Kevin

Age at interview: 72

Brief Outline:

Kevin started getting mild discomfort in one of his knees whilst playing professional football in the early 1960s. In June 2014 he was expecting to have partial knee replacement surgery but was given a total knee replacement. He was recovering well at the time of interview.

Background:

Kevin is retired. He is married and has 2 adult children. Ethnic background / nationality: White British.

More about me...

Kevin started getting mild discomfort in one of his knees whilst playing professional football in the early 1960s. He was told by doctors at the time that he would have complications in the future unless he had surgery to remove some cartilage. After having an arthroscopy, he was able to play on for several years before retiring in 1969-70.

Kevin lived with mild pain, swelling and discomfort until recently, when he noticed that the shape of his leg had changed and he was walking awkwardly. He didn’t see his GP about a referral until November 2013, and in February 2014 x-rays showed that one of his knees was worn out. He was initially told that he would probably need partial knee replacement surgery. He went in for surgery in June 2014 and, instead, a full knee replacement was carried out after the extent of wear was revealed during the operation. 

Kevin spent three days in hospital and felt ‘quite good’ after the operation. He said the anaesthetic was ‘brilliant’ and helped him feel comfortable. Within days he was walking around. He felt that the hospital was well organised and that the nurses were ‘very good’, pleasant to talk to and that he ‘couldn’t fault them’.

At the time of interview, Kevin was nearly two months into recovery. In the first three weeks of recovery he had ‘strong’ pain, which he described as a ‘nightmare’ and it prevented him from sleeping properly. He was on sixteen painkillers a day, felt anxious about the amount he was taking, and worried about becoming addicted. Although he still has swelling, an aching pain and tenderness after walking, it’s ‘not too bad’ and is slowly getting better. Kevin can get a full night’s sleep and is down to four painkillers a night, which has made a big difference. Kevin now has a lot more movement and flexibility in the knee joint than he did before surgery. He is driving again and does more walking than he’s done for a long time. 

Despite having with some pain, Kevin believes that the surgery has made a big difference. He said he couldn’t speak highly enough of the doctors who cared for him and thought they had done a great job. Kevin has done a lot of exercise to strengthen the muscles around his knee, which he thinks has helped his recovery. He advises others to consider having knee surgery if they are eligible, but was glad he didn’t have a total knee replacement too early in life – medical technology has improved a lot since then and having surgery later means that his knee replacement will last him longer than if he’d had it earlier. 

Kevin contacted us several months after the interview and told us that he later used Voltarol gel to help with his recovery. However, he is no longer using it, nor taking tablets or using crutches.

Kevin found out after surgery that he’d had a total knee replacement. The cartilage was completely worn. Doctors did ‘a good job’ and it’s made a difference.

I saw Mr. [consultant’s name] back in February. And he said 90% of the people will feel a lot better when they’ve had the operation. “Between you and me,” he said, “We’ll decide between us what we do”. You know, but I thought oh no. “You know I'll have a look,” he said, “I’ll probably replace the outside cartilage,” he said, “I won’t really know till they actually do the operation.”

And afterwards I found out that they’d replaced the whole knee. They said the other cartilage was absolutely worn, the knee was almost shot away, you know. So they replaced both cartilages and put a new kneecap in. I felt it after a few weeks at home and thought well that kneecap doesn’t feel like my own, you know. 

It’s good though. It’s good, you know. But it was a good job Mr [consultant’s name] done, you know. And his friends, well I saw his friend when I went back, his partner. He said he did, they did the operation in about two hours.

Two hours.

And I was quite pleased. But it’s certainly made a, it’s certainly made a difference.