Congratulations to all of you who have had good results from your knee replacement surgery. You are an inspiration to others. I think surgeons should have patients read or view videos from people who have had the surgery who followed recommendations and those who didn't. My husband's story will explain why I feel this way. Perhaps some pre-surgery psychological therapy should be done also.

My husband had knee replacement surgery on his right knee in June, 2015. He had no cartilage left in the joint and had put off the surgery for many years. I don't recommend doing this. At the time he was 68 years old, severely overweight and not at all active. During the surgery the surgeon decided to straighten his bowed leg. He now has one straight leg and one bowed leg. I don't recommend doing this either unless you plan to do the other leg in the future. The surgery went well and PT had him up and walking later that day. He left the hospital after 2 days and PT came to the house for several weeks. He didn't do the prescribed exercises as he should have, if the exercise caused more pain he stopped doing it. He progressed from a walker to a cane but refused to use the cane properly.

Now three years later he still has pain in the knee, he has about 75% extension and complains of numbness along the outer side of the knee. He was not able to progress to walking without the cane. He is unable to walk for any distance because of pain. This limits what he can do as an individual and what we can do as a couple.

Over the last few months the left knee has started causing more intense pain and he has to use his cane inside the house to walk a few steps. He refuses to consider another knee replacement because of the pain from the last surgery. He is even more sedentary than he was three years ago so I doubt that PT would be able to give him better mobility.

The moral of my story is if you have bowed legs and plan to have knee replacement surgery make sure this is discussed before surgery. Follow all orders for PT and do the exercises as prescribed. If you don't plan to take an active part in your recovery you can't expect good results and you are just wasting your time and that of the surgeon and PT staff.