It’s estimated that more than 30 million Americans are living with some form of osteoarthritis, the inflammation of painful joints. For many farmers and ranchers, it’s a pain they live with because when can you find the time to deal with it? Well, a South Dakota cattle rancher shows how us how, thanks to his team at Avera Orthopedics, he was able to be healthy for the harvest.
“It started with a fall, I fell off a piece of equipment and went in and got it checked and had a couple small tears, but the X-rays show that there were bigger problems. We were bone on bone and a lot of arthritis,” said Dennis Fagerland
"The shoulder is somewhat a complex joint. The socket is very shallow, the ball is very large and round. On top of both the socket as well as the ball, there's cartilage or the lining of the joint. Cartilage does not have great blood supply, so when it gets injured, it doesn't have a great way to repair itself. Now when you lose that cartilage, then you experience the pain of arthritis," said Matthew Blake, MD, Avera Orthopedics sports medicine and surgery specialist
"I had to cross over with my left hand through the steering wheel to turn the vehicle on. It's a small thing you start thinking that you've taken for granted," said Fagerland.
"Being an agricultural society here, typically we're looking around what the farm schedule allows you," said Dr. Blake.
"When on the farm or ranch, do you have six weeks that you have to be in that sling? If I didn't have cattle, winter time would be the ideal time. What worked best for us was we got the crop in, we got all the cattle out on grass, got the heifers bred, and we just decided that, well, haying might be a little later, but we're going to take this break and do it," said Fagerland.
"Dennis had what's called an anatomic shoulder replacement, which means that I replaced his ball of the shoulder with a new metal implant. In the socket, we put a piece of plastic that mimics the socket of the shoulder. It's usually done through an incision that's about this long, right here on the shoulder. Then therapy usually is about a three-month process," said Dr. Blake.
"Pain relief. It was just tremendous. I mean, yeah, you had the pain of the surgery and the incision, but it was nothing compared to the pain that it was before. I just find myself doing things that, man, I haven't done that for two years. I've been able to reach something without pain and just small things. You go, wow, I haven't done that in a long time," said Fagerland.
"I really enjoy shoulder replacement surgery, and I really enjoy it because people's level of function dramatically improves, as well as their range of motion improves. The pain that they have decreases so much, and so it's a great procedure for both pain and function," said Dr. Blake.
"I would encourage anyone to do it just for that pain relief, so you can sleep, you can do things that you used to do. I'm very happy with mine. I got great movement, and yeah, I had zero complications afterwards, so I am very fortunate," said Fagerland.
If you’re struggling with shoulder or joint pain, the best course of action is to meet with your doctor and see what pain-relief options are available to you.
