I cancelled my knee replacement

I was on the waiting list for a knee replacement. Both knees had osteoarthritis, the right one worse. I had been told the wait would be about four months, and recovery another three.

I am not afraid of surgery. But at seventy-six, I wanted to know there was no other way first.

Why Shanghai

I had been to Shanghai once for work, thirty years ago, and always meant to go back. When CuraMosaic told me their partner clinic there focused on joint pain, it felt like a sign. They asked for my X-rays and my orthopaedic notes, and the physician called me by video before I booked anything.

Morning needles

Treatment was every morning: acupuncture around both knees, sometimes with a mild electric current, and sometimes warming moxa afterwards. Then gentle exercises with a therapist who spoke good English and had no patience for excuses.

In the first week I was stiff and sceptical. In the second week the morning stiffness began to ease, and the stairs stopped being something I planned around.

“My knees let me enjoy the trip. That was the point.”

A little further each day

Every evening I walked along the Bund. On the first night I made it two hundred yards and sat on a bench. On the last night I walked its whole length and back.

Not this year

When I got home my surgeon examined me and agreed to take me off the urgent list. I may still need the operation one day. But not this year, and I have had a year with my own knees that I would not otherwise have had.