BoneSmart Spotlight: Craig Raucher
For Craig Raucher (the username is Raucher in the bonesmart forum), competitive basketball has been an integral part of his life at all times. However, there is no doubt that he had been in a typical age window at the age of 59 years before eight years, mainly because of his connection with sports for a long time. Right now, at the age of 67, along with a couple of knee replacements, he has succeeded in playing full-court basketball three times every week with not only people his age but even with buddies who are 10 years younger than him.
Craig Raucher has spent more than three decades in the transportation industry, and during this time, he has also passionately followed basketball. He has played organized as well as college basketball for more than five decades. Moreover, Raucher happens to be the founder and commissioner of the Staten Island Basketball League. This well-known organization was started in 1980 in Public School 8 at Great Kills on Staten Island. This one is the oldest as well as the longest-running group at the same spot in the history of the school system in the city of New York. The age of the players is between 40 and 70, and this particular league is run in an extremely unique manner. The participants happen to be experienced hoopsters who have played in high school, college, or leagues year after year. Most of the boys play six full-court games every Monday and Wednesday night and Saturday morning for a session of three hours. It happens to be a fantastic exercise as well as an extremely competitive experience.
Raucher was compelled to undergo several knee surgeries during his lifetime, which resulted from sprinting and injuries sustained from playing the game of basketball. The pain became intolerable in the long run, and he had no choice but to replace both knees. According to Craig, he was suffering from a low quality of life. The essence of his life had been exercising and playing basketball as an aging sportsman, and these were protecting him from becoming old. However, at that point, he was incapable of doing both of these activities.
Trying to find a solution
Craig Raucher became desperate to get assistance with his knee pain, and he was able to come across some surgeons in New York. Unfortunately, during the initial consultations, the medical practitioners advised him that it would not be possible for him to participate in competitive full-court basketball once again. The doctors further asserted that total knee replacement was a rare case that they had never come across. Moreover, these types of conditions tend to come back, and it’ll be possible for Raucher to play full-contact and full-court basketball at a high level of intensity. As a result, Craig was provided with the advice that he would not be able to indulge in the game anymore even before starting his surgery. He decided to write an absolutely different conclusion for his recovery. Craig mentioned that he heard the advice of the doctors, but he was determined to start playing the game once again at the top level, just like before. This kind of determination allowed him to undergo a recovery journey, which was instrumental in helping him return to the game. His ambition was to overcome all the obstacles.
Lots of research was needed for his approach to the aforementioned surgery as well as his recovery. Some hard work was also required to help him get back into shape once again. He invested a lot of time at the fitness center before the surgeries, along with exercising at his residence and taking the help of a therapist to make his leg muscles strong. He primarily focused on the quadriceps muscles in his thigh with the help of weight machines, a treadmill, and bands under the supervision of a physical therapist.
While looking for surgeons and hospitals, Craig Raucher came across BoneSmart. He started going through the information available on the website and the forum, along with the threads that talk about the experiences of other individuals with knee replacement surgery. He mentioned that for individuals looking at this kind of major surgery, its rehab can be extremely painful, and it can also challenge them emotionally and mentally. It is quite depressing and challenging at the same time. Moreover, it becomes even more intimidating by the negative evaluation of his future as outlined by the surgeons. Fortunately, he came across BoneSmart and it has some fantastic and unique content. He has been going through it since 2010.
Organized approach to pre-as well as post-surgery conditioning
The most significant question that came to the mind of Craig was why it was not possible for most individuals to get back their range of movements fully following the replacement of their knees. He observed that even the specialist did not seem to be much concerned about pre-conditioning and helping to prepare your body for the upcoming challenges of recovery. He was of the notion that it was important to make the muscles strong to recover successfully. According to him, it would be much more difficult to recover successfully if one lacked muscle tone, and the recovery would take much longer. Consequently, despite the fact that it was not possible to provide any guarantee of recovery, he took the decision to provide him with every single opportunity to become successful eventually. He believed that it was actually a winning formula. Raucher mentioned that he had a rigorous workout at the fitness center months before the initial TKR and also before the second TKR. He worked on different types of machines at the fitness center for the purpose of strengthening his leg muscles, particularly the four quads.
The knee replacements for Craig were performed by different surgeons at intervals of approximately two years. The initial replacement was performed by Dr. Scott Marwin (NYU Langone Orthopedic Center) when Raucher was 59, and the second was performed by Dr. David Mayman (Hospital for Special Surgery) when he was 62 years of age. Both of these surgeries were successful, and Craig had a particularly good experience in terms of post-surgery management of pain at the Hospital for Special Surgery. He was in the hospital for 24 hours, and then they released him, and he started his recovery quest after that!
After returning home, Craig Raucher maintained a stringent recovery routine apart from his therapy:
- Icing frequently with the help of an ice machine during the daytime for the purpose of reducing inflammation
- Usage of a combination of over-the-counter inflammation and pain medications along with prescription medications for a few months to control inflammation and pain
- Everyday sessions with a CPM (Continuous Passive Motion) machine to maintain the movement of his knee and increase his flexion slowly and steadily
Raucher took the help of a home therapist during the initial couple of weeks, and a nurse also monitored his progress. He became prepared to get transferred to outpatient therapy by the third week to somewhat increase his intensity. He performed formal therapy twice every week for many weeks, and he likewise walked on the treadmill at his residence at a slow pace in the middle of sessions. After a few months, Raucher entered the fitness center for the first time and began working out with the machines gradually to build his upper as well as lower body strength. This included stretching statically, kettlebells, and bands into the program while he went along. He was careful at every single step to make certain that no exercise would be responsible for any increased inflammation or notable pain whatsoever. It had been a steady and gradual process of improving agility as well as strength.
After six months following his second knee replacement, the big moment finally arrived. Raucher was prepared to begin shooting some hoops. After a period of nine months following the knee replacement surgery, he started playing full-court basketball three times a week. He was able to work his way up to the strenuous sessions lasting three hours with players who were 25 years younger than him. And he was so elated that his knees were holding their own while he was playing the game!
After this recovery milestone, Raucher went on to play full-court basketball on Mondays, Wednesdays, as well as Saturdays in addition to coaching and managing the aforementioned basketball league. This sums up to over 1500 basketball games, as well as active time on the court of over 18,000 minutes. Craig Raucher mentioned that he was feeling powerful after spending a significant amount of time on the treadmill as well as on his legs with machines exerting pressure on his knees. Some basketball friends of Raucher have approached HSS to look for consultations and operations for their hips and legs, while Craig turned out to be a walking, talking, and playing advertisement for this sort of surgery. He always told them the same thing: he was extremely fortunate to come across an outstanding orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Mayman, and he was also lucky to find a good hospital too. Not many people of his age will be known to them that would be able to play basketball at a high level and also aggressively even without undergoing any knee replacements.
The positive mental attitude, along with his aggressive approach to recovery and the surgical expertise of his physician, helped him achieve his target of playing basketball once again and leading his preferred lifestyle as well. Even though he might be unusual in his mental, emotional, and physical intensity at the time of recovering from knee replacements, playing basketball happens to be the means for Craig to be in good health and also to be mobile while he is aging.