[pct-l] Knee replacement

[sabra985]

In Dec 2006, I had an ACL reconstruction, which is not a knee replacement,
but I think the PT that follows has many similarities. My first "hike" was
about a month after surgery - it was a quarter mile up to a cabin, where I
spent the entire weekend - I HAD to get out of the house, but both I and my
friend who suggested the trip and went with me recognized that this was
incredibly dangerous and one slip could mean that I'd potentially land back
in surgery (but, I rationalized, better only one month into recovery than
four and half).

Admittedly, I started feeling a LOT better by 3 months post-op and realized
that I needed to give custody of my hiking boots to someone more responsible
than myself  :) so that I wouldn't be tempted to go out and end up wrecking
my knee (as I recall, 3 months into recovery is when the knee feels stronger
but it's actually at its weakest in the healing process).

I was cleared for "normal activities" in May '07 (and I explained to my OS
that MY "normal" is not necessarily a normal normal, haha), so I did my
first triathlon in June. In Feb, '08, a little over a year post-op, I hiked
up Mt. Washington (NH) (with a CTi2 brace). In 2008, I did a 2 week bike
ride on the West Coast, from Seattle to SF, about 1,000 miles, and
thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2009. My plan was to complete the PCT
this year, but conditions were not favorable - I only did 650 miles. I
hardly had any problems with my knee this year on the trail - probably a
combination of a nicer trail and somewhat lower packweight.

DEFINITELY do the exercises they give you, every day, even on the days you'd
rather blow it off. I'm glad I did - I have a friend who had an ACL
reconstruction about the same time as me, but he was lazy about his PT and
he has more trouble with his knee now. My knees will never be equal again -
there's always just a little residual pain when I climb stairs or steep
trails - I only just barely register it. I've recently found, though, that
massage therapy helps a lot with that.

Good luck...you'll be back on the trail before you know it.
~Evenstar



On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 11:35 PM, Sharon Hasper
<sharonhasper at earthlink.net>wrote:

> I've completed several long section hikes on the PCT, but now I'm facing a
> knee replacement. I would appreciate hearing from hikers who have hiked
> after a knee replacement. Your experiences and suggestions would be helpful.
>
> Sharon
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