After TKR, can I come home to two flights of stairs?

@genie15
Such wise words. I am ‘leaning’ toward a hotel room or B&b with my caregiver. Then get back to my walkup when it seems prudent.

@comeoutdancing Yes...very rare. And what makes it intresting is that I had a left hip replacement five years ago and had no post surgery pain then either. There is only one variable that applies to both: the same surgeon.

My surgeon is extraordinary. He was an engineer before becoming a surgeon and he is the primary inventor of the minimally invasive Superpath method of hip replacement (that is what he did for me). He also gave me the extremely rare bicruciate retaining knee implant (BCR). In 99+% of TKRs, the ACL is resected and in many cases the PCL is as well. In a BCR the surgeon retains both and protects them. But the implant is different and the surgery is more complex so you only want it if your surgeon is extensively experienced at it. There is a video on the internet of my surgeon doing a BCR in 2020 at an Orthopedic Innovations Conference and he has now been doing them for at least a decade. I think there are only a handful of surgeons in the US doing BCRs; I am aware of only three.

I attribute the success as follows: 5% for my work reviewing procedures and finding Dr. Chow; 5% for luck (good in my case); and 90% for the skill and experience of Dr. Chow.

Surgeons are professionals and like all professionals they vary in their skills. Find the positive outlier like I did and you will have maximized your chance of a great recovery.

@comeoutdancing
I am an active 71-year-old, 3 weeks post total knee replacement. My 2 levels of stairs are within my home, so I set up a bed downstairs in case I couldn't navigate the stairs. However, it turns out that I was able to go upstairs and preferred my adjustable bed in my bedroom. If you are just concerned about getting into your apartment on day 1, on the same day of surgery, I found that because there was a nerve block and other pain medicine, I was quite capable of going up stairs.
Alternatively, if you're unsure, and you have the option to go to skilled nursing/rehab for the first couple weeks, that might be a good solution, and you can get PT there.

Yeah, no, Maybe...

I had TKA at 65 and was realized after 2 hours of recovery. Bad plan. THe three steps up to my house Weren't bad as long as I had someone's hand on my back. Getting in the house and getting onto the couch was OK. Getting off the couch to go to the bathroom that took a little more effort.

I was fairly reasonable shape and I'm used to being on my feet for 8 to 10 hours a day. But this knee surgery is brutal. And I don't think people should go home immediately afterwards either. The amount of drugs that you're given for the surgery is surprisingly high. And you might be extremely disoriented and woozy for the first day or two.

I went up one flight of stairs on the second or third day and I went up on my butt, one step at a time. That worked. But I learned the hard way about overdoing it a week later and tearing stitches. If you can't stay at an Airbnb or a hotel for a few days until your recovered from the surgery, and you must go up the stairs I would go up on my ass.

Either way best of luck and please do be careful about those infections.

@cybsister
Thanks for this info about the nerve block. I will check to see if that will be the case for me.
I only need to get up the two flights once - then I can plan future trips as I rehab. I had hoped to go out most every day for walks....we will see.

@gmooney It's funny, I had an image of myself 'backing' on my bottom up the the steps. And thanks for reminding me about the drug effect. If I am 'woozy', I will necessarily be unstable. I will ask the care team for opinions but a hotel for a couple days is appealing.

@comeoutdancing
And when you get to the top of the steps, you must still (one-legged) get up on to your feet. Been there- not easy.

@steve161: I'm sorry to hear you had a poor experience at a rehab facility. Your stay certainly sounded contrary to the goal of rehabilitation, which is to restore physical function, independence and safety in an environment that provides for therapeutic modalities suited to the individual patient's needs and comfort. Unfortunately, it appears your stay fell short of that. However, I would urge caution in using one experience to categorize all such facilities in a poor light given one such experience.

Firstly, it's important to recognize there are various levels of rehabilitation depending upon the amount of a therapy per day the individual has been assessed at being able to withstand: ususally this is between Extended Active Rehabilitation or Skilled Nursing stay. The latter tends to have a higher acuity of patients, meaning they do tend to be "sicker", requring greater medical interventions. There are staff ratios that do require licensed personnel on all levels. Private vs shared rooms vary dependent upon the facility selected. I learned and saw a great deal about these options and facilities when I worked providing pre-certification post-hospitalization for those patients who required such stays to provide for the modalities needed to maximize strengthening, mobility, daily functioning and overall conditioning to allow for a safe discharge to home. I personally experienced this myself after a hip fracture; I spent 5 days following surgery and a brief inpatient stay in a peaceful, clean facility where all patients had private room and benefitted from PT and OT that provided not me with exercises, information and additonal time to heal before navigating the demands of home life, that even those closest to me would not have had the expertise to handle.

It does help to familiarize oneself with available options for rehab within the community in the event that such a "bridge to care" in terms of safe discharge to home becomes necessary. Taking steps to avoid possible dissatisfaction can make achieving those goals that much easier.

I second your caution about giving time to heal and wish ongoing health and recovery to all undergoing joint replacements. In the event of any interventions that may require additional inpatient post-op care may it be with a more postive rehab experience!

@comeoutdancing thanks for your comments on my TKR thoughts and the farm. Like yourself with dancing I found something I love, and all the hard work I do for wild life doesn't even register. Because of what I do on the farm I learned to be prepared by talking to others who have experienced what I'm about to get involved with. My intent was to inform what could be and for you to add yours to the mix for the betterment of all. I wish you all of the success for surgery and recovery.

@comeoutdancing
When I came home from the hospital after my overnight stay after TKR, (both knees, done a year apart) I had to come up one level of 13 stair steps to get to where our main living area, kitchen and bedr/bath is. We have a basement walkout type main entrance, and only rec room and extra bedrooms and bath are on that level, and I didn't care to be there much. Really bad house plan, but have lived there almost 50 years.
I managed to get up the stairs by hanging onto the railing and dragging myself along cursing and groaning while sticking my TKR leg out to the side. I had no trouble walking on the level, as I had been taken for two or three walks in the hospital corridor during my overnight stay. In retrospect, I should have BACKED up the stairs, good foot first, then pulling TKR leg up. That way you don't have to try bending the bad knee, just momentary pressure on it while the other leg goes up behind you.