Vacation is time to heal joints
.jpg?w=728)
By Song Sang-ho
Many people are excited about making plans for summer holidays. Traveling can be “healing” to the mind and body, but I recommend that you have a time of “real” healing for your health during the summer vacation.
Many people complain of painful joints. However, they often ignore warnings that their joints send them, because they have an excuse of being busy or they think it would be better if they endure it over time. Joint diseases can be somewhat cured only with medication and physical therapy in the early stages. When people continue to endure and neglect their symptoms, however, they will get worse and pain will aggravate. Thus, if you have often felt joint pain, I encourage you to have a time for accurate diagnosis, treatment and sufficient rehabilitation during this vacation.
Those who usually complain of pains on wrist, shoulder or knee should take arthroscopy. Arthroscopy can be applied to a wide range of areas in joints such as carpal tunnel syndrome which office workers often suffer or cruciate ligament rupture or meniscus injury to which people are vulnerable in their daily life.
With arthroscopy, doctors can accurately diagnose and treat joint problems by making a small hole, less than one centimeter, at the site where joint pain frequently occurs and inserting a special camera inside. It enables easy and convenient surgery in which damaged areas are treated and foreign substance is removed from inside the joints. In addition, patients can be discharged in one or two days after surgery. As the site heals much faster than in other procedures, you have plenty of time for rehabilitation during the summer vacation.
If a middle-aged man, who drinks frequently, often feels pains in the hip, he might suspect hip disease. If it is difficult to cross their legs or sit crossed-legged, or if he has awkward gait upon walking, it is highly likely that he has “avascular necrosis of the femoral head.” This typical hip disease frequently occurs in middle aged men who are heavy drinkers. The risk increases as the blood supply to the body is not smooth due to frequent drinking. However, as most men are insensitive to pain and think that they don’t have any significant problem, they are rarely getting early diagnosis.
Knee pain often tortures workers who frequently use their body or housewives who do a lot of household chores. If people often bend the knee or use it, it is highly likely that cartilage surrounding knee joints may be damaged. If it is left as it is, degenerative arthritis can occur. Thus, early treatment is more important than anything else, but most people endure these pains.
If such joint pains are treated in the early stage, the joints will fully recover through physical therapy or drug therapy. However, in case of serious damages, it will be effective to undergo surgery. It wasn’t easy for most of these people to choose surgery as surgery required over two weeks’ recovery period and six weeks’ constraint on their posture. “Minimally invasive artificial joints surgery” can be an answer for them as it enables early rehabilitation. It reduces the side effects and enables the fast recovery by minimizing incision site to between eight and 10 centimeters from between 15 and 20. It enables the patient to walk immediately after surgery and walk by themselves within a week. It thus enhances the effect of joint surgery in which the rehabilitation is more important than anything else. Through such early rehabilitation, muscles around the joints won’t weaken while joints can be more flexible. In addition, patients can be free from several complications such as thrombosis which they suffer when they lie down for a long time after surgery. If you fully take advantage of the vacation of one or two weeks, you can get free from pain while returning to daily life without any big inconveniences.
Happiness of the family and individual come from a healthy body. It would be good to make a memorable and enjoyable experience through travel, but more importantly, you can continue enjoying such vacation every summer for a long time only if you are healthy.
Hence, don’t endure joint pains from this summer. Make it an opportunity to accurately diagnose the problem and solve it. With the development of medical technology and new surgery methods, treatment has become easier and you can recover within a week. I hope that this summer vacation will make a true healing time for the readers who should be healthy for the next decades.
The writer is the president of Wellton Bone & Joint Hospital.