problems with hips/knees

[nextqueen]

i was on a ward yesterday where people, quite young were waitng for surgery to their hip or kness, they were very overweight, dont you think they should be told to lose weight before they have surgery or told that its due to their weight and have they considered this. am i being mean about this? my mother in law who is overweight has just has a hip op and i wonder if the doc has ever mentioned that to her! is it weight alone that causes or exacerbates these health problems?

[China Doll]

It is not weight alone. You can have congenital defects.

[jno]

or it could be the result of accident; my knees got hit by a car once and haven't been the same since.

[nextqueen]

one woman was very overweight and about 35, another girl was about 25 and very very big and the third woman was obese and about 35, only saw oldies that were slim having hip ops in there, just made me think. i suppose too if you cant get around then you may put on weight due to that!

[jackthehat]

Plus the fact that painful joints can cause mobility problems which, in turn, lead to weight gain.......it's a particularly vicious circle !

[China Doll]

My nan couldn't have a hip replacement op because she was overweight.

[Sqad]

No, you are not being mean and weight is indeed the main problem in most cases BUT if a patient was told that they had to lose weight before surgery was contemplated, there would be a public outcry both on AB and in the media.

Some years ago, a Consultant Cardiologist was castigated in the press when he refused to refer patients for by-pass surgery if they were smokers.

Surgeons now, for a easy life, just bite the bullet and get on with it.

A very good question nextqueen.

[jno]

indeed, jack - my twisted knees limited the amount of exercise I could do, which assisted me in getting fat. If a surgeon had told me to lose weight before he'd operate, I'd have pointed out he was putting the cart before the horse.

[NoMercy]

And the PCT won't fund surgery for anyone with a BMI of over 40 due to GA risks. Having said that, you BMI 40+ patients could always have it done under epidural

[NoMercy]

Sqad, as per my previous post, Consultants are always telling patients to lose weight and come back in a set period for further clinical assessment, if they are around the BMI 40 mark.

[daffy654]

I had a neighbour a few years ago who was morbidly obese and had knee problems. Her doctor wouldn't perform the op whilst she was so big. She never did get her op and died aged 49.

[Eve]

I used to be a lot more active before my arthritis kicked in, right from a kid it was dancing, gymnastics, RAF cadets, rockcliming, canoeing and all sorts of outdoors stuff.

Now I'm so restricted in what I can do, both through physical incapability/pain and on advice (nothing heavy on my joints). My old gym favourites of classes such as step, dance etc... are out. I've wasted money hiring skis, a mountain bike etc... to find that my body just can't hack it anymore.

I try and compromise. A lot of my friends are into walking so I go and potter about at my own pace with my camera while they hit the hills and try and do a bit of the flatter stuff with them. Same with mountain biking, I go and potter along the walking trails.

It's not the same but I have a good time but I do struggle to keep weight off as I just can't do what I used to although I do admit, diet doesn't help either and I am guilty of that, I'd love to be able to burn it off more though.

My rhumatology nurse recommended swimming as it's easy on the joints so hoping to find a way to fit that in with work etc... preferably somewhere I can swim (and hopefully aqua classes) somewhere conveninent in a decent length pool rather than forking out a fortune (not an option currently) on a gym membership in town where they only have little faffy pools.

I'm a rubbish swimmer (seriously, I failed my Bronze Medallion life saving exam when I had a bad asthma attack and had to be rescued by my own casualty and a lifeguard...oh the shame!) but give me a decent lengh pool I'll happily splash up and down doing my own special version of breaststroke.

[Scarlett]

It is a good question, but I do have extreme sympathy with everyone overweight with joint probs. I was 10 stone when my back went- 3 slipped discs. I then put on weight due to not being to walk or even stand. I was taking pain killers which then caused me to get ulcerative colitis. This (10 years on) has given me a lot of joint problems- I've had arthroscopies and each time the report comes back as 'caused by IBD'- although I know weight really does not help. I feel like I'm locked into a broken body, unable to walk, hardly, and being overweight does make it worse BUT I have also been on diets and lost a few stone, and it has made no difference to my joint problems. So, please don't judge the fat 35 year old in the hospital- she could be just like me- deteriorating joints caused by ulcerative colitis or Crohns, not simply an inability to stop eating pies.

[Scarlett]

p.s I always feel self-conscious at the doctors with my latest joint problem- I had an MRI scan on my (fat) knee, and it turns out the knee cap is off centre, and has been erroding the bone underneath in the wrong place, hence, arthritis. So, it's not JUST being overweight. They say this probably has been wearing away since I learnt to walk. I also had a knee operation on the other knee at 13, for the same reason, and I definitely wasn't overweight then!

[bednobs]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/...nd-hampshire-13708620
from today sqad

[Sqad]

bednobs...thanks....that is quite interesting,,,,,it will be interesting to see if there is a public outcry.

[bednobs]

i don't think there will be. It was on our local BBC news tonight and they did a quick vox pops in the street, where ALL the people who they showed thought it was a good idea.
How many of those were smokers waiting for a hip op i don't know.
Also, it's probably different in Spain, but there really is a culture of smoking being seen as a horrible dirty thing to do over here now, and i can't remember the last time i actually saw anyone smoking (actually thinking about it there was a group of pregnant mums outside the maternity unot whn i was in having William who were smoking).
I think only a small percentage of people smoke nowadays

[Sqad]

bednobs...thanks.