“My 18 year nightmare is over! Dr. Koldenhoven improved my life 100%!”
“Just do it!” is the motto Kathy Hasch lives by. At 73 years young, the retired mortgage banker and grandmother, are embracing everything life has to offer. Kathy has a big yard and delights in growing flowers. She enjoys cooking and entertaining, especially for her ladies group – The Forever Friends – which consists of 8 women who have known and supported each other for over 40 years. Kathy enjoys traveling and has been road-tripping all over the US with her companion Fred. She also gives back to her community and volunteers in the NICU once a week. Even with all this, she recently learned to golf. “I can hit a ball 80 yards pretty straight which feels great because I have never played golf before.”
It was a normal day at work 18 years ago when Kathy turned from the copy machine and suddenly got a terrible pain in her right knee. She could barely walk and practically had to crawl to her car to get home. Over the next 18 years, she saw at least 8 different doctors and tried multiple treatments to try to find an answer to what was wrong. She had a boot, she completed a painful nerve test, but nothing helped. She eventually ended up in the office of Dr. Koldenhoven. “I instantly loved him. He told me he knew what was wrong with me and I started to cry. I’d seen so many doctors over the years that didn’t know what was wrong and didn’t help me: I was overwhelmed with relief and felt confident that Dr. Koldenhoven would change my life.”
Kathy’s knee was in bad shape, the meniscus was shredded and both her ACL and PCL were damaged. Dr. Koldenhoven said, “it looked like I had about 5 miles left on my knee and he didn’t know how I kept going.” Kathy wanted to do the surgery immediately and scheduled a total knee replacement for about a month later. Everything went great. Kathy walked the day of surgery and spent one night in the hospital. Kathy’s daughter came to stay with her to help after the surgery. Her recovery went quickly. She stopped taking pain medication about 10 days post-surgery. Kathy did in-home physical therapy 2-3 times a week for 2 weeks and 6 weeks of outpatient physical therapy. Trying to get Kathy to slow down was one of the hardest parts. “Do the physical therapy and do the hard work – if you just sit around and watch TV you will not get good results,” says Kathy.
Kathy had such a good experience with the right knee, a year later she decided to take control of her life and to Just DO IT! And had the left knee replaced.
“Dr. Koldenhoven took his time and explained to me that the left knee was a more involved surgery and warned me that recovery would be a little slower. I was home again the next day and I did all the same things I did for the right knee. I feel better now than I have for 18 years. I love to go to Rocky Mountain National Park and walk around Sprague Lake. Before my new knees, I could only walk a quarter of the way. Now I can walk the entire lake!”
“The whole experience was great. The staff is knowledgeable and the on-site x-ray is very convenient. If you have knee pain you must see Dr. Koldenhoven. He’s friendly, honest, and easy to talk to. You can ask him anything and he takes the time to ensure you feel comfortable. Dr. K is the BEST!!!