KNEES-UP FOR AUTHOR PAM By Marj Belessis Click her to see the article
A book about knee replacement is not everyone's idea of cheerful bedtime reading. But when Elanora Heights resident Pam Bayfield penned her warts'n'all account of having both knees "done" at the same time, she didn't have the recreational reader in mind.
Rather, her self-published work Knees Up Mother Brown is intended to encourage others with "crook" knees to consider the surgical option and reassure those who have had the operation but are still in rehabilitation that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Pam Bayfield decided it was time to take action when she could no longer get about on the court for a social game of tennis. Several friends in her tennis group had had the surgery and Pam, encouraged by their progress, was booked in to have bilateral replacement of both knees in July 2004.
For three months afterwards she kept a daily account of her experience, the pain involved, her progress (and lack of it), following this up with monthly progress reports up to the first anniversary. Then she decided to write a book.
"I guess my message is that although the first six weeks are pretty bad and you have to do a lot of hard work exercising, in the end you find yourself being able to do all the things you couldn't before the operation," she said.
One of Pam's great joys has been to play tennis again on the court she and her husband built on their property back in the 1990's.
"There are five ladies in my tennis group who have had new knees and we call ourselves the New Knees Club," she said. "I am the president, self-appointed I must say, seeing they play on my court and I had the courage to have both knees done at the same time."
Copies of Knees Up Mother Brown - How To Get New Knees and Survive are available at Humphries Newsagency, Manly and the Next Chapter Books at Centro Warriewood or from [email protected].
