Riceville Farmer & Mail Carrier Gets Total Knee Replacement

September 27, 2022

Now Living An Active Life Less Than Two Months After Surgery

Christopher Back, 60 of Riceville, Iowa is a father to five kids and grandfather to six grandchildren; he farms and works a daily mail route near Osage, Iowa. He is on his feet a lot! His right knee, injured from years of being a high school basketball official and farming, had been scoped twice to remove torn cartilage.

But as the years went on Christopher’s knee was getting worse and worse from arthritis. Said Christopher, “There was a constant grading pain. And I am bow-legged which aggravated my knee even more. Doing anything was hard. I would have to stand for awhile before putting any weight on my right leg.”

“I got an Xray at the Mason City Clinic Orthopedics office and it showed that the bone spurs and arthritis on my knee were bad enough to get a total knee replacement.”

Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Richard Rattay performed the knee replacement surgery on June 15 in Osage at the Mitchell Country Regional Health Center, part of the outreach program Mason City Clinic has with regional hospital and clinics, making it convenient for patients to receive quality health care closer to their home. Christopher went back to work on August 11.

“It was great to have the surgery in Osage because it is 40 miles closer to my home. It takes 20 minutes for me to get to Osage versus one hour to Mason City. Dr. Rattay was a very good doctor and surgeon. He answered all my questions thoroughly and the follow-up appointments were helpful.”

“Now I am feeling good. I am active again, doing a lot of biking and getting back to farming, getting ready for the harvest.”

“The rehab is hard, but necessary to do to recover properly. I don’t have any arthritis pain anymore. It is more of a recovery pain as I am building up my muscles. I have lost 20 pounds after my surgery. I now weigh 180 lbs. at 6 foot tall.”

“One goal I had for after my total knee replacement surgery was to walk or run the 5K in the Riceville Wapsi Day Festival on August 5 and I did it. I walked a 5K less than two months after surgery and had a great time doing it.”