It seems that right now, most of us are being told to wait.
Wait for the viral pandemic to go away.
Wait for life to return back to normal.
Wait for hip or knee replacement surgery.
While a a period of slowing down can be good in some ways, it can be frustrating when your hip or knee hurts.
The Way to Beat the Virus is to Wait
I find it difficult to ask my patients to wait. My goal is to help you stay active, and for some of you the only way to stay active is joint replacement surgery.
Due to the necessity to minimize the spread of Covid-19, all elective surgeries across the country have been postponed. The postponement makes sense for two reasons. One is to preserve critical supplies until we know how many people will need to hospitalized. The second is to keep you safe. Until the risk of transmission decreases, it is important to limit potential exposure.
I have heard some people say that no virus can beat them and they will forge ahead with their plans. Unfortunately, in this case that is not the way to win.
The only way to beat the virus is to wait.
We lack the ability to control the virus. We can be diligent with social distancing to slow down the spread, but we are unable to make this period hurry up. We can’t make it disappear. We can’t immediately return life back to normal.
But we can control what we do while wait.
We can get ready for when this entire mess is behind us. We can prepare for what comes next. We can be busy about getting ready. We can start planning for surgery.
Four Important Steps to Planning a Surgery
If you walked into my office today and we both agreed that surgery was the next best option for you, I would not be able to do it right away, even if there wasn’t a virus called Covid-19. There are multiple steps in preparing for surgery, and each part is important. While we wait for the virus to go away, you can work on these other tasks.
See Me as a Patient
None of the other steps can take place until I see you as a patient. During that first visit, I make sure we understand what is causing your pain. We talk about when your pain started, what causes it, what makes it better, what makes it worse, and what it keeps you from doing. Even though it is difficult to see me in person right now, I can see you through telemedicine.
Another important aspect of understanding what is causing your pain is imaging. This can be an X-ray or an MRI, or both. There are ways for us to safely get X-rays even during this time of social distancing.
Lastly, I always want to discuss treatment options with you and develop a treatment plan to help you get back to the things you are missing out on. My goal is to customize the treatment plan for each patient’s specific problem and needs.
If you would like more information on scheduling a telemedicine appointment click here.
If you would like to hear about my efforts to help patients through telemedicine as featured on Channel 2 WSBTV click here.
Obtain Medical Clearance
Once a decision is made for surgery, we start obtain medical clearance. Waiting for clearances is often the slowest part of the entire process and the sooner this starts, the quicker we can proceed.
I ask that you see any of the doctors that treat you for a chronic medical condition to see if they feel like it is safe to proceed with surgery. We also check labs and an EKG. The goal is to make the surgery as safe as possible.
Get Your Body Ready
When I schedule a patient for surgery, I also ask them to get their body ready by working on activating and exercising certain muscles. As soon as the decision is made to proceed with surgery planning, you get access to an app called Force Therapeutics that will help you with exercises you can do on your own both before and after surgery.
This tool can be used through any computer but also through Android phones and iPhones.
Get Your Mind Ready
I ask every patient scheduled for surgery to attend joint class. The class is taught by our main physical therapist at Northside Hospital. The class educates you on what will happen the day of the surgery, how you can get yourself ready, and what to expect once you go home.
Patients who do the joint class do much better than those who don’t, so we ask everyone to go. The classes are presented online as well and can easily be done while we wait.
Contact Me
If you would like to make a telemedicine appointment with me, call my nurse, Amy, at 404-888-5120.
Or you can also fill out the form below and she will contact you as soon as possible.
