Lester: (Singing and playing “Stand by Me”
on piano)
I played with some of the greatest blues’
players in the world: Muddy Waters, Screamin’
Jay Hawkins, Howlin’ Wolf.
No one ever told me that playing drums would
eventually wear things out.
I played hard.
A lot of guys play flat-footed like that,
like that.
I play way up on the pedals like that so my
feet were like that, man, banging those pedals
like.…
So now we know what wears these out, don’t
we?
This is the gold and platinum for the work
I did with the Doobie Brothers.
You just try and learn to live with it, but,
man.
Regina, Lester's wife: He always had some
knee soreness and issues.
You’d just hear him wince when he goes up
and down the stairs kind of like eesch, shoo,
ooh, or some little swift turns he’ll just
really just ack, yeah.
X-Ray Technician: C’mon over here.
Move that way just a little bit.
So you had a lot of pain today, huh?
Lester: Well, yeah.
My knees give me enough pain to where it gets
really bitter.
Regina: He came home and I watched him get
out of the car and stand there for at least
a minute.
And I thought oh, gosh!
Dr. Jankiewicz: The problem with pain, it’s
a slow grind and it just beats you down really
slow.
Physician Assistant: Are you getting any clicking,
catching, buckling, things like that?
Lester: Oh, yeah, yeah if you, oh, yeah.
Physician Assistant: Has your walking distance
decreased?
Lester: Yeah, sometimes going from the house
to the car is an issue.
Physician Assistant: Any discomfort that way?
Lester: Yeah.
Physician Assistant: OK, and now I’m going
to have to push here but.…
Lester: Ow!
Physician Assistant: Sorry.
Lester: That’s OK.
Physician Assistant: I’m sorry.
I know.
Lester: That’s all right, that’s, ah!
Physician Assistant: I’m sorry.
Lester: That’s OK.
I’m used to it hurting.
Physician Assistant: You’ve lost all the
cartilage.
So that’s all bone on bone now.
Basically what we do is go in and just shave
off that bad bone.
Dr. Jankiewicz: We’re going to use MAKOplasty®.
It’s a resurfacing of the knee versus a
total knee replacement.
Physician Assistant: So that gives that nice
smooth surface.
Dr. Jankiewicz: And the incision is gonna
be about this big and right about there.
OK.
We’ll take good care of this guy.
Regina: Can’t wait 'til we’re on the other
side, just can’t wait.
Lester: Here we are.
Dr. Jankiewicz: In San Diego, Sharp Coronado
is the first hospital to utilize MAKOplasty.
Lester: Nice outfit.
Dr. Jankiewicz: Thank you.
You look good, too.
Let me sign your name, OK?
Make sure you get the right one.
I’ll talk to you later.
Regina: You’ll be just fine.
I love you.
Dr. Jankiewicz: I’m going to be using robotic
arm technology with 3-D modeling.
You put two trackers here, two trackers here
so the computer is reading the position of
the knee.
If I turn the leg one direction or another
that robot knows where it’s at based on
the trackers.
MAKO Technician: That’s really good high
registration there, point 29.
Dr. Jankiewicz: The computer’s going to
tell us how to balance the knee, make the
knee stable and how much bone to take.
I can’t go over to this part of the knee.
The computer won’t let me do that.
If you go outside the line it shuts itself
off.
All this is burred out to make a bed for this
prosthesis.
MAKO Technician: OK, posterior post.
Dr. Jankiewicz: The future of orthopedics
is robotics.
Regina: I can’t believe they’re going
to get you up walking.
That’s like unbelievable.
Dr. Jankiewicz: We’ll see what kind of man
he is.
(Laugh)
Almost every knee replacement takes the anterior
cruciate ligaments.
And so what we do for a partial knee is we
keep the ligaments.
The ACL’s retained.
The posterior cruciate is retained.
Physical Therapist: Feel good to be off your
back?
Lester: Well, I was pretty comfortable.
Physical Therapist: (Laugh) Stand up.
All right, you’re up, you want to go for
a walk?
Good.
People have the surgery to get moving again,
to get them down on the floor playing with
their grandchildren or going on fantastic
vacations and hikes with their families.
That’s why I’m a physical therapist, to
help people return to the things that they
want to do most.
You are looking great.
We don’t often see people up and walking
on their first day.
And we’ve seen more of that with the MAKOplasty.
Dr. Jankiewicz: How you doing, you doing all
right?
Lester: Pretty good.
Dr. Jankiewicz: Feel better?
Lester: I can already tell the difference.
I put my foot down, the bite wasn’t there.
Fade to black.
(Drums)
Lester: I haven’t done this in a long time.
I can’t imagine my knee as being any better.
If somebody would let me play in their band
I’d be there, man.
