Falling Apart

Fact:  Our bodies are not perfect.  In all stages of life, we all have issues.  But then we get into the “aging” years and the effects seem to overtake you; little by little or by exploding in your face.

At age 70, my existing neck issues have increased.  On occasion I would wake up during the night with a headache at the base of my skull.  The ensuing months saw increased muscle tightness, range of motion (ROM) issues, etc. even though I was still doing my daily ROM exercises.  A recent MRI showed what is common as everyone ages:  decreased disc space between the C6 and C7 vertebrae:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5958484/

For those of you who physically cannot perform an exercise due to joint degeneration and/or injury:  If you have been told by your doctor and/or have been thinking about joint replacement, PLEASE do your research first!!!!!!!!!!

  1. Consider your lifestyle. How active are you?  How active to you want to remain throughout your Golden Years?
  2. Look into the different types of repair and then look for qualified surgeons who have had experience doing it. I will use hip replacement as an example.  The standard “household” hip replacement requires a boatload of physical therapy postoperatively.  Sometimes the patient will still have some mobility limitations afterwards.  In 10 years, another replacement will usually be required.  Are you kidding me???  Medicine has come a LONG way over the past few years but some docs are stuck in the dark ages, and mostly because they do not have the skills to perform the newer techniques.  I’ve listed another option below, along with a personal example:

I recently read an article about regenerative medicine.  Maybe you or someone you know would be a candidate for this.  See links below:

http://www.regenerativeorthopedicinstitute.com/available-treatments/regenajoint/

http://www.regenerativeorthopedicinstitute.com/

My cousin who is my age and lives in California had something similar for his hip a few years ago.  At the time he had an HMO (Kaiser) but they just wanted to do the standard hip replacement.  If he had had that, he 1) would not have been able to surf again, and 2) would have needed another replacement in 10 yrs.  So, after doing some research, he found Dr. Thomas Gross in South Carolina who was the only one in the world doing this new type of procedure (hip resurfacing; not replacement).  In fact, Dr. Gross trains other orthopedic surgeons from around the world.  So my cousin dropped his HMO and went with a PPO.  Then he was covered.  He flew from CA to SC for the procedure and flew home about 3 days later.  He is completely healed and back to full sports activities:  surfing, basketball, backpacking in the Sierras, etc.  NO PROBLEMS AT ALL.  Here is Dr. Gross’ info…..and he also does knees:  www.grossortho.com