Maureen
Maureen has a history of muscle and joint pain. She was diagnosed with polymyalgia rheumatica in 2006 and arthritis in her knee in 2017. She had a previous surgery on her back and developed a wound infection. When Maureen saw a surgeon about her right knee, she was recommended a partial knee replacement. She has since had the operation and feels that it went “very well”, although she isn’t entirely pain free.
Maureen is a retired credit manager. She is married and has adult children. Her ethnicity is White British.
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Maureen has a history of muscle and joint pain. She was diagnosed with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) in 2006 and previously had a laminectomy (a type of back surgery). In 2017, she was diagnosed as having arthritis in her knee. Maureen’s right knee made a crunching sound and would sometimes swell up. It was hard to kneel or get down on the floor to play with her grandchildren. She enjoyed walking but found it increasingly difficult. Maureen says it isn’t clear whether she has both PMR and arthritis, if the arthritis was “induced” by PMR, or if the PMR has now gone. Maureen had also been having some back problems, causing her to sit and move in a different way than usual, which in turn had been making her knee problems worse.
Maureen usually sees a rheumatologist and takes methotrexate for her PMR. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, she hadn’t been able to see the rheumatologist for a long time. When she told the rheumatologist about her knee problem, she had a one-off steroid injection which helped for a few weeks before wearing off. This treatment was not suggested again, and the focus shifted onto a problem with her shoulders. The rheumatologist referred her to a specialist in October 2019, and she had a telephone call where it was suggested she increase her dosage of gabapentin (medicine for nerve pain). Maureen was referred again a few months later and had a scan of her knee taken.
After almost a year, Maureen received an appointment with a knee surgeon. Going in, she wasn’t sure if knee surgery was still an option and she had some concerns. Maureen had heard of other people whose knees hadn’t improved after surgery, and a close friend died from an infection following knee replacement surgery. Maureen herself previously had to go back into hospital because of a wound infection following her back operation.
Her appointment with the knee surgeon was “very short” but Maureen felt that she and her surgeon “got the outcome that we needed”. Maureen hadn’t been sure what to expect going in to the appointment, and was “relieved” when surgery was recommended. Based on her pain level and being unable to climb stairs, she accepted the recommendation. She was told the wait was about six months, and she was “quite happy to wait for” this length of time.
Maureen had a partial replacement surgery on her right knee around three months after her consultation. Before the operation, she spoke with an anaesthetist about her previous back operation, which led to a change in where the anaesthetic was inserted. Maureen feels that the replacement went “very well” as her knee pain has reduced significantly. The only complication was a build-up of anaesthetic in her ankle, which made it numb and required Maureen to stay at the hospital overnight. Her ankle problem resolved itself, and she was able to leave the morning after her surgery. After the operation, Maureen was cared for by her daughter and husband. She found it a bit frustrating that she couldn’t do household tasks, which she got back to “as soon as I was able”.
Maureen’s pain has reduced, although she isn’t completely pain free. She also found it “disappointing” that she is still unable to kneel or play on the floor with her grandchildren. Maureen wonders if “maybe I was expecting too much”. She has found that her left knee has also improved, whereas it had a “bit of a grumble” before from taking on extra weight and use when her right knee was a problem. The initial recovery from surgery was painful, though she was pleased that her wound healed nicely and without any issues with infection. Maureen was given crutches and an exercise routine from her physiotherapist. She has found walking to be helpful during recovery, and is pleased that she is now able to walk around her village without being in a lot of discomfort from her knee. While her knee pain has reduced, Maureen still has chronic rheumatic pain. She feels now that “it’s just really a case of living with it”.If Maureen could change anything about the process of surgery, it would have been reducing the wait time to see a surgeon. Nonetheless, Maureen feels that “once the appointment had been made and we had a date, everything went smoothly”. Going into surgery, Maureen had been a bit concerned about catching Covid-19 in the hospital. She considered this a risk worth taking, and felt that proper precautions were taken. To other people thinking about having knee surgery, Maureen recommends keeping in mind that everyone’s recovery is different, and “don’t take it too much to heart” when hearing about others with bad experiences because there are good experiences too.
Maureen can walk further and her quality of life has improved. She is disappointed that she is unable to kneel but thinks she might have been expecting too much.
Maureen can walk further and her quality of life has improved. She is disappointed that she is unable to kneel but thinks she might have been expecting too much.
It's been a lot, lot better. The pain is some, a lot, yeah, it’s certainly easier. I won’t say the pain has gone completely, but it just depends what I’ve been doing all day really. If I’ve been on my leg.
Yeah, that’s it. It really depends you know, if I’m on my feet a lot - it just has a sort of a bit of a grumble and then it sort of, it’s uncomfortable later on in the day.
But other than that, it’s fine.
Are there things that you can do now that before you had the surgery were sort of difficult or just impossible to do?
Mm. I can go up and down stairs. One thing I can’t do though, which is what I really was hoping to do was to get on the floor with my grandchildren.
I can’t kneel without it being uncomfortable. But yeah, that was the disappointing, a bit disappointing really, that maybe I was expecting too much, I don’t know.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Maureen found harder to explain in telephone appointments how she felt and “to understand what might be going on.”
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Maureen found harder to explain in telephone appointments how she felt and “to understand what might be going on.”
When I’ve had face-to-face appointments, they’ve been pretty good. Because it is explained and you are, you do have the opportunity to ask questions. Face-to-face.
Telephone calls aren’t that easy I don’t feel. It’s not easy to explain to a telephone call what’s going on. You can explain it, but it’s not easy to get over how you feel about it.