Patient Resources

What to Bring to Your First Orthopedic Appointment

A first visit is usually 30 to 45 minutes, and a surprising amount of that can be spent tracking down information you already have at home. Arriving with the following turns a partial assessment into a complete one, and often saves a repeat scan.

If you are coming for a knee, hip or foot problem, wear or bring shorts. For a shoulder, bring a vest or a loose top. A clinician cannot examine a joint through a pair of jeans, and nobody wants to be handed a paper gown when a pair of shorts would have done.

• Photo ID and your insurance card, plus a referral if your plan requires one.
• A written list of every medication, including over-the-counter drugs, supplements and anything you take occasionally, with doses. Photographing the labels is faster than writing them out.
• Any allergies, and what the reaction was.
• Previous imaging on a disc or USB drive, and the written report. The report alone is useful; the images themselves are far better. Note where and when each scan was done.
• Operative reports or discharge summaries from previous surgery on the same area, if you have them.
• A short symptom timeline: when it started, what you were doing, what makes it worse, what makes it better, and what you have already tried, for how long, and what happened.
• What the problem stops you doing. Stairs, sleep, driving, lifting a child, a specific sport. This shapes the plan more than a pain score does.
• Any brace, splint, orthotic, walking stick or crutches you have been using, plus the shoes you wear most days if the problem is in the foot, ankle, knee or hip.
• The names of your primary care clinician and any other specialist involved, so the letter goes to the right place.
• Workers' compensation claim details, accident report numbers, or any work restriction and leave forms that need completing.
• Your questions, written down. Bring someone with you to take notes if you can; two people remember roughly twice as much.
• A payment method for any copay, and your pharmacy name and address. New patient forms can be downloaded from goldplaypot.com and completed at home, which saves time at the desk.

Questions Worth Asking Your Surgeon

The most useful questions are the ones that expose how certain a diagnosis is and what happens if you wait. Ask them out loud. A good surgeon expects them, and an answer you did not understand is a sign to ask again rather than a sign to go quiet.

How to Read Your Imaging Report in Plain English

Radiology reports are written by one clinician for another, which is why they read like a foreign language. Start with the Impression at the end: that is the radiologist's summary, and it is the part your surgeon reads first. The Findings section above it is a list of everything seen, including things that have nothing to do with your pain.

Keep one fact in mind while you read. Imaging findings such as disc degeneration, bone spurs, cartilage thinning and partial rotator cuff tears are very common in people with no symptoms whatsoever, and they become more common with each decade. A scan describes the structure. It does not measure your pain, and it cannot tell you on its own whether an operation will help.

• Unremarkable or within normal limits: nothing abnormal was seen. It is the radiologist's way of saying normal.
• No acute abnormality: nothing new, urgent or traumatic. It does not mean nothing is wrong, only that nothing needs attention today.
• Degenerative change, spondylosis, osteoarthritis: wear in cartilage, discs or joint surfaces. Extremely common with age and often painless.
• Osteophyte: a bone spur, extra bone formed at the edge of a worn joint.
• Effusion: extra fluid inside a joint, which usually means irritation, injury or inflammation somewhere in it.
• Edema or increased T2 signal: brightness on MRI that indicates fluid or swelling, for example a bone bruise after an injury.
• Tendinopathy or tendinosis: a degenerated, thickened or irritated tendon. This is not a tear.
• Partial-thickness versus full-thickness tear: partial means some fibers remain intact; full-thickness means the tear goes all the way through, though not necessarily across the whole tendon.
• Disc bulge, protrusion, extrusion: increasing degrees of disc material pushed beyond its normal edge. A bulge is common and often symptomless; an extrusion is more likely to press on a nerve.
• Foraminal or canal stenosis: narrowing where a nerve root exits or where the spinal cord runs. Symptoms depend on how much narrowing there is and which nerve is affected.
• Chondromalacia: softened or worn cartilage, most often described behind the kneecap.
• Clinical correlation recommended: the radiologist is saying this picture only means something alongside your symptoms and examination. It is not a hedge, it is the correct reading.
• Comparison is made with the prior study: your scan was compared with an earlier one. Findings described as stable have not changed, which is usually reassuring.

Preparing Your Home Before Joint Replacement

Do this two weeks before surgery, not the night before. After a hip or knee replacement you will be moving with a walker or crutches, you will not bend easily, and you will be tired. The aim is a home where everything you need is between waist and shoulder height and nothing on the floor can catch a foot or a walker wheel.

• Clear a walking path at least three feet wide from bed to bathroom to kitchen. Move furniture now rather than squeezing past it later.
• Take up throw rugs and runners, and tape down or reroute cables. Loose rugs are the single most common trip hazard after joint surgery.
• Put night lights along the route to the bathroom, and keep a phone and a charger within reach of the bed.
• Set up a recovery station beside your chair: water, medications with a written schedule, tissues, remote, charger, reading glasses, ice packs.
• Choose a firm chair with arms and a seat high enough that your hips stay above your knees. Low sofas are hard to get out of and, after a hip replacement, may breach your movement precautions.
• In the bathroom, consider a raised toilet seat, a shower chair or bench, a non-slip mat and a handheld shower head. Have grab bars fitted into studs by someone competent; suction rails are not weight-bearing.
• Gather the aids that save bending: a reacher or grabber, a long-handled shoehorn, a sock aid, a long-handled sponge. These matter most after hip replacement.
• Have your walker or crutches fitted to your height before surgery and practice with them, including on the stairs you actually have.
• Move everyday items in the kitchen and bathroom to counter height. Nothing you need daily should be below knee level or above your shoulders.
• Cook and freeze meals, or arrange deliveries for the first two weeks. Carrying a plate while using a walker is not realistic; a backpack or an apron with pockets helps.
• Move laundry to the main floor, or accept that it waits. Arrange help for pets, especially dogs that pull or cats that wind around ankles.
• Arrange a ride home and a person to stay with you for the first few days, plus rides to physical therapy for the first two to six weeks while you cannot drive.
• Sort out your paperwork now: work leave forms, the pharmacy that will fill your post-operative prescriptions, and your follow-up appointment already in the calendar.

A Realistic First Two Weeks After Surgery

The first fortnight is not a straight line. Days three and four are often the worst, swelling can increase before it settles, and a bad night does not mean something has gone wrong. Follow the discharge sheet you were given; where this checklist differs from it, the discharge sheet wins.

Days one to three: rest, ice, raise the limb and start the exercises you were given. Days four to seven: expect swelling and stiffness, keep moving little and often, and keep on top of pain relief. Week two: longer walks, less medication, stitches or staples usually out, and the start of real progress in therapy.

• Take pain medication on the schedule you were given rather than waiting for pain to peak. Chasing pain always costs more medication than staying ahead of it.
• Do the prescribed exercises daily, in short sessions. Range of motion in the first two weeks is difficult to recover later, particularly at the knee.
• Walk short distances often instead of sitting for hours, unless you were told to stay off the limb. Movement is the best protection against clots and stiffness.
• Prop the limb above heart level for a stretch of time several times a day, and use ice as instructed, over a cloth, not against skin.
• Keep the dressing clean and dry, follow the instructions you were given about showering, and do not apply cream, powder or antiseptic to the wound unless told to.
• Check the wound daily for spreading redness, increasing pain, opening edges, or fluid that is cloudy or foul-smelling. A little pink and a small amount of clear or blood-tinged ooze in the first days is common.
• Take your temperature if you feel shivery. A low-grade temperature in the first 48 hours is common; a fever after that needs a phone call.
• Take the clot prevention medication or wear the stockings exactly as prescribed, including the full course after you feel fine.
• Plan for constipation from day one: fluids, fiber, and the stool softener you were offered. Opioids cause it in almost everyone.
• Stick to your weight-bearing instructions. Touch-down, partial and full weight-bearing mean different things and the difference matters to healing bone.
• Do not drive until you are off opioid medication, can brake in an emergency without hesitation, and have been cleared by your surgeon.
• Sleep is a treatment. Set up a position that supports the limb, and accept that broken sleep for a week or two is normal.
• Confirm your follow-up appointment, and arrange for stitches or staples to come out on time.
• Keep a one-line daily note: pain score, distance walked, range achieved. It shows progress on the days it does not feel like progress, and your therapist can use it.

Pain Management Without Leaning on Opioids

Most orthopedic pain, including after many operations, can be managed with a combination of simple medication, ice, raising the limb and movement, with opioids used briefly or not at all. The goal is not zero pain; it is pain low enough to sleep, move and do your exercises.

Talk through this list with your surgeon or pharmacist before using it. Anti-inflammatory drugs are not safe for everyone, including people with kidney disease, stomach ulcers, heart failure or on blood thinners, and some surgeons avoid them after certain bone healing procedures. We do not publish doses here; use the ones on your label or your discharge sheet.

• Scheduled simple analgesia: taking acetaminophen and, if it is safe for you, an anti-inflammatory at regular intervals is more effective than taking either one late and in a rush.
• Topical anti-inflammatory gel: useful for surface joints such as the knee, hand and elbow, with far less exposure to the rest of the body than tablets.
• Ice and raising the limb: cheap, effective for the first two weeks, and works on swelling and pain at the same time.
• Movement and graded loading: stiff joints hurt. Little and often beats one long session followed by a day on the sofa.
• Physical therapy: the strongest single tool for most long-term joint and back pain, and the one people quit earliest.
• Nerve blocks and local anesthetic given at surgery: ask about these beforehand. They often cover the worst hours and cut opioid use substantially.
• Sleep, pacing and managing stress: pain that is poorly slept on is reliably worse. Breathing exercises and pacing strategies are not a soft option, they measurably reduce pain scores.
• Heat for muscle spasm and stiffness once the first week of swelling has passed, particularly for the back and neck.
• If opioids are prescribed, treat them as a short bridge of a few days, take them alongside a stool softener, never with alcohol, and never drive on them. Return what you do not use to a pharmacy take-back rather than leaving it in a cabinet.
• Call the clinic if pain is escalating rather than settling after day four, or if the prescribed plan is not holding you through the night. That is information we need, not a complaint.

When to Call the Clinic and When to Go to the ER

The difference between these two lists is worth reading before you need it. Call us on +1 (555) 014-7788 during clinic hours, or the urgent line on +1 (555) 014-7799 if you are an established post-operative patient. In an emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department without calling us first.

Trustworthy Places to Read More

Search results for joint pain are crowded with supplement sellers and clinics marketing a single procedure. These organizations publish patient information free of that pressure, and they are the sources our own content is built from. Use them to check anything you read anywhere else, including the pages on goldplaypot.com.

• OrthoInfo, from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons: the best general library for specific orthopedic conditions, procedures and rehabilitation exercises.
• MedlinePlus, from the National Library of Medicine: plain-language summaries of conditions, tests and medications, with no advertising.
• NIAMS at the National Institutes of Health: research-backed overviews of arthritis, back pain and musculoskeletal disease.
• CDC arthritis pages: United States data, self-management programs, and practical physical activity guidance for painful joints.
• World Health Organization musculoskeletal fact sheet: useful context on how common these conditions are worldwide and what actually helps at population level.
• PubMed: if an article you are reading cites a study, the abstract is usually free to read. Check the date, the number of patients, and whether the study was in people like you.
• A practical filter: be skeptical of any site that promises a cure, sells the treatment it recommends, hides who wrote the page, or has no review date on it.

Frequently asked questions