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- Once surgery's preformed and you have your new knee,
the real work begins.
Physical therapy following a knee replacement
is vital to your long-term recovery.
We often remind our patients that 50% of the work
is done by the surgeon and 50% of the work
is done by you as a patient, after surgery.
Physical therapy is started the same day of surgery.
For the first several days,
therapy addresses several goals.
First, you must begin moving your knee immediately.
Movement helps keep the knee from getting stiff
and reduces the risk of blood clots.
Second, you will be taught how to use a walker or crutches
to help maintain your balance and stability
through the first few weeks of therapy.
Next, before leaving the hospital,
our therapists make sure you can
get in and out of bed safely,
access the bathroom safely,
as well as go up and down stairs safely.
Finally, you're completely prepared
to transition back to your home environment,
before leaving our hospital.
- Following your surgery and discharge to your home,
you'll begin one of the most difficult
and challenging parts of your total
knee replacement experience.
That of outpatient physical therapy.
It'll be designed to help gain motion and your strength,
but also to incorporate that range of motion and strength
into a pattern of which you can walk more normally,
and prevent problems with your rehab
and your knee later on.
Many people wonder on their first visit
what's going to happen at physical therapy.
First of all, you're gonna meet a physical therapist.
Upon that arrival, he'll be there to observe your wound.
That'll be the important part he'll address initially.
He'll also talk to you concerning a very
important aspect of wound care, that of using ice.
We'll use that ice as a pain modality to control
the swelling, the inflammation, and ultimately, your pain.
He'll also be making some very important measurements.
These measurements are baseline measurements.
Baseline in that, as you progress,
we can look back where you started
and see, in fact, that the exercise that we're using,
and the program you're on, is really helping you
attain where we want to get.
He'll also evaluate your walking at a time.
You may be on a walker, or a cane, or even crutches.
The evaluation of that is to try to get you to walk
as normal as possible.
To help, at this time, to start erasing the bad habit
of walking that you may have
attained prior to your surgery.
We'll also, at that time, be talking about
a group of exercises you'll be taking home to perform.
These are so important.
Their purpose is not only to help gain motion,
but to keep the motion you gain in therapy
from one visit to the next.
Those exercises, when you start, will be very simple.
They'll start and they will not be difficult at all.
But, as you watch yourself progress
in your motion and strength, these exercises
will be increased and become more difficult.
They'll be aimed at your range of motion,
particularly that of extension.
All important extension, because without
a knee being straight, the outcomes of your knee
will never be what you want.
If you can imagine, if you would,
a car.
You have a car,
you put new wheels on it.
Those new wheels don't constitute a new car.
The same with a doctor.
Even though he puts a new knee inside your knee,
you are now stuck with the old structures on the outside.
Usually it takes approximately three months
to complete your physical therapy rehab.
And that is individualized at most.
It will be hard.
It'll be strenuous.
But it will be worth it.
- Here are some tips for protecting your knee
after a replacement.
First of all, maintain your range of motion and strength
by continuing to do the home exercise program
that your therapist gave you.
Avoid kneeling.
Participate in low impact fitness activities
such as walking, swimming, and biking.
These activities are safer than sports
that require running, jumping, or heavy pounding.
You must take an active role in your recovery
with consistent effort in physical therapy.
In fact, rehab is the key component
to a successful outcome after a total knee replacement.
We do our job, we expect you to do yours.
The benefits of physical therapy far outweigh
the time and effort that you put into your rehab.
Your constant knee pain will be gone.
You can resume many of the
activities you previously enjoyed.
And most importantly, the quality of your life
will be significantly improved.
At Coordinated Health we work as a team
in your treatment and recovery.
But remember, you're the most important
member of that team.
And ultimately, you hold the keys to your success.
And that is The Art of Medicine.
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