Quincy Reporter

Tom Adam was looking forward to a dream vacation – Cancun, Mexico with his wife to celebrate their 20th anniversary and his 50th birthday.

It was memorable all right, but for all the wrong reasons.

“It was the worst pain I ever had,” said the 54-year-old meat manager from the County Market store in Palmyra, MO.

The pain began for Tom many months before the vacation.

“I woke up one morning and tried to get out of bed, but I could not walk,” he said. “I slept all night, no problem. When I tried to get up, I could not walk. It was really a shock.”

With his co-worker beginning a vacation, a sick day was not an option for Tom. He was finally able to get moving in spite of terrible pain in his right knee. Tom went to work and battled through it.

He would do that for several more years – live with the pain – trying medications, acupuncture and a knee brace along the way. Nothing helped.

“I just dealt with it day-by-day” he said. “I took ibuprofen every day.”

Then one day, a sign came to Tom. Actually, he came to the sign. It was a flier in the breakroom at work. The flier talked about a new partnership between Niemann Foods, Inc., and Blessing Orthopedics and Sports Medicine to provide exceptional care for total joint replacements of the hip and knee at no cost to the employee.

After years of living with pain, Tom called the phone number on the flier. Before long, he was in the office of Blessing’s double-board certified orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Darr Leutz.

Dr. Leutz explained to Tom that arthritis in his right knee had left it “bone on bone.” That meant arthritis had caused the cartilage - which covers the ends of bones to create a low-friction environment and cushion at the joint surface – to wear away completely.

There is no single cause of all types of arthritis. The cause or causes vary according to the type or form of arthritis. In Tom’s case, he is bow-legged, a condition some people are born with that causes the legs to curve outward at the knees. It could have contributed to the arthritis in his right knee.

Whatever the cause, because his right knee had no cartilage left, the cure was a total knee replacement. Tom gave it thought and chose surgery.

He was off work a total of four weeks, including physical therapy.

“I have no problem walking now and no pain when I do,” he said.

“The experience, overall, was very good,” Tom continued. “Dr. Leutz was easy to get along with and he explained things in a way I understood easily.”

Tom recommends the Niemann Foods, Inc./Blessing Orthopedics & Sports Medicine total joint replacement program for knees and hips to any fellow employee with knee or hip pain.

“Without the program, I probably would have let the situation go and still be suffering,” he said with a laugh. “You know how men are about spending money on doctors.”