My beautiful Grandmother was 88 when she had a hip replacement - we all thought it would be the end of her. No way - she traveled to Australia to see us all and spent 4 weeks traveling around with us. Other than needing an afternoon nap each day she was full of life. Nine years later I visited her in England and she still was getting around well although age had started to catch up with her. A year later she died. She had 10 years of life that I am sure she would not have had if she had just taken the pain killer and I have memories that will endure for the rest of my life. 75 is such an arbitrarily number for my Gran it was just passed middle age!
Chuckles...