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It’s one of his favorite activities to do despite ongoing knee pain issues that started when he was only 14.
“It’s hard to explain, but when I go there I experience some kind of epiphany. I look at it as the poor man’s Mount Everest,” Hall said.
Hall hopes to hike the Grand Canyon a sixth time – maybe next year – this time without the pain in his right knee that had him popping up to eight Advil a day and taking other prescription pain medications.
Hall, a retired electrician due to disability, two years ago underwent a little-known procedure called a cartilage transplant to treat his debilitating knee pain.
The procedure is typically performed on younger patients with cartilage loss due to osteoarthritis, said Hall’s physician, Dr. Adam Yanke.
Yanke, who sees patients in the Munster office of Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush, said Hall was an excellent candidate for this procedure, which uses cadaver tissue in the damaged part of the knee joint.
It allows patients a faster, gentler recovery than a knee replacement, Yanke said.
“I’m pain free for the first time in 40 years. You go through 40 years of aching so bad that you can’t sleep that pain-free is foreign,” Hall said.
