I had a total knee replacement on left knee in mid May last year. Strictly followed all PT advice and ditched crutches after one week. As the Doc said with the exercises, no pain no gain, soooo went through pain but all worth it and got full range of motion back in the knee.
Was back in the water four weeks after surgery (staples removed and skin had healed - Doc said go for it).
I was back teaching courses, DSD's, guiding dives etc and no problems encountered.
Did my TDI Advanced Nitrox & Deco mid September and had no problems and done numerous dives to 40M+ on 12L steel twins & Al deco tank since with no problems. These dives are always from a boat so no humping all this heavy kit around on me on beaches etc, which I personally will not do apart from single tank dives.
Still got a few common TKR issues but they will go with time (partial numbness on left side of knee, thigh muscle still weaker than right) but time, exercises, stretching the knee and patience is the key to full recovery. I don't dive lopsided eitherbut the weight difference between bone removed and implants is only 300 grams (appx).
I find frog kick is ok, and before the TKR I got real pain when doing frog kick and could not even when using lightweight fins.
Do the exercises at the recommended intervals and as said above the pain zone and ice are your best friends to recovery.
Good luck and I am sure all will be well.
thank you, that was really encouraging to read.
I've been diving sidemount for a while now, and that's been a good way to avoid humping kit around
