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Shoulder Bursitis & Impingement Syndrome
I know you’ve seen me write about the numbers of patients I see each day with the various disorders about which I have written. If you add them up, they might come out to more than the number of patients I see each day. But remember that some patients come with several complaints! I just had to qualify that so I can now tell you that EVERY day in my clinic I see at least five patients with shoulder bursitis and its related disorders; rotator cuff impingement, tendonitis, rotator cuff tears and problems with the biceps tendon. First a little anatomy and physiology. We just got done talking about hip…
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Hip Bursitis
I probably see four or five patients with this every day. It’s either the primary reason they come to see me, or they mention it at the end of the visit, as a scourge they’ve been bothered with for a long time. I’ve had it too…in both hips, and many women are going to get it. Ninety percent of the people who get it are women. It’s hard to get rid of. It’s very painful. Sometimes doctors tend to kind of ignore it because it is simply hard to get rid of and because it’s not really a destructive process. We just hope it will go away! You’re not going…
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Be Kind to Your Feet!
I was going to take the “Be Kind” series from the tips of the fingers down to the tips of the toes but I changed my mind. I’m going to go where my patients tell me to go and this week they told me to go to ground. Ground Zero of the human body is the feet. And those dogs took a beating this week. My patients showed up with fractures, cuts, infections, deformities, nerve damage, stress reactions and my pet project…plantar fasciitis; the disease I want to eradicate in my life time. I’m making headway with my own patients and with the world. Already about 1000 people have…
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Nana and Popop are Coming!
Sometimes at the end of a long day in the office, my PA and I review some of the interesting cases we saw that day and often find ourselves saying, “I hope that doesn’t happen to me.” Often we can agree on a few things that will for sure keep us out of trouble; we won’t be riding motorcycles and we won’t be riding bicycles down certain roads and highways…three abreast. We won’t drink and drive. And we won’t do squats. Okay. If we just do that, we’ll significantly diminish our chances of ending up with orthopedic problems. But neither of us would say that we would never go take…
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Get More Sleep
Why do we yawn? It’s probably not because we’re bored. How often do you yawn because you’re bored? We take in more oxygen when we yawn. Maybe we need more oxygen. I believe yawning was a signal we developed before we used language. It might have been a way to show our teeth before fighting. Have you ever noticed that you sometimes yawn when you’re nervous? I always thought I yawned before a test because I was tired after staying up all night. I thought I yawned before surgery while I was in residency because I had been on call the night before, and yet I wasn’t actually tired.…
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Fear of Needles
I’m a doctor. I give shots. It doesn’t bother me to give shots…not one iota. But you know what? I am a freak when it comes to getting shots. Oh you might smugly say, “The doctor doesn’t like it when the shoe’s on the other foot.” But let me tell you, it doesn’t bother me to break my arm or blow out my knee. It doesn’t bother me to have babies. It doesn’t bother me to get thrown off horses…too much. But I can’t handle getting a measly shot. I haven’t taken a flu shot in 5 years. Six years ago someone talked me into getting one…for the first and…
