If you’ve been a reader for a while, you know that I’m a long time comic book collector. I used to work as a professional artist for the comics, back in the 70′s for a brief stint and I’ve always maintained a serious interest in the art form, collected original art and kept up friendships with some of the best pros in the business.
 
This, of course, has always been a source of great embarrassment to my wife, who shares the opinion of many, who know no better, that comics are for kids, geeks and retards. I would patiently point out that there is an entire wing in the Louvre dedicated to graphic arts (ie., comic art)and many very highly creative, very wealthy and intelligent men, like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Clint Eastwood, to name but a few, have collected original paintings and drawings of some of the best modern illustrators, painters and comics artists. So I feel I’m in good company.
 
Anyway, as soon as I arrived back in town, in Orlando, I went straight over to my local comic shop, ACME SUPERSTORE in Longwood, to pick up the latest issues which had come out during my recent absence. While I was in there, seeing what else had come out that I might want to read, I overheard a middle aged guy talking to Penny, one of the store employees.
 
Penny had had arthroscopic surgery for her own knee in the past, after a number of conservative measures failed to relieve her very significant and disabling knee pain. I had reviewed her preop studies and her intraoperative photographs, and there’s no question she had a defined pathology that needed surgery to fix.
 
This guy knew about her experience and was asking her for advice. So, since she had come to me for advice herself and since I was there, she called me over to meet this man. Sure enough, he had episodes of pain and swelling that would come and go, after what he called a “blowout,” that is, a traumatic injury that ruptured his ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) and gave him a torn meniscus.
 
Despite this, though, what bothered him the most was what he described as a sudden “shift” inside his knee and the insecure feeling this gave him. What he was actually feeling was the typical instability that results from a ruptured ACL. Naturally, he was concerned because he didn’t want ACL surgery, if he could avoid it.
 
I pointed out to him that there ARE ways to treat this condition nonsurgically, BUT there is a price to be paid–namely, if he doesn’t have arthritis yet, he soon will. The articular cartilage is damaged every time he experiences that “shift,” which is really a slippage of one bone on the other, that is usually prevented by an intact ACL.
 
However, if he is willing to accept that fact, and if his daily activities are not affected, then a number of conservative conventional treatments, combined with alternative methods, that help to relieve knee pain and resolve inflammation, appropriate bracing and vigorous specialized exercises, especially for the hamstring muscles, may be all he needs. 
 
He was amazed at this information, which was all new to him, and which is revealed in detail in my new healing program, HOW TO AVOID KNEE SURGERY (see here at http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html )
 
He didn’t even realize that CRUCIATE means “crossed” in Latin, or that the cruciate or crossed ligaments, ACL and PCL, hold the interior of the knee together and prevent excessive, abnormal motions, front to back and back to front, between the femur and the tibia.
 
The anatomy and basic functions of these ligaments are presented in my LITTLE GREEN BOOK, together with lots of inside information on the many root causes of knee pain and disability. See what I mean at   http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html
 
So, at the end of my “comic shop consult,” this man realized that he has options he didn’t know he had. I gave him my card and suggested he visit my website  http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html  for more detailed information and advice. Hopefully, he’ll take my advice and get knee pain relief and joint stability back in his life.
 
At that point, I said, “My work here is done!”  Then I grabbed my comics and leaped out into the night…up, up and away……Heh.
 
Have a great weekend, my friend. I’ll be spending mine shooting the DVD version of my PAIN-FREE PROGRAM
 http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html   Til next time, 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

Just yesterday, I came across an article on one of the sports blogs about the various knee injuries seen with a number of sports, including basketball, soccer and football. With the Olympics in full swing, it’s easy to focus on the more dramatic sports that get much of the press, when it comes to knee injurues, acute and chronic.
 
But surprisingly enough, one of the most frequent causes of chronic and acute knee problems is… GOLF! Now, golf is a gentleman’s (or gentlewoman’s) game, no doubt about it. And it looks like the players mainly walk around, when they’re not riding in their electric golf carts. They don’t even carry their own golf bags–a caddy does that for them. But if the knee problems generated by this sport aren’t as dramatic as some, they’re no less real. 

You see, golf applies more subtle forces across the knee joint, that are often internal. Walking on uneven terrain, rolling hills, even sand traps, induces the same irregular joint forces as walking on a beach. And the torque, or twisting forces, imposed on the knees with every drive are tremendous.  In fact, it’s that twisting stress, with full body weight on the knee, from every swing of the driver that’s responsible for most of the injuries.
 
You normally don’t even think in terms of golf injuries until some high profile player, like Tiger Woods, is knocked out of competition by his bad knees, or some specific knee injury. But the danger is always there, maybe especially for the average player, who isn’t conditioned as well as the professional athletes.
 
You go into any golf club or country club locker room and all you’ll hear about is aches and pains of shoulders and knees. Well, part of that is simple aging. Lots of boomers and seniors play golf, which aggravates dormant conditions, like arthritis, or synovitis, or chondromalacia patellae (for a complete run-down of the many problems of the knee, in layman’s language, see my LITTLE GREEN BOOK FOR ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN   http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html ).
 
But part of it is newer injuries, like ligament sprains or ACL tears, or especially torn menisci, caused by that repetitive twist. Pain in the knee is so common in this sport that I call this chronic knee pain “Golfer’s Knee.”
 
While Tiger had a completely ruptured Anterior Cruciate Ligament, as well as a meniscus tear and articluar cartilage damage, all of which require surgery, in many cases, proper conservative treatment of Golfer’s Knee can avoid knee surgery. As it happens, my latest publication provides golfers and anyone else with all the tricks, tips and effective techniques from across the entire medical spectrum, conventional, alternative and complementary. It’s called HOW TO AVOID KNEE SURGERY  http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html
 
Acute pain is treated first by anti-inflammatory measures and joint stabilization, while long term treatments focus on specialized exercises and stretches, to improve strength and stability. These are supplemented by nutritional measures, herbs and nutriceuticals, to enhance healing and retard the development of arthritic changes. 

Yes, there are situations where surgery is needed. But my goal is to teach you how to prevent an UNNECESSARY surgery, of which there are far too many. So, if you have knee pain, from Golfer’s Knee, or any other source, learn how to relieve your pain and restore your function, with the best conventional and alternative non-surgical methods. Go see how at   http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html
You’ll be glad you did. 

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

May 19, 2008

It was early 2001 when I was first confronted by an attack of the cyberchondriacs. I was in my office, going from room to room, seeing patients, as was usual in the afternoon. Because I had such a busy surgical schedule, I had office hours normally only two days a week.  The waiting room was full, as usual, watching our office TV, reading or chatting with the girls at the front desk. By and large, my patients were all pretty tolerant of waiting. While I tried my best, I was almost always behind. 

But most of them understood that I was one of very few doctors who would give each patient the time he or she actually needed, not just the 15 minute time slot they were signed up for. And all of them knew that when their turn came, I would do the very same with them.
Add in the occasional emergency, and it’s not too hard to get behind. But, like I said, they understood that.
 
And if I was really behind, I would come out into the waiting room, apologize to all present for being behind, explain why I was running late and offer to reschedule anyone who couldn’t or didn’t want to wait. My attitude was that their time was important, too. But I made it
clear that I would not compromise anyone’s care just because I was running behind. And they responded to that.
 
Only rarely did some self-important executive make a public fuss. I remember one young woman who was carrying on because she had to wait for 20 minutes. 20 minutes!?  I wait longer than that for both my dentist and my vet! She apparently wasn’t satisfied with my very reasonable explanation of the delay and didn’t appreciate my gently pointing out that in many other offices, people were waiting for 3 hours and more, never mind 20 minutes.  But she wouldn’t be mollified. She was not going to be patronized, dammit! She was going to be taken seriously!
 
I seriously advised her that she would be much happier in another office, since I doubted that I could measure up to her standards. She was dumbfounded. But I refused to see her. No way, after that, could I possibly make her happy. Who needs the agita? Hey, life is too short….
 
Anyway, the interesting thing was that once someone who had been waiting out there actually got in to the exam room, they would put down roots! Like I had all the time in the world to chat with them. You’d think they would have some consideration for their pals, still in 
the waiting room, but nooooooo….
 
Well, one day this guy comes in who has been referred to me for a joint replacement by his rheumatologist.
 
Ironically, though I did everything anyone could do to help my patients AVOID surgery, this resulted in an enormous number of referrals FOR surgery. It seems patients and their doctors wanted someone who would only do surgery when it was really warranted. So this guy comes in, having already had the full course of non-operative treatments by the rheumatologist, with end stage disease, ie., bare bone. So for him, this case is kind of open and shut.

But he presents me with a ream of articles, I mean like 50 pages printed from the internet, on every arcane point and potential complication on his surgical procedure you could imagine. And he proceeds to attempt to cross examine me on this arcana. And he has every symptom that’s listed, both real and imagined.  And he wants me to go through all of them, right now. Screw the other people in the waiting room.
 
That was my first attack from a cyberchondriac–a  patient who has managed to acquired every scrap of  information from the web on his particular disorder and manifests every symptom listed. I would come to dread this subspecies of patient. Problem was, they wouldn’t believe you when you explained to them that not everything on the web is gospel. It was like they were feeding their paranoia with unfiltered cyberinfo.  There was no way to win with them…and a whole lot of wasted time. 

With this guy, first thing I did was, take all his papers away and promise to read them (which, I really did–since I knew what was legitimate and what was mostly crap, it was fairly quick for me). Then, I put him on specialized exercises, like those I teach at
 http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html, “to get the tissues ready.” Then I sent him off and had him come back in a few weeks for reevaluation. By that time, he had calmed down and had begun to trust me. He finally had his surgery and he did great!
 
You have to understand that at the core of every cyberchondriac is…FEAR. They desperately need to be in control, but they simply CAN’T be. That’s why they spend all those hours searching the net and why they feel they have to challenge the doctor. It’s their way of trying to exert control. Understanding this, I  first gave them something positive to do, while putting off the dreaded surgery. In this way, I could get them to know me and hopefully trust me, so that ultimately, I could help them.
 
But, it was really an investment of time and effort, I can tell you. And not a whole lot of really qualified, top flight surgeons will put up with that stuff, believe me. They have neither the time, nor the inclination to indulge any psychodrama. They’ll throw them out!
 
If you ever find yourself in that position, by all means, look up anything you want to on the net. But DON’T bring ALL your articles to your doctor–he/she doesn’t want to see them! Instead, summarize the main points of your reading, then write down a few pertinent
questions, which you will HAND to the doctor. DO NOT READ THEM OUT LOUD. It takes too long and you’ll just try to embellish them. The doc can scan and answer all your concerns better and more quickly if you just hand over the list. Your doctor will appreciate it and you’ll  be marked as an intelligent and considerate patient.  And that’s the best way to get great care!
 
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