Coach K: Osteoarthritis Can Be Beaten
MONDAY, Oct. 12 (HealthDay News) -- As head coach of the Duke University men's basketball team for the past 29 years, Mike Krzyzewski has faced plenty of tough opponents. But none proved to be more formidable than osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis and a leading cause of disability in the United States.
Krzyzewski (pronounced shah-SHEFF-skee) says he began experiencing severe hip discomfort during the 1994 season. With the help of physical therapy and over-the-counter and prescription painkillers, he managed to put up with the pain for five years. He considered joint-replacement surgery but kept putting it off.
"Being a coach and an athlete, I thought I should be able to tough it out," he said. "But the pain became crazy-bad during the 1998-1999 season. The last couple of months of the season, I had to coach while sitting on a stool. I thought I would have to give up coaching altogether."
But Coach K, as he is widely known, refused to give up the game he loved. Instead, he gave up his left hip, opting to undergo total joint replacement surgery in April 1999, when he was 52.
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