Orthopaedic Associates of the Lakelands

We expect a lot from our bodies. Strength, flexibility, precision, speed, agility, impact, and also endurance. My name is Mariska Young. I hurt my knee a couple years ago. I was in the ocean. A wave knocked me down. I went ass over teacup and limped after that for about two years and finally realized it needed to be fixed. So I went to Dr. Christian and got it fixed. I got it fixed on November 28th, just last November 28th, about seven, eight months ago. And I had guests for Christmas dinner that I cooked. I had my little walker because they told me I needed it. And I just steadily got better. I went to the rehab. I did what they said. I did everything they told me to do. I followed directions. I’m a real follower when did you come to line dancing I came to line dancing it was about February I danced one dance and I was a little early so I didn’t come back but I’m back rusty but I’m back and I don’t mean a rusty knee I mean the dancing is rusty Yeah, my name is Bill O’Neill, I live here at Savannah Lakes, and about 10 years ago Dr. Christian replaced my left knee, and about 8 years ago replaced the right knee, and a couple years after that Dr. King performed surgery on my hand so I can grip the golf club again. Harry Shelly, also from Savannah Lakes, Dr. Christian replaced both my knees at the same time so I don’t no longer wake up at 2:30 in the morning and Dr. King gave me two shots of my wrist so now we can swing again. I’m Barb Shelley and I started with Dr. King working on my basal joint arthritis. He gave me a shot 15 years ago and it’s still working and Dr. Christian did an awesome job with my replaced knee. I was back golfing in six weeks and Dr. Tims did rotator cuff surgery and it has improved my swing. I’m Sally Perkins. I live in Savannah Lakes. Dr. Christian took care of my hip bursitis and my shoulder impingement so I could continue to play golf, tennis, and pickleball. My name is Ran Huang. I come down Savannah Lake to be retired, enjoying the rest of my life. I call the pickleball is a smaller version of tennis. We don’t have a long rack. We have less reach out to hit. I have a really really bad case of bunion, both foot, and it’s been going on 20 years. Three years ago I got to the point every time I go outside play golf or any kind of activity I do, I came home cry Because of her. Anything walk on the hard surface on the floor, it hurt, it hurt me really. And I can’t wear pretty shoes. So I talked to Dr. Christian and he recommend I should have it done. He said I’m not gonna make your feet look like a model feet, but I make your feet functional. And that’s exactly what he did. Dr. Christian, I love you! So, the practice began as Greenwood Orthopedic Clinic in 1991. And since that time, we’ve added new partners, there are now eight of us, with our newest partner being within the last couple of years. For a group the size we are, and the size of the city we are, it’s quite impressive the diversity of interest and what people do and the extra training they’ve received. We have one partner that deals only with the hands. We have two sports medicine doctors. We have a couple of guys who are more generalists. Dr. Powell is our trauma doctor. We’re an interesting area. Just recently there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about demographic shifts in the country. And we are appeared on that map as a little orange area right around Greenwood. Our demographics are shifting north and we’ve got a fair number of 70, 80, 90 year olds now in the hospital and in our practices. And that comes with a whole new group of problems. Trauma is not the high speed vehicular trauma that you might see other places, but it can be fractures occurring around previously placed total joints from 20 years ago 15 years ago falls lots of hip fractures femur fractures some pathologic fractures but that brings a whole new level of care but we’re it has to be very integrated with our internal medicine and other specialties helping us with fine-tuning some of the patients i try to work out at least a couple times a week here lifting weights and when you get to be 70 like I am you know you have to start worrying about osteoporosis and things like that so I try to get in some weights at least a couple times a week and then I try to walk and play golf three times a week so and I try to stay in active I debated a long time whether I should have need replacement done and people kept saying to me, you’ll know when it’s time. And I didn’t know when it was time. I finally asked Dr. Christian the question, what is the benefit of my waiting? And he said, there is none. You’re only going to be getting older. Your muscle tone is only going to get worse. So the younger you are, the better, because I was at the age where it would never have to happen again. I would never have to have a second one. So that’s why I decided to go ahead with it. And I decided to do both at the same time so that I only had one rehab to go through, and I’m really, really happy I did. It’s made a real difference in the kind of choices that I make for activity. Basically, the reason I and probably most orthopedists chose orthopedics is because it is a truly reconstructive, life-changing surgery. I’ve had patients that have been on crutches for 10 years and put a total hip in and they walk without a crutch. I’ve got a lady in particular I’m thinking of right now, hadn’t walked in a year and a half, and the last office visit she drove a car down here herself and came in for follow-up. So it’s a very rewarding thing because it does change people’s lives and that’s really probably the reason most orthopedists went into it, because we can actually fix things as opposed to trying to optimize things. And often physical therapy is an important part of the recovery process from an injury are from lots of different types of surgeries that we do. It’s an integral part of any joint replacement, getting the motion back, getting the strength and balance back. And so it’s an important part of recovery, and lots of times with orthopedic injuries, they are minor enough to not need surgery, but physical therapy helps recovery. We kind of laugh about that place being the utopia of therapy over there, because the physicians get it, they understand and really promote how much therapy and the surgeries kind of intermingle. When a patient can walk in the door to be seen by physical therapy, this happened I don’t know how many times that we would have a patient come in, have an issue, within seconds I walk through the door, have one of the physicians or the physician’s partner come over, take a look, and they’re able to address the issue immediately. It gives you the small-town feel of somebody really cares about you, and that’s pretty much their drive, is what the patient needs is what they want. Most orthopedists are ortho sports medicine at heart. We do a lot of that in our training, and that’s a big foundation in orthopedic residencies most times. In Greenwood, Dave Seeley, who’s a mentor of mine and who I’ve gotten to be friends with, we felt there was a real need here in Greenwood to develop that even more to let people know that orthopedists are sports medicine. We started a sports medicine program in conjunction with Montgomery Center and with Self Regional to help develop that. He’s in charge of the primary care sports medicine fellowship and the primary care part of what we do. And then Mick and I are really in charge of what’s the specialty aspect of that, the next level, the operative level that happens to these young people. I was very fortunate in terms of military surgeons in that I did all my training civilian, which is nearly unheard of. After I completed fellowship at the Houston Clinic, which is where John did his, I spent better part of four years in Beaufort, South Carolina, taking care of U.S. Naval and Marine Forces there, which was the best sports medicine practice you could desire. The patients were phenomenal. I deployed, I did trauma in Afghanistan, and I just found that I had interests beyond kind of taking my marching orders when I went to work, and I was looking to serve the greater South Carolina community. I didn’t want the chance of being deployed to California or other places we were looking to make roots and so we looked for a job outside of the military and I searched the entire southeast and what I settled on was what I felt was a collection of excellent surgeons. I’ve had good partners, I’ve had less than ideal partners and I’ve really placed a premium on not competence but excellence in work and that’s what I found in Greenwood. I’m a Charleston native originally, and my dad asked me, he’s like, “What could be there that would draw a boy away from the ocean?” Well, happiness in medicine is what I found. I want them out there, proper shoe wear, proper nutrition, the right gear, just as important as the training methods that they do. And so we’re all about the whole athlete. And importantly, we care about this season, but we also care about their next 30. The common misconception is that sports medicine is only the 16-year-old soccer player or the a 20-year-old Division II or Division I football player, you know, a big focus today is the aging athlete and keeping people happy and helping them find purpose as they grow. You know, everybody says, oh, I’m 70, I’m too old for this. You’re not, because you’re going to live to be 100, and if we can keep you playing tennis or golf at 70, that’s our goal. I think of myself more as a lifestyle surgeon. It’s not often that I am, you know, stopping someone from dying, but it’s very frequent that I can give them quality of life that they wouldn’t find without John around. Dr. Ron did my field surgery. I play softball in 96th High School, and I do competitive cheerleading. A short pop fly got hit into the field, and I was playing right field, and Mary Ashley Moore was playing center field, and I went to go get it, and we ran into each other. I had to go to school and see my athletic trainer first there, and he did the ACL test, and that’s when he told me, and then that same day he referred me to Lakeland’s Orthopedic, and then I went and seen Dr. Mahon. He was really nice and kind, and he helped me get through it. He gave me three options for my surgery. He told me I could do the bone tendon bone. I had another one where he would put holes right here, and then there was another one that they do when they’re in the Navy or somewhere, in the military, but he told me the bone tendon bone would be the best one to use, because most athletes use that one ’cause it’s an easier process to get back normal, and that’s the one I chose. So I felt comfortable with doing that, so he helped me pick it out. Ever since my ACL surgery, I’ve been pain-free. – I was doing endurance training, and we got a heavy bag to start hitting on me and some of my friends. I got what they call boxer’s knuckle. There’s a tendon that comes right over your knuckle right here, and it’s attached on either side, And what happens with Boxer’s knuckle especially, it separates on one of the sides and it just attaches and goes to this part, which looks weird and feels even worse. And then over here was a separate issue. It splits the tendon in here that holds these two together a lot. So anytime that these fingers would ever be pulled apart from each other, pulling your hand out of your pocket, anything like that, it was really bad pain. I went in and I saw Dr. King at his office and he was extremely helpful, he showed me all the things that seemed to be the problem and they took an x-ray and they looked at it and they decided that it was going to need surgery. I was really lucky to actually have a hand surgeon here in Greenwood at Self Regional that was so helpful and so skilled to be able to take care of that and we didn’t have to travel anywhere, go to any other specialists, you know, it was right here and it was a blessing. It is such an honor to be part of such a wonderful practice who brings compassion to what they do every day to help patients have a better quality of life. If you or a family member have been a patient in the orthopedic office, you personally have experienced the true care our support team will provide you along your journey. All of us with Orthopedic Associates of the Lakelands are very thankful for the generosity of the Madame Curie members. Thank you for caring, thank you for giving, and thank you for making a difference.