MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Since his return to his alma mater in 2015, Shane Lyons, director of athletics and associate vice president at West Virginia University, has overseen and led the growth of 18 Mountaineer athletics programs. WVU Athletics has seen unparalleled success in the past few years under his leadership.
But what happens when an active leader begins having joint pain and difficulty with mobility?
Lyons had been pushing through right knee pain for a long time, but, in the past two years, it had become so severe that he had difficulty with simple activities of daily living and sleeping. This pain made his busy, active schedule difficult and was no longer helped by medication, exercise, or injections.
Lyons was living with severe knee arthritis, and after discussion with Benjamin Frye, M.D., orthopaedic surgeon at the WVU Medicine Center for Joint Replacement, he decided to proceed with outpatient total knee replacement surgery.
“Mr. Lyons’ young age and good health made him an ideal candidate for outpatient total knee replacement surgery,” Dr. Frye said. “The surgical techniques, pain control, and rapid recovery protocols at the WVU Medicine Center for Joint Replacement have made outpatient joint replacement surgery a reality.”
Lyons’ knee surgery was performed at 7 a.m. on January 4, 2018. He was up walking within hours and was discharged home by 3 p.m. that same day.
“I heard what you all said, ‘You’re not sick. Go home, and start the movement and activity.’ There’s going to be some pain, you know that initially, but you get over that in the first 72 hours,” Lyons said. “You keep pushing yourself a little more each day to get more mobility and strength, and it comes back pretty quickly as long as you’re doing your exercises and are prepared for it.”
Lyons has seen an excellent recovery after knee replacement. His pain is gone, and his mobility and quality of life have seen dramatic improvement.
“It’s definitely been a life-changer, just from a mobility standpoint and being able to do everyday activities without being on any type of aspirin or ibuprofen,” he said. “The aches and pains that I had before are not there anymore. It’s been six months now, but it feels like it’s been my knee when I was 20 years old.”
The WVU Medicine Center for Joint Replacement started offering outpatient hip and knee replacement surgery to appropriate candidates in 2016.