It’s just after noon on the day of All Hallows Eve and I’m just getting ready to put the finishing touches on the Halloween decorations at the front door. Though we have no kids of our own (unless you count our “hairy children”), we love giving stuff to the kids who come around to play Trick or Treat. We get a big kick out of it and it’s become one of our favorite holidays.
 
This has always been a special night for us, especially here in this gated community. It’s a riot to see tiny little children, all decked out in teensy little Batman or Superman outfits, or draped in a ghostly sheet with strategically placed eye holes, come up to the front door with their candy bags, full of treats. 
 
The really little ones are often driven up to the front door by their parents, in golf carts decked out in spider webs and orange and black. Gangs of the older ones come by later, some in minimalist costumes, others really elaborate regalia.
 
A couple of years ago, a beautiful girl who had to be seventeen or eighteen came up dressed as Queen Nefertiti, floor length golden lame pleated dress, gold pectoral, golden sceptre and flail, and a tall, cylindrical, flat topped white crown of northern Egypt–just stunning. My wife had to remind me that she was young enough to be my GRAND daughter.  Killjoy! 
 
For our part, we have the walkway to the front door lined on either side with electric holographic pumpkins, that bathe the walk in eerie orange light. On the right is a near life-size whimsical witch, riding a broom, with a peaked black broad brimmed hat, right out of The Wizard of Oz, carrying a bag with a black cat and a little pumpkin in it. On the left, a five foot tall dancing skeleton, in a black pin striped zoot suit and hat, that sings a repetoire of rock tunes. In the center, a skull shaped bowl full of goodies on a pedestal, with a skeletal hand that jumps out, if someone takes a treat. Should be good for thrills and plenty of laughs.

This year, we got a ton of candy and other truly horrible non-nutritious treats for the little demons (hey, c’mon– your only a kid once, right?).  Nothing worse than running out and then some little waif comes up and you have to scramble to find something to give ‘em.
 
Now I have to go get a replacement spotlight at Home Depot to highlight the skeleton. The other spot, on the witch, is still working, though. So, we’re almost ready for the onslaught. Most of them will show up after the Annual Halloween Party at the golf clubhouse. Then, we’ll start to see the pale ghostly lights of the silent golf carts making their rounds.
 
It all reminds me of Halloweens of years past… 
 
I remember trick or treating in my old neighborhood, as a kid back in Brooklyn, on 88th Street. Hoboes were in fashion then, as costumes, together with mummies, vampires, ghosts and Frankenstein’s monster. Costumes then were all hand made. The neighborhood was all rows upon rows of attached homes, on both sides of the street, so we could walk between 3rd Avenue and 4th Avenue, going from door to door, on our own street and collect quite a haul. Usually made ourselves sick, eating all that crap, but hey, you’re only young once and it was great fun.
 
During my years in practice, every Halloween, Mike, one of the Anesthesiologists, would always dress up, in full costume, no less, to put patients to sleep. It became a tradition at the hospital and the patients, especially the kids and their parents, loved it. He made everyone smile and took a little of the tension out of the sterile OR setting. Then, he’d go on rounds in the Pediatric Ward– the kids were always thrilled. It spread a little happiness to children trapped in the hospital on this “kids’ holiday.”
 
One year, he came in dressed in drag. He even shaved his moustache for the occasion. That was a scream. We all got a great kick out of Mike. It was such a great get-up that he had to go around to all the nursing floors, the ICU and CCU, and even the Physical Therapy Department (where a number of my patients were being treated with the forerunners of the exercises I teach today in my PAIN-FREE PROGRAM at http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html ).  Funny thing was, he made a damn good looking woman(well, except for the hairy chest…)!
 
So, now the sun is getting high in the sky. In just a few more hours, it will finally set and our streets will soon be overrun with the goblins, ghosties, ghoulies and things that go bump in the night. They’ll be free to plunder our little “village,” once again…. So Happy Halloween, my friend, to you and yours!
 
Just think, in a little over three weeks, it’ll be Thanksgiving! It goes so fast, now…cherish each day while it’s here. Til next time…
 
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

This morning, I was in my study reading my emails and trying to get rid of the extraneous crap that has a way of clogging up my Inbox. I’m sure you have the same problem. I was happily deleting a list of messages, when I came across one article that caught my eye.
 
The email edition of a local newspaper had a headline about ‘Jumper’s Knee.” So I read it and, as far as it went, it wasn’t bad. But naturally, it didn’t do more than give a cursory list of conservative treatments, without explaining how they help.
 
Well, maybe that’s too much to expect from a newspaper, or maybe that’s just beyond the scope of the article. But the fact is, this is a condition that’s all too common today and the average person has no idea they may have this, or what it means. They just know their knee hurts and that it won’t go away.
 
Jumper’s Knee is a layman’s term for Patella Tendonitis, an inflammatory condition of the fibrous cord that connects the kneecap to the upper tibia, or shinbone. Usually caused by repetitive trauma, it can linger and last for months, if it isn’t recognized and treated appropriately.
 
You see, any sport or other activity that involves running, with rapid changes of direction, like soccer or basketball, or sudden explosive jumps (not surprising, given the name of the condition), can avulse (fancy word for “pull out”) some of the tiny fibers that attach the tendon to the kneecap on one end, or from the shin bone, on the other end. Even though you couldn’t see any disruption from either bone, were you to look, microscopically a few of these fibrils have been pulled free. And that causes a localized inflammation, which in turn causes pain and tenderness.
 
As I’ve said before, pain is spontaneous–hurts all by itself. Tenderness has to be elicited–only hurts when it’s pressed or squeezed on examination. Either way, though, this condition hurts. And it hurts MORE when you try to use the knee.
 
So, what to do? Well, with any inflammation, you need to rest the tendon. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t get out of bed. No. There are ways to keep you fully functional, while still giving the damaged tendon a chance to heal. A patella strap is one such method. 
 
Then, there are a number of conservative, non-surgical methods to reduce local inflammation that I’ve reviewed here, again and again. Short term treatments for the acute knee (the RICE protocol) are pretty much common knowledge these days. But it’s the long term treatments that follow the acute period that make all the difference.
 
I reveal not just one protocol, but many–an actual menu of conventional and alternative treatments, which often work best together, in my best selling LITTLE GREEN BOOK FOR ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN  http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html  Stripped of the technical medical jargon, the basic principles of each disease or traumatic condition that cause knee pain are easily understandable and provide a foundation for you to select treatments, from across the entire medical spectrum, that WORK, to give you RELIEF OF KNEE PAIN–FAST.
 
And once the treatment has worked and your pain is gone, my PAIN-FREE PROGRAM exercises will help to keep you that way, for good. See how here, at  http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html

Together, these two programs give your pain a one-two punch that will knock it out, for good! And keep it from coming back….
 
So whether you’re a Boomer couch potato turned weekend warrior, or a regular “jumpin’ jack flash” on the basketball court, if you have jumper’s knee, or any other kind of knee pain, these programs will help you, like nothing else out there. Click on the links for knee pain relief, NOW:  http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html        http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
 
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

 In the Fall of 1973 I was a straight surgical intern at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. I had barely survived my first two months of training, given my gross disorganization, inefficiency and sheer terror that I would kill some poor patient by what I didn’t know. 
 
But gradually, apparently by osmosis, I learned what I needed to know, somehow developed patterns of ruthless efficiency (quite contrary to my nature) and logical analysis that remain with me to this day. Against all odds, I had survived and I had evolved into a pretty competent fledgling surgeon.
 
Having recovered from the prolonged anxiety attack that characterized my first two months, I looked forward to my new assignment at the local private hospital. 
 
What many people don’t realize is that interns are “farmed out” to a number of different affiliate hospitals during their training. This was to provide us with different perspectives and adequate clinical experiences, and provide those hospitals with the closest thing to slave labor,  since the Civil War.

So there I was, in my freshly startched white uniform, as I walked into the hospital’s surgical ward for the first time. As I walked into the Nurses’ Station for the first time, an elderly nurse, all in white, even stockings, with a stiff, starched nuses cap (nurses wore caps in those days) first noticed me and cried out, “Doctor on Deck!” 
 
And with that, everyone currently seated, all the nurses and orderlies writing or reading charts, who were in the Nurses’ Station, immediately jumped up in unison and stood at attention, facing me!
 
I naturally wondered who they were standing for and turned around to see who it was that commanded this almost military reaction. I figured, I should probably be at attention, too. Imagine my surprise when there was no one else there.
 
I was pretty dumfounded, that’s for sure. It never even occurred to me that they were standing for ME. The elderly nurse came over and took me in hand, and said, “Welcome, Doctor.” Wow. I couldn’t believe it. “Hi. I’m Bill Stillwell,” I said.  “Just call me Bill.”
 
“No,” she said, “you’re Doctor Stillwell, now.”  Apparently, I was expected to be a bit more formal than I was used to. With that, she turned to the other nurses, mostly female, but with a few males and orderlies, as well, and said, “This is Dr. Stillwell, our new intern.”
 
Much to my surprise, no one burst out laughing at me. Apparently, they were quite serious.

Now, I’d always been a pretty informal guy. Airs of any kind were not tolerated in my family or by my friends, and despite my abilities, I completely accepted these values. They were part of me and my world view. It would never have even dawned on me that I would or should command this level of deference. I mean, I was still a wet-behind-the-ears, junior doctor in training, hardly worthy of this display, and, to my mind, hadn’t earned their respect. So this was a brand new experience. In short, I was in shock.
 
The senior nurse smiled at me and took me aside. She advised me that I was in charge now, so it was appropriate that my subordinates show me respect. I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. This was obviously someone’s idea of a joke. I had no idea what I was doing and said so. The nurse said, “You know more than you think…”
 
Over the next couple of months, especially at night, she guided me, by asking innocently phrased questions that gave me an idea of what I should be doing, but without ever undermining my “authority.” We both knew that I was clueless, but she was very adept at teaching me, without seeming to. That old nurse taught me plenty and I owed her a lot. We both knew it.
 
At the end of my rotation, I thanked her for all her help and guidance. She smiled and told me that I had become a good doctor. “At least you listened,” she said. “Why wouldn’t I?” I replied. She was the only one of the two of us who had any idea of what they were doing. But apparently, some prior interns had resented her help and had refused to listen. Ego, I guess. Damn fools….
 
From that time onward, I was always a staunch nurse’s advocate. I never forgot that debt of gratitude. I don’t even remember her name, but I will never forget what she did for me and for the thousands of patients that my life eventually touched. 
 
The moral of this story is that you have to be open to help, when it’s offered. When you open yourself up to someone who has been there, to someone who KNOWS, then, with luck, you might actually learn something. That’s why, when I wrote my LITTLE GREEN BOOK FOR ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN, which you can get at this link: http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html   I wrote from the perspective of a surgeon AND a patient, who has undergone knee surgery, myself.  I also made sure to speak in your own language, NOT “medicalese.” 
 
I made it the hallmark of all my healing programs to get rid of the mystery and the obfuscating vocabulary, so you can access the underlying principles, which are actually pretty simple, once you understand them. You see, if you know WHY to do something, you’re much more likely to do what I tell you. And therefore, much more likley to get better, FAST.
 
So, if you want to relieve your knee pain and restore your function, then click here for FAST RELIEF:
http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html
 
Have a great weekend, my friend. And be well. Talk to you again next week.
 
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

My wife and I finally got to our New York home in Southampton yesterday after a road trip from Florida of 1,169.5 miles. We got in around six o’clock in the evening, dragging in after the last stretch along the Belt Parkway. My wife was doing the last leg of the trip, so I had a chance to look around for a change, and see a lot of the old sights from my childhood and teen years.
 
These included the Verrazano Bridge over the Narrows (God! I’m getting to be older than dirt–I remember when it was being built!), the field next to Gravesend Bay, where we used to fly kites, Dyker Heights, where my father was born and raised, Coney Island, with the Wonder Wheel and the famous Parachute Jump Tower, Sheepshead Bay and (fanfare…) the STILLWELL AVENUE Exit, the Marine Parkway Bridge (gateway to The Rockaways and Riis Park, where we used to go to the beach for real waves and surf) and finally, to JFK Airport (originally called Idlewild Airport), then onward to the Southern State Parkway, the Sunrise Highway (Route 27) and Southampton. Lots of memories….
 
As I said we would last Friday, just before we left on the trip, my wife and I took turns at the wheel during the drive, which lessens the stress of driving considerably. And during the drive, I made sure to do the ankle pumps and quad sets that I recommended to you. As I’ve mentioned before, these simple measures help to keep the blood moving in the legs, to prevent deep vein thrombosis (clots), as well as reducing or eliminating any joint pain. I present these and other treatments in my newest healing program, HOW TO AVOID KNEE SURGERY, which you can see and get for yourself at   http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html
 
Anyway, today we just spent taking it easy and allowing our batteries to recharge. I reviewed some of the email I accumulated during the trip, deleting a ton of spam and reading and replying to legitimate communications, and reading relevant blogs, especially some of the alerts that I often use as inspiration for my commentary. 
 
You may recall that I commented on an article in The New England Journal of Medicine (THE clinical “bible” for Internal Medicine specialists) nearly a month ago, which demonstrated that arthroscopic surgery was ineffective as a treatment for osteoarthritis, or more precisely, that surgery was no better than physical therapy for that disease. 
 
As you might imagine, that headline was taken as gospel by all the athletic trainers, fitness buffs, chiropractors, naturopaths, homeopaths, accupuncturists, and especially physical therapists. That reaction was to be expected, but that story has “legs,” as they say in journalism. 
 
Just today, I saw yet another article belaboring that very same reference, the very same conclusion. Man! They are just “beating a dead horse,” driving this same point right into the ground, over and over again.
 
Okay, enough already. If you’re a member of one of those afore-mentioned professional groups and you want the real story on how to eliminate knee pain–once and for all, with all the conservative, non-surgical treatments that are available from across the entire treatment spectrum, conventional, alternative and complimentary, then get my ADVANCED MASTERS’ PROGRAM by clicking here:  http://drbillsclinic.com/advanced_masters.html
 
Oh, and by the way, the Prius did great–I averaged 43.6 MPG on the trip and spent less than $100 on gas! I’m feeling smarter every day….
 
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

Here in Southampton, it’s just about 11 PM and I’m sitting here, writing my daily subscriber email. That’s the really nice thing about being an internet information marketer these days–I can do what I want, when I want, with no one to make any demands on my time (well, except for my wife). Far cry from what my life used to be….

On surgery days, I had to be IN the OR at 7:30AM, so I could say “HI!” to the patient. If I wasn’t there, Anesthesia would not bring the patient into the room. That, of course, would back up the entire OR schedule, and piss off all the other surgeons. So, I made it my business to be on time, all the time. 

After saying hello to the patient (and often the family) in the preoperative waiting area, I would go to the doctors’ locker room, and suit up in my scrub clothes and a long white clinical coat. Then, I’d take the elevator to the fourth Med/Surg floor, The Joint Implant Unit (Long Island’s FIRST such dedicated orthopaedic Unit–despite the specious claims of LIJH), where I would make rounds, visit my postop patients, confer with the nurses, write notes, do consults, give orders and so on…until the OR called me. In this way, I wasted NO time and I was maximally efficient. 

I then went down to OR #5, often referred to as “my” OR. Operating Room 5 was the largest of all the eight OR’s in St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center. It was also the only room that had a full bank of windows across the back wall, overlooking the forest outside. And it had a special “Laminar Flow” air filtration and conditioning unit, to hyperclean the air flow into the operative field, to prevent any contamination, or infection. It was ideal for doing the big joint replacement surgeries and revision procedures I was known for.

The windows were there specifically because I asked for them, during their renovation. Of course the other surgeons ridiculed the concept and called me a prima donna and worse, for asking for them. But oddly enough, when the room was finished, they ALL wanted to get that room. “Hey! How come Stillwell rates that room all the time?”they’d say. And I would reply sweetly, “Say, didn’t you think this was a stupid idea? And it WAS my idea, wasn’t it?” HA! 

Today, there’s a bronze plaque outside OR#5, “The William T. Stillwell, MD Operating Room”–an honor which, though pretty cool, is usually reserved for the dead.

Anyway, after doffing my coat, putting on a mask and coming into the room, I had to position the patient. Most often, I did this myself, with help from the OR staff, the assistant and Anesthesia, who always was in charge of the patient’s airway and head. Before my back injury, I was a strong little sucker, so I liked to turn the patients on their sides and position them just so, in preparation for the surgery. 

It’s hard to overemphasize the importance of this positioning. In joint reconstruction at that time, my judgment and assessment of the proper angles for implanting the artificial parts were all that resulted in a stable joint, and avoided dislocation. So when the patient was so positioned that a true vertical and a true horizontal were established, it made my determination of the correct angles for implantation much more accurate and more likely to be successful.

After all of that, finally, the surgical team: myself, and my assistant, preceded by the Scrub Technician, would then go to the sinks just outside the room and scrub, while the nurses were scrubbing the hip or knee with antibacterial soap. We would then re-enter, gown and glove. The patient was then prepped and draped, and at long last, surgery could begin. This mini-opera was re-enacted before every surgical procedure. 

As you can see, there was a heck of a lot of activity before anything actually happened. Just thinking about all of that makes me tired! It’s amazing what you get used to, through training and repetition. 

These days, life is much more civilized. And I spend all my time trying to teach you how you can AVOID surgery, with the best alternative and conventional treatments and strategies. Ironically, I can potentially affect far more people now–many thousands more–than I ever could as a surgeon. Which reminds me…

Hard to believe though it is, this Wednesday will be ONE YEAR since Dr. Bill’s Clinic Website went live and I presented my first product, the popular LITTLE GREEN BOOK FOR ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN, which you can see at http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html 
But after one full year, my “special introductory rate” has run its course. After all, it’s not “introductory” anymore, is it? So here’s fair warning: as of midnight, October 1st, the price for the LGB will revert to its originally intended price, roughly double the current price. 

If you have been “on the fence” about getting this book til now, further delay WILL cost you. So don’t delay any longer. Click here and buy NOW: http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html

Don’t say I didn’t warn you….
 
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