Yesterday’s poem, about Peter’s new hip, asked readers
to send me Good Hip Questions.
Thirty two did.
Two favorites:
Will my new hip make me more hip (Emma)
Beatles or Rolling Stones (Matthew)
My intelligent cousin sent a serious list
(and we used it):
How many per year
rate of infection
recovery expectations
front or back
robotic or hands.
The doctor, an Israeli, said he
likes knees and hips. He does
550 surgeries every year on them both.
Seven on surgery days. No shoulders ever.
So my question was this:
Why no shoulders.
(he doesn’t much like them.)
Where and when I grew up, we had one doctor who treated the whole family ( whole bodies too). Now I have a separate doctor for each part of my body. The doctor who replaced my shoulder only treats shoulders and elbows for example. I also have a knee doctor.
And the folks who operate on shoulders don't much care to involve themselves with other joints and now a days limit their practices to shoulders only. This observation comes from an elderly retired general surgeon (me) who practiced when of a wide scope of practice was considered the norm and patient relationships were the core of a career in medicine (think William Carlos Williams). A surgeon who had his shoulder replaced by a wonderful man who only operated on shoulders and who loved to do 5-7 almost identical cases a day and was horrified to even think about confronting a variety of problems. Ah, the specialization conversations can on and on.....