Mindset tips

The worst pain after my knee replacement hit in the first 27 hours or so. The mid-afternoon was rough. The wee hours of the night were worse. Everything hurts louder when the house is quiet, and you can’t sleep while the rest of the house is knocked out.Pain takes all the attention you give it, so I stopped giving it all of mine. I gave my mind other jobs.Three of them carried me through the worst of it.

You can prepare your home and still not be prepared. Here's what actually helps.I remember sitting in my living room a few weeks before my first knee replacement looking at everything I had gotten ready for surgery.The toilet riser. The grabber. The ice packs. The pillows stacked in all the right places.I felt ready.And then my husband walked in and asked what I was doing. I was in the middle of going through years-old receipts. And I just broke down.The weight of everything seemed to hit all at once. I wasn’t going to get everything done. I felt like I was prepared but not.It turns out you can be completely prepared logistically and still feel an unsettling, quiet fear that you can't quite name.

I was six weeks out from my second knee replacement and stuck at 3 degrees of extension. Here's the truth that changed my recovery, plus 3 thought swaps. And I remember thinking something must be wrong. Something dire.

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 😱.