1 knee + 3 months = 58 miles
It came out of nowhere, a spontaneous pain in her right knee.
The pain was diagnosed as arthritis and a torn medial meniscus, a common knee injury that an orthopedic surgeon in Kansas City, where Paula Miller and her husband, Tom, were then living, repaired laparoscopically.
She was “good to go,” Paula remembers the doctor telling her after the surgery six years ago.
Except that she wasn’t. The knee pain returned, and injections of hyaluronic acid and cortisone—often prescribed as first-line treatments for painful arthritis—didn’t help much.
“You have a little bit of cartilage, and you’ve probably got about 5,000 miles left on your knee,” Paula’s doctor told her at that point.
Fast-forward to late 2017. Since their move to the Lowcountry two years earlier, Paula and Tom had been more active than they’d been in Kansas City. Enjoying the warmer weather here, they’d spent more time outside, walked more. And the clock was ticking on Paula’s knee.
The pain wasn’t terrible, Paula says, but it was constant. Though she was mobile, had some range of motion and didn’t need an assistive device to get around, she knew last fall it was time to face facts: A new knee was needed, and soon.
As her professional background would suggest, the former junior high school science teacher and 15-year hospital performance improvement and risk management veteran is straightforward and decisive, a linear thinker. So her first step, not surprisingly, was to research the options.
As a result of its “very, very good press” and the recommendations of friends, the Beaufort Memorial Joint Replacement Center emerged as the front runner early on, she says. An evaluation by Dr. Kevin Jones, a highly experienced board-certified specialist in total joint replacement at BMH, confirmed that she was “a good candidate for having this done.”
There was, however, one small hurdle for doctor and patient to clear. Paula and Tom had a big trip planned for the end of March, its dates set in stone. If her surgery took place in late December, would she be able to travel?
Dr. Jones made no promises, Paula says, but he was hopeful. So she scheduled her total knee replacement.
Compliance personified
On a long list of any doctor’s ideal patients, the Torrington, Connecticut, native would surely rank at the top. Both before and after surgery, she followed instructions to the letter.
The preparation for surgery the Joint Replacement Center provides for patients made doing so easier.
“I will say unequivocally that the preop program was invaluable,” she says, citing the comprehensive joint replacement guide she received; the informative class on joint replacement taught by BMH orthopedic care coordinator Andrea Sadler she attended a month before her procedure; “the opportunity to ask questions you didn’t know you had”; and the camaraderie among classmates, all of whom were pretty much in the same boat.
Come December 20, Paula was fully prepared—physically, psychologically and operationally—for her surgery and the rehab that would follow. She’d done the recommended strengthening exercises. She could count on Tom, her devoted first mate, to support her in every possible way. And she’d arranged for the equipment and home care she’d need in the early days of her recovery.
The procedure went well. Thanks to the 3D MRI that’s a standard part of joint replacement at Beaufort Memorial, Dr. Jones had discovered a bow in Paula’s femur, an anatomical anomaly he was able to adjust for in fitting the new knee.
After one night in the hospital, she was back in her own bed. And the very next day her in-home rehabilitation began.
Paula doesn’t sugarcoat it: The rehab was not easy. But she does have some gentle advice for fellow travelers: Diligence is essential.
“I can’t stress enough that no matter how much it hurts, you must do what you’re supposed to do for as many times as you’re supposed to do it,” she says. “You can have one bad day, but you can’t have two.”
Two weeks later she graduated to outpatient rehab. For an hour three times a week, Paula worked with BMH physical therapist Steve Giammona to regain her mobility. “He didn’t let you have those bad days,” she says of Steve. That the rehab took place in Dr. Jones’s office was a plus as well, since any questions she had for him could be answered on the spot.
That dangling carrot
She had her ups and downs—“Why did I do this?” she moaned to herself four weeks in—but far more ups. Little by little, and then by leaps and bounds, her strength and confidence improved. And every step of the way, she says, “I had that carrot dangling out there.” The end of March was coming.
Just before the three-month mark, she turned the corner for real. “I knew I could do it,” she says. “I could experience everything about the trip without having to give a second thought to whether I could. I could be 100 percent a participant.”
With wings on their feet, Paula and Tom set off on their two weeks in England—where Tom would graduate from the University of Oxford with a Certificate of Higher Education—and Northern Italy. During the trip they covered all kinds of terrain, including the rugged coast of Cinque Terre. With minimal discomfort Paula logged an impressive—wait for it—58 miles.
Maybe three days out of 14 the knee did complain a bit, she admits, but “ice and elevation are your friends.”
Now back home, the couple take frequent walks with their two dogs and look forward to visits with their son and daughter and two grandchildren. Paula and her new knee are ready for anything.
