Page 4 - SonoraRegional

o get to the top of Half Dome, you hike about eight miles and gain nearly 5,000 feet in eleva-tion. Counting the 400-foot climb up cables to the summit, the round trip takes 10 to 12 hours. For Becky Wood, the journey started eight months earlier at Sonora Regional Medical Cen-ter. That’s when Airell Nygaard, MD, replaced her painful, worn-out left knee with a new one. “Half Dome was a goal I set for myself after my surgery, and I was able to do it,” says Wood, who was 53 at the time. “Knowing that my new knee would take me that far was a moment of grace for me.”

Wood’s knee replacement came after years of pain from osteoarthritis—damage to joints from injury or years of wear and tear. For many people with this condition, just walking without pain can seem as remote a goal as climbing Half Dome. That’s where Sonora Regional Medical Center comes in. Surgeons here are dedicated to help-ing people reach their goals with new hips and shoulders as well as knees. This fall, the program will expand into a newly renovated section of the hospital and will be called the Center for Joint Replacement at Sonora Regional Medical Center. “The focused, comprehensive care has been there all along,” says Dr. Nygaard, an orthopedic surgeon at the Medical Center. “With the new center, it will all come together in an integrated system.”

Joining Dr. Nygaard at the Joint Replacement Center are Steven Peterson, MD;Ariana DeMers, DO; and Thomas McDonald, MD.

Comprehensive care is the goal for the joint re-placement team at the Medical Center. It starts well before surgery, when patients attend a class to learn what to expect during and after their hospital stay. They also get a detailed manual that answers questions about arthritis, joint