Doing the needful

Sixty-year-old Neela Arvind Naik was suffering from severe pain,swelling and stiffness in all her joints since December 2004. She was suffering from a painful condition called Polyarthritis (a type of Rheumatoid arthritis),which affects multiple big joints of the body. By 2006,she could nor move or sit properly due to the pain in the left hip.

Naik was completely bed-ridden and had to take the help of her husband for all the daily chores,including her personal work like using the washroom and taking a bath. “I had lost all hope. I was 54 then and wished that my life would come to an end,” she says. “The cause of her pain was polyarthritis,which was leading to the pain in different joints and which needed to be controlled,” explains Dr Narendra Vaidya,who had been treating Neela since 2007.

Vaidya,after examining her,performed the right total knee replacement surgery to make her mobile and independent to perform her day-to-day activities. This was followed by a cervical fusion a few months later in C1 and C2 vertebrae to relieve her of her neck pain. A surgery on her left hip and right knee also ensured that she had a complete pain-free experience in these joints. Medications and regular physiotherapy helped to keep the pain at bay. In January 2012,Vaidya performed a right hip and left knee replacement surgery. Now,Neela at the age of 60 is able to stand back on her feet and is living a pain-free,independent life.