Weight Gain and Pain during Covid

Most people have no idea what SPD is - its the sterile processing department. The place in the hospital that cleans all of the human body stuff off instruments so they are clean and sterile for your surgery.

I will share with you what we talk about in the operating room.

A mini-podcast series on the operating room - what really happens

Dr. DeCook wrote "The general public would be aghast if they knew that often surgeons and staff who had never worked together before start doing cases together for the first time."

Here I share my thoughts on team, inattention blindness, turnover times and more.

I wanted to share some statistics and personal experience with suicide and other stress factors.
If you need help please ask for help over and over if you have to.
If you notice someone is in trouble do everything you can to get them the help they need.

Supplementing with essential amino acids (EAA) after total knee replacement may be helpful. Two studies have shown that supplementing with EAA for one week before and two weeks after surgery, patients had less atrophy of their muscle and it improved outcomes.

Check with your doctor to see if these might be beneficial for you.

The two brands I recommend to my patients are:

Thorne - https://amzn.to/3EiFTWA

Pure Encapsulations - https://amzn.to/38JnI0q

The two articles:

Essential amino acid supplementation in patients following total knee arthroplasty by Hans Dreyer in The Journal of Clinical Investigation in 2013

and

Perioperative essential amino acid supplementation suppresses rectus femoris muscle atrophy and accelerates early functional recovery following total knee arthroplasty by Hideki Ueyama in The Bone and Joint Journal 2020

Here I will discuss how knee pain treatment can be similar to the treatment of back pain and how knee surgery recovery is not like the recovery from back surgery.

Pete Egoscue is a Vietnam vet who had suffered from chronic pain. In the 1970s he devised a method to change postural imbalances with "E-cises" and this has helped many people reduce their chronic pain.  He has a number of books where you can read about his method.

There are over 30 Egoscue Clinics in the United States so you may be able to find a trained specialist in your area if you think this method may be helpful for you.

This is a common question many patients have - can I do too much?

It depends. It is rare to do so much that you harm yourself. On average you should see less pain, less swelling and better function.

If you are ahead of schedule and have more symptoms back off 10%. But if you are behind, even though you are having more pain, you may need to push harder.

This is where your therapist and care team come in handy. By working with you they can guide you on how to balance your symptoms and your recovery.

So many patients are coming in with the same story. Due to covid they have gained weight and stopped exercising. We are now seeing patients with pain and it got worse when they tried to go back to the gym. Others are struggling with losing the weight they gained during the past two years.

Here I will share what I am seeing and the things I have discussed with my patients.