't do squat for me. I tried a custom knee brace and I could never get it to stay up on me (it would start sliding down and end up around my ankles). I was already wearing orthotics. I was also severely misaligned with bone on bone arthritis in all three compartments and that misalignment caused a nerve impingement and severe pain.

Celebrate your victory and lets hope it is a true remedy.

@ivannafeelgood thanks!