Restarting at 58 after a knee replacement

Started 16 June 2025 · 19 replies · 187 hearts · read 3.9k times

NikolaiSofia, BG · 16 June 2025

about a year ago

Restarting at 58 after a knee replacement Writing it down partly to work out what I actually think.

I do not know if this belongs in this circle. Move me if not.

I am aware some of this may simply be what this stage is like. I would still like to hear from people who have been through it, because I have spent a fortnight assuming I am the only one.

My prescriber has been fine, genuinely. The problem is that I get nine minutes twice a year and there is no version of nine minutes that covers a whole stage of this.

I will report back either way, because other people's follow-ups have helped me more than their questions.

NerysRhyl, UK

My honest experience is that the restart was better than the original in every respect except that I had lost some ground I would rather have kept.

InêsPorto, PT

Nikolai, answering your question directly rather than going round the houses.

I came back to the same circle I had left and three people remembered me. That mattered more than I would ever have predicted.

BobbieRochdale, UK

Replying to Nikolai rather than to anybody above, because I want to answer what was actually asked.

The gap between deciding to restart and actually doing it was four months for me, almost entirely because I was embarrassed to ask. Please do not lose four months to that.

BenediktFacilitatorVienna, Austria

Facilitator note: if this thread has landed close to home for you while reading, our support resources page lists the kinds of service worth finding. No obligation and no drama.

ZoraSarajevo, BA

My second time round I set up a buddy from week one instead of week thirty, and it is the single change that made the most difference.

MableBolton, UK

I found the first fortnight of the restart emotionally heavier than the first fortnight of the original start, which I had not anticipated at all.

14me too 8

Gwen DAberystwyth, UK

Thank you for the update. Threads that stop are the worst kind.

OttilieCheshire, UK

Reading Zora, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

Practical: I had a proper conversation about starting dose before restarting rather than assuming, and it turned out the assumption I would have made was wrong.

NikolaiSofia, BG

Restarting is an ordinary shape. I did not believe that when I was doing it and I believe it completely now, having watched about thirty people here do the same.

NerysRhyl, UK

#10

Just marking that I read this properly rather than skimming it.

InêsPorto, PT

#11

What worked was making the restart small and boring. One conversation, one step, one week at a time, no plan beyond the next fortnight.

BobbieRochdale, UK

#12

Nikolai said something I want to sit with for a second.

A break does not undo what you learned. That was the thing I most needed to hear and the thing I least believed at the time.

AurelBucharest, RO

#13

Agreed, and I have nothing to add to it.

13me too 9

ZoraSarajevo, BA

#14

I restarted at a lower step than I stopped at, on purpose, and stayed there for six months. Slowly was the correct speed for a second attempt in my case.

MableBolton, UK

#15

What Bobbie described happened to me too, in a slightly different order.

The conversation I dreaded took under five minutes and contained no judgement of any kind. I had spent a month rehearsing for it.

Gwen DAberystwyth, UK

#16

Nobody in this circle has ever asked me why I stopped in a tone that required an answer. That is the whole reason I was able to come back and say I had.

OttilieCheshire, UK

#17

I want to name that my break happened because life got very hard for a while, and going back happened because it got less hard. That is the entire mechanism.

BenediktFacilitatorVienna, Austria

#18

A note for whoever opened this, whether you are still reading or come back to it in a year: there is no obligation on you to update us, and equally you are always welcome to.

13me too 5

NerysRhyl, UK

#19

Gwen D has already said most of this and I want to add the one part that was different for me.

I restarted after fourteen months and the hardest part was entirely in my head. The practical side took one appointment and a fortnight.

7me too 8