Sandy's Knee Replacement Surgery

My name is Sandy Yaude.  I live in Northern Idaho with my husband of 37 years and an adult son.  We have two other sons, one here in Idaho, recently married, and the other in the Air Force with his wife and our three grandchildren.  I am 63 years old with bone-on-bone osteoarthritis in both of my knees.  The journey of their deterioration began when, in 1966, my family of origin was involved in a serious car accident. Here I sustained three compressed vertebrae. Nothing was done at the time to correct this. Years later my back condition worsened and it was discovered that those "compressed"vertebrae had actually been fractures. I underwent back surgery, had Harrington rods "installed" along my spine, was in halo-femoral traction in the hospital for over a month and spent 5 months in a body cast from neck to hip. The result of all this was that since 1966 my body was misaligned which put unnatural stress on my knees and wore them out at a much earlier age than normal. I had been told several years ago that I had end stage arthritis and would eventually need knee replacements. 

Over the last three years, since moving to Idaho, one knee or the other has gotten progressively worse. I started wearing leg braces for added support and started some physical therapy exercises to help strengthen the muscles. This helped get me past a "crisis" with my right knee so that I was reasonably functional and in manageable discomfort. Two orthopedic doctors have now counseled me that the only long term solution to my pain and limited mobility is a total knee replacement for both knees. Over the last two months, the pain in my legs has gotten much worse, making it very difficult to sleep and only allowing me to sit to work or drive for about 10-15 minutes at a time before the pain is such that I have to get up and walk about.

My husband and I live on my husband's social security, a very small pension and my part-time job at a children's theater company. We do have insurance but it has a large deductible and it will not cover all of the expenses I will incur with this surgery. These things, combined with my loss of income for the surgery and time to recuperate put us in a bind to cover the insurance's out of pocket expenses, the surgery expenses that are not covered, and maintain our regular monthly financial obligations. In addition, since I need both knees replaced, it is possible this could stretch into next year when my insurance deductible would be in play again.

I have lumped along all these years with these knees, partly because for a number of them we had no insurance, and partly because the discomfort was tolerable and I could generally carry out my daily activities. But the discomfort has morphed into significant pain now and the struggle to get up and down the stairs in my home or just go grocery shopping is increasingly challenging. The pain interferes with my sleep and I am always tired as a result. We believe it is time now to get this surgery done so I can return to a more normal life once again. I and my family thank you for your kind and generous support.