Ok – So I am 5 days away from getting my knee replacement. I am getting the Conformis iduo G2 my surgeon will be Dr. Gary Levengood in Duluth Georgia. I am going to Georgia because my surgeon Dr. Joanne Halbrecht recommended him and this particular procedure after working with him for 2 weeks he is supposed to be really good at it. Dr. Halbrecht has been working on her certification and will probably have it just about now. She will be I believe the first surgeon in Boulder that will be performing Conformis knee replacements and if it is all they claim she could be very busy you can check it out here -- https://www.conformis.com/flash/player.asp?3 a little animated video of what they will be doing.
The reason I am going with this replacement is that I have some high expectations of the performance I want out of this particular part and after a bunch of research I think (and hope) this is the best. I have some snowboarding, hiking, riding, surfing, racing, enduring and I hope even running to do on it! It has been difficult or very painful for me to do many of these things the last year.
After my last painful day of snowboarding and icing and not being able to walk upstairs any longer (oh, I could get up them just not walking) I had my first knee surgery last December. It was a “scope” they went in and scraped and cut tears and took out pieces floating around and then did a lateral release. The surgeon, Dr. Joanne Halbrecht said after “I did the best I could, but it was really bad, I don’t know how you have been doing all that you have, “Well, it hurt! That’s how”. After some rehab and gutting it out, I realized it was really not better and maybe worse -- because I thought it would be better. When Dr. Halbrecht or as I affectionately called her “Captain Bring Me Down” told me she had done the best she could but I would never run on “that” knee again, or snowboard like I want, maybe some cycling but not long endurance rides and climbing and on and on and on…. Xanthe replied to her “but she is training for an ironman” As I took it all in for a minute or two one of my first thoughts and I don’t mean this disrespectfully or to offend anyone was why not cut it off and get a prosthetic that I can really use. I think this is when” Dr. Bring me down” kicked in and she started trying to slow me down. After rehab I did the 6 injections of supartz – nothing it was a waste of time for me. I continued to ride not as strong but as I said enough to keep me from getting fat now that I wasn’t burning a million calories. I was in fact having so much down time I managed to open another restaurant , broke my ankle mountain biking, and then in a fit of desperation actually started swimming for fitness.
Dr. H found this knee and this surgeon for me and I trust her because or her no-nonsense-never-sugarcoat-anything attitude. I have never blogged about anything before but because I have so many friends and athletes curious and supporting me as I go I thought this might be the time. Happy Living and Happy training!
Dana - you are one tough chick, so I am sure it must be very painful for you to be considering this procedure! It looks very high tech and pretty cool. Good luck with the surgery and the rehab. I have a very active friend who had a hip replacement last year; the first couple of months after the surgery were hard, but then her improvement came in leaps and bounds. I wish you the best!
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