In the
latest romantic comedy I watched … (Oops – Did I just confess to
this ultimate sissy anti-masculine sin – watching a romantic comedy? :-) … I
guess I did – but hearing no negative reactions upon confiding in my readers of
hating the greens and being nauseous on broccoli soup – I either should assume
an extreme tolerance to my weaknesses (nice and self-flattering way of thinking
about it) or equally profound indifference to my character traits non-related
to ABR (not so self-flattering way…)…
Either way, I figured I am safe with acknowledging another
sinful deed of mine. (Actually, the only time I do watch videos other than ABR
assessments or educational materials – is on the plane; and the only thing I
can watch while on the plane is the one that takes zero intellectual effort:
enter romantic comedies :-)…
Usually I do not even remember the names of those movies but
this time was different. When I started watching the one called “Ugly Truth” everything
was as usual, nothing remarkable –busy female executive looking for a perfect
romance and expectable collisions…. BUT 15 min
into the movie it happened – Mr. Right Guy appeared. If you ever
watched a comedy you should know this classic character – the-ideal-guy-smart-gentle-and-caring-who-is-perfection-materialized-but-still-never-gets-the-girl...
Who was The Mr. Right Guy? – Hold your
breath… – The Orthopedic Surgeon.
I nearly choked on my cashews… and started to really follow:
By a funny cat-related accident the lead girl falls off the
tree hurting her foot and the neighbor in her upscale residence who rushes for
help happens to be an Orthopedic Surgeon – he fixes a bandage on the girl’s
foot and with a perfect bedside manner assures her that nothing is broken and
she’ll be fine…
Well, no it’s time to leave the movie and get back to our own
realities…
In the world of families of kids with cerebral palsy we are
so used to think of an orthopedic surgeon as that ultimate hawk, the scare-monger
who starts talking about massive surgical intervention years in advance
instilling an enormous stress and pressure on most of the parents and
frequently even threatening with parental rights removal, – that seeing one in
the movie as an unquestionably positive persona, Mr. Right Guy and a ‘dream
husband’ – was quite a surprise to say the least.
This brings us to some important clarifications.
The
orthopedic surgeon who tapes the twisted foot – is definitely a positive
character who does a highly needed and admirable job. If the girl
in the movie would have broken her foot and he would have fixed it with screws
and titanium plates – fantastic, no sarcasm here at all.
These are
Emergency procedures.
High quality emergency care is a cornerstone of any civilized
society and I have an absolute and utmost respect for the orthopedic surgeons
who are the ‘traumatologists’, i.e. the ones fixing broken bones sewing
together torn ligaments or muscles.
However, I still do maintain that PLANNED
and FORCED Orthopedic Surgery for kids with disabilities is the
acknowledgement of intellectual defeat and failure of conservative methods and could
not be regarded in the same league of respect as emergency care.
That’s
where things get complicated and some important paradoxes emerge.
Paradox #1
Extremely valuable emergency care role of orthopedic surgery creates
that justified positive public image for the entire community of orthopedic
surgeons.
Credibility and high authority of orthopedic surgery in the
public eye and among other medical professionals stems from the emergency care
BUT unfortunately the emergency
care roots carry a fundamental flaw, a ‘birth defect’ or a ‘neonatal
injury’ if I may say so – the
mentality of a quick fix put together with a ‘high’ of an immediate result.
This quick fix
mentality that is perfectly fine for extremely tight time budgets of the emergency
room is detrimental for the decision-making and toolkit development for the
long-term challenges.
Look at the sprinters and at the long-distance runners in the
track and field – there is no resemblance between them. Bulky huge guys do sprint,
and the light-weight ones run marathons. Everything is different about them –
breeding, training, mindsets, performance milestones…
The paradox of orthopedic surgery is that it borrows its’ credibility
in sprint races –no one denies that– and leverages to wrestle in the authority
position in respect to the marathon training.
Paradox #
2.
Another paradox is extremely important as well.
All the orthopedic surgeons feel themselves as the members of
the same professional community. The orthopedic surgeons in
emergency care – the ones who fix broken bones and torn muscles – enjoy respect
and even adoration. Obviously, their colleagues from the Planned Surgery field –
expect the same.
And in fact, if one looks from within their professional
cocoon – they feel that they have every right for the same adoration if not a
greater one. Why?
First,
technically the multilevel surgeries performed on kids with cerebral palsy are
a lot more technically challenging than most of the emergency jobs. The
surgeons you face as the parents of children with special needs are the ones
who have a skillset that is on average greater than the one of an emergency
care surgeon.
Second, these Planned
Surgery specialists consider themselves as the ultimate ‘do-gooders’ within
their professional community. Again, looking from within this aspiration is perfectly
understandable – they have traded an ‘easier’ life of a ‘regular’ orthopedic
surgeon to a more challenging professional path of working with special needs
patients.
I hope you are seeing the twist …
The
fundamental problem is: A lot of
orthopedic surgeons do care about your kids but they stem from emergency
profession and carry the ‘hawkish’ tools only.
That limits their options and creates extreme tunnel vision.
But the things get more complicated because they borrow the credibility
from a ‘simpler’ branch of their professional community; being technically
superior they expect ‘double’ the respect of the regular orthopedic surgeons,
which makes them completely incapable of even thinking of changing their way.
Hot air balloons were Ok when one wanted to travel between nearby
cities. Hot air balloons were highly intuitive – they are lighter than air. But
they had limits, which made them not suitable for intercontinental flights. Did
the long-distance flights emerge from within the hot air balloon community? –
No, they stemmed from the counterintuitive approach – the aircraft that is
heavier than air – the approach that was heavily ridiculed and laughed at.
Intuitive doesn’t make the intercontinental flights – one
needs a radical change of mindset.
One thing
is for sure –sprinters cannot teach marathon runners.
There could
be discussions and various approaches among marathon runners but surely the
advice of a sprinter is of little value for that. ..
TO BE CONTINUED….
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