Partial Knee Replacement

The key thing IME is do your physio.  then do it again.  the harder you work the better your recovery will be.

Can you get some pre op exercises?  I know in some cases they do that to strengthen the muscles pre op

Thats the limit of my knowledge

I had one 5 years ago at 48. Golden Jubilee in Glasgow who were excellent. I was only in hospital 3 days in total.

Years of different sports, running, backpacking,martial arts, weights. I'm no light weight either.

I did as much as I could before hand to keep my leg muscles strong (leg extensions and squat machine plus the cycling I could manage) and flexible (quad,hip and ham stretches).

Afterwards I made doing the rehab exercises my full time job. Though me being me I over did it and did too much too soon which ended up with a big flare up of the quad tendon and soft tissues which delayed me back to work. I did actually get back on the turbo and get it turning over after a week, possibly stupidly) I was due to go back at 12 weeks, ended up more like 17 weeks. My job was largely walking rough ground and lots of driving.

Obviously the op is a big op but was fine (I chose not to watch, but to have a kip). The first week or so was no fun, just take the pain meds and do the physio and hope to sleep at night.

In terms of results as far as the NHS goes it's a total success. Great range of movement, not in pain 24/7, and better mobility than before the op.

I'm terms of my physical activities/hobbies....

Any serious hill walking/backpacking is out. After a 5/6 km walk it's achy. I have walked as much as 17km but I suffer a good be after. Going up is fine, but coming down steep and rough ground is painful. I've done a short overnighter (couple of hours each way) with a full pack wild camping and I was buggered afterwards. Kneeling, squatting and scrabbling about a tent is not good for mine. I've since got a hammock!

Road riding and spinning away is fine, I now ride flats as SPDs kept irritating it. I do have gravel gearing though (46/30 and 11-40) I have done a century, but really 2-3hours is plenty for it to put up with. Grinding away or the lower speed high torque type pedalling you might do off road to get over stuff gets its achy and the quad tendon can flare up quickly.

I've not done much in the way of proper gym leg work since as I was worried about over loading it, but I've done body weight stuff, squats, lunges, statics sits etc but it can flare up my tendon.

I know some people have got back to all sorts of things including running and Munro bagging, but for me even a few running steps if I'm crossing the road hurts. My main issue now is the quad/patellar being very sensitive to over doing it despite me doing various rehab stuff,but day to day if I'm not over doing it its fine, and still better than pre op. My other knee is more of an issue now 🙄

Feel free to PM.

If I win the lottery I'll get my TKR done.
Cycling buddy had his done and goes walking, cycling etc.
Not sure you're ever supposed to run on it ever though.

When I looked to go private as I was getting so down and struggling waiting for the NHS is was looking like £14k.

I did go for a private consultation due to frustration waiting for the NHS. That ended up being £400 with x-rays etc. But it was money well spent as he realised I was going to have to get a loan to go private and sent letter to my GP and NHS trust basically saying get this guy who's struggling to keep working etc looked at, which, unless it was coincidence, sped things up, I even got referred for an offloader brace.

Haven't had a PKR, but ACLR, and ORIF of a tib plateau fracture.
Definitely what TJ says about physio - lots or prehab and kneehab post-op. My orthopods have been really keen on cycling to regain function.

Try not to overdo the Cocodamol pain relieve, the constipation is just as painful

To speed up recovery after the ACLR, I rented a GameReady for a couple of months and that was great to reduce swelling and inflammation. Might be worth checking with your man if he recommends it for your PKR. The great thing was you can keep your beer cold in the ice pool while you're sitting through a session on the sofa!

https://www.gameready.co.uk/Rental.html