11/08/2025
Saturday Clinics Mean Something.
The staff don’t love them.
My family doesn’t love them.
And if I’m being honest — I don’t always love them either.
But they are necessary.
They are needed.
Because things get missed.
Because sometimes a second set of eyes changes the entire trajectory of someone’s life.
I have always said — I wish orthopedics was 9 to 5.
For some, it is — and truly, that is OK.
But the 9 to 5 mentality is just not in my DNA.
This is not about “the miss” or “the make.”
It’s about listening to what calls you.
Doing the work not because you have to…
but because you care enough to show up when it matters.
⸻
The story:
High school football.
Interception.
Gang tackle.
Right shoulder absorbs the brunt of the impact.
He goes to the ER.
X-rayed.
Placed in a sling.
Told to follow up.
This morning, his dad calls.
Worried.
Uncertain.
Not sure the plan made sense.
My response:
“I’m in Saturday Clinic. Bring him in now.”
X-ray tech gets him on the schedule — but he already had “normal” films.
So we go back to the fundamentals:
Watch. Listen. Examine. Ask.
The art of medicine… not just the science.
I request Sterno-Clavicular views.
We review.
Something isn’t right.
Concern for a posterior SC dislocation — the kind that can compress vessels, airway, esophagus.
The kind you cannot afford to miss.
My team coordinates a second ER.
A STAT CT.
Diagnosis confirmed: Posterior SC Joint Dislocation.
⸻
Today’s Saturday Clinic wasn’t “convenient.”
But it was necessary.
And it mattered.
This is why I show up.
This is why we do it this way.
This is why every second counts.
