Patient Testimonials

I met Dr. Szalapski and had my first hip replaced at 42 years old – scared to death! It went perfectly and no limp. I had my knee replaced at around 50 years old and my other hip done a year later. Last year, I had my shoulder replaced and was told I may only get 70% of my range of motion back – I got 100%. I would never think of anybody but Dr. Szalapski to perform my surgeries when I have had the best care and absolutely no complications!! His support team and Jessica are the best also! Bonus he has a good sense of humor.

A friend of mine has seen Dr. Szalapski for over 20 years and gave him a glowing recommendation! I was struggling with my knees and walking stairs. The minute Dr. Szalapski walked in to see me, he was professional and down to earth! I immediately knew that I was going to like him. He watched me walk and looked at my knees and said right away I needed replacements. We did the left knee three years ago and the right knee this past summer of 2018. I am very happy with the outcome and can do the stairs with no pain. When I wanted more pain meds I was given the maximum allowed and was okay with that because I did not want to become addicted to a medication. I watched a child of mine struggle with addiction and knew that was not something I wanted or needed in my life! When Dr. Szalapski stops the pain meds he is following guidelines. I would recommend him to anyone that needs replacements!

I chose to have my knee replacement surgery with Dr. Szalapski based on the recommendation from my daughter. Dr. Szalapski and his staff walked me through the procedure and explained what to expect for surgery and recovery. 3 months post-surgery and everything is going well and I am feeling better. I would highly recommend Dr. Szalapski and the staff at New Prague surgery department.

On February 13th, 2018 I had my first knee replacement. Then on December 7th, 2018 I had my second knee replacement by Dr. Szalapski. He is very professional at his job, answered any questions I had and he had a good sense of humor. I would highly recommend him to anybody who needs a knee replacement! Thanks Doc for the good work!!
Ron G.

Before surgery, I could not walk across Home Depot without looking for a lawn chair to sit in because of aching pain in my leg. I also did not sleep well because of pain. After surgery the relief was immediate. All pain gone. I would do it again but very happy I don’t have to. Thank you Dr. DuBois!

I had torn my left meniscus in December 2017 and discovered I had no cartilage and I was filled with arthritis. In January 2018, I had surgery to try and take the rough edges off my meniscus but it was unrepairable. I had never had any knee trouble prior to this. Then in February 2018, my right knee started really hurting, I found out it too had no cartilage and was filled with arthritis. In just a few months, I went from exercising and living an active life, to being completely immobile and being in constant pain. Every step I took felt like a knife was going through my knees. I could barely make it through my work day, let alone anything else. I couldn’t even go grocery shopping without coming home in tears. I would spend my nights and weekends sitting on the couch doing nothing but watching TV and becoming more and more depressed. Then, in September, I tore my right meniscus. I didn’t think it could get any worse. I was told I needed two knee replacements but several doctors told me they wouldn’t do the surgery until I was in my 60’s. Then I found Dr. O’Neill, and he changed my life! He performed a double knee replacement in February 2019. I was able to leave the hospital on day 3 and go home (not to a rehab facility like we thought). I climbed the stairs and was able to sleep in my own bed! Within one month, I was walking my dog for over a mile every day, going for bike rides, and had a range of motion better than most people that have never had a knee replacement! My mental health has never been better, I feel like a new person and am grateful for every day. I enjoy waking up and living my day. I was able to attend my daughters college graduation with pure joy and no fear of how far I had to walk. Dr. O’Neill will never know how much I appreciate how much he did for me mentally as well as physically. He literally gave me my life back.

Imagine being sledded down a mountain “blue” ski run headfirst by ski patrol, while being wrapped up like a mummy, with a newly splinted leg! That was the beginning of my comeback story. The ambulance ride to Vail Hospital was brief and the emergency room staff quickly diagnosed the seriousness of my injury—a complete quadriceps tendon tear!

My choice was to either have immediate reconstructive surgery there or back in Minnesota. After conferring with my home doctor, the logical decision was to fly home and have the surgery and subsequent aftercare along with physical therapy, all at Twin Cities Orthopedics. I left Vail immediately, with a splinted leg and crutches, and was back in Minneapolis the next morning, en route to the Blaine TCO Urgent Care Center that also has surgical and physical therapy teams. Once there, I was examined and the Vail diagnosis was confirmed. My surgery was scheduled and following my pre-op physical, I arrived back at the Blaine TCO for surgery that was performed by Dr. Jason Barry with Rebecca Munson, PA-C, assisting.

The procedure involved the reattachment of the quadriceps tendon to the patella, along with 30 staples to close the wound site. I was released that day wearing a new, adjustable leg splint that could be dialed by degree to restrict knee flexing along with cautionary instructions not to re-injure the tendon and to follow a specific knee/quadriceps rehab protocol in physical therapy.

Snow and ice made navigating on crutches very difficult. With the leg splint set to no knee flexing for the next two weeks, my quality of life quickly deteriorated. One does not realize how difficult living can be without mobility until it happens. I somehow managed through the holidays.

At two weeks, I had a post surgery visit with Rebecca and had the staples removed. The battlefield surgery site was healing well and Rebecca gave me encouragement that indeed I was progressing. I received physical therapy orders consisting of twice weekly PT, working towards 60 degree of knee flex by the end of the next 30 days.

Previous to the accident, my wife and I had booked the month of January in Florida and now, I would begin my PT there away from snow and ice. Finding PT in Florida during the winter months proved to be difficult due to an abundance of seniors and golfers needing PT. Those first 30 days were challenging and I slowly made incremental progress towards my flex and strength goals.

I returned to TCO for my six-week post surgery checkup by Rebecca. The visible surgery site was now healed and I received new, twice weekly, physical therapy orders to rebuild my quadriceps strength, increase knee flexibility to 120 degrees, and improve my mobility with the goal of weaning myself off crutches by the end of the next 60 days.

I was fortunate to be assigned a highly trained and professional TCO physical therapy team primarily consisting of Ashley Rundle, DPT, and on occasion Maribeth Honomichl, ATC, PTA. The Blaine physical therapy center also contained state-of-the-art equipment that, along with instruction by the PT team, made a tremendous difference in the tempo of my recovery. For example, Ashley utilized their BFR (Blood Flow Restriction) machine on me that speeds up the strengthening of muscle mass by restricting blood flow to the affected area. Muscle mass strengthens more quickly in an anaerobic state. The PT team also gave me exercise routines to perform at home and as my progress improved, exercises were added to build my recovery step-by-step. I definitely could see I was making progress and this added to my confidence in regaining more mobility. Going down stairs by single stepping the treads was a concern of mine and we worked through that. Another concern was getting up off the floor without something to pull myself up with. Here again, the PT team worked with me to show me how I could accomplish this. Sounds simple, but again losing mobility and strength as I did, I had to regain my confidence and ability to do these tasks. The PT team made the therapy sessions fun that also encouraged me to do my PT homework. I always ended my PT sessions with their ice compression machine that reduced swelling and made my leg feel good.

I made my final post surgery visit with Rebecca after 3 months post surgery and she gave me the “return to normal activities” order. I felt like a marathoner running through the tape—I made it! While I know I still need to continue my strengthening, I have her confidence in my progress and the backup–if I need more care, don’t hesitate to call.

In summary, TCO provided compassionate care in all aspects (surgery and aftercare, physical therapy and training) that made my comeback story a success. All of their staff, including those not specifically named in this story (nurses, anesthesiologist, receptionists and others behind the scenes) played a vital role in my comeback and I am truly grateful. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend TCO to my family and friends! Thank you!

Hello! My name is Ann and I’ve been a nurse for 40 years now, started when I was 6! I manage the MN Veterans Home Adult Day Center, where a group of “angels” care for our nations Veterans who mostly suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. We call it, “the Vet’s Club”. I got up at 4am on the morning of December 7th, 2018 (D-Day) – should have known, and was so excited because we were having a holiday party for our Veterans and their families, and all the staff dress up silly. Well, coffee cup in hand and still half asleep, I tripped over a boot in the hallway at home, and went airborne landing on my left shoulder. All I saw were stars and felt pain like I’ve never felt before, made labor pains feel like a walk in the park. I crawled to my phone, called for help, and ended up at Fairview Ridges ER. Long story short, shattered neck of my humerus (not humorous to me!) and was sent to Burnsville TCO to see Dr. Lewis, who felt I had fallen the correct way and could possibly heal without surgery – I fell the right way! Yaay! Was he kidding? I could hardly move and about wanted to die from the pain. It’s funny how you take simple, everyday things for granted, like fixing your hair or brushing your teeth, until you can’t do them by yourself and have to rely on others – nurse’s are not good at asking for help! I, of course went back to work after 9 days, way before Doc Lewis said I could (don’t tell him!). Nurse’s make really bad patients! When Doc Lewis gave the okay, I was put into the wonderful hands of a physical therapist, Alex Niznik, who made me feel I could get my life back – no whining allowed! I worked with Alex every week and was doing so well, I graduated early! It’s been almost five months now, and nothing can stop this old nurse, daughter of a Marine – pain is just weakness leaving the body! I told that to Alex all the time. I really learned from Alex that if you think you can, and stay positive, you can do it! Alex – you ROCK! All my thanks, always, Ann.

I’m a soccer player and I first tore my ACL in August 2016. I had surgery and two weeks later had a second surgery due to a rare situation where the endpoint of my graft moved. I spent 6 months in PT with Deb Kostecki and Kelly Soukup. I returned to playing soccer in June 2017 and couldn’t be happier. I finished my club season by winning the Midwest regional championship and earning a trip to the national championships with my team. My high school season started again in August 2017 and my club season began in late October. I tore my ACL for a second time on Superbowl Sunday, Feb. 4, 2018. I also tore both of my meniscus at the same time. I had a 5 hour surgery on 2/21/18 where my ACL was reconstructed from my quad tendon, both meniscus were repaired and a cadaver tendon was placed along the side of my knee, like an internal splint. I started back in PT again a few days later with Kelly and Deb. I had so much scar tissue built up from my prior two surgeries that the nerves in my leg were affected and I couldn’t get my knee straight and had continual pain in my foot. My focus in PT was range of motion in my knee and recovery from the surgery. I struggled with both. In July 2018, I had the 4th surgery on my knee in 22 months. This time it was a soft tissue release and scar tissue was removed as well as the nerve in my leg being released from the scar tissue and internal stitches it had gotten stuck on. Immediately after the surgery, the pain in my foot was gone and my range of motion was improved. I’ve continued with PT since that point to work on range of motion and now strength. Since August 2017, I’ve had 4 surgeries on my left knee and been in PT for almost 2 years – 15 straight months with the last injury. While I’ve had to give up my dream of playing college and club soccer, my goal is to play one last season of high school soccer. My comeback story isn’t complete. I continue with PT once a week. I’m also participating in ACE Plus with Maggie Dewitz and training at Training HAUS to build strength in my leg. People think I’m crazy for wanting to play soccer again, but the entire team at TCO, my PT’s , Dr. Neil Johnson and the Training HAUS crew, including Kirk Olson and Scott Schriever, are helping me work for one last season of high school soccer so I can leave the game on my terms this time.

Oh, where to begin? I have received wonderful care from various providers at Twin Cities Orthopedics but the one who stands out the most is Dr. Allan Hunt. He has been my surgeon/doctor for the past 16 years. Playing sports always came natural for me, especially softball. However, playing ball ended up taking a toll on my body even up to my 40’s. But to find out playing ball actually saved my life down the road. I’ve had over 25 orthopedic surgeries from shoulders and hips to ankles and knees. Of course over the years, when you have all these surgeries, your body and your mental state sometimes and you become depressed, which I ended up being. I, of course, started to pack on the weight and started to get depressed. Many personal things had happened in my life after losing both my parents, a divorce, and I was later diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, which is a connective tissue disorder (diagnosed at 41). Even in my appointments with Dr. Hunt, my weight was never brought up even though I knew I needed to take charge of my life. Pushing close to 310, I knew I needed to take charge, so I started to work out and watch what I was eating. I was already having my 3rd knee surgery and of course it was progressively getting worse. As the weight was coming off, the knee just didn’t want to budge. After losing 170 pounds and 160 inches, even after all that I did my knee just gave out on me. I remember calling Kendra and telling her, “It’s time to schedule surgery for my TKA”, and she said “Okay, let’s schedule that appointment with Dr. Hunt.”

I saw him in July of 2018, the plan was to wait until I was 50, I was 45. I remember, he came in after looking at the X-rays and he looked at me and I looked at him and we both knew it was time. I scheduled my surgery for December. I wanted to get strong for this surgery, so I became diligent with the exercises and was working out more and getting my muscles strong. December 17th came and I was ready for this bionic knee. Surgery was done and Dr. Hunt said everything was great. I was working with the physical therapist at Aurora and I was doing such a great job that I graduated to using a cane when I went home the next day. When I started physical therapy at TCO, my physical therapist, was a little confused when he saw me he was like where is your walker and I told him, I graduated to a cane and I was told I didn’t need a walker. He smiled. Then we did my Hx & Px and then we went over to the bike and gave me a little pep talk and told me don’t get discouraged if you can’t do a full rotation on the bike. I get on the bike and I started to peddle away on the bike. He asked me when I had surgery and I told him Monday and it was Wednesday. He told me that he has been a physical therapist for almost 10 years and he has never had a patient be able to do a full rotation on the bike, where it can sometimes take 2 weeks to a month for some patients. Man that felt good to hear this. I had been working so hard to accomplish to get strong and get my quads even stronger. I had a total of 15 PT sessions, and was discharged before having my second post-op appointment with Dr. Hunt. In all of my surgeries, this has never happened. My ROM was near perfect, I got it to 141/0. I kept working at it and never gave up. I still workout and I still do my exercises, and I have to be that example for others especially dealing with having Ehlers Danlos. I may have a mild condition, but I don’t let it define me, I keep a positive attitude. In all these years, Dr. Hunt has played a huge impact, he has always been a huge advocate for me, he has been my support system, an encourager, and most importantly, a friend, and I am forever grateful for him.