Pioneering knee surgery
When crippling arthritis left Karen Lovatt unable to enjoy the adventures she wanted, pioneering knee surgery let her live life to the full again
For many people, recovering from knee surgery might mean looking forward to going for walks and being able to drive again. But for Karen Lovatt, recovery meant booking up her calendar with all the exciting adventures she’d long planned but hadn’t been able to do because of knee pain caused by arthritis.
Karen first realised there was a problem with one of her knees when she struggled with a feeling of discomfort during a skiing holiday in 2016. Not thinking much of it, a few weeks later the discomfort turned into extreme pain and swelling in the knee so she decided to see a consultant. He told her she needed a full knee replacement as arthritis had worn away the cartilage in her bone.
“I was just 50 and horrified by the idea of having a full knee replacement and all the disruption that would come with it,” says Karen.
A keen adventurer at heart, she was used to travelling and doing voluntary work abroad, so she decided to soldier on. But she knew that the problem wasn’t going to go away, and would eventually stop her leading the life she wanted.
The crunch came while she was on a long-planned for trip to Guatemala. During the trip the pain became so great that she had to wear a leg brace and was unable to walk without sticks.
After returning home she arranged to see a physiotherapist who recommended a surgeon at the Spire Leeds Hospital who offered a pioneering partial knee replacement instead of the more disruptive full knee surgery. Karen said: “I just said to the surgeon please give me my life back as I’ve so much I want to do.”
On surgery day Karen was in the operating theatre for around 20 minutes. There was no general anaesthetic instead she had an epidural, numbing her from the waist down. Within just four weeks of the operation she had no pain at all in her knee. Since the surgery, Karen, who now has full mobility in the knee, has returned to her adventures including dog sled racing under the Northern lights, kayaking down Norwegian fjords, and volunteering at a lion sanctuary in South Africa. She said: “I’m so grateful to the knee surgeon, I could have kissed him. The partial knee replacement has really worked for me. Now I can live the life I want.”
■ If you would like to find out more about Spire Leeds Hospital, call 0113 218 5967 or visit the website www.spireleeds.com