For Dave Yeager, being able to get around normally is “simply a blessing.”

Dave, who is a registered nurse, had been in constant pain from wear-and-tear damage to his knees. “Over the course of years, the abuse on my knees took its toll,” he says. “Eventually my knees failed.”

His knees had lost nearly all the joint cartilage that normally surrounds the ends of bones and allows the joint to glide smoothly. With both knees at more than 80% bone-on-bone, he was a candidate for bilateral knee replacement, which is when both knees are replaced during the same surgical procedure.

Dave chose Washington Regional’s Total Joint Center, which has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report for four consecutive years as a High Performing hospital for hip and knee replacement and offers both conventional and robotic-assisted elective joint replacement surgery. The Total Joint Center’s multidisciplinary team includes surgeons, physician assistants, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists and case managers dedicated to caring for joint replacement patients. The center helps patients learn how to prepare for surgery and recovery through a special class called Joint Camp.

After his surgery, physical therapists helped Dave regain strength and motion in his new knee joints. “The morning after my procedure, I put both feet on the floor experimentally,” he says. “I stood up and there was zero pain compared to what I had been enduring. My ability to walk was immediate. The improvement in my gait was immediate.”

Today he is fully recovered and enjoys telling others about regaining mobility through joint replacement: “If your joints are in failure mode or if you’re not able to do the things you really want to do — like go to the beach and take a walk in the sand, for example — because your knee is not functioning correctly, by all means get that thing fixed.”