Recovering? Start here.

Week one: slow down on purpose

The first week is the hardest.

Your foot should be elevated above heart level most of the day to keep swelling down, so plan for a couch or bed command center with everything within reach.

On a knee walker, keep your injured knee centered on the pad and your hips level.

If your hip aches, the handlebar is probably too low.

Raise it until your back is straight.

Weeks two to four: build your routine

By week two most people are comfortable steering with one hand and carrying things in the basket.

Practice tight turns in your kitchen before you need them in a crowded store.

Wipe the pad down daily if you are sweating on it.

Check the brake cables once a week.

A loose brake is the most common knee walker problem and it takes thirty seconds to tighten.

Weeks five to eight: watch for impatience

This is when people start cheating, putting weight on the foot because it feels better.

Do not.

Surgeons can tell at your follow up, and it can add weeks to your recovery.

Your last week on the walker is the time to ask your surgeon about the transition plan.

Most people move to a walking boot before full weight bearing.

Setting up your home

Clear a straight path from your bed to the bathroom before surgery day.

Knee walkers need about 28 inches of width.

Move throw rugs out of the way, they catch wheels.

Shower with a stool or bench and a handheld shower head if you can.

Keep the surgical dressing dry with a cast cover.

Standing on one leg in a wet shower is how falls happen.

When to call your surgeon

Call if you have increasing pain after it was getting better, new numbness or tingling, a fever over 101, or drainage that smells bad or soaks through the dressing.

Cramping in your calf on the uninjured leg deserves a call too.

You are moving less than usual, and your surgeon wants to know about it.

The first 72 hours

You will be tired, sore, and a little foggy from anesthesia and pain meds.

This is not the time to problem solve.

Every thing you need should already be in place: meds on the counter, ice packs in the freezer, phone charger by the chair.

Use your walker for every single step, even the short ones to the bathroom.

The people who fall are the ones who thought the bathroom was close enough to skip it.

Hip precautions are real

After a hip replacement your surgeon will give you movement rules, usually no bending past 90 degrees and no crossing your legs.

They feel annoying and they prevent dislocation, so follow them exactly.

A raised toilet seat and a reacher tool are the two cheapest things that make hip precautions livable.

Get both before surgery day.

Ice is your best friend

Ice the joint for 20 minutes every couple of hours while you are awake for the first two weeks.

It controls swelling better than extra pain meds and has no side effects.

Keep two ice packs in rotation so one is always frozen.

A bag of frozen peas works in a pinch and molds around the knee nicely.

What equipment helps and when

Weeks one to two: a walker, raised toilet seat, shower chair, and reacher.

This is the core kit and it covers almost everything.

Weeks three to six: most people graduate to a cane, then nothing.

If stairs are part of your life, a second cane or a sturdy rail at the staircase helps during the transition.

When to call your surgeon

Call for chest pain or trouble breathing, calf pain or swelling in either leg, fever over 101.5, or redness and warmth spreading from the incision.

Also call if your pain suddenly gets much worse after days of steady improvement.

That is worth a same day conversation.

Rent at your destination, not at home

Hauling a scooter through the airport is miserable and airlines damage them regularly.

Book a rental delivered to your hotel or Airbnb and it is there when you arrive.

Schedule delivery for a window after your expected landing time, not before.

If your flight is delayed, email us and we will shift the window.

Pick the right equipment for DC

For the museums and monuments, a travel scooter is the sweet spot.

It disassembles into pieces that fit in a car trunk, and the Mall is long, much longer than it looks on a map.

For conferences or weddings where you mostly need to get from the lobby to the ballroom, a transport wheelchair is lighter and easier for a companion to handle.

Hotels and venues

Most downtown hotels accept equipment deliveries at the front desk or bell stand.

Put your name and check in date on the booking so the handoff is clean.

Ask your hotel about accessible entrances before you arrive.

Older DC buildings sometimes have a side entrance with a ramp that is not obvious from the lobby.

Getting around

Metro is accessible but elevators go out of service, so check the elevator status before you plan a route.

Rideshares with room for a folded scooter exist but take longer to arrive, so budget extra time.

Honestly, the simplest plan is one home base and one big outing per day.

DC rewards a slow pace more than most cities.

When to call us instead of troubleshooting

If the equipment has any issue during your trip, email us right away.

We troubleshoot first and swap the unit if needed.

Do not try to fix a scooter yourself in a hotel room.

Keep our email in your phone before you travel.

It is faster than searching for it when you need it.

The garage test

Ask one question: will you need this in six months? If the answer is no, because you are recovering from surgery or hosting a visiting parent, renting almost always wins.

If the answer is yes, because this is a long term mobility change, buying is usually the better deal.

No shame in that.

Buy from a shop that services what it sells, so you have somewhere to go when something breaks.

The real cost of buying

A decent travel scooter costs 1,200 to 2,500 dollars new.

A knee walker is 150 to 400.

But the purchase price is not the whole cost.

Add storage, battery replacement every couple of years, and the fact that a used scooter sells for roughly half of what you paid.

A 1,500 dollar scooter you use for six weeks really costs you about 750 dollars plus the hassle of reselling it.

The real cost of renting

Our rental packages bundle delivery, pickup, cleaning, and support into one price.

You never think about batteries, storage, or resale.

For a typical six week recovery, renting a knee walker costs less than a third of buying new, and you never have to store it or list it for sale afterward.

The break even rule of thumb

If you need equipment for less than three months, rent.

Between three and six months, do the math on your specific item.

Beyond six months, buy.

The exception is travel.

Even if you own a scooter, renting at your destination beats flying with yours almost every time.

One more honest note

Insurance sometimes covers purchases but rarely covers rentals, and the paperwork takes weeks.

If you need equipment this week, private pay rental is usually faster than waiting on an authorization.

If you do buy, buy from somewhere that services what it sells.

A cheap scooter with no local service is an expensive paperweight when something breaks.