Finding Joy in Nature Again 


Kathy Ryan likes to hunt, fish, play in the brook, and sometimes go camping. At 69 years old, she is proud to have her motorcycle license and a lifetime fishing and hunting license.

Little has changed since she was a child, growing up in rural Reading, Vermont with her brother David. Together they would hunt, fish, play in the brook, and sometimes go camping.

But on another level, so much has changed, including the five joints she’s had replaced in her body: both knees, both shoulders, and a hip, thanks to Timothy J. Lin, MD, MS, at Dartmouth Health's Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital. How did it come to this? Let’s start at the beginning.

Work and play

Throughout her life, Kathy held jobs that made the most of being outdoors. Whether it was tending to a horse farm, working at a garden center, or using a four-wheeler and a wagon to build a huge garden at her mom’s house, hands-on work has always been her passion.

She also has an artistic side, and enjoys wood-burning and painting. “I think I get my creative ability from mom,” Kathy said. “I also got my arthritis from her. It runs in the family.”

Hard work took its toll, but Kathy pushed through. After all, her self-described motto is: “I’m stubborn, I'm independent, and I’ll do it myself.” Eventually, the pain got in the way of work, which led her into retirement. “I just couldn't stand and do the work,” she said. 


One step at a time

Kathy went in for an X-ray, which confirmed she had arthritis. After a two-week interruption from a sepsis hospitalization, she went to follow-up at Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, where she met Lin.

As an orthopedic surgeon, Lin specializes in total knee, hip, and shoulder replacement surgery, and was named a New Hampshire Top Doctor in 2023 and 2024 by Castle Connolly. He was glad to meet Kathy, and took her case without hesitation. “I had never met anybody that was willing to help like that,” Kathy said.

When it came to having joint replacement surgery, Kathy was never scared, only a little wary of it at first, she said. The first surgery on the left shoulder took place in August 2020 and from there, the subsequent surgery-recovery cycle began.

First the right knee, then the left. “Dr. Lin told me that my knees were the top 5 worst knees that he had ever seen,” Kathy said. Recovery could last from a few to several months each time. A team of visiting nurses and physical therapists from Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire were there to guide her with everyday tasks and mobility exercises. “It hurt healing. But it didn’t afterwards,” Kathy said. She remembers asking God to “build her strong,” though she never could have predicted it was for this reason.

After the left shoulder and both knees, Lin replaced her left hip followed by her right shoulder. “The hip was neat. I liked that,” Kathy said. “You go through that and they say, we're going to have you walk now.”

It amazes her each day that she can move her body with ease.

She also marvels at the innovation of it all. “I mean, I've got a titanium rod down to my elbow in both arms. It's awesome,” she said.

Kathy’s way forward

“Dr. Lin is just plain good people,” Kathy said. “He and I have a rapport.” He worked with Kathy through each procedure and always gave her an idea of what to expect. “I don't think I would have got that with anybody else,” she said. As a thank-you, Kathy made a clay sculpture of hands, outstretched, the word “gifted” in between. “I would probably be in a wheelchair or doing absolutely nothing without Dr. Lin and the surgeries that I've had,” she said.

Now, she’s regained the freedom to live on her own terms, and do what she loves most.

For Kathy, that means spending time outdoors: Finding stillness in a day spent fishing, watching loons swim across the lake, or hearing the snap of a campfire crackling under a Vermont night sky full of bright, sparkling stars.