If your knees are sometimes locking up or refusing to do their one and only job. If your heels are not touching first when you walk. If you are having problems going up or down stairs or have pain some mornings that puts you on a cane. If any of these knee problems start cropping up in your life you may need a knee replacement. Minor knee problems may be treated with a warm towel, injections, physical therapy or even arthroscopic surgery. A knee that is shot, like mine, can now be replaced with an artificial knee. New precision titanium replacements are tough and have no slack, slop or creaking in their movement. If you are a glutton for punishment, both knees can even be replaced at the same time. Replacements are a big deal that will require physical therapy. After that regular stretching and exercising will get your new knee working… well…like it is supposed to and you will know every time the weather changes. Most people that have one knee replaced can walk that same day (on a walker) and usually go home the next day. Knee replacements today come with an automatic drain to control swelling and a recirculating ice pack that both go home with you. Trust me if your knee gets really bad you will be glad to have the replacement option.

My knee replacement journey started at the Cenla Surgical Center in Alexandria, early on a Monday with Dr. Garrison at the helm. After about one- and one-half hours in surgical dreamland I found myself in a hospital room for an overnight stay with my new left knee. After walking around the halls Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning I passed all of their tests and was sent home.

For the next 2-1/2 weeks, I was as helpless as a baby. A knee replacement is not like a walk in the park, an all-day picnic or even an out of state weekend trip. No, it is more like a year of grass mowing, the first game of the season or several Boston Marathons. It is a journey, a process that will play out over many weeks and you will be in charge of how well it turns out. Every day was a doctor’s visit or physical therapy, all the time being very careful not to fall. It was touch and go for ten days on a walker, then four or five days with a crutch. After 14-16 days I could walk! I guess you could call it walking. I am getting better every day though. Getting a new knee requires the patient to do their part but the end result will be a leg that you can depend on. I do not remember spending this much time together and do not know what I would have done without my wife.