Installing New Knees

Description: INSTALLING NEW KNEES a giant step toward recovering lost mobility "Can you come in Monday morning?" It was a Thursday in January 1997, a first consultation, and, apparently, the orthopaedic surgeon wanted to remove her left knee and replace it with an artificial one in three days' time. Nancy Cheung recalls feeling absolutely floored - not only was she trim and physically fit from sports and cycling every day from her suburban home in Richmond, BC, to her job in downtown Vancouver, but also, at age 47, advanced osteoarthritis of the knee just didn't fit into her plans for the future. That was the kind of thing that happened much later to older people, like her mother, who had had both her knees replaced some years ago by this very surgeon. What's more, on top of her work as a service-delivery coordinator for the City, Nancy was in the midst of completing her BA: "It was all so sudden. I thought I was going to the doctor for stubborn muscle pain. He must have seen that my knee was in such a bad state that if he didn't do something about it quickly, it would worsen. He really wanted to get it fixed." And for good reason: Her x-rays showed there was no cartilage remaining on her left knee, as well as significant erosion of bone. Regardless, Nancy insisted on finishing the semester. Then she took a six-month health leave from her work to recover from the surgery, which she underwent at the end of March: "It was a very tough surgery. It took me a year to really feel better. The knee felt really cumbersome…didn't feel a part of me. It was just a very difficult recovery, and I'm impatient. I wanted to resume my activities and just couldn't. There was much more pain than I was prepared for, but I don't think anyone could be prepared for what my left knee was like. The bone was so worn."