Long Term
As healing of the bone is a slow process you must not expect to feel comfortable whilst walking for at least 3 to 6 months after the operation. You can expect a gradual improvement in your knee for up to 18 months after the operation.
You can gradually start doing more, always staying within your pain limit. You should eventually be able to walk pain-free, play golf and even tennis. We would not necessarily expect that you would be able to run pain free. If you can this must be seen as a bonus. During normal walking the load through your knee joint is approximately 4 times your body weight. This increases to 8 times your body weight when running!
The results of osteotomies are in general very satisfactory. It is however important to realize that the one half of your knee joint is severely damaged and that with the operation we can only redistribute the load to a relatively normal part of the joint. With this in mind do not expect a total return to normality.