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LADDER SAFETY
It’s time to hang lights and decorate Christmas trees, and it’s also a time when orthopedic surgeons get busy with ladder-climbing injuries! It never fails. I’ve always said that what makes your orthopedic surgeon money, is often something you shouldn’t be doing. All of us intuitively know climbing ladders is dangerous. I climb them all the time! But every time I do it, I know I’m taking my limbs, and potentially my life into my own hands. My first recommendation is to get someone else to do it, especially if you’re older, have poor balance or lack the proper ladder. If you’re going to ignore that solid recommendation, coming from…
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WHAT I DO: SURGICAL CONSENT
If I look back on 40-something-years of training and practicing medicine, I can certainly think of many things wrong with “the system.” But there’s so much positive, that it outweighs the negative, resulting in an amazing and wonderful career path for most doctors, and good treatment for their patients. That certainly was the case for me. But there were things. Things that drop the scale a little. And one of those things was the Informed Consent. I don’t know when this became a thing, but I do know that in my residency training, the need to obtain informed consent was drilled into our heads. We must get informed consent for…
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DOCTORS SAY NEVER DO THESE THINGS AFTER 60
Anyone who has been my patient knows I have a lot of recommendations for those of us over 60. Here are a couple of them from this article in Eat This, Not That… Source: Doctors Say Never Do These Things After 60 — Eat This Not That
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THE REAL PAIN OF GARDENING: IT’S NOT ABOUT THE PLANTS
Now that I’m retired and don’t see patients as a source of blogging material, I have to look elsewhere, or into my archives. I’m finding plenty of sources on Nextdoor, where neighbors are asking for doctor referrals and help with household needs. And this week a neighbor asked about finding someone to help to pull weeds… I hate weeds…and I love them. There’s something amazing about the strength and beauty of weeds. Would that we were that tough. Humans are more like orchids; hard and slow to grow. But weeds? Green in the middle of a drought. Blooming when it’s 105 degrees outside. They’re resilient to the toughest means of…
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THE DANGEROUS PATH…
"An injury has the potential to be life changing."
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36 BOTTLES OF…WATER
As any of you who have followed my blog will know, I often post regarding conditions I see frequently, especially if they come in threes. Last week I saw three patients who injured themselves lifting those humongous shrink-wrapped-36-bottle packages of water. If you haven’t tried to pick one up, don’t try. But if you drink bottled water, you most certainly have tried to wrangle one, because IT’S CHEAPER! But at what cost? I wonder how many rotator cuffs and biceps tendons have been torn over the years as a result of the marvelous idea of packing 36 bottles (or more) into one package. How many wrist and finger strains? I’ve…
