After Knee or Hip Replacement, No Place Like Home
'Growing numbers of Americans are outliving their joints. More than a million operations are done annually to replace worn-out knees and hips, and that number is expected to skyrocket in the coming decades as the population ages.
Joint replacements typically restore lost mobility, making it possible for people to get health-enhancing exercise and enjoy countless activities that require movement.
As someone who has had both knees replaced, I can attest to the vast improvement in quality of life the surgery bestowed. I can walk and cycle for miles and swim daily without pain, and I can sit through operas, plays and concerts without stiffness.
I can also underscore the general futility of some popular efforts to postpone needed joint replacements, including injections of hyaluronic acid and corticosteroids, braces, shoe inserts and opioid painkillers like OxyContin and fentanyl, none of which are recommended by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. . .
It may surprise many to learn that, even if joint replacement patients live alone, the overwhelming majority recover equally well and may experience fewer complications if they go home directly from the hospital and get outpatient rehabilitation instead of spending days or weeks in a costly rehab facility.
Based on the findings of recent well-designed studies, Dr. Javad Parvizi, chairman of research in orthopedics at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, maintains that “we need to re-examine who, if anyone, should go to a rehab facility after joint replacement.”
Traditionally, Dr. Parvizi said, patients who live alone, those who have both knees or both hips replaced simultaneously, and those with a serious underlying medical condition are automatically sent to a rehab facility after discharge from the hospital. And to be sure, a small percentage of these patients — perhaps those who have both hips or, like me, both knees replaced at once — may benefit from inpatient rehab.'>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/well/live/after-knee-or-hip-replacement-no-place-like-home.html?
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Had both knees done. I won't lie, the pain was significant for me. The rehab difficult. I spent weeks in a rehab facility.
Now facing hip replacements. ....
Can't wait.
i see orthopedic surgeon tomorrow get a better picture of whats going on.
thanks for the well wish.
