Karine's Story

A Florida Nurse Enjoys the Benefits of Hip Replacement Implants

As a nurse, Karine is used to taking care of other people. She describes herself as a very independent person who “always tries to smile.”

So she didn’t like it a bit when patients and co-workers in her Florida hospital started treating her differently. “Are you OK?” they would ask.

“I was a mess,” Karine says.

She’s referring to a sudden onset of pain in her knees in the spring of 2004. She later learned that the pain she felt in her knees was actually caused by badly diseased hips.

She endured the pain. But things got worse, fast. Her right leg actually became shorter. The osteoarthritis in her hips caused her to waddle when she walked, leading to comments and concern from people around her. She bought inserts for her shoes to even out her leg-length discrepancy.

The disease began to severely affect Karine’s lifestyle. She lives and works in Boynton Beach, Florida, in Palm Beach County just north of Boca Raton, where active outdoor living is a way of life. She is on her feet much of the day at work, and she enjoys golfing with her husband, Richard. The couple also travels extensively, having enjoyed 22 cruises over the years.

But with her hips virtually destroyed by arthritis, Karine’s life became a daily endurance test. Her hip joints would “lock up” on her. “I would shake them a bit to get it going again,” Karine says. She recalls seeing her reflection in a store window and being shocked at the image of an unrecognizable woman with a hobbled gait. It was all she could do to get through the day at work. Once after a hard day she smiled through her pain until she got to her car, where she broke down and cried. It was becoming unbearable.

“It was clear I was not going to heal myself,” Karine says. Her surgeon showed her x-rays of her hips, and the two of them decided on joint replacement surgery. Karine had both hips replaced; the first in April of 2005, and the second 15 weeks later in August 2005.

Her surgeon, Jeffrey Press, MD, replaced the diseased hip joints with hip replacement implants from DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. Because of Karine’s age at the time of her surgery, and because of her demanding work and active lifestyle, her surgeon chose hip replacements with metal-on-metal bearings. (For more on the importance of bearings in hip implants, click here.)

So, do nurses make good patients? “I admit it was difficult for me to depend on others.” She says her co-workers had been very understanding and helpful in the months before and after her surgeries. She spent about 4 days in the hospital after each surgery, followed by physical therapy at home and then in an outpatient facility. “The only soreness I had was from the surgical incision–not from the new joint,” Karine says. She and Richard prepared a bottom-floor bedroom for Karine in their two-story home during her recovery.

With Richard’s help getting the house ready for her recovery, Karine did well during her time at home. “I just missed being at work – I love my job,” says Karine.

Karine says life has improved for her since surgery. She exercises regularly on a stationery bike for 30 to 60 minutes at a time. “I find that the exercise really helps my recovery,” Karine says. Doing leg extensions in the swimming pool has also helped.

She and Richard are traveling again, most recently on a cruise to the eastern Caribbean islands. She’s golfing again, too. “I’m starting lessons now; I used to be pretty good.” The couple is planning a golf vacation to Orlando.

Her legs are the same length again, and her “waddle” is gone. She’s able to keep up her smiling disposition without covering up for the pain she felt before.

She’s back at work at the job she loves, taking care of others on the ambulatory surgery floor of her hospital. “Now I’m used as a show-and-tell for our nurse educators and patients,” Karine says. She loves to talk to people who are considering joint replacement surgery.

“Keeping your independence is the most important thing,” Karine says.

As happy as Karine is with her new hip replacement implants, her husband is just as happy. “Richard felt so bad when I was in pain and he couldn’t help me,” Karine said. “He hated that it was out of his control and he couldn’t stop my pain. That upset him terribly. He’s thrilled to have me back to the activities I enjoy.”

The performance of a hip replacement depends on your age, weight, activity level and other factors. There are potential risks, and recovery takes time. People with conditions limiting rehabilitation should not have this surgery. Only an orthopaedic surgeon can tell if hip replacement is right for you.

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