Leah's Story
Climb up. Slide down. Climb up. Slide down.
Leah Keeton watched over and over again one recent day as her young grandson laughed and played on the bright red slide at Gloucester's Ark Park.
"You want Grandma to go down the slide with you?" Leah Keeton asked, laughing. "Because you know Grandma can go down that slide!"
It wasn't all that long ago that Keeton couldn't imagine walking without pain, much less climbing all over a jungle gym.
For years, the pain in Leah Keeton's knees sent her to bed in tears.
It hurt to walk.
"I was always walking behind everybody else, even people older than me, and walking with a limp," Keeton said.
It hurt to sit, because sitting meant bending her knees.
And it even hurt to sleep.
"You know there is something wrong when the pain keeps you up at night. I can tell you honestly I went to bed crying every night."
Crying because it hurt so bad, she said, and crying because the pain kept her from playing with her grandkids.
Keeton doesn't hurt anymore.
In 2015, Dr. Barbaro Perez did total replacements on both of Keeton's knees.
"Now I go-go-go," Keeton said. "I go camping, I go walking, I go running--just a little bit--I go in and out of the car without pain and, most of all, I go to bed without crying."
And good nights now lead to good days of playing with her grandchildren.
"What a miracle it is to not be in pain," Keeton said. "And it's all because of Dr. Perez. I call him my miracle worker."