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AAHKS Offers Documentary in New DVD Format to Increase Awareness of Joint Replacement Benefits
“Total Joint Replacement: A Patient’s Perspective,” a documentary providing an inside look at four real-life patients facing the need for hip and knee replacement surgery, is now available in DVD format.
The American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) sponsored the film in cooperation with the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation (OREF). Until now, the 52-minute film had been available on VHS tape and via webcast on http://www.OR-Live.com.
Office Visit Tips
Your visit with an orthopaedic surgeon is an important meeting that can be most effective if you plan ahead. It’s important that you give your doctor the information he or she needs and that you understand what your doctor is recommending. The following checklist will help you and your doctor discuss the issues most important for getting the most out of the visit.
Before you go
- Find out the basics about the office. Where is it? What time should you arrive? If you’re going to drive, where can your park? Do you need to bring your insurance card or a managed care medical referral?
- Assemble your records such as results and copies of X-rays, other imaging studies and lab tests and personally take the records to the doctor’s office.
- Make written lists of:
- Medications you are taking.
- Your medical history, such as prior treatments for heart or thyroid problems or operations, even those not related to your current problem.
- Your concerns about your condition (pains, loss of mobility or function).
- Consider asking a friend or family member to accompany you. If you need a translator, ask another adult to come with you; don’t rely on a child to translate.
- Dress appropriately. For spine and many problems involving the arms and legs, you may be asked to disrobe. Wear loose clothing that’s easy to take off and put on.
Things aren’t good when your 83-year-old father has more energy and stamina than you do. An athletic and highly active person since childhood — whose activities included jazz dance, softball, horseback riding, cycling and sailboat racing — I found my life shrinking at 52 due to arthritis in my left hip.
When I’d been diagnosed with it two years earlier, I continued many of my activities. But by the time I was 52, in January 2010, every step was painful, and a hip replacement was inevitable.
See also: 5 steps to a successful hip replacement.
Hipster Club 