Stephanie Dakin
How long did you experience pain for before you went to the doctor?
Well it seemed like several years actually, but he kept on stalling and just giving me more and more pain killers, and then I realised that he was probably waiting for me to be 70 before he did anything about it. When I did see Mr Keys I decided to have it done privately and it was much quicker that way. I’m so thrilled to have 2 new knees and to be able to walk around without pain.
What were you unable to do because of the pain?
Well I couldn’t walk very far, and it just hurt. Any walking was painful, sleeping, lying down was painful, so it just, it felt like a jab every step you took and grindy, so.. Now, it’s not like that at all.
How bad was the pain if you had a scale from 1 to 10?
Well you know how it is if you’ve got constant pain, you just go on until you think I just can’t bear this, I just can’t bear it and it just makes you miserable and the whole of your life, and everything you do is coloured by this. You think ugh, I’ve got to go upstairs, or ugh I’ve got to go to the post box, or ugh I can’t walk across the road, when it gets to that, it just spoils your whole life doesn’t it? I was teaching before, was teaching up to when I was 68, and I did stop then because I just couldn’t carry all the stuff and bear things for 2 hours while I was actually teaching. So I stopped then.
So it actually stopped you working in the end?
Well it did, it did really, it was just too miserable…
When you went to see your GP what did they suggest?
Well he said I’d got arthritis in the knees and … try exercises, go to a physio, and take these pain killers, and if they weren’t working, take some more pain killers.
And that was it?
Yes that was it.
So you kept going back to the GP?
Yes, yes, eventually he arranged for me to see somebody, which happened to be Mr Keys, and it was arranged from there.
So when you first saw Mr Keys, what did he explain to you?
He explained that there were ecretions growing on either side and that it would be scraping each time I took steps.
And what did he suggest that you do?
Have new knees!
Did you feel more reassured that you were going to have just part of the knee done instead of the whole knee?
It didn’t bother me too much, except that, yes it was reassuring to think that there wouldn’t be so much of a major operation, if you were only having half of it done, and it would do the job of making me able to walk without pain, yes.
How long did it take before you got back into a normal routine of what you used to do?
I don’t know, when we went on holiday in the September, I felt I was up to everything again, but in fact I did choose a rather more strenuous holiday than I should have done, because I was very worried, I think you are worried about falling over, and I did fall over then, and it was my Achilles tendon that went, luckily, not the knees!
But your knees felt ok? Were you feeling pain?
Oh no, they were fine, except I was probably a bit slower.
After the operation did you feel much pain in your knees?
Well straight after the operation, yes it was painful. But, it was bearable to think well I go through this and then it will be alright. Um my mother had had her knee done some years earlier, and she said the pain was just so horrific she would never ever have the other knee done. And it certainly wasn’t like that, it was, perhaps that’s what I was expecting and so it wasn’t so bad.
And do you feel any pain now?
No, slight numbness on this knee here, and sometimes a sort of jabby feeling of sort of nerves, but no pain, no, no, not deep pain, no. So I can stand, walk, sit, sleep, no pain, lovely.
Did the operation stop you from driving for very long?
No I don’t think it did, I think there’s a statutory period where you’re not allowed to drive, and I think as soon as, when that period had gone I was back to driving no problem, yes.
Overall, how satisfied are you with your new knee?
Very satisfied, I find that I can walk and I can do all the things that I want to do, except I can’t kneel down very easily, but I must say I’m making sure that I have baths rather than showers so I can get in and out of baths, and, I can kneel down if I have to but it is difficult getting up again, but that’s probably old age rather than the knees!
And because I can’t kneel I find it difficult doing gardening because I can’t, my back’s off a bit, so I can’t bend down and do the gardening, but never mind, it’s ecological the garden!
Can you think of anything you wanted to know as a patient going into partial knee replacement?
I think I was fairly reassured with the explanation that Mr Keys gave when, when I went for the consultation, you know he said what was wrong with my knees and what needed doing and what he’d recommend, and I’d go by his recommendation because I think that the specialist will know more about these things than I would.
These interviews have been conducted and are being published upon obtaining patient and surgeon consent for this purpose
If you are a patient reading this story, please bear in mind that it is one individual person’s health story that is being presented here. Whether this surgery would also be possible in your circumstances, and whether results could be similar, depends entirely on your doctor’s evaluation, your personal health situation, age, fitness, weight and a number of other circumstances. Please also bear in mind that having surgery is always associated with risk and that you must take time to recover; in particular, the success of a surgery depends to no small extent on your own commitment to physical therapy following surgery.
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