A few years after knee replacement surgery, Joan Cunnington is back to knocking around tennis balls at a Toronto tennis club.
And off the courts, the 75-year-old dynamo is serving up advice and support to others who want to know what to expect as they too go under the knife.
She volunteers in a program called Ortho Connect that has just launched nationally to help the 70,000 or so Canadians who undergo hip and knee replacements each year if they feel the need for some verbal back-and-forth with a person who has had the experience.
“I think it’s very worthwhile and I think it’s very necessary,” Cunnington, who divides her time between Grimsby, Ont., and Toronto, said in an interview before heading out to a tennis date.
“A joint replacement patient has got a lot of questions that are not medically related and they need to talk to somebody who’s been through it and can help them prepare for the operation, and also to go through their recovery period and have a good result.”
In her own case, she developed osteoarthritis in a knee and had arthroscopic surgery because of torn cartilage.
The cartilage deteriorated to the point where she had to wear a brace. She fell over while playing tennis, landed on the brace, and that was it, she said.
“I became almost totally disabled. I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t do anything. So that was what led to my knee replacement. That was almost six years ago,” she explained.
During a pilot project for Ortho Connect, she would get two or three calls from patients some weeks, and at other times, she could go for several weeks without one.
“I think the most important thing on their minds is the pain, for one thing. The disability, how long will they be disabled, will they be able to get back to their previous life,” Cunnington said.
“I stress that it’s very important that they go to their physiotherapist and follow the exercises, and do the exercises until they’ve got their mobility regained.
“That is the most important thing, and I think it’s where a lot of patients don’t always follow through.”
About 100 volunteers have been recruited, said Angelique Berg, CEO of the Canadian Orthopaedic Foundation, which started the program.
The foundation can match patients with volunteers who have had other kinds of bone-related surgeries, in addition to hip and knee replacements.
“We’ve covered all of the different surgical sub-specialties that we can possibly cover,” Berg said, adding the volunteers typically spend about half an hour to an hour per call with a client.
“The common question is ‘What was the surgical experience like for you? Did it meet your expectations, was it better, worse?’
“They want to hear from the patient what that experience was like so they have a better understanding going in,” she said.
“A younger person is going to be concerned about how it’s going to affect my job, my family, how do I apply for short-term, long-term disability, how long do you think I’m going to need it, what was your experience like.”
Volunteers are screened to make sure they have the right skills to provide peer support, and they receive training on active listening and how to provide encouragement without overstepping boundaries and offering medical advice.
The volunteers get a binder of materials and take part in a one-day workshop, or else they receive training by phone.
Dr. Jason Werle, an orthopedic surgeon in Calgary, said he’s providing pamphlets about the program to patients.
“Surgical consultation time is often a relatively brief visit with the surgeon and most questions — relevant questions — get answered, but obviously the patient receives a lot of information in a very short period of time explaining the procedure, the risks and the benefits,” he said.
“So I see this as a really good tool to add to that information and to clarify things from a patient perspective. I don’t think there’s anything better than having someone who’s been through the procedure before answer questions related to it.”
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Patients can access Ortho Connect on the foundation’s website at www.canorth.org or by calling 1-800-461-3639.