An arthroscopy in 2017 had washed the knee out and alleviated pain temporarily but within six months things were deteriorating rapidly again.

“I could still walk,” says Tim, “but it was becoming more painful all the time and I’d developed a bit of a limp. I’d started to really begrudge walking the dog because I knew 25 minutes of it was going to be really painful.”

Tim was advised to delay any knee replacement for as long as possible to avoid issues with ‘replacement replacements’ in later life, but countering that was his need for a pain-free knee now.

“I walk a lot as part of my work as a tour guide for Yorkshire. I love walking for leisure and I’m only in my fifties. I figured if ever there was a time when I needed my knee to be right, it was now.”

Tim visited Yorkshire Knee Clinic’s Dave Duffy.

“I had an x-ray,” he recalls, “but I didn’t need an MRI as it was quite clear to Dave that I didn’t have any cartilage. ‘It’s bone on bone’ he said, ‘and you’re developing bone spurs – so you need a half knee replacement’.”

Recovery

It didn’t take long for the effect of sedation to wear off.

“I could talk normally after an hour,” Tim remembers, “and that afternoon I was up and out of bed and able to use a frame to get to the toilet.”

Tim had been told to prepare for a two-night stay in hospital although “they did mention I might be out sooner depending on how quickly I could mobilise afterwards.” So after one night’s rest, Tim made the most of his second day.

“Early the next morning a physio came to see me, got me up on two sticks and had me walking up and down the corridor. I didn’t find that too difficult and the physio said that if could manage stairs I may be able to go home that day.”

As soon as the physio had gone, Tim set about ensuring his discharge.

“I remembered from a previous knee op how to do stairs with sticks, so I nipped back down the corridor, practised a few times and then was fine for when the physio came back. All told, I was in for just over a day.”