A few days ago, I was talking with a friend of mine. He’s an excellent spine surgeon, and we had done an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion a few weeks before. I asked him how the guy did, and it turns out he did great and wound up going home that same day.
This is rare. I mean really rare. We don’t typically send ACDF’s home the same day. We didn’t use to send hysterectomy patients home the same day either. Now, they’re even moving closer and closer to total joints going home the same day.(There are docs doing it, but it’s rare and not at my hospital.)
Do you know what the key is to these miraculous moves?
Part of it is the surgery itself, blood loss, time, difficulty, expected pain, etc.
But, that isn’t the number one thing. The number one thing is patient mindset. A patient who has the right mindset has a much higher chance of doing well, having a good experience, and going home early.
Mindset is the key. You really can judge with pretty good accuracy who will do well after surgery just by meeting them. It’s not always true, but it is more often than not.
One of my favorite stories is about this guy who was probably 6 feet 5 inches tall, overweight, and let’s say in his mid-50’s.He needed this big foot reconstruction. We explained to him that he would need to be totally non-weight bearing for 2 months.
We outlined how difficult this would be and that if he walked on the foot he would tear apart all of the work.
“No problem.”
We spent a lot of time trying to talk him out of the surgery knowing he was going to struggle.
“No way. I can do it. I’ll get the knee walker, and I’ll be fine.”
We finally went ahead with the surgery.
Post-op visit number one he comes in walking on his foot.
“I’m a big guy, how am I supposed to stay off of my foot?” was his answer.
Mindset. He was never going to do it. NEVER. We knew it. He knew it.
Finding the best surgeon on the planet to fix your foot doesn’t mean anything if you’re going to walk on it post-op day one.
I can tell you without question it’s the same in the lecture hall, the testing center, the baseball field, the operating room, everywhere.
The people who are playing forward do the best. The people who are back on their heels fall behind.
If you’re scared of exams…If you think you can’t take tests…If you think you struggle with memory… then guess what? You’ll make it all come true.
Let’s break that cycle together.
Join me and hundreds of other students inside of the Physician Assistant Exam Scholars program, and let’s play on our toes. Let’s start moving forward.
I just heard an amazing story today from a member for almost year who turned her entire career around. Not long ago, she was failing out of school, yet she just found out she passed the PANCE. I’ll tell you more of her story a little later on. Stay tuned. It’s a good one.
Alright, if you’d like to get things moving in a slightly better direction, here’s the place to go:
Physician Assistant Exam Scholars
Brian Wallace