Looking for any tips before and after total knee replacement surgery

Buy an ice machine and use it when relaxing or after any activity , get a toilet seat riser, make sure you have handrails or grab bars at every exit point in your home to the outside, get a yoga strap not only for PT exercises but for helping get your leg on your bed and into your car, and use your walker to shove it forward over the toilet seat toward the tank to use as an aid in getting on and off the toilet the first couple of weeks. Disregard the horror stories you read about; it was the best decision I made and recovery has gone smoothly. TKR was 6/29/26. It is a lot of work with PT and home exercises but there are days you wake up and feel subtle positive changes and know your sweat and hard work is paying off. Take those afternoon naps when you get tired; your body needs them to help you heal.

Start the PT exercises BEFORE the surgery - leg raises, foot slides, bridges. I can’t remember them all but your surgeon or PT will have a printout. If you can’t do them prior to surgery don’t expect to reach your PT goals after. I had complications after one surgery due to an over zealous PT so know your own limits.
Practice the bed roll BEFORE the surgery. There are videos.
Get Senna tea and have a liquid diet ready if you get constipated by opioids, like I do. The constipation was worse than the surgery - lol.
I don’t know how old you are but I have mild urinary incontinence when I have a lot of pain in my legs so have pads available. It will take effort to move around so you may not get to the bathroom in time.
Everyone is different, and every operation is different so how you handle the pain, etc is personal. I have had 2 TKRs and 2 THRs - all different - even the ones with the same surgeon. Because I get constipated with opioids, I just take NSAIDS and they work well enough for me - but I accept the opioids for when the pain peaks. The opioids don’t work as well for pain for me but they make me feel “happier”. Scary, right? I avoid them.

@mayo99824 Just curious as to why you changed surgeons and after which procedures?

Costs mostly. I live in a relatively remote location with few options. Our hospital has odd billing practices and some doctors open practices here to make big bucks. Most doctors here are millionaires in no time.
My insurance also offers financial incentives to save money by going “outside” for expensive surgeries. They only support doctors who have a high success rate in the type of surgery offered. My last two (THRs) were done by the same doctor in Dallas. I would go there again. The doctor belongs to a consortium of doctors, Legent, who own their own hospitals together and he showed real concern for patients and outcomes.
Both my knees were successful in the long run, but different. For my first knee I had to pay thousands of dollars in doctor and PT costs and the hospital hounded me for a year to pay $30,000 (before insurance). When the hospital and insurance finally reconciled, I owed only $500. There was no way (except emergency) that I would ever go there again. That experience also left me in the ICU from cardiac issues when the PT pushed me too hard and the doctor prescribed pseuepinephrine after being told that I cannot tolerate it. I wonder if the damage they caused will be permanent?
My bill for the others was $0 - fully covered by insurance including surgeon, hospital, hotel, meals, transportation for myself and one companion - and the insurance still saved thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of dollars.