A Message To My Patient… Behave

Aug 25

On Friday, I was in my postoperative clinic, where I see patients whom I operated on in the past. My 77-year-old patient came in to see me. He was 2 weeks out from a rotator cuff repair. As I showed him his surgery pictures, I noticed him moving around using his surgical arm as if I hadn’t just operated on him. I looked over and asked what he was doing. He raised his arm about 120 degrees and said, “My therapist is impressed and told me to slow down.” He continued showing me all of his notes and all of the exercises he had been doing literally 14 days out from surgery.

I looked at him and asked, “Can I see that pen?” He handed the pen over with a big smile on his face, excited to see what I would write. BEHAVE.

What Happened Next

When he read the word on the page, he let out a laugh that made the front desk staff curious, while turning to my medical student and jokingly saying, “You better not listen to her. This is not a good role model.” Once the jokes were aside, we made eye contact, and I saw the look of understanding in his face. This was not the time to press forward. It was time to stay in his sling and let the rotator cuff heal. Of course, I then threatened to call his physical therapist and his wife.

Why It Resonated

Most of us are terrible patients… myself included. We want to get back to driving, rucking, jiu jitsu, and every other aspect of life. My 77-year-old is no different! He wants to get out of the sling for his trip to California and get ready for his next adventure. Too many times I have had the people in my corner tell me to behave. So, this felt like the right thing.

Being Ahead Of Schedule Isn’t Always Better

The biggest thing I wanted to get across to my patient was that this rotator cuff needed to heal. I explained that if he carried on ahead of schedule without letting the tissue properly heal, then he could re-tear it and that the second surgery would be far more challenging than the first. We want to be ahead of schedule. It’s in our DNA to think that ahead is better, just like running faster is better in a sprint. It is my job to help patients understand that staying on track after a surgery is actually perfect!

Final Thoughts

I wonder if this newsletter was more for me than you guys. I have many people in my corner telling me to behave. Because I am just like this patient in my office. I think more is better. Average is… well, shitty.

When it comes to healing from surgery, average is, in fact, better. Sticking to the plan and the schedule. That is where success happens. Being at week 20 on paper when we are only 8 weeks out of surgery can create more harm than good.

So remember… behave.