Combat Airborne Ranger Knee Replacement (Dusty's Story)

An Interview with Dusty Baxley

My name is Dusty Baxley. I'm a retired United States Army Airborne Ranger combat veteran. I currently work in a military veteran wellness center here in Blue Mount, Virginia. I am the executive director of Boulder Crest Retreat.

I recently went through a full right knee replacement and I was very graciously granted the use of the X10 Knee Machine in my home for both pre-work, and for recovery. And it was quite an eye-opening experience. I live rurally, on kind of “over the mountain, over the river and through the woods,” acreage with my wife.

He is the toughest guy I know, and a Navy Seal. It took about two months for him to recover from his surgery. He said, “I don't expect you to come back to work at least for two months.” And I was like, sure. However, I knew that I had to be back after surgery two and a half weeks later for our next Path Program here, which is a life-saving program for combat veterans and their families. And, so, my boss kind of freaked out because two and a half weeks later he walked in on a Saturday and here I sat. I was teaching a Warrior Path Program. No walker. No cane. Just moving around like I'd never had surgery. He was quite surprised that I had recovered in literally two and a half weeks out of surgery.

Airborne Ranger Knee Replacement and X10

It was interesting going through the process with the X10 because again, living rural and not having access to the care that I would need. My wife works full time. And so after surgery, I had I guess the luxury of having some in-home home therapy come to me for physical therapy. And it was interesting cause the lady walked in, did an evaluation, said I'll see you in a week. I came back out, she looked at me, had me do a couple of exercises that told me I was well ahead of the power curve and basically called me the third time from a phone and just said, “We're good to go, don't need to see you, how's everything going?”

My Doctor's Appointment

When I showed up a few weeks later for my next doctor's appointment, my surgeon asked, “So how's your outpatient PT going?” And I said, “I haven't attended one single session. You haven't cleared me to drive. And my wife works full time. So there was no way for me to access outpatient physical therapy.” So he put me through the normal drills and checked my extension and flexion. And he didn't know what to say. I asked, “What's going on?” He responded, “How in the heck can you be at 130 degrees and zero degrees and have this kind of recovery? I don't understand?” And I said, “I don't know except I just use this X10 and it helps me to regain that full motion and strengthens my leg on a daily basis. It's not easy, but you have to put yourself through it and the machine guides you through the entire process, reports to you, and evaluates you. You have a beautiful therapist on the other end of the phone, you're taking pictures, you're reporting back, and you're getting encouragement.”

They actually hold you to it because they'll call you. But if you miss a session you can get one in the afternoon. And at the end of the day. I was probably the guy that disappointed those people more than anybody because I was a guy that was supposed to be doing it three times a day. I do it once, sometimes twice. And yet I recovered phenomenally fast according to my doctor who basically said, we need to write a medical journal about you,