Orthopedic surgeon shares his own knee replacement journey

If anyone should ever ask, Dr. Raymond Meyer can now attest to his patients that, in fact, he has felt life-altering arthritic knee pain, experienced the surgery and pushed himself through physical therapy. In a way, he has walked in their shoes.

“I have a completely different appreciation for the patient,” Dr. Meyer says. “I’m not saying you need to go through it to empathize, but it was certainly a lesson learned for me.”

A board-certified orthopedic surgeon with Morris Hospital Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, Dr. Meyer recently decided that the arthritic knee pain he battled for years was simply becoming too much to fight through. On Dec. 2, 2022, he turned to his trusted colleague Dr. Keith Rezin for a Total Knee Replacement on his left knee – a procedure that Dr. Meyer himself has performed many times on patients in the past.

Eight weeks following the surgery, shortly after finishing his final physical therapy session, Dr. Meyer reflected on the experience and his new perspective on the patient’s journey.

“Having had the surgery has enhanced my qualities as a surgeon,” says Dr. Meyer, who has worked as an orthopedic and sports medicine physician for more than 26 years. “It adds just an overall general knowledge of what the patient is experiencing. It gives me a completely different perspective from the patient’s standpoint that will help me empathize and hopefully be a better physician and surgeon.”

At 58 years old, Dr. Meyer had experienced knee troubles dating back to his days as a football player in high school and college. He had the cartilage removed in both knees back then, a practice not typically done today and a likely reason why his knee condition worsened over the years.

Over the years, Dr. Meyer learned to live with knee pain. While he always knew a knee replacement was likely in his future, it wasn’t until about six months ago when he simply couldn’t ignore the problem anymore. The left knee quickly worsened, growing more painful, becoming crooked and causing him to lose an inch in height.

“It went downhill fast,” Dr. Meyer said. “Within like six or eight months, it really deteriorated. It just kept getting worse and worse and more debilitating.”

He first tried a cortisone shot to numb the pain, but that didn’t seem to offer him much relief. Knowing as a physician all that’s involved with surgery, Dr. Meyer then weighed the time he would have to miss from work and the rehabilitation required after the surgery in comparison to the much needed relief he desperately sought for his knee. He knew it was time.

“I couldn’t have postponed it for another couple months,” Dr. Meyer says. “You get to a point where you know it’s time, and I knew it was time. I couldn’t keep going the way I was going.”

When the decision was made, Dr. Meyer turned to the physician and team he trusted most for his surgery and physical therapy, the very people he works with at Morris Hospital Orthopedics & Sports Medicine. He has known Dr. Rezin since he was a senior medical student and today considers him a good friend.

Dr. Rezin performs upwards of 150 knee replacement surgeries each year and uses the Signature Knee Replacement System, which is known for a quicker, less painful recovery than a traditional knee replacement.

“I’ve always respected Dr. Rezin,” Dr. Meyer says. “He’s an excellent surgeon. He’s very bright. He cares about his patients. I knew Keith would do a good job.”

Another benefit was that Dr. Meyer qualified to have his knee replacement performed as an outpatient at Deerpath Ambulatory Surgical Center, a joint venture between Morris Hospital and area physi- cians. Three days after the surgery, he started physical therapy just down the hall from his Morris office.

Dr. Meyer admits that the first couple weeks of healing and being limited in movement were tough physically and mentally. Yet even while his knee was swollen and stiff in the days following surgery, he was amazed that the pain in his knee was instantly better.

“I got so used to living with arthritis, maybe that’s why I didn’t have much pain afterwards,” Dr. Meyer says. “I had the relief. Even though I didn’t have the strength and was swollen and bruised, I didn’t have that pain anymore.”

As the days passed, things got easier and easier. In physical therapy, Dr. Meyer formed a bond with the physical therapists and other patients, some of whom he had even performed surgery on days before undergoing his own surgery. He is still building confidence with stairs and icy surfaces, but the overall pain in his knee is minimal.

About five weeks into his rehabilitation, Dr. Meyer returned to work and started seeing patients in the office. By the first of February, he returned to emergency room call and was back in the operating room performing scheduled orthopedic surgeries.

Being an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Meyer admits he did have an advantage by knowing the keys to recovering from knee replacement surgery. He is proud of the progress he’s made, but knows more is still needed.

“I knew that I had to push through this,” Dr. Meyer says. “The hardest thing is going to get back to the level I was at, but that’s just going to take some more healing time.”

For more information got to Morrishospital.org