Knee Surgery Gets Wendy Back in the Game

For Wendy Bradshaw, life is about sports. She plays tennis with her husband, Scott, and her family plays Knockout (a pickup basketball game) at get-togethers. Yet recently Bradshaw, 57, of Telford, was stuck on the sidelines.

“I had chronic knee pain for three years,” she says. She endured physical therapy, injections and surgery to repair a torn meniscus. Nothing helped. The pain hampered her daily activities and affected her role as girls’ tennis coach at Lansdale Catholic High School. “I could feed tennis balls to my players and instruct them, but I couldn’t run without pain,” she says.

Friends recommended she see orthopaedic surgeon Paul Weidner, MD, with Upper Bucks Orthopaedics at Grand View Health. “I saw the story in HealthView about the lady (Marjorie Monahan) who had robotic knee surgery with Dr. Weidner,” Bradshaw says. “I knew he was the doctor for me.”

Together, Bradshaw and Dr. Weidner discussed options. Because Bradshaw’s pain affected only one of the three compartments of the knee, Dr. Weidner recommended partial knee replacement surgery, in which only the damaged part of the knee is replaced with an implant.

Partial knee replacement involves a smaller incision than total knee replacement. “It’s a popular option for younger patients with arthritic knees and the recovery is quicker than a total knee replacement,” says Dr. Weidner. “A partial knee replacement lasts as long as a total knee replacement.”

Dr. Weidner used the Mako® Robotic Arm-Assisted Surgical System to perform the procedure. “Mako’s precision allows us to design an implant that fits partial knee replacement patients like Wendy perfectly,” he says.

Bradshaw scheduled the surgery for April 23, so she’d recover in time to watch her soon-to-be-born grandchild. She returned home after two nights at Grand View Hospital, then started physical therapy from Keith Henry with Grand View Home Care. “I didn’t have a ride to physical therapy, so having Keith come to my house was wonderful,” Bradshaw says.

By May 27, Bradshaw was watching her newborn grandchild. She attended one of her daughter’s weddings in June and another daughter’s wedding in September. “I built two cornholes, a doughnut wall, a table, a giant Jenga and decorated,” she says. “It used to be a chore to walk; now I’m getting everything done.”

Best of all, Bradshaw is playing tennis with her husband again, “and I won the first game of Knockout I played after the surgery,” she says.

Marjorie chose Grand View Orthopaedics for robotic-assisted total knee replacement surgery and she’s glad she did.

Read her story.

Paul Weidner, MD
Orthopaedic Surgeon
Upper Bucks Orthopaedics at Grand View Health