Knee Replacement Surgery: 2nd day

Since this hospital has visiting hours from 8 am to 8 pm I had to leave by then so I returned to my hotel room near the hospital. I arrived in the morning back to find my wife a little goofy from pain meds but other than that perfectly normal except for her recovering new knee replacements. I watched the physical therapist get her up and strap a strap around her waist in order to catch her if she went down. Then they got her out of bed and had her use a walker. She said she was a little stiff and the therapist said to walk as normal as possible. She had one little slip and recovered but was able to walk to the door of the hospital room outside down the hall to the nurses station and back which I found sort of remarkable.

But, like I said this surgeon's techniques are world renown for getting up and going and recovered the fastest now of any surgeon we have heard of on earth.

The showed me how to use the Polar Car Cube ice machine. There is a pad that cold water flows through that velcros to the knee that had been repaired or replaced. Then there is the machine that pumps cold water through the velcroed pad on the knee. You first put some water into the machine and then you put ice from your refrigerator on top of that to cool the water to reduce swelling and pain in the knee. So, this cold water pumps all around the knee cooling it and preventing swelling and pain to allow for quicker recovery.

Supposedly, since my wife is doing well she will only need one more night in the hospital (two night total) before she goes home from the hospital. A physical therapist comes Monday to start working with her at home. She is supposed to walk around the house for 3 times a day for 5 to 10 minutes straight.

However, for every hour you are up walking around you have to be down with your legs up for an hour so you don't get too much pressure from blood into your wounds as they heal.
Since my wife's bones were good he was able to install the bottom section with the kind that has 2 pegs down into the lower bone and glue it in place. The bone then grows around this device. Then hopefully 20 years later we have to replace this device for a new and improved version. However, if you don't keep light enough in weight it could only last 10 years.

Here are the types of parts installed in knee replacements from Google Images:

 

Hip Replacement

Surgery