Living with Osteoarthritis & Surgical Reconstruction After Cancer

[HTML1] Aging is inevitable for those of us who plan to be here as long as we can. And with our advancing years come conditions that many of us will experience. One of these is osteoarthritis, a disease caused by loss of cartilage in the joints. In today’s first segment, Your Health Matters host Christopher Springmann speaks with Dr. Rick Schultz about strategies for living with this condition. Dr. Schultz is President of the Medical Staff and Director of the Musculoskeletal Care Division at Scott & White Healthcare’s Round Rock, Texas clinic. “Osteoarthritis, unfortunately, is an extremely common problem that affects the vast majority of us as we age,” he tells us. “And so it is probably the most common cause of debilitation in folks as they pass their forties and move in into the second half of their life. So knowing what that is and how it affects us is something that’s very common and is very important for folks to try to get in front of if they can.” Dr. Schultz discusses exercise, footwear, canes, braces and medications, and perhaps the most important strategy of all — a good attitude and an active lifestyle.

Any surgery is difficult, and if there’s potentially life-threatening reason for it, such as removing cancerous tissue, the stakes are incredibly high. And what happens afterward, once the surgery has been successfully completed? In our second segment, Your Health Matters host Christopher Springmann speaks with Dr. Raman Mahabir, a plastic surgeon with Scott & White Healthcare, about reconstruction after cancer surgery and other traumas. “Plastic surgery really does combine, not only functional reconstruction, but also aesthetic,” says Dr. Mahabir. “We try to make it look nice when we’re done with it as well. The patients expect more and so we’re providing more.”

Segment A (0:00 – 11:00)
Your Health Matters host Christopher Springmann speaks with Dr. Rick Schultz talks about strategies for living with the debilitating condition of osteoarthritis. He discusses exercise, footwear, canes, braces and medications.

Segment B (11:01 – 22:00)
Christopher Springmann speaks with plastic, reconstructive and cosmetic surgeon Dr. Raman Mahabir about reconstruction after cancer surgery.

More about Rick Schultz
Dr. Richard Schultz is President of the Medical Staff and Director of the Musculoskeletal Care Division at Scott & White Healthcare’s Round Rock, Texas clinic. He earned a B.A. from Rice University, and an M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine, both in Houston. He trained in orthopedics at Scott & White, joining the staff there in 1998. Dr. Schultz is certified by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery, a member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons, and also serves as an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Texas A&M University Health Science Center College of Medicine. His patient care emphasis at Scott & White is arthritis, arthritis surgery, direct anterior total hip replacement and hip resurfacing, muscle sparing joint replacement, total and partial knee replacement, total joint reconstruction, direct anterior approach total hip replacement, and minimally invasive total joint replacement.

More about Raman Mahabir
Dr. Raman C. Mahabir is Chief of Microsurgery and Director of Research, Division of Plastic Surgery at Scott & White Healthcare’s Temple, TX clinic. He earned his B.S. at University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, Canada and his M.D. at University of British Columbia – Vancouver. He trained in plastic surgery, hand and microsurgery, and breast and cosmetic surgery at University of Calgary and University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He’s certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada. Dr. Mahabir is also an Associate Professor of Surgery at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. He joined Scott & White in 2007 with a patient care emphasis on melanoma, skin cancer, breast lift, breast reduction, cosmetic ear surgery, head and face reconstruction, facial nerve paralysis, body contouring surgery, breast augmentation, breast surgery, head and neck surgery, head and neck reconstruction, facial cosmetic surgery, and breast reconstruction with implants and natural tissue (TRAM/DIEP).

More about Scott & White Healthcare
When Arthur C. Scott, M.D., and Raleigh R. White Jr., M.D., began their medical practice in Temple, Texas in 1897, they shared one fundamental conviction: medicine must serve the people. Today, Scott & White Healthcare is a fully integrated health system — the largest multi-specialty practice in Texas and the sixth largest group practice in the nation. Scott & White employs more than 1,100 health care providers and research scientists who care for patients covering 25,000 square miles across Central Texas.

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About Christopher Springmann

Christopher Springmann is Executive Producer and Senior Correspondent of Life, Love and Health, the award-winning health and wellness program that reaches millions daily on multiple news, talk and sports channels including Sirius XM, CNN, FOX, NPR affiliates, American Forces Network, and HealthRadio.net.

Life, Love and Health is also Mr. Springmann’s latest endeavor in a journey of “creative convergence” that started as a photographer for Time, Fortune, National Geographic and Smithsonian magazines. He moved into writing leadership profiles for Chief Executive and California CEO magazines, which in turn provided the inspiration for creating Life, Love and Health: to fulfill the unmet need of telling America’s health story. Mr. Springmann meets this need in entertaining and emotionally engaging ways, with the authentic voices of real people, including a diverse group of doctors and nurses, patients and their families, plus researchers and innovators in the health-and-wellness field. He relies on the credibility and persuasiveness of people’s passionate storytelling to get the point across. People identify with the experiences of others and are encouraged to take positive, attainable actions to improve their personal and family health.

Christopher is also the Host of Life, Love and Health on WomensRadio. Life, Love and Health seeks to ultimately make a difference in people’s lives by encouraging individuals to take positive, attainable actions to improve their personal and family health.