From the materials for Dr. James Hartford’s presentation in a seminar on hip (and knee) replacement at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation on Thursday (an information-packed two hours), in a set of slides on “Common Questions?”, slide 4:
How long do I maintain hip precautions? [things like not crossing your legs] 6 weeks
When can I play golf again? As soon as you’re comfortable (3-8 wks; Dr. Hartford had more detailed imstructions)
When can I drive? 4 weeks
When can I have relations? 4 weeks
That’s relations, a modesty truncation of sexual relations. My daughter and I did wonder if non-native speakers would understand the euphemism.
No one asked about it, though I’m curious here, as in many other contexts, about what counts as sexual relations. I can see why intercourse would be problematic. But what what about masturbation? I’ll have to check with the doc.
October 7, 2012 at 12:51 pm |
Old joke. A 60 year old guy has a heart attack, is hospitalised, and then discharged and told to come back in a month. When he comes back he said to the physician, “Doc, it’s been a month now and I’m kind of champing at the bit to have sex. Can I do it now?” The doctor checks his heartbeat, pulse, blood pressure, and says, “Well, your heart’s ok, so you can go ahead right now. But only have sex with your wife; we don’t want you to get too excited.”
October 7, 2012 at 2:39 pm |
There’s some real-world truth in this. Sex with a partrner other than your regular partner is reputed to be more heart-threatening than sex with your regular partner.
October 8, 2012 at 4:46 am |
The assumption that sexual relations = (vaginal) intercourse seems to be quite widespread in medical advice.
I once managed to utterly fluster a very prim-and-proper British nurse by asking for clarification after she cautioned that sexual relations were unadvisable after a minor operation; while she eventually acknowledged that oral, anal and non-penetrative intercourse would have no ill effects on the patient, just discussing the topic definitely got her out of her comfort zone.