Nobody sat us down and said, "Hey, one day your hips might just stop working." And yet here we are.

In this episode, Jan and Patti are joined by the brilliant Nicole Grose, a retired professor, Gen X middle child, leukemia survivor, and now the proud owner of two brand-new hips. Nicole brings her background in anatomy and physiology (and a whole lot of hard-won personal experience) to a conversation that is equal parts eye-opening and deeply real.

We talk about what it actually looks like to navigate joint replacement surgery, from the frustrating search for the right surgeon, to recovering mid-COVID, to the very specific math of being told your new hip will last 40 years when you have leukemia.

This one's for every woman who's ever been waved off by a medical professional, told to push through the pain, or simply never given the full picture of what her body might need someday.

About Nicole Grose Ph.D:

Nicole obtained a Ph.D. in Quantitative Biology, studying the relationship between the nervous and immune systems. She is a recently retired professor who spent nearly 2 decades teaching college-level anatomy, physiology and animal physiology from 2003 to 2021.Her academic expertise and personal experience brings a unique perspective to conversations regarding joint replacement and long-term health. Living with chronic leukemia, Nicole understands firsthand the challenges and realities of navigating complex medical decisions, procedures and subsequent recovery. A GenX middle child of five and longtime educator at heart, Nicole now enjoys splitting her time between Dallas and Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Nicole is developing an academic success/tutoring business with the goal of assisting STEAM students in developing the skillset to succeed academically as well as in the workplace.

Find resources mentioned in this episode here.

Learn more about this podcast here.

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*Information shared on this podcast is not medical advice. If you have a concern about your physical or mental health, please seek support from a proessional.

So Jan's basically building a new body one joint at a time, and we figured it was time to talk about it.

As of recording, Jan is eight weeks out from her fourth joint replacement, a knee this time, and we got into all of it. The parts they don't put in the brochure. The stuff your surgeon forgets to mention. The real experience of living in a body that needs a little extra hardware to keep going.

If you have a joint replacement in your future, or your mom does, or you're just trying to figure out how to stay mobile as you age, this one is genuinely useful. We promise.

Here's what we covered:

• How to know when it's actually time for a joint replacement and what the road there typically looks like
• Why the surgeon you choose matters more than you think, and what Jan learned the hard way from her first hip
• How robotic surgery has changed everything, making procedures more precise and often fully outpatient
• Scar tissue, fascia, and why rehab is non-negotiable for some bodies more than others
• Why strength training before surgery is one of the best things you can do for your recovery
• What those first days home actually look like and why having someone there is not optional
• How to protect the joints you've already had replaced so they actually last

If you've been through a joint replacement yourself, or you're heading into one, you already know this conversation was a long time coming. And if you haven't, consider this your heads up that your future self will thank you for listening now.

Find resources mentioned in this episode here.

Learn more about this podcast here.

Submit your 90-second lesson/experience here.

Apply to be a guest here.

Stay updated on new episodes here.

*Information shared on this podcast is not medical advice. If you have a concern about your physical or mental health, please seek support from a proessional.

This week, Jan connected us with Melinda Watman, a woman who has lived inside the obesity and eating disorder world since she was two and a half years old, and who somehow turned that into a career that's literally changing how pharmaceutical companies and clinical trials treat patients. We had a feeling this conversation was going to be good. We had no idea.

Melinda is a patient advocacy consultant, a former CEO, a French restaurant owner (yes, really), and a person who has had bariatric surgery, survived three concurrent eating disorders, and came thisclose to not being here. She's also as honest as we love our guests to be!

We talked about:

• Why obesity is a disease, not a character flaw.
• The food noise.
• Bariatric surgery and what nobody prepares you for.
• How Melinda ended up with three eating disorders at once.
• The moment something shifted.
• GLP-1 medications, the real talk.
• Weight bias in healthcare.
• Her "village" approach to recovery.
• Why childhood obesity and eating disorders are rising together, and why the cruelest bullying still goes unchecked.

The line that stayed with us: "I thought my goal was to be the skinniest girl in the room. It took me a long time to realize I was actually the sickest girl in the room."

If you've ever felt shame around your body, your eating, or your weight, or if you love someone who has, this episode is for you. You are not weak. You are not broken. And you are not alone.

About Melinda:

Ms. Watman is the founder of Weighty Decision, a patient advocacy consultancy partnering with pharmaceutical companies in the anti-obesity medication space. She provides both internal and external stakeholders patient-centered frameworks that improve engagement and outcomes. Drawing on 15 years of clinical experience and an MBA-driven entrepreneurial career, she bridges healthcare delivery, policy, and innovation. Ms. Watman is a compelling and trusted voice on the lived experience of obesity, healthcare bias, eating disorders, and patient-centered innovation.

In addition to her clinical practice, her background includes founding two successful consulting firms, serving as CEO and co-founder of a medical device company, working with both startups and established organizations to bring novel healthcare technologies to market, and owning a French restaurant.

She is a strong believer in giving back and is a mentor with the MIT Venture Mentoring Service and Innovate@BU. She also is an Emeritus board member of the Obesity Action Coalition.

Melinda will be speaking this year on eating disorders with obesity at two upcoming professional conferences: the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and the World Obesity and Weight Management Congress. She is also involved with an advocacy effort to maintain coverage for anti-obesity medications for MassHealth/Medicaid patients in Massachusetts.

Connect with Melinda on LinkedIn.

Find resources mentioned in this episode here.

Learn more about this podcast here.

Submit your 90-second lesson/experience here.

Apply to be a guest here.

Stay updated on new episodes here.

*Information shared on this podcast is not medical advice. If you have a concern about your physical or mental health, please seek support from a proessional.