Simultaneous double knee replacement surgery is a big commitment, but Clint Petersen had the guts and a burning desire to return to his active lifestyle. More than a year later, he’s back to pushing his limits.

Go Big or Go Home.

It’s a sentiment often associated with outdoor and extreme sports. Meaning, if you are going to do something, commit and give it all you’ve got. Years of competitive sports and racing ingrained that “send it” mentality into Clint Petersen, but the lifestyle also punished his knees to the point where he began dealing with chronic pain and loss of function. When Clint realized that both his knees were deteriorating to the point where he would need to cease some of his favorite activities such as racing dirt bikes and off-road buggies, as well as snowmobiling, skiing and snowboarding, he made a bold decision befitting his “go big” proclivities: to get both knee joints replaced at the same time.

Once he’d committed to that idea, he had to convince some people; most notably his wife, Dusty, and his orthopedic surgeon, Monument Health’s Ray Jensen, D.O. Bilateral knee replacement is not for the faint of heart, and often patients who replace both knee joints have two separate procedures months apart. Clint wanted his to be consecutive and same-day.

“I was really determined that I did not want to go through one long recovery and then right into another,” Clint said. “I really pushed hard for it, and I really had to persuade Dr. Jensen.” A fellowship trained orthopedic surgeon specializing in arthroscopic treatment and shoulder and knee replacements, Dr. Jensen has some qualifiers for bilateral knee replacement patients, although Clint has not been his only similar case.

“A patient for this type of case needs to be healthy otherwise, and they have to have really bad knees to where I think they’re a candidate. And frankly they need to convince me they can handle it.”

Knee replacement surgeries are very safe statistically, and more than half a million U.S. patients undergo this procedure annually. However, the rehabilitation and healing process is intensive and sometimes challenging.

“Clint was adamant that he wanted it this way, and I began to consider that although it could potentially be difficult for him with twice the healing at once, there were other positives,” Dr. Jensen said, “Such as one less time under anesthesia, and one less time to be prescribed pain medication.”

The Decision

If you’re as old as you feel, then Clint’s knees were watching Matlock with a nice glass of prune juice while he still had a desire to be extremely active. Clint often competes in desert races with courses hundreds of miles long.

“I had so much arthritis in my knees at one race in Mexico the impact of the sport actually broke a chunk off of my kneecap right in the middle of a 300-mile stretch. It was excruciating.”

It wasn’t long after that when Dusty encouraged him to take action, as he wasn’t able to partake in any activities, period. Once they began to consider full-on joint replacement, they found their way to Dr. Jensen. The surgeon noted that total knee replacement surgery was an option they arrived at together after more than a year of trying other treatments.

“Clint was in a really bad way with his knees for a long time, and we tried everything else. We were really trying hard to wait for a replacement just because he’s so young.”

Knee replacement joints are typically expected to last 30 years. Looking into the future was less of a factor for Clint because his present state was so severe. He had post-traumatic arthritis resulting from multiple ACL tears in each knee. Clint had a whopping seven knee surgeries prior to his bilateral replacements. That’s not to mention back surgery as well for a t10 fracture.

“Both his ACLs were gone, so he had a lot of instability,” Dr. Jensen said. The outcome Clint’s procedures took place in February of last year with physical therapy and rehab to begin right away. Clint credits Dusty with supporting him and their family in those initial weeks when he was in the early stages and

off his feet. Progress came incrementally until he was eventually comfortable and able to trust the new knees. Now, Clint is back to riding dirt bikes off-road and recently took part in another long buggy race.

“At a certain point they still don’t feel like your own knees, and then one day they just felt better,” Clint said. “I’m back to riding again — I mean aggressively riding — and they don’t hurt. It’s a huge change.”

Resuming an active lifestyle has not been the only benefit from the bilateral replacement process. Being on solid ground again means less secondary injuries such as muscle wasting in the quadriceps, which Clint worked hard to rehab.

“I can tell I have muscles coming in now that I haven’t seen in years; they have been so weak just from the knees being so bad,” he said. “I’m very happy with the outcome; being able to do my favorite things again and even just being able to sleep at night. My knees are better than they have been in 20 years.”