Total Knee Replacement: Kim’s Story

Transcript

Kim Johnson: Before I had my first knee replacement, I was in pain just about every day. I would start out light pain, and by the end of the day, I was living with ice and ibuprofen and Tylenol and that such.

It restricted my ability to go hiking, which I love to do. I couldn't go with my son backpacking and things like that. My name is Kim Johnson, I'm from a Reedsburg, Wisconsin. I had a left knee replaced and my right knee replaced a year later at Sauk Prairie Healthcare.

The staff there is just amazing. For quite some time before the surgery I was using ice packs all the time and actually got one of the machines to circulate ice water over my knee, and it was a nightly routine. As soon as I got home, and I spent most of my time in my recliner until it's time to go to bed. I'd get up and get through the next day. I was told at one time I needed to change my job, and I'm like, "I love my job. I don't want to do that. I want you to help me figure out how to make this work."

So I see the doctors at Sauk Prairie Healthcare, and they came up with a plan. It was great. When I first met Dr. Marcu, I mean, I had went through and checked out the different surgeons there. They all appear to be really good. When I met him, he was an awesome listener, asked really good questions and listened to what I had to say. He understood how quickly I really needed to get the first knee done. We just built a great relationship from that point on.

I was back to work in seven weeks and able to do full throttle, and I walk an average of, I think my average is about 8,000 steps a day. So I'm on my feet a lot using them, and I had no pain. Like I said, I didn't have to take the ibuprofen or anything within just a short time afterwards.

One of the things I've really enjoyed about this summer is being able to join my son at the Devil's Lake State Park and go for walks with my wife at parks. We're doing hiking and climbing, going back to the mountains again, the Rocky Mountains. I love hiking there and spending time, and that was one of those things that I'd had to give up for several years until I got my knees replaced and really enjoyed being able to go out, keeping up with my son and just have a really good time and being done with it at the end of the day and not being in pain at all.

End Transcript