Advice for  Knee Replacement Therapy

Most readers know by now that I authored a book, available on Amazon, entitled; Fast Track Your Recovery From A Knee Replacement: How To Eliminate Pain and Pain Medicine The Fastest Way Possible.

A recent reader suggested in a review that including a chapter on ways to “move on” if the surgeon/hospital/PT is at odds with the knee replacement protocol defined in the book would be beneficial.

Here I offer up a few thoughts that might be of value on this subject without laying out an entire chapter.

First of all, I don’t know of any surgeon or hospital that would object to the principles laid out in this book and in fact the book has been read and reviewed by an excellent retired total knee surgeon of 25 years from the east coast.

Secondly, the approach while having many similarities to conventional therapy prescriptions is different in emphasis, empowerment, volume of exercises and monitoring effectiveness. It is not different in kind like an owl being different than say a freshwater trout, but different in degree like a common trail horse being different than a race horse.

In the book I recommend a sequential emphasis, range of motion then strength and on to functional mobility with defined benchmarks qualifying your move to the next phase.

I also recommend a limited repertoire of exercises, the meat and taters so that you will wisely be able to ramp up your frequency without feeling overwhelmed and causing your faithfulness to flag.

“The greater the number of exercises in a routine the more likely you are to avoid the most difficult ones” is a truism that I have seen proven over and over again. So I keep the core number of exercises nice and compact.

In addition, I spend a lot of time trying to explain the rationale behind the method, hopefully setting you up to make quality decisions should some part of this be at odds with people on your particular path.

Because the method comes with benchmarks, tons of feedback and an emphasis on incremental stretching, I can’t conceive of a safer more protective way to recover.

Synergy

Think of this approach as a way of piecing together valuable tactics to accelerate the overall progress. Each tactic taken individually would not be as powerful. The more pieces you can add the more synergy you create. This allows creativity when working with others.

If a therapist gives you a bunch of exercises and only one includes a focus on stretching into flexion, I would definitely try to change that ratio especially if you find yourself stagnant trying to improve your range.

If your therapist is encouraging a lot of early walking (first two weeks) and you are having trouble controlling your pain levels think about curtailing that a bit.

If your therapist is doing active assistive range, meaning they are helping you “push” your knee into greater flexion and you have a lot of soreness immediately following or the next day such that you don’t want to do anything, have a talk with your therapist about scaling that portion back and asking for other flexion exercises that can be done on your own.

Many therapists won’t see the real help that a low friction surface provides but on the other hand probably won’t object if you want to use one.

Most therapists will not have seen the FLEX bar but should intuitively recognize that it is just another method of leverage.

So if someone skims briefly through the book he might conclude there is “nothing new” and in a sense they are right “a horse” is “a horse”. But to someone who knows horses, there is a world of difference between a trail horse and a racing horse.

The book has been laid out so that the patient can hopefully understand the principles behind each prescription and make good decisions that will shorten recovery time from knee replacement surgery. Remember, I learned these techniques over the course of 20 years through trial and error helping hundreds of patients. Your therapist may have seen a limited number of “knees” and is relying on the basics taught in school.

My final word is about trusting yourself and your ability to think. Do your exercises 2 times a day and then do them 4 times a day. How do you feel? What was the result of your stretching? Did it improve?

Perform your heel slides according to the book method and then do them without. Did it make a difference in effectiveness?

It’s hard for many older people to doubt the absolute expertise of the medical profession. Yet sadly there are abundant reasons in the 21century to be cautious and attempt to think for yourself, gathering information on your own and comparing that with the medical profession. This is not to scare you but to encourage you. Use your brain and go with your gut.