The most imporant piece of advice I can give you is - do ALL the exercises your physical therapist tells you to (& as frequently)!!!!! - and ALWAYS remember to take your pain medicine BEFORE therapy!!!!!! (You may regret it if you forget).
December 2006, I was in a car accident & broke my leg right at the knee (tibia plateau fracture with 2 torn ligaments - metal plate with 8 pins in my knee). Anyway, I was started on PT a week after I got home from the hospital & he started me on strengthening exercises right away. They sure helped! Walking was much easier when I was able to start weight-bearing again. When I graduated from in-home PT to outpatient; there was someone there who had a knee replacement. I just saw her a month ago & she is still in PT & having problems with her knee.
PLEASE DO ALL YOUR EXERCISES THEY TELL YOU TO!!!!!!!!!!!!
My surgeon said my knee healed much better than what he was expecting - I think probably due to working so hard.
Hopefully, your experience won't be nearly as bad. Various peple have told me that torn ligaments is the worst part. (I can't bend my knee as much as I would like - but still do ROM exercises.) My ROM is actually improving a bit still.
Best of luck with surgery. Hopefully you will have an easy recovery.
Laurie
PS - here are 2 websites all about knee injuries you may find helpful (they both include message boards:
http://www.kneeguru.co.uk/ and
http://www.mybrokenleg.com/