My wife had both knees replaced before I had my one. After 3 personal experience's here's my advice. Starting as soon as you get home (Same day as surgery most likely): Ice Machine on 20 minutes. Ice off 20 minutes 10 minutes of movements/exercises they send home with you / Rest 10 minutes. Ice on 20 Minutes. Get up and walk with the walker (until you get a cane or can ditch the walker - exactly one week for me - about 10 days for my wife). You don't have to go far, but around the room or down the hall 2 or 3 times. That's a about an hour and a half routine. Do that routine at least 4 times a day. Ice more time in between if you can and it feels good. I suspect the ice will feel great. Keep it on all you can stand. If the ice helps you sleep, don't be afraid to go to bed and sleep with the ice machine on. My wife did the first time and it helped her sleep. Her second time they P.A. told her it wasn't necessary, she tried without it and didn't do as well sleeping and felt like her progress was slower. I used it in 20 minutes intervals whenever I could and in bed. You might have restless nights to begin with. For me, the pain was minimal, until I was asleep and would roll over or move and make it it bend or rotate, and then it would wake me up and ache for a while. Ice would help. This took two, maybe 3 weeks to fully go away. One note, there are 2 ice machines as described. They work the same way, but one you have to add ice or frozen water bottles and change them out every 2 hours or so. The other is same cube size, but has built in chiller so you don't have to change out ice and water. Get one of those if you can. They both work the same, just one is more convenient. Do all the PT and exercises they send home with you. Stop if hurts (uncomfortable and stiffness is not pain), but remember "Motion is lotion" and not moving it is a huge mistake. No motion makes more scar tissue you'll just have to break up later. I had 3 knee surgeries between 1984, when I first tore the ACL and damaged the meniscus, and 1992 when I had ACL allograph. 2 Full sets of rehab in there and lots of work on my own to try and stay active and not in pain. Minimal success. Dr told me in 1992 the ACL replacement went great ,but I'd need a knee replacement some day, but wait as long as I could. March 22, 2024 was the day. 32 plus years of stiffness, arthritis, limited motion and periodic pain went away almost overnight. I was pretty much pain free and getting around better one week after the replacement surgery. I have not had to take a single pain relief med of any kind (for my knee) since about 3 weeks post surgery. Knee replacement was much easier to recover from than the ACL replacement. Ice, Motion (anything that doesn't hurt) repeat. Once released from PT: STRETCH everyday! Bend, bend and bend. Don't let the range of motion you get back post surgery deteriorate.