[Dr. Tomek] "The natural history of osteoarthritis is typically that it starts with relatively mild symptoms ...
aching after activity, perhaps swelling, perhaps a sensation of locking or giving way.
The disease progresses at a different rate in everyone, and for a lot of people arthritis can stay very stable for years.
In other patients the arthritis progresses much quicker, and the cartilage disappears from the knee joint much quicker.
And in those patients ... very quickly ...
the arthritis can be accompanied by a loss of range of motion ...
the inability to bend or straighten the knee.
Certain activities like walking can become very painful.
Stair climbing can get more and more difficult."
[Susan] "It was probably around the time when I retired that I really started noticing a difference in my knee.
My knee would swell up quite a bit.
Range of motion wasn't what it should be.
And there was a lot of pain ... discomfort going up and down steps ...
things of that nature."
[Bill] "By this point I couldn't run anymore. My knees were just hurting too much.
So I was doing a lot of walking. And walking I still do. But it's not very exciting.
And, you know, I was used to skiing and mountain climbing and scuba diving and sailing.
I wanted a little more something. So I started bike riding.
And I found this adrenalin riding a bike ...
going downhill and uphill and going to different places I'd never been before.
And you go by things much faster, so it kept my interest.
And it felt good on my knees. There was no impact. It's this nice rotation movement."
[Azell] "It was okay walking around.
And then about 2, 3 o'clock I could feel myself limping.
And that's what bothered me the most.
I didn't want to walk around limping.
You know, I just want to walk like a young person.
I didn't want to walk like an old person ...
You always look at that when you are hired by a job because, you know, they are looking at younger people.
So I never wanted to feel like I was going to be a disability, you know, so I would just work every day and then come home and put my leg up and get ready for the next day."
