Also, roll up a towel and wrap in in duck tape. The towel will go on a dinning table type of chair and you will lay on the floor with your achilles resting on the towel. Then if you have some soft weights, like the type that go around a wrist or ankle, those will go on the knee to force it straight. This is a painful stretch at first, but if you can stand it for about 10 minutes every couple of hours, it will really help with getting your leg straight. I am not sure if they still use these, but I also had a range of motion machine for a couple of weeks. You literally lay in bed and put your leg in the machine, and it slowly bends and then straightens your leg. You start with a slow and low setting, and as you get more range, you can dial up a bigger and faster leg bend. I thought the machine really helped. Also, take a piece of rope and tie a loop in one end. You can lay on the floor and put the loop around your foot and then use the rope to pull your leg toward you to get the bending range of motion. Simple, but effective range of motion exercises really help, but I am sure they will show you during post-op Physical Therapy. The rope with a loop can also help you sling your leg in and out of bed the first couple of days. It also wouldn't hurt to get some of the rubber band type exercise things. After a couple of weeks when you get your range of motion, these can be used to begin the strengthening process. Good Luck.
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