Bob Schultz with his Silver Medal.
Patient Profile
Bob Schultz
Bad Knees Don’t Keep Oak Ridge Man Off the Slopes in Colorado
Bob Schultz of Oak Ridge doesn’t do anything halfway. The 71-year-old has enjoyed skiing the slopes in Colorado for 37 years, and when he entered his first competition late last year, he won a silver medal.
He’s also a bicycling enthusiast and may ride as many as 500-700 miles with his wife, Maxine, each year.
That isn’t bad for someone who has two artificial knee joints.
Schultz began having sports-related knee problems about 15 years ago. “The cartilage was pretty much gone on my right knee and half-way gone on my left knee,” he explained. “I had been getting relief from shots of Synvisc for three years. The last year, they didn’t take hold and I skied only four days that year.” Synvisc is injected directly into the knee joint to restore lubrication and ease the pain from osteoarthritis.
With his ability to ski in jeopardy, Schultz decided to have the total knee joint replacement surgery that his doctor recommended, and he wanted to have both surgeries performed on the same day. His doctor was Michael MacKay, M.D., a board-certified orthopedic surgeon with Orthopaedic Surgeons of Oak Ridge.
“Not all patients choose to have double knee replacement. In fact, only a select few are able to manage having both knees replaced at once”, states Dr. MacKay.
“Part of our discussion was about skiing. I told Dr. MacKay that I didn’t want to have the surgery unless I would be able to ski again. He told me to avoid the bumps,” Schultz said, and added, “I’ve cheated a little.”
A potential complication was that Schultz has a heart condition and had stents implanted several years ago. Dr. MacKay consulted with his cardiologist, Dr. Wendell Lawson, a board-certified cardiologist on Methodist’s medical staff. The two doctors agreed that performing surgery on both knees at the same time posed the lowest risk for their patient because he would undergo anesthesia only one time. The surgery was performed at Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge several months before the snow skiing season began.
“I felt that was the only way to do it. You don’t ever limp because you don’t have a good leg to limp on,” Schultz said. “I would have hated to go through it twice.” The results were good. He was back to square dancing within a month and back on his bike at the end of two months. At the end of nine months, he was back on his skis.
Dr. MacKay stated, “Mr. Schultz is obviously a high performer and extremely motivated. For those people who are driven, however, this amount of physical activity is not uncommon. It really depends on the patient’s pre-operative functional level and setting reasonable goals or expectations.”
Rehab was an important part of Schultz’s recovery. He had physical therapy three days a week at OrthoTennessee Therapy and did rehab for four hours a day at home. “It was a lot of work,” he said, “but I wanted to make sure everything fully worked. I pushed very hard for full rehabilitation.”
Snow skiing is a passion for the entire Schultz family. Schultz, his wife and their young three children took lessons together when they lived in Idaho. “They have long, cold winters, and skiing is what’s in.” Today, all of his grandchildren except the baby have taken up the sport.
“My wife is a really good skier, but I haven’t gotten her into competition yet,” Schultz commented.
His interest in competitive skiing began about a year ago when he and his wife took several classes from world class skiers Phil and Steve Mahre. Phil Mahre won a total of 27 World Cup races in the 1970s and 1980s, and the two brothers won medals in the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo. Phil took the gold in the slalom and Steve won the silver.
The Schultz’s vacations in Colorado are spent on the slopes. They ski all day on weekdays if the weather is good, and limit themselves to three or four hours if the weather is ugly. On Saturdays, they volunteer as mountain hosts, which involves greeting other skiers at the bottom of the mountain and answering questions part of the day. They spend the remainder on the mountain helping people who have fallen, gotten lost, or need other types of help. On Sundays, the couple attends church in the morning and hits the slopes in the afternoon.
There’s no less activity during the summer. “Last year, we took a 188-mile bike ride in the St. Louis area,” Schultz said, “and we just came back from a week of rafting and kayaking on the Delaware River.”
