How Long Will it Take to Recover from your Knee Replacement Surgery?
The purpose of knee replacement surgery is to relieve chronic pain in the knees caused by various forms of arthritis or injuries to the knee cartilage. This surgery has a very high rate of success, running at around 90 percent. That means that once you’ve fully recovered, you will almost certainly experience a dramatic reduction in your knee pain, and perhaps, no more pain at all. And that will mean a great improvement in your mobility and your quality of life.
But there are reasons why this kind of surgery is the last resort in your treatment plan. A major surgery like TKR is going to have a long road to complete recovery.
Here at Joint Replacement Center by Ortomedica, we want you to have all the facts and information so you can have realistic expectations and form educated decisions about your care. And an important part of those expectations is understanding how long it will take to heal and recover.
After your surgery, there are three stages to your recovery that we will talk about in this article.
1. Immediate Postoperative Therapy (1 Day)
The day immediately following your surgery, your physical therapy will begin. Our staff will have you up on your feet and trying to walk right away. This will be a bit painful and difficult, at first. But our professional staff will be there to help you, and you can take advantage of assistive equipment such as parallel bars, crutches, a walker or a cane. The bottom line is that It’s important to get your joint moving and regain your strength quickly, in order to avoid problems.
2. Going Home (21 Days)
While it is usually possible to go home within a couple of days after a knee replacement surgery, our program at Joint Replacement Center is comprehensive, and includes a thorough rehabilitation and wellness program. That means you will be visiting our state-of-the-art facility in Mexico City for three weeks before going home, completely healed. The benefit of this is that your surgical wounds will have already healed, and you will be well on your way to reaching the full potential of your new knee’s abilities.
3. Maximum Recovery (6 Months to 1 Year)
This is the hard part. Once you have returned home, you will have a brand new, prosthetic joint installed and functioning. But your goal is to reach a level of recovery that includes dramatically less pain than you experienced before surgery, or perhaps no pain at all. To achieve this goal, you will have to be a proactive participant. After returning home, you will absolutely need to follow up with a complete physical therapy plan with follow-on medical care from your physician. You will have to strengthen muscle and learn your limits, to maximize the useful life of your prosthesis.
Knee replacement surgery is a major commitment on your part as a patient. It is also a major investment of your time and your hard work. There are no shortcuts to total recovery. But, with a highly precise surgical procedure at Joint Replacement Center, coupled with the comprehensive follow-on care of Terapias Elite, our physical therapy department, your chances of reaching your goals of greatly improved mobility are dramatically increased.
If you haven’t already booked a procedure with us, contact us now to find out more. Our professional surgeons have more than 30 years of collective experience, and they will take good care of you. Our medical concierge service will make sure you are treated like a VIP, and we can even help you arrange your transportation!