From Pain to Performance

Photography by James Moore

How Knee Replacement at Ozarks Healthcare Got Dave Grob Moving Again

There was a time when the pain in Dave Grob’s right knee was so bad, he couldn’t drive for any long period without taking frequent breaks during which he’d barely be able to hobble around. In those moments, the prospects of continuing doing the things he loved ― like riding his motorcycle or hunting in his native Wisconsin ― seemed to be things of the past. All of that changed thanks to Ozarks Healthcare and the new knee that’s got the 69-year-old retired maintenance technician back in the game.

“I had an appointment the other day with Dr. [Susan] Jolly and she said, ‘Well, what do you think? How do you feel?’ I went, ‘Well, I guess I feel all right, because I just went deer hunting in Wisconsin,’” he said with a chuckle. “I did a lot of walking through the snow and over stumps and everything else, which I swear I wasn't gonna do, but I did it anyway.”

Grob said the knee procedure was a long time coming, after “45 years of crawling and climbing and jumping and kickstarting the Harley Davidson for 38 years.” After moving to West Plains seven years ago, the pain finally got to him and he showed up at Dr. Jolly’s door.

“I think it was the second time I saw her and she took X-rays and then she said, 'The right one is shot and the left one isn't far behind,’” Grob said. “I didn’t know if I was ready to rush into it and then maybe a month or so later I got in and she said, ‘Well, when do you want to have this done?’ I said, ‘Yesterday.’”

Surgery day finally arrived last August, which Jolly performed using the hospital’s state-of-the-art surgical robot. Grob remembers the kindness of the pre-op personnel then waking up in recovery, followed shortly by his first exercise session. 

“My friend had his knee done and he told me they're gonna come get you right away,” he said. “They wheeled me into my room and then within an hour a guy was there. He had me walk to the door and back. Then a couple hours after that, they made me walk across the aisle to a little room and up, like, four steps. They don’t want you laying around.

“When they took me the first time, the nurse had a strap around me in case I would keel over and if I would've gone too much farther, I think I would've fell flat on my face. I was kind of doped up, you know. But I made it there and back to bed. The second one was a little better because I was kind of coming out of it. The guy even said ‘Boy, you did pretty good for being out of surgery for just three hours.’”

After being dismissed, Grob had in-home therapy and then outpatient therapy to continue the healing process, graduating from a walker to a cane to now not even needing so much as a knee brace.

“The outpatient therapy was way more helpful because of all the machines they have,” he said. “They’ve got the bike, they’ve got the leg presses and stuff like that and you need that. The in-home therapy was nice, but the therapy at the hospital was much more beneficial. I don't have a $2,000 universal weight machine in my living room, you know.”

As for Dr. Jolly’s assessment of his left knee, Grob said the joint isn’t giving him any discomfort right now so he’s not in a hurry to rush back into the operating room. When that changes, however, he knows where to go. 

“Right now, I don't feel any pain in the left, but [Jolly] was showing me the x-rays and you can see that there's some loss of cartilage there,” he said. “If it got to the point where I was limping or something, I would do it again, I suppose. Everyone there was all really good, all the nurses were very nice. The food was even OK.”