Recovery after orthopedic surgery, week by week
The weeks before your operation: prehab strength, first exercises, crutch practice and setting up your home.
It’s time to talk about a shoulder replacement when pain wrecks your sleep and daily life and exercise, pain relief and injections have stopped working, not just because the X-ray looks worn. Here are the signs, what to try first and what results to expect.
The best preparation for shoulder surgery is to practice living one-armed before the operation and fix whatever turns out to be hard. Here’s how to set up your clothes, sleep, food, home and transport before the day.
It’s time to consider a hip replacement when hip pain is limiting your life and a proper trial of exercise, weight management and pain relief hasn’t changed that. The decision rests on how much the hip costs you, not on your X-ray or your age.
Anterior hip replacement can make the first few weeks slightly easier, but by about three to six months the results match posterior surgery and long-term results don’t differ. Your surgeon’s experience with their approach matters more than the approach itself.
Start preparing for hip replacement about six weeks ahead: keep exercising, stop smoking, sort out dental and skin problems, raise your seats, clear trip hazards and line up help for the first week or two at home.
Before orthopedic surgery, ask what the operation will do for you, what happens if you wait, and what recovery really involves. Here are the questions worth taking to your appointment.
A partial knee replacement replaces only the worn part of the knee. Recovery is usually faster and the knee often feels more natural than a total, but redo surgery is more likely later. Who it suits, partial vs total, recovery, and questions to ask.
A reverse shoulder replacement lets the deltoid lift your arm when the rotator cuff is torn beyond repair. What it gives back, what it doesn’t, the real risks, recovery, and why it does less well under 60.
Hamstring, patellar tendon or quadriceps tendon? For ACL surgery, your own tissue beats donor tissue, especially if you’re young. The three grafts differ less in failure rates than in the soreness they leave behind. What to weigh and what to ask.
For young, active people, surgery after a first shoulder dislocation cuts the chance of it happening again from about 1 in 2 to about 1 in 16. For everyone else, the case is much weaker. Who it suits, the honest caveats, and questions to ask.