Inspirational Patient Stories

Caring for others has always been Jean Brockett’s focus in life.

From her husband and children to all the youngsters she helped raise as a childcare provider, Jean has devoted her skills, talents and energies to making every day better for those around her.

Last year, Jean needed a little tender loving care of her own. She had arthritis in her joints and her left knee was crooked, causing her to limp. Jean was experiencing difficulties getting up and sitting down and had begun to rely on a cane.

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Hip-replacement surgery gets patient back into the swing of things.

Connie Droste climbs a rickety flight of wooden steps toward the clubhouse of the Portland Country Club. Her 5-year-old son, Brandon, struggles to keep up. Watching her, you’d never guess she’d recently undergone a total hip-replacement surgery.

“It feels like my own,” the 47-year-old Portland resident said of her new right hip. “I don’t even notice a difference.”

But it wasn’t long ago that she thought she’d never again enjoy life without pain.

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Sandra Izdebski of Lansing could tell you a thing or two about degenerative arthrosis. Both of her knees were riddled with the disease.

“It’s painful,” she says. “It’s a very deep, aching pain that would hurt with every step I took.”

Though she retired in February 2007 from Sparrow Health System’s Outpatient Surgery where she was a nurse, she recalls having to hobble around on a cane to do her job.

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By the time most men and women reach their early 40s, they’ve long since hung up their running shoes. Not John Strickler.

The Haslett resident was averaging between 25 and 35 miles a week, taking advantage of any opportunity to lace up and run. But that was before a childhood injury returned to haunt him.

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