Stone - Play Forever : How to Recover from Injury and Thrive

P lay forever this is what I want for you. It is my wish for each person I have the privilege to work with. I am a physician, surgeon, and scientist, and in each of these roles I have a repository of knowledge, skills, and curiosity to offer each person who seeks me out. I work with world-class athletes, with people confronting arthritis and the effects of aging, with those who lead active and sport-filled lives, and with those who have just begun their fitness journey. I am driven to inquire scientifically about the healing process and technically how to bring better skills to that healing. Fundamentally, I sense that much of what we know in medicine today is only part of the whole human biologic story, and it can be frustratingly insufficient. Thus, I have a compelling urge to combine research and development with clinical treatment. In each caseand no matter what the casemy ability to deliver is based on my belief that my patients can become better than they were before they were injured or afflicted with arthritis.

The key to this is passionate care. Everyone gets injuredeven great athletes. The best of them use the injury to come back to their sport betterfaster, fitter, and stronger. But to do this, they need information on how to do so, what can help them, and how they can motivate themselves. They need to recognize the recovery process as long, entwined with their habits and mindset, and affected by a large variety of factors. I believe its the duty of us doctors to provide that guidance. Most of us in medicine have been trained to fix a person and send them on their way, but I see the first encounter with a patient as an opportunity to build a lifelong relationship. The first doctor-patient encounter establishes a level of trust: that I can repair the immediate problem, and that we can embark on a lifelong fitness program with semiannual fitness tests, preseason education about training programs, in-season tune-ups, and outcome studies on treatments and implants placed in their bodies. My team and I become the patients go-to musculoskeletal health and fitness source forever.

Forever here is the important word. My patients and I embark on the journey of excellence together and that cannot be done in short time frames. In part, this desire to become the patients go-to musculoskeletal health and fitness source comes from my belief that every doctor should know the outcome of any treatment they give, any substance they inject or prescribe, or any device they put into a patient. Thus, if I am going to replace a part of someones knee, I believe I should study them annually (with X-ray or patient questionnaire) for life. Otherwise, how do I know that the implant or surgical technique worked? Secondly, if I am going to repair someones knee, how about the rest of the body that it is attached to? If my surgery is going to help them return to a sport that led to the injury in the first place, shouldnt I have an interest in how they are returning and in what physical state? Third, if I have a patient with a major injury that is potentially devastating to their livelihood, and I am helping them through the process of healing, shouldnt I offer them tools to deal with or avoid the predictable post-injury depression? Shouldnt I coach them on the mindset they need to triumph over their injury and become physically and mentally stronger?