Patient Testimonials

As Tyler’s dad, I’ve watched him grow from a second-grader who always put his team first to a high school athlete excelling in football, basketball, and baseball. Football was always his dream.

During his sophomore year, while pitching in a spring baseball game, Tyler suffered a hip flexor injury. Since TCO is Spring Lake Park’s Official Sports Medicine Provider, he turned to trusted Athletic Trainer Sarah Boo for guidance. With her help, we met with Dr. Jason Barry, who identified the injury and created a recovery plan. That summer, Tyler worked tirelessly with TCO Physical Therapist Mark Weigand and was ready in time for his junior season.

Despite all that work, the season didn’t go as planned. It was a tough year filled with frustration and missed opportunities, and Tyler was determined to make his senior year count. Then, just three games into the season, he broke his collarbone. Dr. Barry was able to quickly get him in for surgery. One plate. Seven screws. Tyler was devastated, thinking his dream of a final season was gone.

With the support of Sarah, Dr. Barry, and Mark, Tyler began a focused recovery. Against the odds, he returned early and helped propel the Panthers to a perfect season and a state title.

To Sarah: Your steady presence and care have meant the world to Tyler and so many athletes.

To Mark: Your guidance through two recoveries made this return possible.

To Dr. Barry: Thank you for your skill and support in getting Tyler back on the field.

The entire TCO team has made a lasting impact, not just in healing injuries, but in restoring hope.

My mother, who is 89 years old, was receiving back injections, nerve ablations, and even had an electronic nerve stimulator implanted in her back. Over a 15-year period of trying to ease her serve back pain, there was no relief. She lived in terrible pain every single day!

After tons of research to try to help my mother, I found Dr. Hoel at Twin Cities Orthopedics and made her an appointment. Although we did not have a current MRI available, only previous CT scans, Dr. Hoel told my mom that he knew where her pain was coming from. He ordered her a back injection along with getting her an MRI. After that injection, her pain has been gone over the last six weeks! It was truly a miracle! My mom recently got her MRI, and we will be following up with Dr. Hoel. We were so blessed to have found him, and we give him our deepest appreciation and thanks.

Dr. James Bircher replaced my left knee on September 9th, 2025. It feels amazing and I am super happy with him and his team! They have been very professional and courteous toward me. Thank you again to Dr. Bircher and his team. I am looking forward to having my right knee replaced on January 6th.

Everything about my experience was super! I am thrilled to be able to use my hand again. I have been able to sleep every night since my surgery with no pain. Dr. Dwivedi is very caring, and I would recommend him to anyone!

Dr. Vanden Berge did a super job with my surgery and after care! He was very clear and concise, which helped me confidently start walking without crutches and reintroduce driving at eight weeks post-operation. Of course, I am still careful though during my recovery.

For years I suffered with knee pain attributed to arthritis. After suffering a few falls, which unfortunately had me landing on my knees, I began going to physical therapy in hopes of strengthening the knee and reducing the pain. The therapist at TCO highly recommended me to Dr. Bircher.

He has been wonderful with his calm and patient personality! He gently guided me through alternative procedures to surgery, since I felt I was not ready to go through with an operation yet. The cortisone injection sadly had no effect on my pain. A few months later, we tried a gel injection. It worked for two months and significantly relieved my pain, but not the full six months like we had hoped. We tried the gel injection one more time after a six-month break and there it had no effect that time. He never made me feel rushed during our appointments and he let me take my time voicing my fears and concerns. Thanks to Dr. Bircher’s patience and dedication in trying to find alternative solutions before surgery, I finally agreed to the knee replacement.

On the day of my procedure, I was reassured, impressed, and comforted during visits from his team as they each explaining their “role” in the process. The Rom-tech device and the ice compression machine were both vital in my first month of recovery. Regular physical therapy following the procedure was another requirement to help strengthen the knee and start regaining mobility. I cannot say enough good things about Dr Bircher, his team, and the TCO Excelsior therapy staff!

Thank you to Dr. Knowlan and his team for everything they did to make my knee replacement journey so successful and pleasant. I have enjoyed working with all of them. Dr. Knowlan is the best! His astounding expertise, surgical skills, and personality are astounding.

I’ve been managing ongoing back pain with TCO’s Dr. Frederick Harris and his PA, but one Saturday morning I woke up barely able to move. I planned to go to a TCO urgent care location.

My daughter checked online for wait times, and we saw Eden Prairie had no wait. I hadn’t realized TCO had multiple urgent care locations! I usually go to Burnsville since it’s closest to home, but Eden Prairie was the clear choice that day.

After checking in, I was called back almost immediately and seen by a provider who gave me a treatment plan, including physical therapy and medications to hold me over until my follow-up with Dr. Harris. I was in and out in under 20 minutes. Best of all, I was back on the sidelines cheering for my grandchildren at their soccer games.”

I’ve dealt with foot problems my whole life. As a kid, as a teenager, even when I joined the Army, it never went away. I then hurt my right foot during training, and after that, I spent years seeing different doctors who couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I had surgeries, plates, bone scans, therapy, you name it. Nothing worked. Eventually, I was told there was nothing more they could do. I just had to live with it.

For nearly 20 years, I couldn’t walk 50 feet without pain. Then one morning, I heard a TCO commercial on the radio. Chris Hawkey was talking about his own experience, and something about it stuck with me. I decided to call. From the moment I walked into the clinic, I knew it was different. Everyone was respectful, helpful, and kind. When I met with Dr. Scott Holthusen, he looked at my X-rays, examined my feet, and said, ‘We can fix this.’ No one had ever said that to me before. He explained everything clearly and laid out a plan.

When surgery day came, the whole TCO team made me feel at ease. The nurses were incredible. When I woke up from surgery, I started crying because for the first time in more than 20 years, I wasn’t in pain. My recovery took time. I started physical therapy with Jenn Bradley, and she was amazing. She believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. Eventually, we began aquatic therapy, and it helped me take those first steps again. Slowly but surely, I began to see progress.

A few months later, I was walking. A few months after that, I was hiking again, something I hadn’t done since I was a teenager. I can now mow my lawn, shovel my driveway, and live without thinking about pain every day. TCO didn’t just fix my foot. They gave me back my life. Every person I met there treated me like family, and that made all the difference.

I had a full hip replacement with Dr. Carlson at TCO Chaska in the Ridgeview building. Dr. Carlson and his team were knowledgeable and approachable experts. From start to finish the procedure went smoothly with incredible staff involved in each step of the process. Both the TCO clinic and Ridgeview were clean and staffed with friendly professionals. Everything was a 10 out of 10 experience. I highly recommend them to everyone.