Meet Patricia Fordney, the “poster child” of knee replacement recovery, according to The Corvallis Clinic Orthopedics Department.
After suffering debilitating pain from knees that she said had “fallen apart,” the retired nurse is back globetrotting, bike riding, and cliff climbing. She believes being a floor nurse for 35 years – in addition to “dragging her two daughters up the mountains in Alaska,” where she spent a good part of her life – might have been the cause.
Starting in 2008, she began getting knee injections every six to eight months. Her last injection was in November 2012, but it did not help. “Neither did climbing around the Mayan temples the next month,” Fordney admits. “I was tired of the pain and limited activity. I knew my life was seriously compromised, and I figured the knee replacement was imminent.”
Dr. Bruce Bynum replaced her right knee in March 2013. Fordney was nervous about the surgery. “I was a nurse so I know what can happen,” Fordney said. “Plus, I have a good imagination.” Fordney then had her left knee done two months later.
“I am so grateful for the modern technology because I would be on the sidelines. It’s been a God send.”
Fordney, who also has a BA in archeology, wanted to go to Macedonia, Greece the summer after the surgery for a Roman pottery restoration class in the Stobi Ruins, but Dr. Bynum advised her not to leave the country. Instead, she merely hiked around Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. “I sent a card to Dr. Bynum’s office that stated: ‘Veni, Vedi, Walkie’ – I came; I saw; I walked.”
In 2014, Dr. Bynum gave her the green light to travel to Greece. She not only attended the pottery class but also hiked around the Meteora Cliffs with her daughter. She also had the excitement of being a passenger on a motor scooter driven by her daughter. “I was thinking, ‘Forgive me Dr. Bynum, if I break something.’ I was hoping I wouldn’t have to call him.”
Fordney said, in the end, being active all her life, aided in her being able to bounce back so quickly. “I did 90 minutes a day on my stationary bike during the winter prior to surgery,” she said. “Having good quads I feel really helped me with my recovery. And after each knee surgery I started physical therapy and was on my bike doing laps around my neighborhood within three to four weeks after surgery.”
And what does Fordney have in her sights this summer?
“I hope to do some camping, explore eastern Oregon, maybe Yellowstone and Glacier. I finished reading “The Monuments Men” and would love to see some of the art work mentioned in it. You got to get out, go after it and live when you can.”
