Thomas Y

Infection and Knee Replacement Maryland Dr. Conway

Thomas needed a knee replacement due to severe osteoarthritis, but he had two big problems: 1) He was told he wasn’t a good candidate for the procedure as he had a history of chronic osteomyelitis (bone infection) from a severe tibial injury decades ago. 2) Who would take care of his numerous homing pigeons? Thankfully, Thomas came to Dr. Janet Conway for help, and his wife, Marge, stepped up to care for his pigeons.

Thomas had developed a severe tibial deformity and had some retained hardware in his tibia from his previous treatment. Dr. Conway performed a staged treatment plan, first removing the old hardware. Then, once she cleaned the bone and took cultures that came back negative for infection, and an MRI also showed nothing concerning, she performed a knee replacement and straightened Thomas’ leg. She forewarned Thomas he would need to be on antibiotics for the long term and that it would be a long recovery. Thomas did get an infection, but Dr. Conway was able to treat it, and Thomas is very relieved to be doing so well now that he can get back to helping care for his homing pigeons.

Thomas shared that when he was a child, you could find two or three homing pigeon coops in nearly every Baltimore alley. Homing pigeons were valued for having played a critical role in both World Wars, conveying messages between units on the battlefield and saving many lives. Starting his hobby at the age of 12, Thomas belonged to a homing pigeon club that had 500- and 1000-mile pigeon races. Now his pigeons are enjoying retirement and are more pets than active racers.