Four weeks and one day after a total replacement of his right knee, 20 days shy of his 85th birthday, a chipper Vinnie Larucci fairly strides into the Beaufort Memorial Outpatient Rehab Orthopaedic Clinic for a physical therapy session, unassisted by assistive devices of any kind. A walking endorsement for an excellent outcome, he can’t say enough about Dr. Vandit Sardana, the board-certified orthopedic surgeon who made it possible.
“He did a wonderful job!” Vinnie says of Dr. Sardana, who came to Beaufort Memorial Orthopaedic Specialists last summer from the prestigious fellowship training program in adult reconstructive orthopedics at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. “I really like the man. When I go in to see a doctor and the doctor talks to me, I like that.”
The pain in his knee began with a middle-of-the-night fall some four years ago. After epidural steroid injections failed to do the trick, X-rays revealed a disk impinging on a nerve. A doctor in his native Illinois performed back surgery, and the pain disappeared.
For a while. It got better, and then it got worse, says Vinnie, who together with his partner, Barbara Handburg, divides his time between Oswego, Illinois, and Harbor Island.
About six months ago, worse became much worse. “It hurt me, and I couldn’t walk,” he says. A specialist in Chicago told him he’d need a new knee, but the specialist was booked out for months.
The couple left early for the Lowcountry, thinking a warmer climate might help. It didn’t, though they found someone who did.
Dr. Sardana, emphatically a specialist in his own right, confirmed the diagnosis and scheduled Vinnie’s knee replacement surgery for December 20. He also prescribed six weeks of “prehab” to strengthen his patient’s leg muscles and prepare him for postsurgical rehab.
“I found it very helpful,” the patient says.
Joint replacement 101
Very helpful, too, he adds, was the joint replacement information session for patients and their “first mates” conducted by Andrea Sadler, Beaufort Memorial’s encyclopedically knowledgeable orthopedic care coordinator. Both he and Barbara attended the session, and though his two brothers and his first mate herself had all had knees replaced, the couple learned plenty.
Vinnie spent just one night in the hospital. After two weeks of in-home physical therapy, he graduated to out-patient rehab. There, three times a week, PT pros Ashley Sanders and Betsy Alter put him through his paces. “If you hurt me...,” he frequently mock-warns them with a grin.
At four weeks and one day post-op, the retired General Motors employee is feeling remarkably good. He’s taken off 15 pounds, and the day before he logged a first: navigating a flight of stairs, up and down and using both legs, behind Barbara’s two Shih Tzus.
He does admit to a twinge of pain now and then—“it’s a little ouchy at times”—but Vinnie’s looking ahead: His yearly fishing trip to Canada, a 20-year tradition for him and his two sons, will be here before he knows it.
“We’ll eat fish,” he says happily, “all week long.”
Is knee or hip pain keeping you from doing the activities you love? Learn about all of your options for relieving and resolving pain from in-home exercises and medical management to physical therapy and surgery in the free Solving Hip and Knee Pain class.