ST. GEORGE, Utah — How far would you go to stop pain?
For Sacramento-area firefighter Janice Odestig, the answer was 700 miles.
“Seven hundred miles just to come here to have him work on me,” Odestig said.
Years of physically demanding work took a toll on her body. A career in firefighting meant carrying heavy gear and responding to strenuous calls, and she also spent years playing competitive softball.
“You know, you just damaged your body,” Odestig said. “The knees, back, necks — those are all pretty common injuries for firefighters. Mine were obviously the knees.”
Doctors say her condition is far from rare. There are more than 100 types of arthritis, and Odestig was diagnosed with one of the most common, especially among women over 50.
“Osteoarthritis really is the breakdown of cartilage,” said Dr. Robert Jamieson, an orthopedic provider at Intermountain Health St. George Regional Hospital. “As that cartilage wears away, the bones get closer and closer together till you end up with bone on bone.”
Jamieson previously treated Odestig in the Sacramento area. When her knee pain flared again after he relocated to St. George, she said the long drive was worth it.
Jamieson said today’s knee replacements may not be what many people expect.
“More of what it is is a resurfacing of the bone or a cap on a tooth,” Jamieson said. “So I make cuts in the bone that mirror the implant. That implant sits right onto the end of the femur bone, and on the shin bone it’s more of a flat cut.”
“The metal sits on the top there and a plastic liner goes on the inside, so you have plastic articulating with metal,” he said. “I don’t do anything that’s life-threatening, but I do things that are life-altering issues.”
Just two days after surgery, Odestig was already walking on her new knee. She said she hopes to return to skiing in Lake Tahoe before spring.
“Don’t wait for it is probably the biggest thing,” she said. “The quality of life is just so much better.”
