Hands, knees and boomps-a-daisy…..

The song Hands, Knees and Boomps-a-Daisy was written by Annette Mills and was first recorded by Joe Loss and His Band and sung by Annette herself in 1939.  Being a very active number it is still played today and very much enjoyed by children.

However, this physically active number is not enjoyed by everyone.  Ask anyone with Osteoarthritis (usually written as OA).  That should read “suffering” from OA.

The joints which give the most problems are knee and hip and the presenting symptom is pain, closely followed by stiffness in the joint.  What is happening, is the articular surface in the joint wears out, caused by many things, but mainly from too much physical stress caused by too great a load on the joint.   

Fortunately, our clever orthopedic surgeons have some new techniques where they can remove the worn out cartilage and replace the knee joint articular surface.

Are you struggling with a “slipped disc”?

One of the commonest complaints seen by General Practitioners is low back pain, caused by lumbo-sacral disc problems.  The discs are the rubbery cushions between the vertebrae and they can degenerate until the disc actually stays exactly where it is, but the center of the disc (called the nucleus) pops out through the edge of the disc and hits the nerve root (called a “prolapse”.  When this happens you have a very painful condition, as anyone who has had a disc prolapse will tell you.  The disc does not “slip”.

The treatment consists of surgery to remove part or all of the intervertebral disc(s) which are pushing on the nerve. There has been a great improvement in the surgery, called Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) that allows your surgeon to use smaller and fewer incision techniques.

It’s considered safer, just ask our MIS surgeons.