One of the major risks of your upcoming op is infection post operatively. The following information will help minimise the risk of infection.
There is a risk of infection should you have any pimples, ulcers or broken skin around the knee joint.
Should you shave or wax your legs for sport please do not do so 1 week prior to surgery and please be careful not to cut or abrade the skin of your lower limb.
You are required to wash, not rub your leg in Phisohex (or similar antibacterial soap) twice daily for a period of 1 week prior to your proposed surgery date and to wash this off in the shower. This is to lessen the risk of infection.
Should you attend for surgery with broken skin or rash there is a possibility that your surgery will be postponed until the lesions have healed.
If you have any symptoms of chest infection, cold or a cough please get a clearance from your GP that you are fit to undergo a general anaesthetic.

After a massive build-up to Rio 2016, it now seems like it went by in a blink.  The team played extremely well, but the group stage turned out to be a hurdle that we could not get over. 

With five teams all within 1 point of each other, the finals were decided on the last day (last game in fact). Brazil to play Hungary and this would determine whether Hungary was out of the competition (meaning Australia would get through) or Hungary went to the top of the table. Unfortunately, the results did not go our way, and the Men's side made an earlier than expected exit (two wins, one draw and two losses).

Rio, although it had its challenges, was a fantastic place and venue for the 2016 Olympics, and I have put together a few snaps of the experience.

Since travelling to Japan for the World League Qualifying Tournament, the Aussie Sharks (Men's Water Polo team) have trained hard in Perth and Singapore before playing in the World League Finals in China. The final result of fifth came after being knocked out of the quarter finals in a penalty shoot out by USA.

​There was very little break in the schedule and 3 days later we were back in Sydney for a final home camp. This followed a long trip to Croata and Hungary for a mix of training and a tournament. The final game in the Vodafone Cup in Budapest was probably our best effort with a narrow loss in the last 4 seconds to make the final score 16-15.

What lies ahead is a final camp in Croatia, then another in Italy before our final destination to Rio. Not long to go now.

The road to Rio has begun with a week in Japan for the World League Tournament in Yokohama. The first game begins tomorrow with USA and should be an interesting match with both teams of similar international ranking.

Generally all has been going smoothly at training but this will be the start of a 4 month long journey to Rio. I have included some photos from the week...

A big thanks to all the personal training staff at Virgin Active for having me over to present some information on common injuries to the shoulder and hip. The topics discussed were on common injuries that occur in these areas and how personal trainers can identify them early to help keep clients away from injury. We also went over some practical tests and covered some basic solutions to try along with the criteria for referring on.

I am looking forward to the next talk and happy to discuss specific client problems at any time.

Ian

With 2016 well and truly underway, Orthomed Physio is now back and fully operational with all staff members back after a break. Bookings can be made on the Orthomed Physio App on the iTunes store, and also on our website. The app has been updated to include a few new features to help clients with their exercises and of course you can alway call up to schedule an appointment if you like.

All the best for the new year....

​Ian

This year the annual Water Polo by the Sea event was played in Sydney Harbour, with the Italian National men's team playing against the Aussie Sharks. The backdrop was nothing short of spectacular with the iconic Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background, along with a sizeable crowd who enjoyed a high scoring game. Unfortunately the Italians proved too strong and held an early lead of 2-3 goals, and the Aussie team never made up the deficit.

The series is now tied at 1-1 with the Australian team winning the first test match 11-10 the night before. The last game is held in Balmain at the Dawn Fraser baths and will be an important match for both teams.

Since more people have started using the OrthomedPhysio iPhone app to book their appointments, we have put together a quick instructional video on how it is done. Both the website and app have the same interface so it doesn't matter which one you choose. Once you have used the online system and entered your details, it remembers them so rebooking is even faster.

Of course, if there are any questions, please ask. The link for the video is below.

​A massive congratulations to Vicki Hill for not only completing her first Ironman, but for also finishing 1st in her age group and booking herself a place in next years Hawaii Ironman World Championship. She finished the tough Langkawi course in 10 hours 55 minutes which was over an hour and a half faster than second place in the same grouping. Amazingly her time would have put her 13th in the professional category for the women’s race.

A controlled swim and ride in the brutally hot conditions set her up for a super fast marathon run split of 3 hours 24 minutes, which was the 16th fastest female overall for the day.

A common problem when prescribing a shoulder rehab program is that once the athlete or patient has acheived the goals of normalising their shoulder strength, it is often difficult to either monitor the strength after being discharged, or know when the strength declines enough to cause problems again. A simple way is to correlate the amount of reps and sets before fatigue during your exercises and ensure you can match this in the future. Eg if your shoulder was given the all clear, and you were able to do 3 x 30 reps of the exercises, then it would be quite safe to assume that if you can maintain this routine, then you have maintained your strength.

However one easy and inexpensive way is to use a set of luggage scales and actually measure your own strength. Take the example of the external rotation exercise, one would place the scales in a similar position as where the resistance band is and slowly pull. If you know what your max strength is, you should be aiming to achieve this over time.

For further questions on this, please ask the physios here at OrthomedPhysio...