How long will your hip replacement last?

I had a hip replacement and I asked when I had it done, how long should it last, the doctor was vague on his response. So, I think are most specialist but there is no need, a study called How long does a hip replacement last? A systematic review and meta-analysis of case series and national registry reports with more than 15 years of follow-up by Jonathan T Evans, MRCS, Jonathan P Evans, MSc, Robert W Walker, MRCS, Prof Ashley W Blom, PhD, Michael R Whitehouse, PhD, Adrian Sayers, MSc released in February 2019 has an answer to the question, how long will my hip replacement last?

My Hip replacement was not easy and my goal is to not have to have another one, which is also the aim of the medical professionals. However, all hip replacements will eventually fail because of processes such as infection, fracture, or a combination of normal processes, such as loosening and wear.

For doctors to counsel patients accurately and appropriately, it is important to know how long a total hip replacement might last. Life expectancy is rising and thus the long-term survivorship of the total hip replacement is increasingly relevant

The ultimate aim, that all hip replacements provide a normal pain-free function for the rest of the recipient's lives, has not been achieved as of yet. In the UK, the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence set a benchmark in 2014, that individual components making up a total hip replacement are only recommended for people with end-stage arthritis if they have 10-year revision rates of 5% or lower.

The typical patient who had a hip replacement in the UK in 2016 was 69·8 years old if female or 67·6 years old if male, and had a BMI of 28·8. 90% of hip replacements were done for osteoarthritis and 60% of recipients were female.

Similar demographics are reported by the national registries in Scandinavia, Australia, and the Netherlands.

There is hope however, hip replacements are getting better and lasting longer. Here is some of what they have to say in their research.

“In conclusion, although there is not enough information yet available to calculate exactly how long a hip replacement will last, using available arthroplasty registry data, we estimate that about three-quarters of hip replacements last 15–20 years and just over half of hip replacements last 25 years in patients with osteoarthritis.“

They did a systematic review and meta-analysis with a search of MEDLINE and Embase from the start of records to Sept 12, 2017. They included articles reporting 15-year survival of primary, conventional total hip replacement constructs in patients with osteoarthritis. They were very thorough as they reviewed implant data and reports of national joint replacement registries, after all of their research they said “assuming that estimates from national registries are less likely to be biased, patients and surgeons can expect a hip replacement to last 25 years in around 58% of patients

Total hip replacement is one of the most common and effective forms of surgery, resulting in generally excellent outcomes and it is getting better.

Pay close attention to personal finances when retiring

 Longer life expectancies and employers’ shift away from defined-benefit pensions has brought into focus the need for personal retirement planning. Yet many people, particularly women, may not be adequately preparing for the financial challenges that lie ahead. Accumulating the assets necessary to live comfortably beyond one’s working years requires planning. Decisions earlier in life that may seem unrelated to retirement security can have a significant impact later in life. This article focuses on the decisions many women make that affect retirement security and suggests how advisors can help female clients build plans that accommodate current circumstances as well as the long term. 

Planning for the long term is critical to ensuring financial security through retirement. Most importantly, women need to recognize the unique financial challenges they face and take great care when making decisions that can impact retirement security. The following advice is from a report called Women and Retirement Security written by Nevenka Vrdoljak and Anna Rappaport and released in Sept 2018.

STARTING OFF IN THE WORKFORCE

·       Saving early is critical.

·       Carefully consider investment options.

·       When making career and job choices, consider employment benefits.

·       If switching jobs, consider the benefits that may be lost or gained.

·       Consider saving in an employer-sponsored retirement plan, an individual retirement account (IR), and perhaps after-tax accounts.

RELATIONSHIPS AND FAMILY

·       Pay close attention to personal finances and seek to balance short- and long-term goals.

·       For couples, each spouse should be actively involved in making financial decisions.

·       Married couples need a financial plan that works for them today and for each spouse in the event of separation.

·       Safeguard your own needs before deciding to help other family members financially.

·       Both spouses need financial protection, including life and disability insurance; both need to consider funding IRs.

HOME OWNERSHIP AND DEBT

·       Spend what you can afford—or less—on housing.

·       Don’t forego retirement saving in order to spend more on housing.

·       void credit card balances or other expensive debt such as payday loans.

·       Keep debt to affordable levels.

·       Establish a debt repayment plan and stick to it.

CAREGIVING

·       Think carefully before assuming caregiving obligations that could make continuing in your job impossible.

·       Do the math to understand how your decision may affect your future financial security.

·       If you scale back or leave your job, focus on how to preserve your long-term financial security through alternative means.

NEARING AND IN RETIREMENT

·       Plan for a long retirement.

·       Carefully consider when to retire.

·       Carefully time your claim to Social Security; spouses

·       should coordinate their decisions.

·       Long-term care insurance is particularly important for women.

·       Remember that things change during retirement.

·       Understand how you are going to receive health Insurance in retirement.

Its not the path but the destination

What holds us back, sometimes inertia stops us from doing what we want to do. Sometimes it is fear that stops forward progress. As we get older, fear and inertia become bigger enemies. I have a friend who has been diagnosed with vascular dementia and he has been told that he has about 2 to 3 years before he starts to forget. He is taking this well, now but as he becomes more forgetful my hope is that he will realize that it is best to live in the moment.

When my wife was recovering from her brain aneurysm for the first two weeks she lived moment to moment, because she had no long term or short term memory and as she recovered she was able to extend those moments. Remember as we get older it is not the day we have to manage,  but each moment in that day.  

We all have fears that hold us back. When I was younger I dreamed of slaying many dragons and righting many wrongs, as I grew older, not wiser I sought out those dragons and found they were easier to slay then I thought. But now that I am older and I hope wiser I realized that it was not only the dragon I had to slay,  I had to slay the fear of the dragon first. Once I slayed the fear, the dragon could be killed or tamed, which I did more than I killed. 

We have all in our lives set goals, big goals, small goals, and many of us over the years have spent time learning how to set those goals, make them SMART goals so we could achieve our goals, or dreams. As I think about the wonder of life, I realize that there are many paths to achieve our goals and many of us spend too much time worrying about the path, when we should focus on the destination.  What a relief, huh?

Music video

Some great fun kudos to the editor they did a wonderful job on this joyful video. Enjoy