Best Knee-Surgery Recovery Gear | The Strategist

13 items in this article 7 items on sale!

13 items in this article 7 items on sale!

In our advice column, “Ask the Strategist,” we take your most burning shopping questions and survey friends, call up experts, and draw on our own personal experience to answer them. If you have an online-shopping question of your own, please send it to [email protected] with the subject “Ask the Strategist.” We’re here to help.

Hi Strategist! Loyal reader and spender. I’m going to have knee surgery for a torn ACL and meniscus. I was hoping for advice for clothing choices, gadgets, and any other suggestions to help make the “extensive recovery” a little less painful. Thanks!

As it turns out, knee surgery has been on my mind lately, too. My editor, Winnie Yang, got ACL surgery six months ago, so she has no shortage of items to recommend that made her recovery a little easier. My mom got knee-replacement surgery last fall, so she’s also been recovering for the past few months with physical therapy. Now, she’s getting around without a walker or a cane and is close to being back to 100 percent, thanks to rest, prescribed exercises, and a few helpful products. While the two surgeries aren’t the same, the recovery will look similar in terms of how you rest up and spend time recovering.

Yang says the first few weeks of ACL surgery is all about getting your knee moving as soon as possible while also allowing your body to start the healing process. Rehab after knee-replacement surgery has a similar aim in this time period: improving your range of motion. When it comes to products to help with the post-surgery stage, you should first use whatever the doctor tells you to use, but I’ve noticed that my editor’s and my mother’s gear falls into two categories: products to help with PT exercises and stuff that makes all that rest time more comfortable. Plus, I threw in some picks of my own that have helped with my past leg injuries. The good news is the products below will come in handy for general exercise after your surgery.

Ice is your best friend after a procedure like this. Yang’s orthopedic surgeon had her rent a cold compression device that she used to reduce the pain and considerable swelling in the first few weeks, and once she returned that, she relied on gel ice packs. She liked this one because the adjustable Velcro straps made it easier to keep on her knee.

The first product my mom mentioned was this big ice pack she bought after using it at the therapy clinic. She used to ice and elevate her knee four times a day, but now she does it twice a day for 30 minutes each time. “I liked it a lot because it was soft and flexible,” she tells me, noting how it wraps around her entire knee for full coverage. She likes the 12.5-by-18.5-inch size, and it’s available in a single pack too.

My mom likes this muscle roller for kneading out her quads. She says they would sometimes cramp up from inactivity, and rolling them out with this stick (like dough with a rolling pin) would soothe them. I’ve used this stick to help my calves, quads, and hamstrings feel less sore. It’s the same concept behind a foam roller.

This non-elastic strap helped Yang and my mother with leg stretches.

Because your knee will be limited in how much it can bend initially, putting on certain kinds of shoes can be a challenge. Yang recommends comfortable slip-on shoes and relied mostly on Crocs and Birkenstocks in the beginning. My mom says these shoes — and their cushioning — made walking around outside easy on her knees. They don’t have any laces, so they’re easy to slip on and off. She has an older style, but there are newer ones available. (She liked them so much that she got a pair for my dad.)

“Loose shorts and pants were really good because they didn’t interfere with the brace and didn’t require much effort to pull on or take off,” Yang says. “I lived (and actually still live) in these.” She and my fellow writer Lauren Ro also liked these shorts in the postpartum period, when they were similarly limited in range of motion.

By the same token, tear-away pants make it easier to get dressed and undressed.

For her PT sessions and relaxing at home, my mom says she wears these simple, very comfy Old Navy joggers made with the same polyester material you’d find in running shorts. She likes how they feel light on her legs.

Your scars will be healing, and that can make your skin feel weird. My mom’s skin got itchy, especially around the scar area. She applied lots of Aquaphor around it and says it helped get rid of that itchy, flaky feeling on her skin. She’d put a generous amount on it after taking a shower and then rubbed some on when resting and watching TV.

I’m not huge on hemp products, but I like using this hemp roll-on stick whenever I massage my legs. It has menthol, and that cooling sensation feels relaxing and slightly tingly. This might help your skin if it’s especially tender after the surgery.

Yang’s surgeon said that keeping the scars protected from sun exposure is crucial, because scars are more sensitive to UV rays than normal skin and can not only burn more easily but darken and thicken without protection. This sunscreen comes recommended by dermatologist Evan Rieder, whom we spoke to for our article on the best scar-treatment products.

Everyone’s recovery will feel different, but my mom says her leg cramps got really bad in the evening. She swears by this electric heat pad that helped ease those cramps by soothing her thighs — not her knees — while she was lying down.

These ankle weights helped with strengthening my mom’s legs during seated exercise. You might want to go up in weight as you build strength (depending on what your doctor or PT recommends).

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