Gibson Area Hospital & Health Services | Gibson gets it! | Spring/Summer 2019

GibsonHospital.org 8 New knees bring life Sue Kean is enjoying being active again—at home and away on travels made possible by total joint replacement surgeries Story contributed by Erin Miller, PA-C, GAH Orthopaedics, Director of Therapy Services ABOUT A YEAR AGO, Sue Kean’s knees were so painful that she found herself modifying normal daily activities to avoid extra stress on her joints. At times, the Gibson City resident recalls even sitting on the stairs and scooting her way down them. It was only because her grandson was playing in the state championship football game in 2017 that she was willing to endure a long walk from the parking lot to the football field and up the stadium bleachers. “Stairs were awful—I would put things at the top of the basement stairs and ask my kids to take them down for me,” Kean says. “We remodeled our house so the laundry could be upstairs. Over the holiday season, I had to sit down to sing a few songs from the Messiah . I just couldn’t stand that long.” Ready for relief After years of managing her symptoms with ibuprofen and injections for temporary pain relief, Kean came to the conclusion that she was ready to move forward with a knee replacement. As she started the planning process for two consecutive total knee arthroplasties (replacements), she decided she wanted to avoid opioids altogether in the management of her postoperative pain. “With the first knee surgery, I had one or two Norcos (hydrocodone and acetaminophen), and it made my stomach so upset that I decided to try recovery without it,” Kean says. “I did not like the side effects of opioids, and I decided right then that I would never take any again. Tylenol really did quite well!” For total joint replacements, Gibson Area Hospital Orthopaedics uses a multimodal approach whose goal is to manage postoperative pain and to minimize the need for narcotics. Multimodal pain management can include local pain medication injected into the joint during surgery, a regional block performed by anesthesia to numb the area after surgery, and regular dosing of Tylenol and anti-inflammatories. Narcotics to reduce pain are prescribed based on a patient’s pain level. At her first postsurgical follow-up visit, Kean scheduled her second knee replacement, which was only about one month after the first surgery. Jason Ye, MD, performed both surgeries. Two weeks after her second knee procedure, her recovery was going so well that she asked Dr. Ye if she could ride her bike to physical therapy. Two weeks after her second knee procedure, her recovery was going so well that she asked Dr. Ye if she could ride her bike to physical therapy.