The sky’s the limit: How joint replacement can transform your life

Nicol McGough understands all too well how physical inactivity brought on by illness or injury can severely damage a person’s well-being. As a 60-year-old psychotherapist, Nicol works with patients going through periods of physical and mental pain. But Nicol herself has faced – and overcome - such challenges herself.

Nicol always enjoyed many sports like hiking, skiing, skating and biking. But at age 24, Nicol developed fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and chronic pain from a post-bacterial infection. As she aged, her symptoms and chronic pain worsened. “At one point, the pain was so intense it felt like I had broken glass piercing my joints,” she explains. “It was so hard for me as an athlete and mover, to be practically bedbound and restricted in my physical activities. It really affected my overall well-being.”

Then in the summer of 2021, Nicol met with Dr. Jason Jennings and his team at AdventHealth Medical Group Colorado Joint Replacement. Dr. Jennings believed that much of Nicol’s pain was due to arthritis, and he recommended joint replacement surgery for both her knee and hip.

After meeting Dr. Jennings, Nicol was hopeful he and his team could finally help her relieve the pain she’d been enduring for decades. “Dr. Jennings is fabulous – he’s super skilled and very funny. He and his staff were kind and caring from start to finish.”

Nicol decided to proceed with the surgery. In early 2022 she had her knee replacement surgery followed by hip replacement surgery 4 months later.

Following surgery, she spent six months doing post-surgery rehabilitation. While Nicol worked hard to strengthen and rehabilitate her hip and knee, she learned that she also had to retrain her brain in the way it looked at movement and exercise. “After years of experiencing physical inactivity and pain, I had to relearn how to view exercise as a safe activity, and trust that my joints wouldn’t fail me.”

With the guidance of Dr. Jennings and his team, Nicol was able to successfully push through the rehabilitation process. She found that every small bit of movement helped, and the more she moved, the better she felt. “When you encourage yourself to start moving again, it opens your world back up. But you have to commit to the process of getting better - even when it’s hard.”

Today, Nicol feels that her life has been transformed. Last year she hiked 350 miles on the Colorado trail, crossed a 17,000-foot pass in the Nepal Himalaya, regularly skis double black diamonds, goes ski mountaineering, climbs 14-ers, and walks every day. “With these new joints, I’ve taken my life back. The sky’s the limit…there’s nothing I can’t do.”