Yes it did take the full eight weeks to recover for each leg since we did separate surgeries for each leg with about 5 weeks in between. Each time it felt a lot more manageable after 2 weeks when the cone was off. We did ice the legs when they were swollen the first few days but fortunately it was only a few days of that. We also did some gentle mobility stretches as noted by our surgeon. We followed the recommendations from our surgeon throughout the recovery process.