Clinic update

The people here are such hard workers. The women always seem to be washing and scrubbing. Needless to say we see a ton of tennis elbow and carpal tunnel syndrome. We do a lot on injections in the clinic.




The men seem to do more heavy labor and have less repetitive overuse upper extremity issues than the women. I noticed on our morning walk how most of the men around town were pulling their own carts without the use of a burrow in most cases. Shop owners, even those that appear more elderly, were lifting heavy doors and supplies as the opened for business. The men have more issues with degenerative joint disease of the knees, and both men and women have a great deal of degenerative spinal issues. Dr Stuckey could line up tons of epidural injections down here. It's amazing that I haven't seen a single patient on a narcotic nor do they ask for any. They are thrilled to get Ibuprofen, Calcium, and Vitamins.

I've talked to the staff here about surgery. They have physicians from Oklahoma City that do cataracts here in a beautiful OR they donated and built. Dental procedures are also done. In my opinion, to do orthopedic surgical cases in a place like this you would need physicians organized on a rotational basis to have someone here every 4-6 weeks to provide follow up. There certainly are a lot of hand cases that Dr Lintecum could do here. The difficulty is proper follow up. When I get back I will check with colleagues both in Kansas and around the country to see if there is enough interest to arrange a rotating schedule. Ten to twelve physicians could cover a year by coming for a week each year. If 20-25 could be found each would only have to spend one week every two years. You certainly couldn't find a more gracious patient population.

JR


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