Keeping Up on the Pickleball Court: Carmen’s Joint Replacement Story
A former tennis player, Carmen Mazick discovered pickleball about five years ago and loved it immediately. This became a big part of her retired life, playing pickleball at at YMCA indoor league. But in order to keep up, Carmen found she needed to use a knee brace and started getting knee injections.
“I don’t really know, of course, if [pickleball] precipitated my knee problem–or was it just arthritis? It wasn’t terribly painful so I didn’t let it stop me,” she said.
But as her pain worsened, Carmen knew she needed to do something about it soon or risk losing the ability to play pickleball and keep up with her lifestyle.
Years prior, Carmen had cared for her daughter through two knee replacements and had seen her struggle with significant pain in her recovery. This made Carmen hesitant about going down that road herself. But when she heard about Dr. Michael Berend from a pickleball friend, she decided to look into him and the team at Midwest Center for Joint Replacement. An Evansville resident, Carmen was able to see Dr. Berend in the MCJR-Bloomington office instead of traveling to Indianapolis.
“I talked to one of the players in my group who had knee replacement. She described her experience with MCJR and Dr. Berend,” Carmen said. “Her experience was so different from what I had observed with my daughter. Once I met with Dr. Berend, I knew what was different—and that I was definitely on the right path.”
Dr. Berend told her that her knee was “a 12 out of 10” and that she couldn’t wait much longer. A few months later, Carmen decided to go forward with surgery. The entire experience exceeded her expectations.
“Actually I am glad I waited as long as I did or I wouldn’t have been aware of MCJR and the wonderful work that is done at the surgery center,” she said. “From the minute you walk in, starting with the [pre-op] preliminaries with Dr. DeSalle and the staff, I felt at ease immediately. The entire process was seamless, professional, and caring.”
Carmen appreciated every detail. Receiving her post-op medications a week in advance was helpful so she didn’t have to worry about picking them up after the delirium from surgery. Going through the thorough recovery booklet helped her and her caregivers go through recovery with ease.
“My recovery really was not hard or especially painful,” she said. “When MCJR says ‘Taking the pain out of joint replacement,’ it was 100% true.”
A year later, Carmen returned to MCJR for a hip replacement surgery with Dr. Wes Lackey.
“Again, the experience was all that I hoped for and everything went smoothly,” she said. “He made me feel completely at ease.”
For Carmen, the 90-mile drive from Evansville to Bloomington was “worth every mile.” She continues to recommend MCJR to anyone considering joint replacement, including her physical therapist, who said she had never seen a scar that looked as good as Carmen’s.
Carmen is back to the activities she loves most.
“I am now back playing pickleball, pain-free and with a straight leg!” she said. “The best decision I could have made.”
