Jamie Hahn never thought she would get one knee replaced, let alone two. But after years of living with significant pain in both knees, she realized it was her best option.
Arthritis plus the effects of a traumatic knee fracture had left Jamie in a difficult place. She had trouble moving, wore braces on both knees, and had to get regular cortisone shots for the pain.
After a lot of thought and discussion with her doctor — Kyle Hubler, DO, an orthopaedic surgeon at UPMC North Central Pa. — Jamie decided to get both knees replaced.
“I really could not get around,” says Jamie, 68, of Montoursville, Pa. “It was getting hard. And then it was the decision of, ‘Do I do one? If I do one, which one do I do? They’re both bad — how do I do one and then do physical therapy when I still have a bad one?’
“We went through every kind of scenario there was, and I just said, ‘I’m getting them both done at the same time.'”
Since the March 2023 procedure, Jamie feels less pain and can do many activities she couldn’t before.
“My experience was positive, and I’m doing really well,” she says.
North Central Pa Ortho
A Painful Injury
Jamie is a wife, mother of four, and grandmother of two who lived with arthritis pain in both knees for several years. Despite the pain, she never really considered surgery.
But in the summer of 2020, Jamie suffered a traumatic knee injury in an accident at home.
“I was coming in from the yard and caught my flip-flop, flew across our cement patio, and landed on my right knee,” she says.
Jamie’s husband rushed her to the emergency department at UPMC Muncy. Her leg was swollen. The care team placed her leg in an immobilizer and gave her a walker, telling her not to put any weight on her leg.
Three weeks later, Jamie was still experiencing pain. A friend from her Bible study group who worked in UPMC Employee Health told her about Dr. Hubler. “So, I called his office on Thursday, and I had an appointment on Friday,” Jamie says.
Dr. Hubler told Jamie he suspected she had a fracture underneath her kneecap. She underwent a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam and had a follow-up visit with Dr. Hubler, who confirmed the fracture.
At that time, they decided to let the knee heal on its own. Jamie wore a hinged brace on her right knee and used a walker. Over time, she progressed to smaller and smaller braces.
A Worsening Condition
Eventually, however, Jamie’s knees got worse. She was compensating for her injured right knee by putting more pressure on her left knee. That caused more damage to her left knee.
She eventually needed to wear braces on both knees to give her stability. She also needed cortisone shots every three months for the pain.
Despite that, she still resisted the idea of knee replacement surgery.
“(Dr. Hubler) told me that I needed a knee replacement,” she says. “We talked about it, and I kept saying, ‘I will never get a knee replacement. I am not doing that.'”
Jamie found ways to get through the pain. She even took a trip to Disney World in November 2021 with her daughter and granddaughter.
“I went with my braces, and I had gotten my cortisone shots before I went,” she says. “I sat on benches a lot.”
Eventually, though, the pain became too difficult to manage. Jamie was finding it harder and harder to use the stairs at her two-story house.
After discussing her situation with Dr. Hubler, Jamie decided to go for surgery.
“Dr. Hubler didn’t talk me into anything,” she says. “We discussed it, and I trusted him. I had no doubt at all, and I just decided to get them both done at the same time.”
Jamie also thought about her mother and daughter’s advice. Her mother was a former orthopaedic nurse at Williamsport and Divine Providence hospitals, and her daughter is an orthopaedic nurse who used to work at UPMC Harrisburg.
“I remember (my mom) saying before she passed away, ‘Things are different — you need to get them both done,'” Jamie says.
As a faith-oriented person, Jamie believes there’s a reason she ended up in Dr. Hubler’s care.
“I believe in God links, and this is what happened,” she says. “I don’t know if I would have reached the point where I had enough pain in my knees from the arthritis to go to the doctor. But I fell, I had to go. My friend was here and recommended Dr. Hubler.
“Everything just fell in place.”
Working to Get Better
Dr. Hubler performed Jamie’s knee replacement surgery in March 2023. She stayed in the hospital for three days after her surgery before returning home.
Jamie says Dr. Hubler visited her every morning while she was in the hospital.
“He is just the most amazing doctor, the most compassionate and kind doctor that you would ever meet,” she says.
The week after her surgery, Jamie began physical therapy at UPMC Rehabilitation Institute — Eastern Lycoming YMCA in Muncy, Pa. She worked with physical therapists Andralee Sinsabaugh and Lara Duke on exercises that helped with mobility, flexibility, and balance.
“I’d never been to physical therapy before, and I loved it,” Jamie says. “The two physical therapists I had were as awesome as Dr. Hubler.”
Jamie had developed a reaction to one of her medications in the hospital, which caused her ongoing nausea. For treatment, she saw Ashley Knight, PA-C, a physician assistant specializing in gastroenterology, at the Digestive Disease Center at UPMC Williamsport.
As she dealt with the effects of her stomach condition, physical therapy provided an outlet for Jamie. She started out going three times a week, then gradually decreased this to twice a week, then once a week.
“Going to therapy to see my two favorite therapists helped me mentally,” Jamie says. “I would get up in the morning and tell my husband, ‘I can’t go today because I’m too sick.’ And then my (therapy) appointments were always in the afternoon, and I would force myself to go, and I would feel better when I got there.”
Therapy also provided a way for Jamie to socialize during the COVID-19 pandemic. It allowed her to see more people. She finished physical therapy in July 2023.
Feeling Stronger
Just over a year after her surgery, Jamie feels strong. Her knees and her stomach condition have both improved. She can get around more easily and do a lot more activities.
“I walk every day now,” she says. “There’s no way I could do that beforehand. There’s nothing that I can’t do. We’ve been to the beach, we’ve been to wineries, picking blueberries. I’ve been to New York City. There’s a lot of things (I can do now).”
She even volunteers at the same UPMC Rehabilitation Institute location where she had her physical therapy.
“It keeps me moving, it keeps me going, and I get to see the therapists and everyone,” she says.
Jamie is thankful to Dr. Hubler for helping her to move better. She says he’s a kind, compassionate doctor, and she trusts him.
“When you go and you’re there all the time, you really end up having a relationship with your doctor,” she says. “This was a pretty big surgery that you’re counting on your doctor to guide you through, and I would just tell him, ‘I trust you. What you tell me to do is what I’m going to do.'”
Jamie says she has nothing but positive things to say about her entire care experience at UPMC.
“From the start of this, which would be my trip to the emergency room, until I finished therapy, I encountered all kinds of people through UPMC,” she says. “I do not have one negative thing to say. To Dr. Hubler, my physical therapists, and everybody in the hospital — from the janitor to the food service people — thank you.”