Remember that old nursery rhyme you’d sing when the rain, literally washed out your play time? It was called, “Rain, Rain, Go Away.” Three years ago, Mark Byrd substituted the word “rain” with “pain.” He wished he could sing away the severe aching in his knees. But, he couldn’t.
“I couldn’t walk a block, climb, nor walk up and down steps easily … sit or stand too long. When I came home from work, my children would meet me at the door with ice for my knees,” reveals Byrd, an X-ray technician, who had bilateral knee replacement in March 2007.
Byrd who also suffers with chronic health conditions – diabetes and arthritis – tried coping with the pain in both his knees but realized that instead of spending quality time with his family, they were taking care of him.
“I was crippled in my own home. I worked full time leading up to my surgery, but I wasn’t productive at work at all. Why live in pain [if] you don’t have to? The Back in the Groove program gives you options,” shares the 43-year-old.
While at work, Byrd met a woman who had the knee replacement procedure, which changed her life — and ultimately his forever. She asked him, “What are you waiting for?”
“I want to get the word out to African Americans so they do not have to live in pain. There is help out here. It’s been three years since my surgery and my life has totally changed. I decreased my diabetic medication. I’m more active. I can do just about anything I want to do,” he vaunts. “I excel at work, I can work overtime and I’ve lost over 70 pounds!”
The Back in the Groove program that Byrd referenced is a national education-based community partnership that addresses chronic health conditions impacting African Americans and related healthcare disparities in arthritis care and joint replacement. –yvette caslin
For more information about Zimmer’s Back in the Groove program, visit backinthegroove.com or call (866) 923-2345.
