On this special day, I wish you and yours the blessings of family,

hearth and home, health, happiness, “…And On Earth, Peace &

Good Will Among Men.”

Merry Christmas!

With warm wishes for the Holidays, 

Dr. Bill

This won’t be a very long one, today. Seems I’ve managed to contract a bug, (probably an enterovirus, that attacks the upper & lower GI tract), just in time for the Christmas Holiday. My wife points out that, despite using supplements and hGH Releasing Hormone http://drbillsclinic.com/trans_d_tropin.html  I just don’t seem to have the same resistance to disease that I did when I was in practice. 
 
There may be some truth to that, as I’m no longer coming into contact with as many people on a daily basis as I used to. 
 
On the other hand, without those health adjuncts to help boost my immune system, this might have been a whole lot worse, or lasted a whole lot longer. 
 
Great timing, eh?
 
Oh well, it can always be worse. Just in case it does get worse, let me take this opportunity to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I wish you all the best for the New Year!
 
With Seasonal Greetings,
 
Dr. Bill

P.S. For DR. BILL’S LITTLE GREEN BOOK ON ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN, a concise, but complete handbook on the root causes and the various options for treating knee pain, go to http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html
 
P.P.S. For DR. BILL’S PAIN-FREE PROGRAM: EXERCISES TO PREVENT OR ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN, please go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
 
P.P.P.S. For the giant, comprehensive ADVANCED MASTERS’ COURSE: HOW TO ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN–ONCE & FOR ALL!, everything you need to know on causes and solutions for knee pain and the complete exercise program, too, go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/advanced_masters.html
 
FREE BONUS CD with any order: THE HEALING POWER OF POSITIVE PAIN PERCEPTION
 
Copyright, 2008 by William Thomas Stillwell, MD
All rights reserved

I was just answering a question from a subscriber, that came through the email, about swollen knees. It made me think about what made me go into orthopaedics, lo those many moons ago. I had always wanted to be a heart surgeon, until I actually got in there and DID some heart surgery. Well, actually, I assisted at the heart surgeries–they DON’T let interns actually DO those surgeries. They’re quite beyond the neophyte. 
 
But you ARE right in there, up close and personal,  and I DID hold a human heart in my hands (“Don’t DROP it, Stillwell!”), while the senior surgeon sutured a bypass graft in place. You have to admit, that’s pretty cool. Not too many people have ever had the chance to do that, so it’s a fairly unique experience.
 
Anyway, once there, I decided that whatever these guys needed to have, I didn’t have it. Mainly, the desire to spend the entire day and night in the O.R., to the exclusion of all else. I wanted to be a surgeon, but as PART of my life, not ALL of it.
 
Once I realized that, I was adrift for a little while. Didn’t know WHAT I wanted to do. I thought about Cardiology, but that would only frustrate me, seeing problems that I couldn’t then fix, like a surgeon could.
 
I considered OB/GYN (Obstetrics & Gynecology) for a brief while, dreaming that it would be pretty cool to examine all those beautiful, glamorous showgirls–”GYN to the stars”…But the reality is quite a bit different–quite mundane. So that was out.
 
Internal Medicine is an exercise in futility. Don’t get me wrong. Those guys are very smart and God knows they’ve saved my bacon many times, but…You have to be satisified in managing basically incurable conditions and accept that. Nope. I’m a man of action–always have been. Do or die! I couldn’t deal with that.
 
Urology? Nice clean specialty, but doing rectal exams all day? No thanks. Neurology? See lots of disease about which you can effectively do nothing? I don’t think so.
 
Preventive Medicine? BORING…besides, these guys all wear bowties. Radiology…interesting, but I’d be likely to fall asleep in the dark…Then, I happened to rotate onto Orthopaedics. 
 
Now, I had always held the orthopods in some degree of contempt, coming up through school. That wasn’t REAL surgery, wasn’t elegant enough, delicate enough for my uncommon powers of dexterity. Shows you that God has a sense of humor, doesn’t it?
 
Anyway, these guys were the buccaneers of the hospital. Everyone and I mean Everybody LOVED these guys. They were cheerful, and funny and didn’t take themselves, or anyone else, too seriously–a pretty good trick at MCV, where taking yourself very seriously indeed was the name of the game. But they were awesomely good at what they did.
 
I remember this giant of a guy, with bright red hair and a big handlebar mustache, that looked like he was one of the ancient Celtic warlords, named Bill King. A well-named man, if you ask me. He and another resident, Dave Snyder, took a shine to me and took me under their wing. They and their Chief resident, John Cardea, were a great bunch of guys. John went on to become the youngest Orthopaedic Department Chairman in the USA.
 
Well, the first time I saw them, they had me steady a patient who had a simple Colle’s (pronounced COL-eez) fracture of the wrist. I held the man’s arm, while Big Red smiled at the guy and then, snik-snak, manipulated his fracture, with some crunching noises, into the right position, a process called reduction.
 
Whullp! I almost gagged that first time. Those weird crunching noises got to me, much to the amusement of the residents, who thought that was a hoot. But oddly enough, it appealed to me, crunches and all. I mean, here you could actually FIX something that was broken. No dickin’ around for six weeks, to see if a medicine would work. And no six hours in the OR, either. Boom! Fixed!
 
Next time, they let me try it. And, you know, I was intuitively GOOD at this. Who knew? And the time after that, I taught another intern to do it, in the old “see one, do one, teach one” pattern that has been the mainstay of medical teaching for generations.
 
So that’s how a nice boy like me got into a specialty like this. I never would have thought it would be my cup o’ tea, as they say, but hey, you never know….
 
Now that I’m not able to operate anymore, it’s still a kick to be able to give people advice and teach them what’s wrong with them, show them what to do in my programs, like my LITTLE GREEN BOOK   http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_pain.html or my PAIN-FREE PROGRAM exercises for knee pain  http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
 
I still get a sense of fulfillment when people write me that they’re better because of instructions and helpful advice I’ve given them, or that they’ve gotten relief from their knee pain, without surgery, http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html
 
So, I’m glad I can still help you to help yourself. I can teach you how, but you still have to do your part. Til next time, my friend, be well.
 
Yours for a pain-free tomorrow,
 
Dr. Bill
 
P.S. For DR. BILL’S LITTLE GREEN BOOK ON ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN, a concise, but complete handbook on the root causes and the various options for treating knee pain, go to http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html
 
P.P.S. For DR. BILL’S PAIN-FREE PROGRAM: EXERCISES TO PREVENT OR ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN, please go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
 
P.P.P.S. For the giant, comprehensive ADVANCED MASTERS’ COURSE: HOW TO ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN–ONCE & FOR ALL!, everything you need to know on causes and solutions for knee pain and the complete exercise program, too, go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/advanced_masters.html
 
FREE BONUS CD with any order: THE HEALING POWER OF POSITIVE PAIN PERCEPTION
 
Copyright, 2008 by William Thomas Stillwell, MD
All rights reserved