Double Knee Replacement
“You’re going to pay for this one day.”
“I was on a city softball league in Ventura County, then I got into soccer and racquetball,” the 66-year-old relates.
And when she launched a 27-year military career - United States Air Force active duty, Air National Guard, and retirement in 2008 as a Master Sergeant (E-7) - Cornejo parlayed her racquetball prowess into numerous opportunities to travel.
“I realized that if you’re good at sports, you can travel the world,” she says.
While stationed in Okinawa, Japan, she made the pacific racquetball team and participated in various Air Force tournaments in the U.S. and abroad. Then, she learned that the various military branches facilitate league sports and vie against one another.
“Being athletically minded, I got involved,” she says.
In 2004, during her time as a reservist, Cornejo began working part time at the Betty Ford Center, a part of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. When she retired from the military, she was a full-time admissions counselor at the Center, serving there for 18 years.
By this time, however, her lifetime of athleticism was beginning to take a toll on her knees. Her mother’s warning was coming home to roost.
“I’d already had one surgery on the left knee and two on the right,” the Indian Wells resident says. “Even though I have a high pain tolerance, it was limiting my activities. I was never totally debilitated; I could still garden, but I couldn’t play sports.”
Cornejo realized it was time to investigate treatment options. She met with Ghassan Boghosian, DO, a Board Certified, fellowship-trained Orthopedic Surgeon at Eisenhower Desert Orthopedic Center (EDOC), who specializes in hip and knee replacement/reconstruction.
“At our first meeting, he said, ‘When are we going to get you a new knee?’” she recalls.
While Cornejo agreed with his assessment that knee replacement was in order, it turned out that the timing for surgery wasn’t good.
“My wife, Fern, had been diagnosed with lung cancer, then she had breast cancer that required a mastectomy and hysterectomy,” Cornejo - herself a breast cancer survivor - relates. “I just couldn’t have a knee replacement while she was undergoing treatment. So, I opted to have cortisone shots to help control the knee pain.”
“The wear and tear from arthritis in both her knees was pretty severe,” Dr. Boghosian says, explaining that the meniscus, a c-shaped piece of cartilage that acts as a shock absorber between the shinbone and the thighbone, was essentially gone in both of Cornejo’s knees as a result of severe arthritis.
“Eventually, there comes a time when conservative management, including injections and bracing, fails to provide adequate relief of pain and we need to do something more definitive,” he adds. “In Ms. Cornejo’s case, this was knee replacement.”
By early 2024, Cornejo’s wife had recovered sufficiently from her breast cancer treatment that Cornejo felt comfortable moving ahead with knee replacement. Dr. Boghosian performed the surgery on her left knee in April.
Before surgery, a CT scan of the knee joint is used to develop a 3D virtual model, enabling the surgeon to create a surgery plan tailored to the patient’s unique anatomy. Notably, the Orthopedic Center is one of the highest-volume centers for knee replacements in the country and has a track record of excellent patient outcomes, a testament to the physicians’ expertise.
“I was on the ROMTech PortableConnect®, a bike for therapeutic movement that measures range of motion, on my second day after surgery,” Cornejo says. “I had 12 physical therapy visits and by the first post-op appointment on April 22, was walking with a cane.”
“They were surprised at how quickly I recovered,” she adds.
“Years ago, we used to tell joint replacement patients not to wear out their new joints,” Dr. Boghosian adds. “Now, because the newer implants last so much longer and surgical techniques have advanced so much, we say go for it. After all, the whole point of this surgery is to improve quality of life.”
Cornejo had her right knee replaced in October 2024.
Forty days post-op, Cornejo says she feels even better than she did after her first knee replacement. She is participating in outpatient physical therapy and walking unassisted.
“Knowing what to expect made it even easier to get through the surgery to get to where we are today,” she explains.
Despite having more extensive damage in her right knee, she says there is less bruising and swelling this go-around.
“We’’ve come a long way with minimally invasive techniques, multimodal anesthesia and outpatient surgery. Now, combined with robotic surgery, patients recover faster, safer and return to physical activity sooner than ever before,” Dr. Boghosian says.
“I’ve been dealing with these bad knees for too many years now and I’m looking forward to getting back to what I used to do,” Cornejo says.
To learn more about Eisenhower Desert Orthopedic Center services, visit EisenhowerHealth.org/DesertOrtho, or call 760.773.4545.
