Almost exactly five years after he replaced one of my hips--so successfully I couldn't even remember that it had been on the right side--I returned to Amar S. Ranawat, MD, at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan complaining of knee pain. "You have moderate-to-severe osteoarthritis in both knees," he diagnosed, after reviewing my X-rays.
Much to my surprise, however, Dr. Ranawat didn't recommend surgery. "Knee replacement is a lot trickier than hip replacement," he advised, before asking me why I was in such a hurry to schedule it. "Mostly because getting up and down the stairs of my apartment is a lot harder than it used to be," I replied, but also because I'm a sooner-rather-than-later kind of guy.
His follow-up surprised me: "Why don't you move to another apartment without stairs?"
"I'm not going to give up my rent-stabilized apartment until I have to," I answered.
He gave me a corticosteroid shot before I left his office but it didn't do much to relieve the discomfort.
