NEW PARTS - SENIOR PLAYERS GET RENEWED LIFE

June 1, 2011 – Jack Sirard contributing writer

During his years of playing both professional and semi-pro ball, George Pickett was a self-described Punch-and-Judy hitter. He never hit the long ball – his game was based on speed.

“Whether it was legging out a base hit or running down a pop fly to the outfield, speed was my forte,” he says. “I really excelled at stealing bases and sliding hard into the base, but that only caused me problems later on in life.”

In fact, by the time he was 59, the pain in his hip was so severe that it not only restricted his play on the field, but it caused him many sleepless nights and a deteriorating quality of life.

When he played Senior Softball, the game just was more painful than it was fun. He was forced to play catcher and had to have a courtesy runner every time he was on base.

“That’s when I decided to have hip replacement surgery,” Pickett, now age 75, recalls. “And that surgery not only extended my playing time, but also put me back at shortstop or second base and I no longer needed a runner.”

His successful surgery has paid off for Pickett’s teams (the Sacramento Solons, California State Roofing, California Gold Rush and the San Francisco Seals) that have won six national championships and one Triple Grand Slam.

Pickett is hardly alone in enjoying a new life on the ball field, workplace or at home. He is just one person in more than a million who have had knee, hip or shoulder replacements in recent years, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).

And judging from reader responses to a Senior Softball-USA e-mail request, hundreds of players and their teammates have had the surgeries as well.

Dr. William R. Gallivan Jr., a Santa Barbara, Calif., orthopedic surgeon, says that the knee, hip and shoulder replacement surgeries are becoming more and more common.

“By the year 2030, it is expected to be as high as 3.5 million a year,” he said.



Gallivan, age 52, says he himself performs about 400 of the surgeries a year, most of them knee replacements.

“The beauty of the surgery is that it absolutely improves a person’s quality of life, getting them back to where they want to be to do what they want comfortably.”

He notes that most of the surgeries “are what I call time and gravity related” as an individual’s joints wear down with age. “And if there is a significant predisposition to arthritis, we can expect to see a need for the surgery in time,” he adds.

Doctors warn that any surgery carries risks – although they are rare - including infection, stiffness, blood clots, heart attacks, stroke or nerve damage.

Gallivan points out that there are always risks with any surgery such as infection. “But we see that less than 1 percent of the time. For the ultimate risk of death, I like to say that the surgery is safer than riding in a car. For patients, the scariest thing is their ride to the hospital, not the surgery.”

Although joint replacement surgery has been amazingly successful, approximately 10 percent of implants will fail and require a second procedure, called revision, to remove the old implants and replace them with new components, the AAOS reports.

The decision to perform a revision joint replacement surgery is based on several factors, the AAOS says. The joint may become painful or swollen, due to loosening, wear, or infection. The function of the implant may decline, resulting in a limp, stiffness, or instability. Finally, serial examinations or X-rays may demonstrate a change in the position or condition of the components. All of these factors will determine when joint revision surgery is needed, according to the AAOS.

In most cases, hip and knee replacement procedures will perform well for the remainder of the patient's life. Current hip and knee replacements are expected to function at least 10 to 20 years in 90 percent of patients, the Academy reports.

Pickett, who is taking the season off while waiting to play for the 75 San Francisco Seals next year, says he would “encourage ball players who are pained by knees, hips and shoulders to have the surgical replacements as soon as they can but not to rush back into the game to fast.

“For the first year they should plan a limited roll on a less competitive team than they normally play on.”

He noted that he was walking up stairs two weeks after his surgery and sleeping through the night, but felt that easing back into the game worked best for him.

Peggy O’Neill of Carthage, Mo., tells a similar story about her knee replacement surgery in October 2009. “I started practicing in March of 2010 and I played my first game on it that April, just six months after surgery,” she says.

O’Neill, 67, says her first doctor told her that she was through with playing softball after two earlier surgeries didn’t give her the comfort she needed.

“Then I decided to have the replacement surgery. It was the most painful operation I have ever experienced and that includes having a rotator cup repaired and a breast removed from cancer in 2006,” she says.

Was it worth it?

“Absolutely,” she says, noting that she played 118 games last year and was able to move from the catcher’s position to the outfield.

Like a lot of players, O’Neill says her condition wasn’t caused by one single injury.

“I had played catcher for 25 to 30 years and over that long period of time, it just took a toll on my knees. I had a meniscus tear and then another one and soon my knee joint was just bone on bone.”

O’Neill, who plays Senior Softball in Carthage, Mo., on a co-ed team and nationally for the tournament team the Fun Bunch, says that prior to the surgery, she actually walked on the side of her foot, hobbling to base until a courtesy runner appeared.

While thousands of people have had a knee replaced far fewer have had both, much less at the same time. But that’s what’s happened to Herb Fabel of White Plains, N.Y. And he’s also had what he calls “half a shoulder replaced.”

Fabel, age 70, has been an athlete his entire life. In addition to playing senior softball, he’s been active in both judo and tennis, sports that can take their toll on the human body.

“Both my shoulder and my knees just wore down over time,” Fabel says “and when the pain became too intense, I had to have something done.”

In both surgeries, Fabel says his goal was to continue playing softball, first for the New York Streaks 65 and now for the Long Island Jaguars 70.

He notes that his shoulder surgery was called hemiarthroplasty or a partial replacement, primarily the ball and socket. “I had tremendous pain with an arthritic condition that limited my sports activity,” he recalls.

“Now I can do 80 percent of what I could do when I was in tip-top shape years ago. For me that really means that I no longer play short stop and have moved to second base where the throws are easier.”

The bilateral knee replacement took four hours and he spent a week in the hospital and another week in a rehabilitation facility near his home.

Fabel says the key to recovery and his return to the softball diamond was the amount of work he put in doing rehabilitation. “I went three times a week and then used the gym at my condominium. I really worked hard to rebuild the muscles and it paid off.”

Next: Replacing Hips.