Intimate look inside....

Every class needs a class clown — even Joint Replacement class at Regions Hospital in St. Paul — and I had my money on the 40-something mom who sat across the table joking quietly with her teenage daughter.We had gathered in the hospital’s cheery ninth-floor conference room — seven people facing knee or hip surgery — for a two-hour class on how to be good patients. Melinda, a nurse educator, reviewed medications and pain management. Ruby, a surgical nurse, covered pre-admission hygiene and diet. But when Lee, the last speaker, said you face weeks of exercise and physical therapy after a hip replacement, the mom erupted:”I might as well keep the old one!” she said.

via Patients bone up on joint surgery | StarTribune.com.