SMITHFIELD — If anyone needed a perfect knee replacement, it was Nicole Showell, 53, of Clayton.
A full-time caregiver for her mother-in-law, Showell navigates stairs several times a day in her two-story Glen Laurel home, delivering medications, meals and other care. So when she fell and injured an arthritic knee, Showell wondered how she was going to manage.
To her advantage, she had already lost weight by faithfully following a healthful diet and exercise plan. But while cortisone injections helped ease her knee pain, they lost their effectiveness over time…