Just 16 months after double knee replacement surgery Deanna Enright of Mankato says life is wonderful and she can do things without pain in her knees.

Deanna Enright meets a Cambodian author whose story details his life under the Khmer Rouge.

Deanna, a retired teacher, loves to travel.  She lived in Germany for two years teaching English, had been to Greece twice, has cruised on the Amazon River, and has seen the pyramids of Egypt.  It was her February 2020 trip to Vietnam and Cambodia that altered her travel plans.

For quite some time Deanna was experiencing pain in her right knee and was a patient of Dr. Jesse Botker at The Orthopaedic and Fracture Clinic.  “It didn’t become an issue,” she said about her right knee. “I was getting cortisone shots, which helped.”

The trip Deanna and her friend planned was a river boat cruise to Cambodia.  Each day the travel group would take day trips from Vietnam to Cambodia via Mekong Delta to visit historical sites.  On one of those day trips, Deanna hurt her knee.

“I jumped, I think, into the other boat and I did something to my left knee,” she recalled.  “I didn’t have shots in my left knee, it was fine and not a problem.”

Now it was a problem.  Deanna’s tour plans changed because of the pain she was experiencing. “I skipped a couple of tours because I couldn’t walk,” she said. “I couldn’t go up and down steps.  Mostly I stayed on flat land.”

She did not let the pain ruin her trip.  “I thought, I am going to do this.  I am not going to sit and watch the world go by.”

When arriving back home, Deanna made an appointment to see Dr. Botker to get her knee checked out and anticipated needing a cortisone shot in her now bad left knee.  She was told her knees were in bad shape and the newly hurt knee was bone-on-bone.

“He said he could do both knees at the same time,” she said about her discussion with Dr. Botker about joint replacement surgery.  She was surprised and a little hesitant at the idea of having both knees replaced at once.  Deanna said that Dr. Botker explained the benefits of having both replaced at the same time and the thought of having one surgery, one rehab and one hospital stay was appealing.

The COVID-19 pandemic delayed Deanna’s surgery a few months and on August 12, 2020 she checked into River’s Edge Hospital for her double knee replacement.

“I went in on Thursday and came home Saturday,” she said, still sounding amazed with her short hospital stay after getting two new knees.

The afternoon of her surgery, Deanna was already up and out of bed, trying out her new knees.  “I knew they would get me up. I was surprised I could do it!”

During Deanna’s stay visitors were not allowed at the hospital because of the COVID pandemic.  She was okay with that because she felt well taken care of by the staff at River’s Edge.

“I liked going to that hospital,” she said. “Everybody was so nice, kind and accommodating.”

Looking back on the past year since her double knee replacement, Deanna is doing well and is enjoying her next adventure – pain free. Once home, she went to physical therapy and learned how to adjust to life while healing.  “The hardest part was using the toilet,” she said.

Deanna says she would recommend having both knees replaced at the same time to anyone who is considering that option.  She also has important advice to help during recovery.

“Get an extension for the toilet seat.”