My step-father had both his knees replaced in the past couple of years; he's in his late 60s. His recovery has been a little slower than some of the folks reported here.

Knee #1 was faster to heal up, but #2 had some complexities to the surgery that I can't begin to understand or explain, mostly due to some abnormalities in his physiology, I think. He recovered fairly well at first, but then started getting pain and swelling again, and turns out the kneecap is migrating to the side. His doc has some more conservative measures he wants to try first (though to me they sound primarily like band-aids -- icing, NSAIDs, and PT -- if the kneecap is actually out of place. We all think he's going to end up having to have a revision surgery.

Not telling you this to scare you, but there are a certain % of patients who have this surgery who end up having to have a revision -- I really wasn't aware of this before my step-father. He's really bummed because he wants to get back to hiking, which he loves so much. He's got a long way to go as even walking is still a challenge, and this is 1.5 years out from the first surgery. I know he's frustrated!

Hoping for a much better outcome for you -- sometimes it's just time to do it. He was also to the point where it was affecting his day-to-day life way too much to put off the surgery any longer. He'd kept it at bay for years through steroid shots, etc., but his cartilage was just gone.