Patient Testimonials

I just want to thank Dr. Gesensway and his team (Julie in PT and Sarah his medical coordinator) for all their hard work to get me fixed up. I had Dupuytrens disease in my left palm and in 2 fingers on the same hand. Had surgery in October 2019 and after a month or so I had full use of my left hand. If luck would have it, I also had Dupuytrens in my right palm and extensive damage to my pinky finger from a prior surgery, and Dupuytrens in my little finger to complicate matters. Dr. Gesensway took care of me for this in early December of 2019. Although I am still tender and recovering from the latter, his work and expertise in surgery is wonderful. He is a very caring yet funny guy. He actually takes the time to explain things and listens to feedback, unlike a lot of health care professionals. Thanks again Dr. Gesensway.

I want to personally thank Dr. Gesensway for the amazing experience with my hand surgery. My fingers have been bent for a very long time and never thought I would be able to have full use of my hand and fingers. Dr. Gesensway was very knowledgeable on this rare condition and has been very helpful after the surgery with recovery and advice. I would strongly recommend Dr. Gesensway! Ben I.

Thank you to Dr. Bakker and staff. I was awake during the procedure and the staff made me very comfortable and eased my stress. I could tell that each person through check-in, surgery and checkout were very caring. I was also very impressed with Dr. Bakker that he called the next day to see how I was doing (huge kudos on that). Also Jenna was amazing, you could tell she cared and is very good at her job. Her communication and efficiency before and after the surgery was spot on. Thank you for that. I would highly recommend Dr. Bakker and his staff. WELL DONE!!!!

What a great day it was! My surgery was scheduled and performed on time, as promised- by my wonderful surgeon, the best there is, Dr. Moeller. My time in the operating room was filled with smiles and laughter as we chatted away the surgery being performed on my wrist. Before I knew it, we were done. I didn’t have to be put under, pain was controlled, but only lasted a day and my recovery has been wonderful. The scar is barely visible. In fact, I had another doc tell me the incision work was great. Thank you, Dr. Moeller, you released my carpal tunnel so I can finally conduct my life as a two handed person! Bye-bye numbness, hello hand!

Three years ago I came to see Dr. Bakker because the tip of my right third finger was numb. At that first visit, he told me I had bilateral carpal tunnel and needed surgery. I had no idea what a journey that would lead to. Over the course of the next three years, I would have ten surgeries with him. The final one (hopefully) being this February. He is the reason I am still able to work.

While I am grateful to him for his surgical skills, he did so much more than that. I had given up ever finding out what was going on with me when I first saw him. I figured I was just going to have to live with all my symptoms. He encouraged me to keep pushing for a diagnosis and reinforced for that something is truly wrong. Now, I do not have a definitive diagnosis. However, I have a team of doctors in place that believe in me. I am currently exploring genetic causes with Mayo Clinic. Dr. Bakker was the catalyst that helped me keep going. I owe him so much.

Dr. Mark Fischer saw me quickly and scheduled surgery in 2 days. I had a horribly fractured wrist that needed 2 plates and 10 screws to repair. He was a wonderful technician with great bedside manner. I healed with no infection or complications. Therapy has helped get me close to normal. It has been 7 weeks. I would recommend him highly.

I suffered my injury last summer on a vacation weekend to the Upper Pennisula. We were visiting family and enjoying a little “heaven on earth”, as my brother lives on a beautiful piece of property right on the shores of Lake Michigan / Big Bay De Noc. Early on the Sunday morning we planned to head for home, I decided I wanted to swim one last time in the lake. It had been such a pleasant, enjoyable day in the water the day before, so I just wanted that one last swim. The lake bottom is really rocky and you have to pick your way carefully in before you get out to sandy bottom. I never got out that far. I was wearing water shoes and thought I was being cautious enough, but before I knew even what happened, I was down in the water and instantly felt excruciating pain in my left wrist. As I recovered from the initial shock and tried to sort out what had happened, I picked my left arm up. I remember looking at it and seeing how oddly deformed it was, the pain registering in my brain and realizing that “something ain’t right here.” I had to crawl back in to shore, on my knees and using my elbows. Let’s just say that my entourage and I packed up our stuff and headed back for home a little earlier than we had planned. I decided that I would wait until I got back home and to a healthcare facility I was comfortable with. That was a loooonnnnngggg 6 hour car ride back home.

Now, enter TCO. When we got back to my hometown of Stillwater, MN, I went immediately to the ER at Lakeview Hospital. I was informed that, indeed, I had broken bones and suffered a “Colles” fracture of the wrist; a common injury that occurs when you extend your arm to break your fall. The ER doctor did the best he could for me that day and then gave me the referral to TCO. He informed me that I might need surgery to repair my wrist if TCO thought they couldn’t reset the bones properly. I was scared. I had never broken any bones before and to think I might need surgery? Yes, I was frightened at the thought and whether or not I would regain complete function of my hand and wrist again.

I was fortunate to get into TCO within a week of my injury and saw Dr. Ryan Karlstad. He specializes in the hand and wrist. He immediately put me at ease, he was so kind and soft spoken and yet honest. He gave me a few options and surgery was a definate part of any of the options. Of course he had to inform me of the risks of surgery and the possibilities of not recovering full mobility or function of my hand and wrist afterwards. I opted to have him do an ORIF (open reduction and internal fixation) using a plate and screws. He informed me this would be the optimal route to go for best and long lasting positive results. Within a week of my injury, I was in the High Pointe surgical suites getting my fracture repaired!

I started occupational therapy very soon after with Bonnie VanDeMark OTR/L, CHT. I loved Bonnie. She is about the same age as me and shared the same sense of humor as me. I related so well to her that I actually enjoyed going to my sessions with her. I was almost sad when we were all done! Aside from her having a such a wonderful personality, she really knows her stuff! She gave me new and progressive exercises each time I saw her and measured my progress every time. Now, I am a really good patient, too, and always did my exercises religiously since I obviously wanted to get back to “normal” mobility and activity. I had to do my part.

I enjoy walking, hiking, yoga, Pilates, and my newest and latest passion, pickleball. You don’t realize until you can’t do things, how frustrating it is to have to require help to make a bed, fold clothes, put on a shirt, open a jar, or carry a laundry basket downstairs. Nope, I was going to do everything in my power to recover completely because I am fiercely independent (and am quite particular in how things ought to be done, my family will tell you I am a little OCD that way).

Even with my fractured wrist, though, and splint on, I went to my 3 x week Pilates classes faithfully. And there was no reason not to continue my daily walks, I didn’t break a leg, after all. I figured I would do as much as I could physically without the use of one arm, as there was no reason not to, right? I remember my Pilates instructor and the usual Pilates groupies marveling at my one armed planks, three point push ups, and “off balance” roll downs. Within a few short weeks, I was doing full planks, pushups and weight bearing yoga and Pilates exercises with no pain. That’s incredible and I just can’t believe that I am “back to normal” activity and mobility again, pain free!

I thank the huge role my caregivers and therapist from TCO did for me in this whole recovery process. I would probably not be considered a success otherwise. I guess my point also would be to emphasize to not count yourself out. Be in the mindset that if you do all that is requested of you from your TCO care team, you too, can be a successful “Comeback Story” like this 60 year old, retired, ordinary Grandma… ME! Thank you TCO!

I just wanted to take a moment to let anyone interested in hand surgery to consult with Dr. Amy Moeller at Twin Cities Orthopedics (TCO). I, and my family, have had to utilize TCO on a number of occasions, and then recently I required surgery on my hand. Dr. Amy Moeller was recommended to me, and subsequently, she performed very successful surgery on my hand. I cannot speak highly enough about her abilities, as well as the attitude and performance of her team – from greeting/scheduling, to surgical environment, to the surgery itself and after-care. And I would have to emphasize her “bedside manner” – Dr. Moeller is outstanding in listening, understanding and relating. I have in the past done some consulting concerning operating room environments and safety – and hers was exemplary. Should anyone reading this need hand surgery, Dr. Moeller is the finest.

As a therapist myself, it was hard to become a patient suddently. But after recreational softball caused me to have several orthpedic injuries in a matter of years (2007 and 2009), I was fully thrown into the role of patient. My first injury was a fractured ulna from a softball that hit the arm I was using to get off the ground after a slide. When Dr. Meyer presented the options of being casted for 8 weeks (with the possibility of still needing surgery) or surgery, I chose to have ORIF surgery so I could be back to work in two days. He helped me get into therapy that Friday for a splint so I could continue my memorial day camping plans and then I was back at work the following Monday (yes with a splint and lifting restrictions)!

I was able to resume softball by August and had a full return of strength and function within 6 months. It was wonderful! Unfortunately, 2 years later at the end of the recreational softball season during the Championship game, a close call at second base caused me to have to lunge back to the base and onto the glove the the short stop execuring a diving tag. I stepped on his glove which was going perpendicular to my direction and felt an instant pop and twist of my knee. Again, as a therapist myself, I knew immediately that I now too had become a knee patient. I didn’t know how severe it was at the time, but I knew it wasn’t great. I got a knee brace and, a few days after this injury, my knee completely gave out on me while getting out of my car and I fell onto the concrete and tragically dislocated my elbow. This would all be tragic enough, had this also not been a week before my wedding. As my husband and I met playing softball, the plan was to play softball at our wedding. Now I have a torn up knee and an elbow that is black and blue from wrist to armpit.

I saw Dr. Meyer for follow up on the elbow and he referred me to Dr. Knowlan and an MRI of the knee. I was able to get through my wedding without crutches and a beautiful knee brace under my wedding dress! I was able to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at our wedding and then pose for some pictures with the teams and ‘batting’ before I excused myself from play. It made for great pictures! The MRI returned and it was a torn ACL, MCL, frayed meniscus, bone chips off the tibia, sprained fibular collateral ligament and surgery would be recommended. I went on my honeymoon with a hinged knee brace and a hinged elbow brace.

Spring of the next year I decided to have the ACL repaired. In the years since the surgeries I returned to playing softball, to prove to myself that I didn’t have a ‘career ending’ injury. In an attempt to take up a safer sport that wouldn’t require so much time off work if injrued, we took up golf and now only sub on softball leagues. In the recent years, I have started running and have run several 5K races and am pleased to report that on the most recent one on April 7th, Goldy’s Run, I had zero knee pain! NONE! On another note, I just got asked to sub on a softball team and am actually considering it despite my bad luck with injuries. This wouldn’t be an option to consider were it not for my wonderful surgeons that put me back together!

I am an avid golfer. I am not saying that I am good (so don’t look for me on the LPGA tour) but I love the game!! I noticed my hands in particular my thumb (carpometacarpal) joints started to bother me. Hanging onto my driver to hit my ball would cause intense pain in my CMC joints. Usually by the tenth hole, I could no longer grip my clubs to achieve the results I wanted. Besides golf issues, turning door knobs or opening jars became painful as well. I met Dr. McCarthy years before when she fixed my wrist fracture, so I decided to see her for the thumb joint issues. She did cortisone injections and prescribed splints.

Finally we reached the point where surgery would be the only option. I had carpometacarpal arthroplasty on my left thumb joint. The results where fabulous. No longer did I have pain in my left hand but the right one also got some relief and no longer needed surgery. When I say the results where fabulous, it’s an understatement. I went back to golfing and scored my first hole-in-one, which I won’t contribute to my golfing skills but will give credit to Dr. McCarthy. I scored my second hole-in-one the next year!!