Millions of people are now waiting and worried, are you one of them?
Covid-19 continues to have a severe impact upon planned surgery in the UK and dealing with the resulting backlog is a critical concern for the NHS. Data from NHS England shows that the number of patients awaiting treatment hit a record high of 4.46 million in November 2020.
Although the number of surgical patients treated within the 18 week NHS standard is improving from its worst point in the first wave of the pandemic, the number of people who have already waited more than a year for treatment has reached 138,401. This represents a 153-fold increase from 904 in November 2019 and the growth shows no sign of slowing. Trauma and orthopaedics, oral surgery, and plastic surgery seem particularly affected but even cancer surgery has been delayed.
What can you do if you are waiting for orthopaedic surgery?
First of all, please avoid doing nothing. We know that people have better results from surgery if they are fitter, slimmer, stronger and more stable.
Things you can do to help yourself:
Lockdown has been hard and, if you are in pain and not able to be as active, keeping your weight under control can be very difficult. Try to move as much as you can as this will keep your blood supply moving and your cardiovascular system working better. The activity will also, hopefully, take your focus away from food! Please talk to Frances, the nutritionist at WG if you need some advice. In addition, diets can be made more anti-inflammatory and may, therefore, help you be more comfortable.
The type of operation for which you are waiting affects the level of activity you can manage. Sally offers specific training for hip and knee arthritis and general fitness at WG studio. Walking is great exercise if you can manage it but if you can’t cycling may be an option. If you are nervous about cycling on the road you could consider a static bike which can be purchased for as little as £79.99. If you do not have the space for a bike what about just the pedals; you can sit in a chair and pedal away. What I am saying is there really are no excuses! Rowing is also a great all body exercise if you have the space and funds for a rowing machine.
Think about getting a fitbit or similar (other devices are available) to measure your activity level. These activity trackers can be bought cheaply and will just give you a prompt to get up and do a bit more. You might want to set yourself a target such as 5,000 or 10,000 steps a day. Try to set yourself a realistic but challenging goal and attempt to hit it every day.
Muscle strength and stability decrease around a joint that is not functioning well. This is because the information getting back to the brain about the joint is erroneous and stops the brain knowing how to control the joint. In addition, the ageing process tends to decrease control around the joint but it does not have to be that way.
Decreasing swelling is a huge part of improving joint mobility. At WG we can help with treatment to increase fluid mobility but you can also help yourself with ice or heat and movement, elevation and compression.
You should try and maintain muscle strength with specific strength and proprioceptive exercises (proprioception is the brain’s ability to know where the body is in space). You will need some advice with this so give us a call and think about seeing one of our physios or Tom, who specialises in sports rehabilitation. Pilates is also good for this and we run a variety of classes at WG studio including a seated class that involves using a chair for stability; no need to get to the floor!
Waiting for surgery is frustrating and painful and the delay for many people has become ridiculously long because of Covid-19. Orthopaedic problems won’t kill you so surgery for this type of problem tends to get pushed to the back of the queue. If you can be proactive, however, you can you reduce your pain and improve your outcome when you finally undergo surgery.
