Margaret Doyle

In my early sixties I had a total knee replacement on my left side, after living with osteoarthritis for the best part of a decade. I delayed it far longer than I should have, partly fear of the surgery, partly because nobody could tell me, in plain terms, what the recovery would actually feel like or whether the new knee would be worth it.

The thing I most wanted, and couldn’t find, was a straight account. The clinical leaflets explained the operation; none of them prepared me for how stiff and swollen the knee stays for months, how hard and how important the bending exercises are, or the quiet truth that a new knee is wonderful but doesn’t always feel completely like your own. I wish someone had told me that before, not after.

Save Your Knees is where I say it before, not after. Consultant orthopaedic surgeon Mr Paul Henderson keeps the clinical detail honest. I’m not a doctor; I’m a patient who left it too long, and I’d like you going in well prepared and a little less afraid than I was.