The rheumatologist is very popular and hence very busy so I had to wait until this week before I could see her. She had some information about what's involved with a complete knee replacement - not anything I hadn't heard before because, hey, it's major surgery and I certainly don't expect it to be a walk in the park but it needed to be said - and gave me a injection which she hopes will give me temporary relief. She also identified another issue that I will certainly have to address before I have the surgery.
So far so good. Then she gave the advice I'm referring to in the post title - and it didn't go down well with either Pisces or me. This was that I should lose some weight - two to three kilos - to ease the pressure on my knees. Why is this annoying? Well, my weight is right in the middle of the range of the ideal healthy weight for a woman of my height and, frankly, I cannot see that it would be healthy or desirable for my general well being to lose any more. It's not the first time I've been given this kind of gratuitous and unnecessary advice by a doctor - as far as I can work out it's something to do with naturally big boobs making you look like you are carrying more weight than you actually are - and, while I do understand that carrying extra weight does affect health, surely they should be able to tell the difference between healthy weight and overweight, particularly when they have just been told what that person actually weighs.
4 comments:
Maybe you need a boob job Helen. Seriously, I know what you mean although doctors here seem to have stopped telling people to lose weight which is good. Do you know when the knee op will be? Matt had one and he has had two hips done. I have just had a hip done. It really is a nuisance but better to get them repaired than to stand the pain. Ain't the golden years wonderful?
It won't be for at least some months, Jo. I have to get in to see a surgeon first which can take a while and then there's a fairly extensive exercise regime to be done to build up muscle strength after that before they operate. That's the issue she picked up that I mentioned in the post and I was quite shocked to find out how weak some of my muscles are especially as I do a regular exercise program. It's all complicated by my husband having developed some serious health issues which have to take priority.
Yep getting older is certainly no picnic.
Never heard of that before, building up muscle strength before having a knee op. Sorry you hubby has such serious problems too. Must all be a big worry for you.
The reason I need the muscle strengthening is because I have significant muscle wastage in my thigh - that no-one had noticed before - and they think this will affect how I recover.
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