Recovering from total knee replacement surgery can be a time-consuming process, however, you can reduce the time you spend in recovery by following your physical therapist's plan of care and learning to listen to your own body.
There are a number of areas that you should be aware of that can slow down your recovery, for instance, not managing your pain control during the rehabilitation process, and not controlling your edema or swelling in your knee due to over-activity by not elevating your affected leg for instance.
Making sure you manage your pain control will be important to have a successful physical rehabilitation process. Taking your pain medication as prescribed 30-45 minutes prior to physical therapy will be important to allow you to fully participate in the exercise program.
As total knee replacement surgery becomes less invasive, the amount of pain medication that is needed by many patients today has been reduced allowing for a quicker recovery as well. Less pain equals greater participation.
Generally, your pain medication is prescribed to be taken every 4-6 hours as needed. Do not be hesitate to use it. The first week home after surgery is vital in controlling your pain levels this will allow you to recover more comfortably and help with your sleeping patterns as well.
Swelling can become a problem in your recovery if you do not manage it as instructed. This will consist of making sure you keep your affected leg elevated initially once you return home from the hospital and applying ice as needed. You also may be subscribed compression stockings to wear, that will depend on your surgeons' protocol.
After the first two to three weeks the swelling may not be as acute but this will differ from patient to patient. The main point here is to remember that ice and elevation are important to allow you to participate in your PT sessions.
A major factor in what will determine your recovery after surgery will be your adherence to the home exercise program and closely monitoring your activity levels.
You will have to find what activity level you are able to work with. This will differ from patient to patient, too little activity will slow your recovery down due to continued weakness and lack of knee mobility.
Too much activity around the home will cause you a considerable amount of pain and increase swelling which ultimately will affect your physical therapy sessions and recovery as well.
Overall it will be a learning process as again everyone will respond a little differently. The best line of defense to improve your knee replacement recovery is to take your pain medication as prescribed by your surgeon and monitor the amount of swelling you experience by watching closely your amount of activity.
Attempting to rush the process is not wise either as this leads to a combination of both increased pain and swelling and actually slows down your recovery time.
If you follow these simple recommendations you will have a stronger chance of being fully rehabilitated in the shortest amount of time that is necessary.
Richard is the owner of Total Joint Fitness LLC an education website dedicated to patients who are either preparing for total joint replacement surgery or have physical rehabilitation and fitness concerns after surgery.
Richard has been practicing physical therapy since 1995 working primarily with orthopedic recovery.