Knee Replacement Surgery – My Story 

My story actually starts about 11 years ago, on a cool March morning in 2001. After I dropped off my husband at work, I encountered a driver who ran a stop sign and plowed his GM Sierra pick up into my Ford Taurus. The impact resulted in my left leg getting caught under the accelerator, ripping the cartilage in my knee.

At first, I didn’t really feel the pain – but as soon as the shock wore off – I more than felt it. Physiotherapy for the knee, along with sore neck and back and acupuncture to get rid of headaches didn’t do much, so over the next several years, I went through 3 surgeries, all of them using what they call “a scope” to try to fix the knee. The fact that at my age, arthritis also set it didn’t help, so after a long wait and several meetings with an orthopaedic surgeon, the decision had to made: the knee had been so badly damaged that only a complete replacement would have a positive result.

Let me tell you – when they say “complete knee replacement” – they really mean it. Here is what the challenge was for me – I really wanted to know as much as possible, get information from people who have gone through it and be prepared. The only thing I discovered is that there really wasn’t anything I felt was helpful.

Lot of medical information, quite a few offers of an alternatives that were pretty much just money grabs for supplements, etc. – I was looking for personal accounts of what people felt like during and after having the surgery. That’s why I decided to document my knee replacement surgery and recovery. I hope that it will help someone out there – because believe me, as much as I gave my best to be prepared, I had a good number of surprises, most of them causing stress that is definitely not needed.

I am going to do this story in individual parts – it will allow you to read all of it or read parts that you are interested in. I do hope that you will read every day – as I will post each day, until I completely recover. As of today, I am only 5 weeks after the surgery, but it is a good time to start this. For one – I am definitely more optimistic that soon, I will be able to live without pain, walk freely or – maybe even run!

And here is the most important thing: If there is anything you want to ask me, anything you are wondering about, please let me know – I promise I will answer every one of your requests or comments – I wish I had someone to ask questions before I started going through this.

Upcoming stories on these topics: (Or more as I go through this)

• Getting ready – pre-surgery meetings
• Get ready for the hospital – what you need to know
• The surgery day
• My hospital stay experience
• Going home – what you really, really need and what you don’t really need
• Starting physiotherapy
• Dealing with pain
• Can I walk?
• What I do at night
• Eating and tasting differently
• More about physiotherapy
• Finding your limits
• Am I done recuperated now?

That is all for the introduction to my story – stay with me and I hope the story of my journey will benefit you!