From athlete to agony and back again - Murray's journey through knee pain

My name is Murray Nicholson and I have a Conformis implant

I consider myself an active person, and I have enjoyed sports and exercise for all my life (soccer, cricket, tennis, squash, jogging, cycling, and swimming). So far, the highlight of my athletic life has been completing the London Marathon in both 2002 and 2003! When a soccer injury led to a meniscus removal in my right knee nearly 40 years ago, I eventually developed arthritis. As the pain worsened, I felt my athletic lifestyle slowly becoming less attainable.

In 2014, another sports-related injury caused the medial meniscus in my left knee to split, leaving me with massive amounts of pain due to the bone-on-bone contact. Despite a series of injections to temporarily ease the discomfort, the situation worsened and I began to develop additional hip pain. Following a referral and further consultation with my orthopedic surgeon, it was decided that the best course of action was full replacement surgery on my right knee and partial knee surgery on left knee. The decision and recommendation by the orthopedic surgeon was to use Conformis custom-made knee implants.

My partial knee replacement surgery was completed at the end of August 2017, and the total was done at the beginning of October 2017 (6 weeks apart). A few days after each surgery I was able to walk with the aid of crutches and worked towards walking up and down stairs with the support of the physiotherapists. After a few weeks, I could walk unassisted and completed the recommended daily post-surgery exercises. Since then, the knee and scar tissue has healed up remarkably well and the scars now look very faint (I even surprised my surgeon!).

Now in April 2018, my knees feel stronger, more stable, and better aligned. I still do my stretching exercises, and I have a static exercise bike at home that I use daily to build up muscle strength around my knee. The best part is that I have been playing tennis again since the beginning of March 2018 – which I think is quite remarkable only 4 ½ month post-surgery!