Six years ago, I fell and broke my knee. That event changed my life in unexpected ways. For the first time in my life, I felt physically unsteady and vulnerable. My sense of invincibility disappeared. After a lifetime of bounding up and down stairs, I learned to hold onto a railing and watch my step.
In April 2014, I was running to the postoffice on a Saturday, hoping to get there before it closed, and I tripped down the stairs outside my house. My left knee landed on a flagstone, and I felt a horrible crushing sensation. I was alone at the time. My partner Mary was in Georgia, visiting with her college classmates. I just lay there on the ground for about five minutes, waiting to see how bad it was.
I was on Long Island, and none of my neighbors was home. I tried to stand but I couldn’t. I dragged myself on my back up the stairs (three of them) and into the house. I pulled down the phone and called a neighbor who lived a few doors away and she called an ambulance. I was transported to the closest hospital, in the small town of Greenport. They couldn’t help me. The next day my son took a bus out to pick me up and bring me to the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. There, the doctor x-rayed my knee and told me I had well and truly broken it and needed a total knee replacement. Mary had already had double knee surgery, and I had some idea of what was in store for me.
I had to wait two weeks to get into surgery, and during that two weeks I traveled to Louisville, Kentucky, using a walker, to receive the Grawemeyer Award for my 2010 book The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. When I walked to the podium at the University of Louisville to accept my award, I did not use a crutch or a walker, and I thought maybe the diagnosis was wrong. But when I got home, I was dressing to go out, lost my balance, and almost crashed through a wall. Surgery it would be.
After the surgery, I went to rehab diligently, but my leg simply would not straighten out. It was bent. The physical therapist assured me I would wake up one morning and it would be straight, but day after day I felt my leg locked into a bent shape. I could not straighten it. I fell into the deepest depression of my life. I believed I would never walk again without a walker.
Then a dear friend from college days told me to go at once to a different physical therapist. I did, and the therapist told me that my knee was encased in scar tissue. I went back to the surgeon, and he performed a “manipulation.” That means that I was given morphine, knocked out, and while I was unconscious, he forced my leg straight. He took pictures to show me that my leg was straight. But when I woke up, my leg almost immediately sprung back into a bent position.
Back to the physical therapist, who said there were only two people who could help me: One was a sports medicine doctor in Vail, the other was a sports medicine doctor in Cincinnati. I chose the latter because the flight was nonstop and closer. I went to Dr. Frank Noyes at the Noyes Knee Institute at Mercy Hospital. As it happened, he literally wrote the book on scar tissue (arthrofibrosis). He told me I was too old for surgery but that he could fix my leg. We went into a small room, where I sat on the edge of a table and stretched my bent knee so that my heel was on another table. Then two very large men on either side of me pressed my leg down until it was straight. The pain was intense, and I was crying, but while they forced my leg straight, they quickly built a plaster cast around it, then cut the cast open, filled it with cotton and gauze, put it into a large box, and presented it to me. Dr. Noyes told me to wear it eight-ten hours a day for at least six weeks, wrapping it tightly with ace bandages.
After six weeks, the cast straightened my leg. I was able to walk again. I could no longer run or even walk fast, but I could walk without any help.
I asked my surgeon why no one in New York City was able to perform such a simple procedure. He explained that he was a surgeon not a rehabilitation specialist.
I mention this story not to share my personal pain, depression, and recovery but to share the understanding that there are sometimes ways to fix what seem to be impossible physical conditions. Not always. I thought I would never be able to walk again without a walker. My gait is somewhat stilted, but I walk without crutches or a walker.
If you need the same kind of help, you now know where you can get it. Dr. Noyes may have retired by now, but he trained others in his methods. Every time I see someone with a bent knee, on a walker, I long to tell then this story. That’s why I’m telling it now. It might help someone else.
Thank you for sharing! What is the other doctors name in vail? How do we find others trained in Dr notes method?
Alison, I don’t remember the name of the Vail sports medicine doctor. Look for one with a specialty in treating arthrofibrosis, complications caused by excessive scar tissue.
Richard Steadman?
Steadman and James Andrews from Birmingham, AL are arguably the most respected sports medicine surgeons in the world. They get athletes from all over the world.
Thank you for sharing your info. Looking into it now!
Great to hear, success! Specialists are so special at times they don’t know the forest from the trees, I know a bit trite but it fits. I’ve noticed this especially with some college professors in history who know their specific field so well but not much else. High school teachers tend to be the real generalist, my opinion of course. All professions are the same this way. I have a great urologist, but can’t diagnose a cold.
incredible story! Never knew that before. So glad you got help.
Leonie Haimson Executive Director Class Size Matters 124 Waverly Pl. New York, NY 10011 phone: 212-529-3539 leonie@classsizematters.org leoniehaimson@gmail.com
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On Wed, Jul 1, 2020 at 11:02 AM Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: “Six years ago, I fell and broke my knee. That event > changed my life in unexpected ways. For the first time in my life, I felt > physically unsteady and vulnerable. My sense of invincibility disappeared. > After a lifetime of bounding up and down stairs, I lea” >
How wonderful that this turned out so well for you. Congratulations on getting exactly the right doctor.
So happy for you, Diane. Wish I knew you were here in Cincinnati. Great and important story. Sorry to read about your dark times (never knew from your posting). Know that you always have loving and supportive community right here! Stay well.
Thank you for sharing this. My husband will probably have to have a knee replacement in the next year or so, and this will be good information to have.
I am pleased that you were able to resolve your knee injury without more surgery. Sometimes, it is important to find the specialist that can think outside the box. I am still dealing with my own issue with my left hip that will require surgery. With the pandemic I am in a waiting pattern. I do know the feeling of physical vulnerability that you mention. My balance is impacted along with stamina. I miss taking the walks that I once enjoyed. I am happy that you found your way back to mobility, and I hope I will be able to do the same.
Specialists matter, especially the more complex a condition. As I advise patients all the time, if you bring your car in for repairs, you want someone who works just on your type of car, not someone who sees one or two a year and constantly has to refer the manual.
Generalists are more important. My primary doc has dual background in internal medicine & gastroenterology. He says he’s a dying breed: due to peculiarities of increasingly stdzd ins billing practices over the yrs, he had to cut his GP patients down to a tiny group 5 yrs ago, & now, certain insurance cos won’t cover him for GP stuff like physicals– including mine. Now at 71 after 30 yrs, hubby & I have to start w/a new GP. Just three yrs ago at annual physical he diagnosed precisely what was going on with a digestive problem I,d been experiencing for a few mos, ordered up the tests proving it, and sent me to the precisely right surgeon. It was a bizarre condition… Stomach had migrated thro esophageal sphincter into chest cavity amd started twisting into a knot. He sent me counterintuitively to a barometric surgeon, the ones who do gastric bypass on the obese. He knew that those surgeons routinely encounter such anomalies in obese patients…
You make an important correction, but with a caveat. Yes, ideally, generalists who know what they don’t know when they suspect something, who know when to refer to the correct specialists, is the best situation. I’ve seen that over and over again in the 22 years I’ve been working with patients. But I also know of many generalists and community oncologists who do not diagnose correctly or, just as bad if not worse, will not refer to specialists because they fear losing the revenue stream that patient brings them. I have seen too many horror stories and tragedies over the years; patients who would have done well had they seen a specialist at the right time only to find out that they got to one (if at all) too late in the game. You were very fortunate. Many patients do not experience what you did. I’ve known and know a lot of them. Both of us are guilty of using too much generalizing hyperbole. Every case is unique.
And for something completely different: I never read your name as Be Three, but Beth Ree. Never occurred to me. It should have because German notoriously puts words together into longer, sometimes eternal lengths. A good example is “th,” the English pronunciation of which doesn’t exist in German. For example, the German airline Lufthansa is not pronounced Luf-thansa, but Luft-Hanza (Hansa being the medieval trade confederation, therefore translated literally as “Air-trade.”) Americans read the “th,” Germans know that’s where the world splits. You be you!
Heh heh, I’m stuck w/that silly user name. Invented it at the dawn of internet forums using a snippet of my email address, not noticing that it would be read as Beth.
Thanks for the nuanced reply, it’s great to get input from an expert in the field. I recognize I’m incredibly lucky to live where I do (central, almost north NJ). A mecca for competitive shopping, a plethora of high-qual amateur musical groups, & I’ve had several amazing medical experiences like the one above.
6 yrs ago I’d just had a physical by an assoc of that same primary doc — his sched was too full, but w/n 48 hrs was reviewing the blood results, called on a Fri night & told me get a ride to ER, rbc was so low I was in danger of stroke or worse. The ER admitting doc was simply incredible. A young Indian man w/a buoyant demeanor, eager to exercise his dg skills. He looked over my med list, asked about 5 Q’s, & told me I’d have transfusion/ tests, but he was betting they’d discover an infinitesimal blood-leak in my gut ongoing for yrs. He was on the nose! They found it on the 5th day of tests…
Amazing story. Thank you for sharing.
And Happy Birthday! 🙂
I remember when you broke your knee and the long road to recovery. You did great getting back to walking. Happy birthday, too, keep going.
Hello Diane and everyone,
In the early 70s, my aunt was in a bad taxi accident in NYC. Her toes curled downward and every doctor she saw said there was nothing to be done. She knew a Chinese doctor who suggested acupuncture. This was when acupuncture was not well known and there was no real licensing and specific credentials for it like there are now. Anyway, he told her that acupuncture might work but it would be a long process. She drove to NYC 2-3 times per week for treatments and eventually, her toes straightened back to normal. She later went on to advocate and work to get licensure and standards for the profession in New York State like we have now. I’ve used it many times for a variety of things and it never ceases to amaze me. In massage school (I’m a certified LMT.), we learned shiatsu which is a form of massage that uses the same acupuncture points. This form of bodywork is so wonderful and got me so interested in the foundations of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Fascinating stuff. So, wonderful healing can take place. So, don’t give up trying to find a way of healing yourself. Something just might turn up. I’m glad you were able to find someone who could help you with your knee.
What a painful truth.
I’m very glad your knee is better. My knees have been getting better too. Much better. Come to think of it, they started improving at about the same time as when I painlessly used them to kneel at your side to talk to you in the library here in L.A., Diane. Huh, how about that.
Magic!
So happy and relieved you are doing well, Diane.
Thank you for sharing. What an ordeal.
Take good care! You’re truly a remarkable woman.
Blessings.
I remember when you had this operation and I was concerned for you. Wow, that was 6 years ago. Thanks for reminding us to keep on going. You’ve sure done a lot since then.
Thank you Diane for sharing your story. I recall when you had knee surgery, and as I get older, I often think about the need to think before I act and pay attention to my surroundings, try not to rush my movements unnecessarily, etc.
Thank you, a little over a year ago, I fell smack on my knee on the tile floor in the bathroom. I was hours trying to get up, in doing so I strained the area behind the knee in the back of the leg , right where it bends. I could hardly walk, my doctor told me to use elastic support and hot and cold compresses. Some days are better than others but fear I will soon be in need of a walker. I walk around the house holding on to furniture and moving very carefully. A friend suggested a medical sports therapist who helped her tremendously, I hesitated because he was not a surgeon. After reading your story, I’m going to take your advice. I miss my walks in West Palm Beach.
I was visiting my daughter in Virginia the day before my 80th birthday, we went into D.C. to hear you speak. Slaying Goliath is a great read, I’ve encouraged everyone active in education committee work with the League of Women Voters in Florida to read it. Happy Birthday you wonderful woman.
Carol, good luck. Remember, surgeons do surgery. Therapists heal. As it happens, Dr Noyes is a surgeon but he knows that surgery can’t heal scar tissue. It just makes it worse.
Diane, there is help out there without using a chemically based pain killer and very possible to help you walk again without a walker. Chemically based pain killers have side effects. Even Tylenol affects the liver. There are tons of information on the healing power of cannabis. As a food, hemp is legal throughout the states. Cannabis referring to a medicine needs a doctor’s prescription in many states. In your condition a medical marijuana card would be easy for you to acquire; it would be wise to work with a doctor who specializes in medical marijuana.
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I’m glad you can still walk, Diane. My mom used a walker for quite a while because the surgeons said she’d waited too long to have the knee replacement.
Sounds like HSS came up short for you on this one, and I’m sorry to hear that. They came to the rescue, in my case, about a year ago. I’d broken my neck, body surfing in Mexico. Almost had to stay there for 8 weeks. They were worried about air turbulence. But in the end, I was cleared to go back home.
The first surgeon I was referred to was very nice and well regarded…but when we decided that surgery was necessary, it turned out that he didn’t take my insurance.
Felt like I’d been dropped off the pier. Friend of mine told me to try HSS. Turns out that they’d JUST started taking my insurance (lotta teachers take GHI).
Long story short: I was so fortunate to have one of the best surgeons on the planet perform the surgery and he did it to perfection. His team, from pre to post op was top notch.
I’ll definitely tell anyone I know about your experience and Dr. Noyes, though. Thanks for the heads up, Diane!