Nov 30 had cmc surgery the hand surgeon took the bone out cut one of my forearm tendons to put in place of bone I had asked him about joint replacement and he said (he is young) that they were not taught that procedure in school because of the high percentage failure rate. It is a long recovery and not everyone needs therapy after. I went to 6 weeks therapy to strengthen before surgery. I am in therapy now for desensitization as the area still felt like a skinned knee working well and my strength is improving. It’s a little more complicated for me as I have a reverse total shoulder and it all works together. So nice now I have no pain when driving or sleeping at night.
Glad I had it done. You can watch the surgery being done on you tube, I did that prior to surgery. Developed some tendinitis a few weeks ago so they said I did too much too soon, but very careful now to follow therapist instructions and things are calm again.
Really didn’t require pain meds just took twice post op just to me felt like I fell and skinned my knee
Good luck