Page 11 - Mid Valley Times 1-2-2020 E-edition

Thursday, January 2, 2020 | A11 | Mid Valley TiMes
He
January and New Year’s Resolutions
H
ealth &Fitne
ealth &Fitn
ss
ss
By Jim Dueck
is time of year, is a good time for seniors and their families to take a look back at the last 12 months and review their current living situation. Has everything worked out the way you
expected and have care and health needs changed? If someone in your family can no longer be left alone, it might be time to consider all of the care options avail- able in the home or at a retirement community.
January can also be a good time to review legal docu- ments to make sure you are prepared for the unexpected. Make sure everything is up to date as the people you have designated in the past to provide for your care may no longer be the people who now have primary respon- sibility for your health and
nancial welfare. It is good to have power of attorney for health and nances, an advanced health care direc- tive, a will, a trust for those who need it and a POLST, physician’s order for life sustaining treatment.
Review your health in- surance to make sure it is meeting all of your needs. Medicare and a good sup- plement can provide the best coverage as you age. HMO plans can provide good coverage for much of what you will need but there can be a signi cant di er- ence in how much is cov-
ered in a rehab situation or when you need physical therapy.
Most impor-
tant of all is to
have a written
plan that you and
your family have
agreed to should
something un-
expected happen
which can cre-
ate a situation
where you can no
longer live in your home. Should this happen, where would you want to live and who would provide the care
needed. Being well pre- pared for unexpected health events can help to reduce stress for seniors and their families.
JOINT REPLACEMENT
gery are usually stand- ing and even moving the joint the day after their surgeries. Within six weeks, those same patients are typically walking comfortably with very little support. While each patient
is di erent, any fears that joint replacement surgery will require pa- tients to be immobile for months after sur- gery are unwarranted.
Joint replacement surgery also can be a long-term solution, whereas the alterna- tives might not be. e Cleveland Clinic says that roughly 85 per- cent of knee implants will last 20 years, and that life expectancy
gures to grow as technology advances.
Cons
As bene cial as joint replacement surgery can be, it’s not with- out downsides. Cost is one such disadvantage. How much a patient pays for the surgery depends on his or her coverage, but AARP notes that the aver- age knee replacement surgery costs $31,000. Such costs can be pro- hibitive for aging men and women who are no longer working.
Another potential disadvantage to going under the knife, espe- cially for those who are borderline candidates
for replacement sur- geries, is the likelihood that surgery won’t have a signi cant impact on quality of life. A 2017 study published in the journal BMJ found that knee replacement had minimal e ects
on quality of life, especially for patients whose arthritis was not severe.
Joint replacement surgeries are com- mon. When deciding if surgery is their best option, patients should consider the pros and cons of going under the knife before mak- ing their nal choice.
Continued from Previous Page
e Cleveland Clinic notes that many pa- tients who have un- dergone joint replace- ment surgeries have experienced dramatic improvement within
a relatively short time after undergoing the surgery. Much of that improvement is re- lated to pain, which for many people becomes overwhelming prior to surgery.
Another bene t
to joint replacement surgery is the recovery time. For example, the Cleveland Clinic notes that patients who have knee replacement sur-
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