George Voivodas had worked in the orthopedic industry for 28 years. So, he knew just where to turn when he started to have knee pain and needed surgery.
George had worked with robotic-assisted technology for his career — technology used at OrthoIndy by our total joint replacement team for assistance in some knee surgeries. When George started to have pain in his left knee while walking or even laying down, he decided it was time to get the pain checked out. “I had a medial meniscus scoped in 2008,” George said. “Happens to a lot of men who work out a lot. I was not worried so much about the surgery, but I was worried about the physical therapy.”
George was not worried about his surgery because he had seen his surgeon perform it many times before. George had known Dr. Kolisek for years while working in the field and knew him to use computer assistance during surgeries. “With the assist of the computer, the surgery only lasted 37 minutes,” George said.
“George was completely down to bone-on-bone in 2 of the 3 compartments of his left knee. He was having a hard time enjoying activities such as golfing with friends,” Dr. Kolisek explained. “After I did his knee replacement, he returned to golfing and was now hooking the ball since he plays right-handed and can now get to his left side,” he joked. “His distance returned off the tee, so now his buddies don’t give him nearly as many strokes as they used to before knee replacement surgery.”
After 5 weeks, George was walking again without any problem. The challenge came in getting range of motion back into his knee. Due to the genetic makeup of his DNA, his hamstring took a lot of stress from the surgery, which made getting the range of motion back harder than normal. “Your heel is up against the back of your thigh, and my muscles couldn’t take that tightness,” George said.
He worked closely with his physical therapist and was determined to do whatever he needed to. Hos progress improved month after month, until about a year after surgery, he was back to 130 degrees of motion.
“They were very upfront about that before the surgery,” George said, “and a year of physical therapy is nothing when you can’t even tell it ever hurt a year and a half later.”
Having been in the field for a long time, George had high praise for OrthoIndy. “Everyone there is very professional. They offer to show you a video of what the surgery will be like before you have it, so you can see what is going to happen,” he said. “They want you to be as knowledgeable about the procedures as possible, so you can make any decisions you need to make being as informed as possible. The whole staff was excellent.” High praise from someone who has seen a lot of orthopedic hospitals!
George now splits his time between Indiana and Florida for his retirement, playing golf and relaxing. “I recommend both Dr. Kolisek and OrthoIndy as an institution,” he said. “I wanted to stay at least one night after surgery, and I wanted someone I was comfortable with doing the surgery. OrthoIndy provided both.”
Schedule an appointment
Call us at 317.802.2000 to schedule an appointment or make an appointment request online.
If your injury or condition is recent, you can walk right into one of our OrthoIndy Urgent Care locations for immediate care. For rehabilitation and physical therapy, no referral is needed to see one of our physical therapists.
