When People begin to Lie about the State of their

When People begin to Lie about the State of their Health Arthritis Knee Replacement Surgeries become Difficult

My mother says a lot, that it speaks very well of our neighbor next door, that at 75 years she should be up bright and early at six in the morning every day, jogging briskly on the streets outside, signing up for swimming and tennis lessons, and for going out on skiing vacations every year. But even a person with a spirit like hers couldn't last forever. Over the last year, she has begun to see that her joints have been wearing out. She's had problems with her health, arthritis and the like. She's had a painful hip joint too and she had to mostly give up her active lifestyle. She wouldn't let it go at that though; she asked for and got permission for a hip replacement procedure. After no more than three weeks recuperating, and with a little medication for her arthritis, she was back on the pound, running, playing tennis. Shortly after though, she had trouble with the other side of her hip too, and opted for a second replacement procedure.

A relative of ours who is about just this old, had a very different experience with her joint replacement surgeries. After a long and active life of great health, arthritis in the knees caused her condition to deteriorate. It wasn't just her knees that were deteriorating; she was beginning to mentally slide as well. No one really realized how far she'd gone down with her dementia though. She wished to get knee replacement surgery done, even when she had diabetes. Since no doctor wouldn't hear of it, she lied to her doctors to have her way. The surgery turned out badly, and she suffered a stroke. Her children never knew she could go as far as to lie to her surgeon.

Arthritis of the knees is an affliction that seems to affect more and more people each year. The number of geriatric people who opt for knee replacement surgery for arthritis rises about 10% each year. And if you look at patients over 80, there is a 20% increase year on year there of the number of people who choose to have the procedure done. As a problem to affect your sense of general well-being and your health, arthritis of the knees seems to be one of the most serious factors. As long as a person doesn't suffer from problems like diabetes or hypertension, there is little that limits the age at which a procedure like this would be suitable. Techniques have progressed, and a knee replacement surgery can be done much more quickly, and with much less damage done to the body.

As important as it has for an elderly person to be granted the means to live a healthy pain-free life, the effects on the health that arthritis brings aren't life-threatening. They're just debilitating. Even if the procedure has improved over the years, there are some conditions where replacement surgery would just be too great a risk. Once it is diagnosed that the patient has coronary disease, pulmonary disease or urological problems, joint replacements can go out the window as an option. These days, an old person can't just walk up to a doctor and ask for a replacement procedure. Doctors worry about the possibility of dementia, and request that a family member be present. Another precondition to permission for surgery is often how many family members there are who can take care of the patient while he or she recovers. As techniques have improved, it isn't usually the trauma caused by surgery that limits a patient's chances with joint replacement. Often, it is the conditions of the patient's life that determine how good a candidate they make.