05/2017 KIPLINGER’S PERSONAL FINANCE 65
mers Go Bionic
Surgery to replace a hip or knee can change your life—and it
doesn’t have to be an arduous process. BY PATRICIA MERTZ ESSWEIN
PHOTOGRAPH BY CHAD HOLDER
THE PAIN WAS LIKE A “HEADACHE” IN HER HIP WHENEVER SHE WA L KED
any distance. For four years, Dorry Felton Wallof of Cannon Falls, Minn., treated
the discomfort with ibuprofen and carried on. By the summer of 2016, intense
pain and a cane were her constant companions. // Wallof, 62, visited her or-
thopedist, who ordered an x-ray and concluded that she had osteoarthri-
tis—damage to the joint and inflammation often caused by wear and
tear—and needed hip replacement. She asked her doctor if she had
a choice. “He said, ‘Not unless you want to keep living like this,’
and I said, ‘No, I want my life back.’ ” // Wallof underwent
05/2017 KIPLINGER’S PERSONAL FINANCE 65
