DOCTOR SAWBONES? WHY SAWBONES?

What does a Doctor Sawbones do?

One thing they do is install that gleaming spike in the top image. It’s a hip bone.

The doctor makes it work by sawing the leg bone, working the piece in, and lining the hip bone with a new socket joint.

At six days out, the immediate danger has passed.

Now what?

From the dramatic flurry of appointments and tests leading up to hip day, afterwards are full of avoiding side-effects, like falling.

Other than that it’s a time related recovery. It takes time to move from ‘most-disabled in my life’ to ‘able bodied.’

The day before a new hip I needed to get a verified covid test at an urgent care clinic along with a getting a good long anesthesiologist’s look down my neck to be sure of no surprises when it came time to stick something down there to breath with.

I turned out clear on covid and neck obstruction and settled into the start time of six the next morning. Before I settled in too far, the time changed to 10:15, home by 4:30.

I can see where it would be a lonely recovery if you had to give up a full social and work schedule, but I’m right on time.

It All Worked Out

The day before hip day I was in the Phoenix airport on the second day of a two day problem with Alaska Airlines. You probably heard about it and the refund for extra hotel days and car.

I left Phoenix at 5:30, changed planes in San Francisco, then up to Portland. Three airports in one day. Not a record. I’ve done four in one long day.

The good part was making it back in time to check the last two boxes before hip day.

One day I’m hustling up the west coast; the next I’m slow-stepping with a walker.

The best part was the experience and attitude of the clinic staff from the front desk to the operating room. It was cheerfully competent. Cheerful and competent.

The doctors in the clinic also worked on the hill and in OHSU waterfront operating rooms. It depended on risk. Being low risk enough for the clinic was a kicker, a feeling that infused everyone I saw and spoke with.

That my guy knew the heartbreak of wrestling and Iowa was the closer.

When To Get Hip Work

Over the years I’ve heard the same things:

“Did you hurt yourself?” And, “From what I see in your x-ray you could come in tomorrow, but in general we like to say when it becomes too uncomfortable to live with.”

Along with, “It hurts others who see you walk,” and, “What kind of pain meds do you take?”

I feel like I met my Doctor Sawbones at the right time. The technology is better than it was fifteen years ago, though I think fifteen years is probably too long to wait.

The science is better. Combine better technology and better science in Doctor Sawbones anywhere and we’ve got better outcomes everywhere.

Isn’t that the goal? Better outcomes?

My guy said, “You’ll feel pain, but it’s a different pain.”

I’m calling that progress.