So this is mainly going out to the career fire guys but others feel free to jump in.

I at the ripe old age of 26 had to have knee surgery for a torn meniscus and floating bodies in my left knee. It was done orthoscopically and the images show severe degradation to the cartilage. The Dr said I'd be facing a knee replacement in about 10 years or so because the damage is just going to continue to get worse. I had a club foot when I was born and multiple surgeries leaving my right foot without full range of motion and causing me to compensate with my left.

My question is, have any of you have knee replacement surgery and how we're you able to handle returning to duty? Did it make a noticeable improvement or detriment in your mobility?

I'm currently a Firefighter/Paramedic at a busy urban department but hopefully will promote to Driver in the next few years and Lt before I need the surgery.

Not a fire guy here but have had knee work done.  I was diagnosed with torn meniscus and grade 4 damage to the articular cartilage on the medial side of my femur.  I had a micro fracture done in 2007 and it is holding up with some pain when I am on it too long.  I would recommend to exhaust all options before going to a knee replacement.  I visited Dr. Brian Cole in Chicago after the micro fracture to find out if he can help me.    He did a surgery to see the extent of the damage and informed me that there are other options that would prolong the natural life of my knee.  I will pursue those options if the pain becomes greater.  I have also heard good things about Dr. Kevin Stone in San Francisco.  That is my $.02.  I wish you well in continuing your job pain free.

I've had one knee (right) last October 2014 and left hip in 2006. I was at peace to have them done at the time because I endured pain for too long. Actually would have done better not to have waited so long for my knee because it was nigh impossible to get my full range of motion back. However the therapy was long and hard for me and I worked hard at it. I'm a big man so that made it hard, but I'm doing well now. It finally feels pretty natural to me now thank God.

I'm a corrections officer for TDCJ. Been doing it since I was 18, and I'm 51 now. I had a total knee replacement done on my left knee right before I retired in 2013. My recovery time was about 9 weeks. It made a huge difference in that I could walk again. And, after retiring I took about a year off. After the year off, I went back to work in TDCJ as a corrections officer again in 2014. I'm currently at the Carole Young Unit in Texas City, Texas.

I will tell you that the hardest part for me was standing long periods on it, or sitting long periods with it. In both circumstances my knee would get real stiff and sore. As long as I'm walking around on it I'm good. It hasn't slowed me down much at all. In fact, during our annual training  PAT test I can out do a lot of the young bucks who think their hot chit. I'm usually one of the oldest in the classes.

Good to hear that you guys are doing well getting back to work with them, I'm only 8 years in so that's something that really concerned me.

I certainly plan to try all options before having the replacement and fortunately it's not a worker's comp issue so the decisions are mine. Plus, who knows what they'll be doing 10 years from now with replacements.

Thank you guys for the feedback, what exercises or stretches seem to work best to keep away the pain?

Riding a bicycle seems to loosen it up and relieves pain.  As long as I don't overdo it.  I read an article awhile back on a test conducted with two groups.  One group used ibuprofen and the other did light exercise.  Both groups had sustained cartilage damage in the knee and suffered from osteoarthritis.  The exercise group reported better overall scores when it came to knee pain and quality of life.  Don't baby it too much or it will feel worse.  Ask me how I know..............

li

One of the guys I went to the Academy with had Both his Knees replaced, 2 others had hips done, all of them came back to work PD not fire, but i believe some of our Sammich Makers had similar stuff done