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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.

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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.....

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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.....

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author

It's a strange world that's hard to understand.

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