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RESPECT YOUR PANTS
And don’t put them on one leg at a time. That way no one can ever say you do! Why do I have a RESPECT blog on this? Because my patients are always busting their butts trying to put their pants on while standing up! Breaking your hip by unceremoniously tumping yourself over, left foot stuck in your pants leg, and right big toe caught on the fly, is degrading. It’s not a good story. Better you should be bucked off a horse! From now on just sit down.
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RESPECT THE CAR IN FRONT OF YOU
As Austin continues to grow, it seems there are more and more traffic jams. Traffic jams at odd hours: 5:45AM on a weekday, 2:00PM on a Saturday afternoon. Now I have to plan for the all too frequent bottlenecks. No longer can I time my departure for work, planning on a precise arrival. I have to give myself plenty of leeway. And often the delay is due to an accident. Sometimes a serious one. We’re all in such a big hurry. Did you know studies prove on average, that changing lanes and weaving in and out of traffic doesn’t get you to your destination faster? And it’s responsible for about 10%…
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RESPECT THE KNIFE
It would generally go without saying, that we all should respect the knife, but really, a surprising number of people don’t. And they become…”patients.” People who carry knives regularly always seem to have some level of ease with regard to the movement of the knife, the safety mechanism and the way they close. Those of us who haven’t carried them around in our back pockets are clumsy and perhaps over-cautious. This in and of itself, can lead to mishaps. Okay, so don’t play around with knives. End of blog, right? Wrong. Because we all use knives for the very basic activity of cooking and eating. I get chills in my…
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RESPECT YOUR PINKY TOE
Last week I saw two pinky toe fractures (attached to patients of course). I estimate that I see at least one broken or dislocated pinky toe a month, sometimes more. If I multiply that by 12, and then again by the 34 years I’ve been practicing, that’s over 400 pinky toe injuries. Then keep doing more math to see how many pinky toe injuries we might see in my group, or in the city of Austin…THE WORLD. It’s a lot! And I’m pretty sure 99% of these injuries are 100% preventable. Because most of the time my patients stub those helpless little appendages on a bed or a door frame which…
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RESPECT THE GROCERY STORE FLOOR
Fall precautions are dear to my heart because I see so many injuries due to falls. We need to stay off the ground. When we go to ground we often get hurt. You can read my blog on Fall Prevention to get some general ideas on ways to prevent falling down. https://drbarbarabergin.com/fall-prevention/ Suffice it to say, if we watch where we’re going we can prevent a lot of falls. But that’s not all there is to it. And there are some special situations, grocery store floors being one, which deserve honorable mention. We have to go to the grocery store. And I would have to say “Thank you!” to the…
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RESPECT THE LUGGAGE CAROUSEL
This is a danger zone, kind of like the sidelines at an NFL football game. You have to keep your eyes open at all times. You have to position yourself so as not to get injured. As in a football game, most of the sideline spectators don’t get hurt. But every game will take its victims. If it’s really funny…like when it gets an unsuspecting photographer who is totally in the line of fire…you’ll see it played over and over again. But I’ve been there on the sidelines of high school and college games, and trust me, it’s a danger zone if you’re not wearing helmet and pads. The airport…
