Partial Knee Replacement Recovery Story (6 months post-op)

AUTOTRANSCRIPT:

My name is Laura and I had a I guess knee osteoarthritis that had resulted from a previous meniscectomy. <Affirmative>. And the treatment that I had at The Stone Clinic was a lateral knee replacement.

In 2011, I was pulling up a weed in my yard of all things <laugh>, and it was a Scotch Broom, so it's a very large weed but it has a very small root system. And the root system gave way, the weed came up and I felt a pop in my knee. And my knee in the next 24 hours, it froze up pretty badly actually to the point where I really couldn't walk very well. I went and had it checked out. They did an MRI. The MRI was inconclusive. And then they sent me to physical therapy. I went to physical therapy for a year with no improvements. And actually, my knee gradually declined in functionality. And it would periodically, it would lock up and it would cause enormous pain.

 Finally a year after my injury, a little over a year after my injury, I went to see another doctor. The other doctor said I don't even need to look at your MRIs. I know you have a meniscus tear. You need surgery. I said, when <laugh>, and so I had the meniscectomy. And unfortunately, after the first meniscectomy, I didn't really get enough instructions on what to do afterwards. And so I, I went back to doing things too quickly, I think. And I, my knee was never right. It was better than it was because it was no longer locking up. However, I had persistent pain and swelling in the knee which was limiting my, my activities. It was I wasn't able to play tennis, which I was now a tennis player before my knee injury. I wasn't able to run more than a day at a time without having pain.

I finally came to Dr. Stone earlier in 2022. And I, I just, we talked about my previous treatments and what was going on, and he took a look at the X-rays and he said it's time for a partial knee replacement, <laugh>, it's time for a knee replacement. And on and so I and I also talked to several other people whether or not this was where I was going and they agreed with Dr. Stone. And so I decided to go through with the knee replacement. And so I had the knee replacement in May of 2022, and today is about six months after my knee replacement.

So since I had the knee replacement you know, obviously it was quite a surgery. I you know, definitely over the last six months, my knee, knee swelling has been gradually going down. It's it's, I've, I have way less swelling than I've ever had that I've had since my surgery, since my first surgery. And so I, you know, obviously I went through physical therapy, which was huge in, in helping the, helping the knee rebuild itself and resolve itself. And so and so I'm, my knee is free from pain right now. I have full range of motion, which I did not have before my knee surgery. And one, that was also one of the major reasons why I went for the knee surgery, cuz my, my range of motion was very much impaired. So I have full range of motion, I have, I'm rebuilding the strength in my knee and I have zero pain. Even when running I've been, I've been able to run a mile with no problem. I've been able to play racket sports with no problem. So definitely a great outcome.

I'm going to start skiing in a few weeks. So I'm hoping that will go well cuz that was another activity I couldn't do. I'm starting to play racket sports again. So, you know, before my surgery I was very hesitant to do racket sports in particular because I knew that even though I might feel fine immediately afterwards, within the next 24 to 48 hours, my knee would blow up, blow up like a balloon and I wouldn't be able to walk. So I'm starting to do more of those activities. I'm more willing to do like weight training and, and things like that, which I was doing before the surgery. And I was doing, you know, I was doing cycling and things like that, but I'm, but I'm feeling like I'm able to do them more effectively.

Previously, certainly before I had the knee replacement, my mother had had knee replacement and so my mother is unable to kneel, certainly unable to run. So before I had the knee replacement, before I actually did it and before I actually met Dr. Stone, I certainly thought that having a knee replacement would mean that I would not be able to do running, tennis any of those activities. Once I met Dr. Stone, talked with him and talked with his physical therapy and I realized that yes, I would be able to do those activities

So one of the important things that I did before I had the knee surgery was that I did rehab in addition to rehab. And so I, I, I had the physical therapy working with me on strengthening what I had before I went in for the therapy. And that was hugely important to me. And so I I, I did that for several months before the therapy. So we did exercises, we did to, to make myself as strong as possible before going into the therapy, before going to the surgery. I mean, and so, you know, obviously once since I, since I had the surgery, obviously coming in and, and having the massage to get the fluids out of the knee and, and reduce the swelling and having the exercises, you know, those played a huge role in, in, in physically building me up, but also mentally, mentally realizing, Hey, I can do this

Prehab is huge. Do the prehab and then do the full physical therapy afterwards and, and, and do the full three months that they, that they recommend. I think the recommendations are quite good. I was 80% healed in the three months I was actually able to do, even after three months I was able to do hiking. I was able to do all that and really it's you know, follow the recommendations, make sure you, make sure you keep, stay ahead of the pain.