I think Mark's links provide the guidance for you to decide what is best for you and how it applies to your personal situation.
I'm a little different than the rebuild guys. They had their patella and all of its stretch parts pushed to the side while the 'inserts' were done, and then the patella (knee cap) pulled back into position and aligned for healing with all of the stretchy stuff still intact. My patella kneecap had shattered during a 2nd story fall into over 50 pieces with nothing big enough to pin...but it was rebuilt in place with a very patient ortho-pod and his surgical super glue. Recovery after I learned to walk again 6 months later is pretty much the same as a knee-job as most of my basic PT cohorts were knee replacement folks.
I DO believe that life after is exactly what you can make it, if you have a body that will allow it. I had doubled down on the PT cycle (old SF warrior thing where pain and endurance don't belong in the same room...(still stupid after all these years
), but by the first anniversary I was able to get in, and get out of the T respectfully, often with only an unexpected head bang. CHECK. While thinking out did I need to kluge up something for control I discovered that pedal work and lever work was actually possible also. CHECK. My first local show was only a mile from the house so yeeha...until it broke down halfway there. Getting under was easy, getting back up turned out to be an ut-oh and an embarrassing laugh!
Again, back to my thought...that too passed. Like Rob Heyen said in one of his posts in the link his ortho-pod said he would never kneel again...and he made it a goal to do exactly the opposite (Rob was Ranger...they do stupid things too, on a just because basis ... lol)
Just take it easy and take it cautious...it will be fine! You hit a roadblock on something, find a way to take more PT with focus on what was holding you back before it becomes engraved in your mind.
There's a PS to the story that is cute and I recommend to anyone...My PT person was pretty pushy, but her boss had been the PT guy who walked my wife back from twisted off and reattached knee ligaments when her dressage days came to an end with a balky high spirited horse some 40 years ago so aggressive was expected. My issue was all said and done, walking again without a gait or a limp, my angular movement max bending was 5 degrees short of where it probably started based on the other knee. For an old guy I thought that pretty good. She said nope...we'll get there. One day while I was doing knee bend crunches with a weight while lying on my back, she appeared out of no where and pretended that she was an NFL defensive end, and my shin bone was the tackle buddy! Grimiss all you want, she not only got that 5 degrees back but that knee came out at + 7 degrees by the time we were done.
Good luck
