One Finley, N.D. woman is looking forward to a summer on the lake. Kathy Harildstad, 59, said she, her husband and their grown children enjoy spending time together — fishing and camping.
“The last couple of years weren’t the same,” she said, saying after 30 years as a certified nursing assistant, she experienced pain in her knees. Individuals who experience physical pain often experience other kinds of pain – mental pain or sometimes their relationships are stressed.
“Why live in pain if you don’t have to?” she said. “Life is short enough. The sooner you do it, the sooner this too shall pass.”
She chose Jamestown Regional Medical Center for care in August 2021. That month, Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Michael T. Dean replaced her left knee. When that went well, she chose him again for the right knee in April.
Even though she lives in a rural area, she deliberately chose JRMC.
CARE CLOSE TO HOME
“There’s no comparison,” she said. “You have so much to be proud of in your facility. The nurses – I cannot say enough about them.”
Harildstad complimented the admissions team, the nutrition department and the surgery volunteer too.
“Everything is so well-organized,” she said. “You have just the right, perfect system.”
Recovering from knee surgery takes time and arduous work, said Dr. Dean. Individuals can expect up to three months of physical therapy.
“Kathy is a model patient,” Dr. Dean said. “She is diligent with her therapy and always had a great attitude.”
Harildstad said she is glad she did the surgeries when she did, at her age. Her physical therapy in Cooperstown, N.D., is challenging, though she is grateful to go through it now. She recommends others who are in pain consider surgery sooner rather than later too.
“We get wrapped up in daily life and think we don’t have time,” she said. “You do not have to live like that. Now, I feel like I have so much life ahead of me.”
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