The Milwaukee Post

By CHERI MANTZ Aurora Health Care MILWAUKEE — Shirley Goodman lives an adventurous life. With a passion for traveling, she has been to many different places around the world. To keep up with her active lifestyle, Goodman needs to be able to get around with ease. However, on a trip to Cuba, Shirley was experiencing troubles with her knee, which led to excru- ciating pain after her return home. She needed a knee replacement and she wanted it fast. Already having had a previ- ous knee replacement in Seattle, Goodman knew she'd be working on to rehab her knee following surgery, but what may be more surprising is the "prehab" her ortho- pedic surgeon at Aurora Medical Center in Summit, Dr. Gerard Adler, recommended. "I told Shirley to prehabilitate her knee, which is to exercise as much as possible before the surgery so she would have less- weakness to correct after surgery," said Adler. "After hospitalization, she per- formed outpatient physical therapy and used a home cooling unit and passive motion machine. We had to hasten her recovery so she would be able to get back to her active lifestyle ASAP." And she definitely has an active lifestyle. The 72-year-old enjoys biking, scuba diving and hiking. Goodman lives in Seattle, but lived in Wisconsin for decades while she was a nursing administrator for a local health system. Her son still lives in Dousman, and she knew she wanted to be close to him for her surgery. After meeting Adler, she knew he was the doctor for her. "My knee was bone-on-bone and I was having a lot of pain walking," she said. "My son knew Dr. Adler from playing sports, so I went to see him. I appreciated the honest way he spoke with me." After five weeks of extensive physical therapy, Goodman was able to fly home to Seattle. Goodman said that, even though she was in pain, she worked out on an elliptical machine before and after sur- gery. "You need to be active before the sur- gery," she said. "Even though I was having pain, I still did the elliptical. I also did a lot of work in therapy and it paid off." Since recovery, Goodman has been able to continue traveling, feeling even better than before. She is thankful for the care she received from Adler. "I just got back from a trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji," she said." It was a walking trip, and I wouldn't have been able to do that if it wasn't for him. He's enriched my life." SENIORS Getting ready for knee replacement Surgeon encourages woman to 'pre-hab' before procedure Submitted photo Shirley Goodman, post-knee replacement on a bike tour in Kauai, Hawaii. 18 • Milwaukee County Post • May 19, 2017 - PAID ADVERTISEMENT - WHY YOU NEED A FINANCIAL POWER OF ATTORNEY One of the questions I ask all of my estate planning clients is whether they have both a health-care power of attorney and a financial power of attorney. Many clients quickly answer that they do. However, upon closer examination, I often find they only have a health-care power of attorney. This is probably a result of the fact that hospitals, social workers and our state government often provide forms for individuals to prepare their own health care powers of attorney. If you become incompetent during your life, you will need somebody to not only make medical decisions for you, but also someone to take care of all of your financial affairs. Without both powers of attorney, your agent will be forced to petition the court for guardianship, an expensive court proceeding. Spouses often mistakenly believe that they automatically have the power to handle their spouse's financial affairs. Under Wisconsin law, they do not have such power. Also, children do not have such power on behalf of an elderly parent. Thus individuals must have a financial power of attorney and a health-care power of attorney, or their family members will be forced to proceed with a guardianship. No matter how poor we may think we are, we all have financial affairs. Most everyone files a tax return. Most elderly individuals have Social Security and pension issues. We all have bills which must be paid. I personally took care of the affairs of my own father for three years before his death. He had signed a health-care power of attorney and a financial power of attorney years before he became ill. When he suffered a stroke, I had no difficulty taking over his bank accounts for purposes of paying his bills. I could also invest and monitor his other assets. By having both powers of attorney, the court never became involved in any of his affairs. Such court involvement would have been expensive and would have included the need to file annual accountings with the court. Everyone should consider giving the agent named in your financial power of attorney the power to make gifts from your estate. I have seen many situations where a parent is in a nursing home and the children must stand by and watch the parent's estate disappear as a result of monthly nursing home expenses. Most elder law lawyers know that if the agent is trusted, giving that agent power to make gifts from the incompetent parent's estate will at least permit preserving some of that estate for loved ones. All financial powers of attorney are not alike. Content depends on the skill and experience of the drafter. There are many different provisions that may be added to a power of attorney to suit the specific needs of a particular individual situation. The Law Office of James J. Winiarski is a general practice firm emphasizing probate and estate planning. We offer a free simple estate planning consultation. Our approach to estate planning is to explain the options available, the cost of each option, and the advantages and disadvantages of each option. If you would like to set up an appointment for a free estate planning conference, please call us at 383-3902. 255317092 709 W. Oklahoma Ave. 481-8170 Accepting Blue Cross, Anthem, TRICARE, Express Scripts and more... Health Tip of the Week Registered Pharmacist Bob Stresing and the Serv-U Team 255317082 Denture Care Remove and clean your dentures daily. Brush them with a non-abrasive dental cleanser. Experts advise against wearing dentures continuously; give your mouth a rest from time to time to prevent irritation of your gums. Place them in water or denture solution when you're not wearing them, so they don't dry out and warp, and rinse them thoroughly before putting them back into your mouth. Avoid soaking them in any product with bleach. Don't ever boil you dentures; this can deform them and make them unusable. Get regular dental exams; there may be changes in your bones or gums, and adjustments may be needed.

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