Yup, I got a brand new left knee on Tues Nov 5th. I'm now officially a bionic man! Surgery was at 10am, I was up walking by 4pm and I was able to push the knee to 90 degrees by the end of the first day. I was kicked out of the hospital by noon the next day. In home physical therapy started on Thursday. I was walking with a single crutch by Friday and using just a cane by Saturday. I also started riding the trike on Saturday.
So far this was been quite the contrast to my experience with my right knee replacement. It was three weeks before I could get my leg around on a bike and I have the same range of motion days after surgery on my left knee as I did after 6 weeks on my right knee. I'm taking Tylenol during the day and a single Norco/Vicodin at bed time so the pain has been tolerable (except for Wed night :( ).
Why the difference? I'm sure there are many factors but I expanded my search for Orthopedic Surgeons in this area and found Dr Messieh in Winter Haven. He's currently the #1 rated Orthopedic Surgeon in Florida. My visits with him over the last year gave me confidence that this was the right choice. He's not affiliated with a large clinic (he's independent) which can be a minus but so far this has been mostly a plus. His PA gave me her personal cell phone number to use 24/7 if I have any questions or concerns.
The journey is far from over but I'm off to a good start and am very optimistic I will have a very good result. I'm glad the deed is done since it was been a limiting factor in our journey and it will be great to remove this limiting factor going forward.