"Just got to the point where I couldn't stand, I couldn't hardly sit, I couldn't walk. Everything  just hurt so bad," Dean recalls.

That's when Walter went to see Dr. Michael Morrison about knee replacement surgery.  Shown on the left is an x-ray of a normal knee. Notice the black space in between the two bones. But the knee to the right is what Walter's knee looked like before the surgery.

"So there's no space left between the two bones. It becomes a mechanical pain of bone rubbing on bone," says Dr. Morrison. 

To ease the pain, Dr. Morrison gave Walter two new knees, each made of two pieces of metal and a piece of plastic.

Partial replacements are also available for people who only have arthritis on one side of the knee. Once the new knee is in, then comes therapy.

"It's about a four to six week commitment with surgery, healing and physical therapy," says Dr. Morrison.

Walter said the therapy wasn't always easy, but he did it and now he's doing things he couldn't do before.

"Dr. Morrison more or less gave my life back to me," says Walter Dean, "And I'll tell you what, my body gets tired now before my knees do."