<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>jdmcnugent</author><text>Orthopedic surgeon here.  Outpatient total joint replacements have taken off like a rocket in the last few years, in part due to advances in due to pain control (pre operative peripheral nerve blocks, etc), accelerated physical therapy, and all around better management and prevention of all the common postop complaints (nausea, opioid induced constipation, etc), but I would say the number one driver has been that insurance companies (including Medicare) will finally pay for it to be done outpatient.  3 years ago you had to keep people in the hospital at least overnight to even get reimbursed.  The same phenomenon has happened with many of the spine procedures that can now be done outpatient.  The actual surgical techniques have not really changed much over the last few decades other than popularizing a few approaches (anterior vs posterior) or bearing surfaces (metal on polyethylene vs ceramic on polyethylene, etc).</text><parent_chain><item><author>ubermonkey</author><text>Well, this is far afield from the normal discussions here, but:&lt;p&gt;8 years ago, I had a pretty bad cycling crash and broke my hip -- which, if you&amp;#x27;re not aware, means I broke the &amp;quot;femoral neck&amp;quot;, or the narrow bit of bone between the long part of the femur and the &amp;quot;ball&amp;quot; that goes into your pelvis.&lt;p&gt;Post-repair, my x-ray looked like this: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;gRqg50J.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;gRqg50J.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Anyway, with that much hardware in a repair, you&amp;#x27;re probably starting the clock on needing a full replacement. I think they were hoping for 10-15 years, but I got only 8 before joint pain and bone loss forced the issue.&lt;p&gt;Last Monday -- so, 15 days ago -- I went in at 5AM for a total hip replacement.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Which was done on an OUTPATIENT basis.&lt;/i&gt; I walked out of the hospital (with a walker, granted) on the new joint, and was at home in a lounge chair by 5PM. By the end of the week, I was off the walker entirely and using a cane. By day 9, I was routinely moving around the house without even the CANE, though I need it for any meaningful walk.&lt;p&gt;The main thing I&amp;#x27;m supposed to be doing is walking. I could manage a half mile within a week. Last night I walked 1.2 miles at a 30% faster pace than my first half-mile walk. I should be shut of even the cane in another week or two.&lt;p&gt;To me, this kind of objectively major SKELETON EDIT being effectively banal from a medical POV is pretty surreal. I mean, it&amp;#x27;s not &amp;quot;put Luke in the bacta tank&amp;quot; surreal, but it&amp;#x27;s a whole lot closer to that I realized was realistic.&lt;p&gt;(Now: I&amp;#x27;m completely willing to note that the ease I&amp;#x27;ve had with this is tied to a number of factors, including probably first the fact that I live in a top-tier city for this kind of medical attention, and I have excellent health insurance. But still.)</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Ask HN: What is the weirdest or most surreal recent technology you have seen?</title><text>If possible, provide links to demos, products pages, etc.&lt;p&gt;Limit posts to one tech per post to make it easier for votes to reflect HN’s voting patterns and make it easier to filter related comments.&lt;p&gt;___&lt;p&gt;Here are some examples from CES:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=SYYXida84Nc&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=SYYXida84Nc&lt;/a&gt;</text></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>skrbjc</author><text>My brother had a shoulder surgery that he put off for many years. The doctor actually told him that he did the right thing because the type of surgery he needed has some such a long way in the last 10 years.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s great that we&amp;#x27;re still making so much progress in these areas.</text><parent_chain><item><author>ubermonkey</author><text>Well, this is far afield from the normal discussions here, but:&lt;p&gt;8 years ago, I had a pretty bad cycling crash and broke my hip -- which, if you&amp;#x27;re not aware, means I broke the &amp;quot;femoral neck&amp;quot;, or the narrow bit of bone between the long part of the femur and the &amp;quot;ball&amp;quot; that goes into your pelvis.&lt;p&gt;Post-repair, my x-ray looked like this: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;gRqg50J.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;gRqg50J.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Anyway, with that much hardware in a repair, you&amp;#x27;re probably starting the clock on needing a full replacement. I think they were hoping for 10-15 years, but I got only 8 before joint pain and bone loss forced the issue.&lt;p&gt;Last Monday -- so, 15 days ago -- I went in at 5AM for a total hip replacement.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Which was done on an OUTPATIENT basis.&lt;/i&gt; I walked out of the hospital (with a walker, granted) on the new joint, and was at home in a lounge chair by 5PM. By the end of the week, I was off the walker entirely and using a cane. By day 9, I was routinely moving around the house without even the CANE, though I need it for any meaningful walk.&lt;p&gt;The main thing I&amp;#x27;m supposed to be doing is walking. I could manage a half mile within a week. Last night I walked 1.2 miles at a 30% faster pace than my first half-mile walk. I should be shut of even the cane in another week or two.&lt;p&gt;To me, this kind of objectively major SKELETON EDIT being effectively banal from a medical POV is pretty surreal. I mean, it&amp;#x27;s not &amp;quot;put Luke in the bacta tank&amp;quot; surreal, but it&amp;#x27;s a whole lot closer to that I realized was realistic.&lt;p&gt;(Now: I&amp;#x27;m completely willing to note that the ease I&amp;#x27;ve had with this is tied to a number of factors, including probably first the fact that I live in a top-tier city for this kind of medical attention, and I have excellent health insurance. But still.)</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Ask HN: What is the weirdest or most surreal recent technology you have seen?</title><text>If possible, provide links to demos, products pages, etc.&lt;p&gt;Limit posts to one tech per post to make it easier for votes to reflect HN’s voting patterns and make it easier to filter related comments.&lt;p&gt;___&lt;p&gt;Here are some examples from CES:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=SYYXida84Nc&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=SYYXida84Nc&lt;/a&gt;</text></story>