How does your knee feel once it reaches the year of recovery?

@b13moore hang in there, this will pass very slow, but it will. It does feel brutal 😫 but keep doing stretching and exercising, as you can tolerate

@rainerhans
Same over here even though the TKR has been 20 months, it sure beats the old painful knee.

@aileenredding I would feel the same way! I had a nickel allergy and luckily, the surgeon sent me for testing for it. The knee replacement that was put in had no nickel in it. It has been almost five years now but it still hurts going up and down the stairs.

@suzyduff I have not had a band feeling, but my TKR was done in Sept of 2020 and my knee has never felt right. It still hurst especially going up and down the stairs. My left knee is bone on bone but after going through that first replacement with results that are not so great, I just can never bring myself to go through such torture again! My surgeon told me that I “will never have the knee that God gave me”!!! If I were you, I would definitely get another opinion. I was so disappointed with my surgeon and his office because once the surgery was done and I was having a lot of pain, along with some anxiety and a little depression from the surgery, they told me to call my primary care. I wish you all the best with all that you are going through right now. If I were you, I would definitely get another opinion.

@cathymw Totally agree on not ever going through all of that ever again! My left knee is bone on bone, but after the TKR of the right knee, which still doesn’t feel great, I will never go through a surgery like that again!

@mabfp3
I totally agree; find a knee specialist who is not a “salesman” for TKR! No one could tell me exactly what was causing my symptoms but all 6 surgeons I “interviewed” assured me that would fix it and I would do great. I have severe band feeling, numbness that persists and burning, stabbing pain when I try any kind of exercises. My surgeon wants nothing to do with my recovery; parts are in there so his job is done!

The recovery from a TKR can be brutal but it isn't always so. There are steps one can take to maximize the chance of a less painful recovery. They won't guarantee a pain free or minimal pain recovery but they can definitely enhance your chances. My steps:

(1) NO routine use of a tourniquet. If a knee surgeon is still using a tourniquet to control blood, he is not current with medical science and I would immediately hobble to the exit.
(2) Use of a minimally invasive method. Either subvastus or mini midvastus (which is what my surgeon used). This will reduce surgical pain during recovery.
(3) Does a functional alignment or at least a kinematic or inverse kinematic alignment. The old mechanical alignment is no longer the gold standard, more like a brass standard. My surgeon did a Functional alignment.
(4) Has successfully done lots of the procedure I am looking to undergo. At least a hundred and preferably thousands of times. There is no substitute for experience. Someone has to be the first, I just don't want it to be me. My surgeon has been doing the procedure I wanted (Journey II XR) for a decade.
(5) Is very busy and has no problem with putting off surgery and using alternatives. You don't want a surgeon with a financial incentive to cut.

If you find a surgeon who meets all of these criteria, that doesn't mean you will have a pain free or minimal pain recovery experience. There is still an element of uncertainty/luck. You will, however, have increased your chances of such an outcome.

My surgeon did meet all of these criteria and I had no pain from the surgery. About three years ago the same surgeon replaced my left hip and I had zero pain from that as well. When I told him he is a wizard, he denied that but I still think that he has some Merlin blood in him.

@cyndi2013 I am with you on this. I am at the 9 month mark and this has been the worst experience of my life. I am 72 and pretty healthy but the knee has caused other things. Now I am dealing with a sore hand because I have pushed myself off of everything for many months. My other knee is now sore along with about my entire body.

My knee is still very stiff .....what the heck surgery takes 1 year for rehabilitation. I would not have the other done.

So frustrating and I keep hearing about that 1 year mark.

For those mentioning pain on the sides of the knees, I posted this on the "clicking" chat, doing the "short arc" with weights helped that (and started with an ice pack on my foot, that's about a pound), here's a modification for sides of the knee.

I searched on short arc knee exercise then only found pictures on the Kaiser Permanente PDF (the short arc is the last one on the right). Note, I later modified this exercise to point my toes to the right and then left, which exercises the tendons on either side of the knee, which is what has bothered me even after the replacements.

I love my knee replacements, I continue to do exercises for the stiffness, I'm trying to remember when the stiffness got better. I do try to stay active.

@vstevens250 yes I have heard all about that 1 year mark, I have now determined that switch is broken 😅🤣.