Updates from Suzie Andrade

Have you ever caught yourself saying, “I’ll never get better,” or “I’m always in pain”?Yeah, I used to say that too—without realizing how much weight those words carried.Here’s the truth: your words aren’t just sounds. They’re signals. And they’re either signaling healing or frustration. When you’re recovering from something as big as a knee replacement, every bit of your energy matters. What you say to yourself—out loud or in your head—sets the tone for how your body responds.So today, I want to help you swap those “always” and “never” statements for words that actually move your healing forward.

I am not kidding you when I say movement helps with swelling, improves circulation and keeps your muscles from tightening up.  I know that sounds exactly like something. Your physical therapist would say, but after three joint replacements, I found this to be true. When you’re between one to two months post-op, these small, simple actions can make a big difference. Remember: this is about progress, 

Have you ever felt amazing one day after PT… and then totally paid for it the next?Yeah, me too.It’s like you finally start to feel like yourself again—you get up, do a few loads of laundry, run some errands, maybe even make dinner—and then bam. The next day your knee’s angry, your body’s wiped out, and you’re sitting there wondering what you did wrong.Here’s the truth: you didn’t mess up. You’re healing.And those moments that make you stop? They’re not punishments. They’re pivots.

Back when I was still walking around on my bone-on-bone knee, I noticed something strange. Every time someone at work would ask, “How’s your knee?” and I answered, “It hurts,”… it got worse.I know that sounds weird. I’m not saying I made it up or was pretending. The pain was real. But the moment I gave it voice? It almost felt like it doubled.Eventually, I stopped saying “it hurts.”Instead, I’d say, “I’m actually really looking forward to having it replaced.”

You know that panicky, can’t-think-straight feeling that creeps in before surgery?Or when you’re in recovery and your brain just won’t quit spinning?That’s not weakness. That’s your body trying to protect you.Before my first knee replacement, I don’t think I slept more than a couple hours at a time. My brain was in overdrive running through the same questions on repeat: Do I have everything ready? Am I missing something? Did I plan the meals? Will the house still run without me?I was the Jill-of-all-trades in our home—planning, cooking, cleaning, remembering every little detail—so handing over control for a while was brutal.

Have you ever seen A Bug’s Life? It’s an animated Disney/Pixar film, and there’s this one scene where a leaf falls onto an ant trail. The lead ant freezes. He panics because the path he was following suddenly disappears. Then another ant calmly says, “It’s okay, I’ll help you,” and walks him around the leaf so he can keep going.Well, in your knee replacement recovery, I’m gonna be that calm ant—the one who says, “It’s OK, I’ll help you with that.” I want to reassure you that what you’re experiencing is completely normal and actually a healthy part of your body’s healing process.You go to sleep on surgery day, wake up with a new knee, and suddenly your brain can’t find the path it once knew. You know how to walk, lift your leg, or get up from the floor—but your body just doesn’t respond. It’s like a leaf dropped over your old movement pattern, and your brain can’t see the trail anymore.

What if your biggest setback isn’t your knee — it’s your thoughts about your recovery?That realization changed everything for me.I remember the day it hit me. I was about six weeks out from my second knee replacement and realized I still wasn’t consistently hitting zero on my extension. Some days I’d get to 3 degrees, maybe 5 — but never zero. And that tiny number became a massive mental storm.My calf hurt constantly. My foot and ankle were cranky. But the calf pain? It was brutal.And I remember thinking something must be wrong. Something dire.

So you think you should be further along… maybe you’re not even six weeks out, or you’ve just hit that two-month mark, and you’re wondering why you still don’t feel “normal.”Let me tell you something: you are not back to normal—or anywhere close to it—in six weeks.And I say that as someone who’s been through not one, but two knee replacements and with all the love I can muster. When my surgeon told me, “I’ll see you in a year,” I swear it felt like the floor had been pulled out from under me. A year? I was thinking maybe three months tops.But that’s the thing about recovery—it humbles you. It teaches you patience in ways you didn’t realize you were signing up for.

I know what it’s like in the middle of knee replacement recovery when you’re wondering if your body is ever going to feel normal again. I’ve been there—and I’d love to help you with this.When I was early on in my recovery, maybe 3 weeks out, I went to physical therapy with my walker. I remember watching a man walk to the back completely unassisted. Turns out, he was one week after surgery 😱. 

We’ve spent all week talking about how knee replacement recovery is a lot like taking a vacation.On Monday, I laid the groundwork for that whole idea — how seeing recovery through a different lens can make the process feel less foreign and a little more familiar. It literally changes your perspective and for me it was the little boost to take the heaviness out of the surgery that week leading up to my replacement. Check out the Introduction to this blog series here.Tuesday, we talked about traveling solo, and how this is ultimately a one-person job. This was an important concept to me because there comes a point in your recovery where it's your strength that's gonna push you through on your range of motion and extension.