Editor’s Note – Bowling After Knee Replacement

The total knee replacement (TKA) was on December 3, 2019. By mid-January, it was apparent that the recovery had stalled. On February 4, 2020, two months after his knee replacement, at only 88º of flexion, Gary started on X10.

Gary’s Story – My Stalled Recovery

In mid-January had to go back and see my surgeon and he said I was at 88º on the knee. It wasn’t going well. He sent me to physical therapy center and they again tried to push the knee as hard as they could, three days a week I was getting tortured. It was all the way, you can say it. They tried to bend it as far as they can without making me pass out.

That’s something I do not want to remember. The highest they could get was 95º Not a good place.

I had to push through it. Everybody that I talked to at church and other people that we went to, just got pushed in pain. So my philosophy was I was going to push it, push it and push it. Even when I started with the X10, I pushed it. I talked to some people and they said, “Oh, you can do it.” I said, “Well, I’m going to do it.” And that’s how I approached it. And, the rewards paid off for me.

Finding the X10

The first time I heard about it was from a PT that I had the first time. She said that there was a machine out there that would bend it. I kept that in the back of my mind, and she said, well, Oklahoma doesn’t recognize that yet. But, I kept the X10 in my mind.

After the first doctor visit and the threat of an MUA, the second physical therapist said, it isn’t getting better. It looks like an MUA, manipulation of the leg. Not good!

I got on the internet and I searched out knee therapy machines and that’s when the X10 popped up. And so I researched it. I found out all the information about it. I talked to my wife and I said, we need to try it because we’re not getting anywhere with traditional physical therapy.

Providence

I wanted confirmation, that I was making the right decision. And this was funny because I have a doctor that is in Owasso, Oklahoma. He’s my primary care doctor and he was in South Tulsa at a bank. This is a town of about 500,000 people. Who do you think I ran into at the bank? And I showed him pictures of the X10, he looked at it on my cell phone. I said, “This is what I’m going to do because physical therapy is not working.” He looked at it and he said it should work because it works similar to how they exercise shoulders and stuff.

The support that I had from X10, Tricia and Corky: we ministered to each other, all three of us. We made our own circle and I was so happy and I think the Lord put the right people in the right place for me.

Working on the X10

When I got the machine, Cork set it up for me in my home. We were getting somewhere around 88­º to 90º the first night. As I started, Tricia got on board with me, I think the next day. We always had a prayer of course when we spoke. I told her that I would run about an hour a day in each session. So I was running the machine for about three hours a day. I was gaining around, close to two degrees, three degrees a day until I got up 118º and then it was a slow go for me. I worked on getting stronger using the strength tools on the X10. Each day I was trying to push a little bit further and a little bit further. And so the first week and a half, I think I was around 105º – 107º. Toward the third week, I was floating between 125º and 130º on flexion. I was at zeroº on my extension.

The machine does exactly what it’s supposed to. I’ve spoken with Tricia a lot of times and she was always pushing me to do everything correctly and continue to push forward. And I couldn’t ask for a better coach. And as I was going, as there were times when she would say, “Well, stay right there and try working on strength.”

After X10 is Gone

It’s just like the “Rome being built overnight” scenario. It’s going to be a long-drawn-out process. But as long as I keep moving forward like I did on the X10 machine and not go backward, I have no problem with that.

I wish I had this machine two months earlier like in the middle of December after the surgery: my recovery time would have been a lot shorter.

Adding in The Stationary Bike

When I was doing the X10 before, I would ride six minutes on the bicycle and six minutes after I did X10, so I was doing 12 minutes on the bicycle. Well, now I’m doing 15, 17 minutes at a time when I get on the bicycle. And the other exercises I do are the same. This is made bowling after knee replacement a reality for me now.

My Inspiration

In this day and age, I’ve, I draw on the Lord more and more. And that is one thing about this whole scenario, I knew that the Lord would reveal why he asked me to go through this. And one of my things is it got me stronger with Him because it allowed me to settle down and relax, watch Praise and Worship on TV to build myself up. And then at the same time, the X10 machine was working on my knee. And I don’t think I could have done it even without either one. It was a combination of the two together that went well for me.

The amount of time I spent in prayer increased the time watching and listening to spiritual music was increased. The X10 was a win-win for me.

Some people told me when I was getting ready to have surgery that I would not be back for the Fall Bowling League (from, September to April). I was back bowling to February. So, I did pretty well.

People at My Church

The people at our church could actually see my walk was better when I started using the X10. Before the surgery they could see me standing up and that I was not moving very well. I had to sit down when everybody else was standing up. I was dragging a leg. It was that kind of pain.

And when I was doing the X10, they started noticing. And they would come up and say, “Hey, you are walking a whole lot better.” That is because of the X10 machine.

I did it three times a day. They said you could do it less, but if you did it less you would get less. I’m from the school, “The more you work at what you want to achieve, the more likely you’re going to succeed.”