On November 14, 2014, in Wausau WI, I had a Total Left Knee Replacement, at the age of 63. On December 26, 2014, I was going down stairs to our lower level, and my left foot slipped on the 2nd to last stair, hit the floor hard, but I did not fall. I immediately had extreme pain in my left knee area. My doctor was on vacation and I was 5 weeks into my PT for my knee replacement. When PT examined my knee they were pretty sure I had torn my Quad Muscle , since I could no longer lift my leg. My surgeon confirmed, this and I had surgery on January 13, 2015 to repair my Quad. We moved to Elk River MN in July of 2015. Of course that meant finding all new doctors. We heard great things about Dr. Nathan Norquist and I met with him and knew right away, he was the doctor I was looking for. I was not feeling well at all. I had lost a lot of wait and my left knee/quad area was causing me pain. He referred me to Twin Cities Orthopedics and gave me names of two doctors that he felt could help me. One of those was Dr.Kruse. I met with him and I saw him a couple of times. He said he would like me to see another TCO doctor at another location. I saw this doctor a number of times and he thought it was my Quad Muscle that was not fully healed or strained. He put me back in a brace so I could rest it, and I was eventually released with the thought that the problem was the Quad Muscle. In December 2016, I went back to Dr. Kruse, and he asked me how my knee was doing, and I told him not good. He remembered that he had referred me to another doctor, so he asked his assistant to pull up all the records of what had been done. I told him I was so frustrated, because everyone was pointing to the Quad as the problem, but it was the knee that was causing the problem. My left knee was extremely warmer than my right, and any time I would walk or do really anything, my knee would turn red. Also, it felt like my knee was filled with Arthritis. As I would walk, it would just stiffen up more and more. It felt like I could feel the parts in my artificial knee bend with each step I took. Dr. Kruse, after examining me, told me I was right, and there was something wrong. The first thing he did was check to see if I had an infection in the knee. That came back negative. The next thing he wanted to check was to see if I was allergic to any of the metals in my knee. I told him that I would buy costume jewelry, and I had no problems with it. But, I did remember that way back in high school, my class ring did give me problems. Well the test came back saying I was Highly Reactive to Nickel and Mildly Reactive to Aluminum. I knew immediately that I wanted that knee taken out, and replaced with a new knee, minus the Nickel and Aluminum! Dr. Kruse referred me to Dr. Arntson for my total knee replacement / revision. I will never be able to thank Dr. Kruse enough, for taking the time and steps he did, in finding out what was really wrong with my knee replacement! I also want to thank him for referring me to Dr. Arntson. My total knee replacement / revision went so well. I walked out of the hospital and just used one crutch, when I went out of the house, for the first two weeks. After that I did not need it at all. I was released from PT at the end of 5 weeks and I could bend my knee to 138 and straighten in to 0. Thank you Dr. Arntson! I also feel so much better health wise. I had changes/symptoms to my body happen, after my first knee replacement, but I never related them to the knee. After, my revision they went away. Also, I wish I could have had the test to see, if I was allergic to any metals, before I had my first knee replacement. It would have saved me from years of pain and a knee revision after only 2 years and 3 months. Now, I am looking forward to enjoying the summer walking and riding my bike!
