"Time is our best gift to someone", use it in your life or lose it!!! . "Money and Time the Conundrum"

You work and spend your time to get money. One gets money to get the essentials in life and the comforts one can get. We also need money to gift someone you love. This can be in the form of food, clothes, education, assets as the gift to the someone you love. this can be your parent, child, wife and so on. But you spend time to get the money to gift that someone in any form as i detailed.

Then the time of yours is the gift to them and not the actual gift. The time is then the most precious part of all. Just like the time you invest in health as i explained in my previous blogs, you also invest in time to get the money which in turn is used for your loved ones. Then what you are actually giving your loved ones as the gift is your time.

Now if time of yours is the gift to someone, then even if that time does not yield in material benefits (with money and the associated gifts), it is still the gift. for example, you spend time with your loved ones, then it is your gift to them. in fact the loved ones with which you are spending the time are also gifting their time to you

This is something you can use in your work life as well. If you are able to give time at work to someone or something important then you are gifting your time. This is something you have to remember in a job you love doing where you are happy to gift your time for that job.

More importantly you should not be wasting your time in jobs you do not like or enjoy. When the people who do not do their job properly for example, are wasting their precious time in a job where they do not enjoy or like.

You also have to remember if someone is incompetent, or complascent in what they should be doing, then they are not only wasting their precious time of life but also your precious time of life if you are involved in the outcome of their job.

Which brings me to the concept of finite gift concept in everyone's life. Finite means that there is definite end point and it is measurable. Our life has a finite end point though we ourselves cannot measure it.

In other words, our life and the time you spend has a finite end point and that is all the gift we can give to anyone and ourselves. Hence one should choose how we would like to gift that precious time we have and not waste it.

Remember our time is finite and hence the gift of time we can give is precious. Remember the person who is receiving that gift should also be able to appreciate this and make them understand so.

I hope that you have got what i wanted to convey as Time is My Best Gift to you and not the actual gift. Now if someone moans that they did not get what they wanted from someone they love, make them understand this point. The time that individual spent to get that particular item is the gift
.

This is especially important if one is not well off to give an expensive gift but labours his time to get that gift

Back to the second part of title of the blog, "Use it or lose it". This is written for the good use of the time we have got and if we do not use it well, sorry it is too late, we have already lost it.

Now go on and use your time well and i shall try to do as well

Regards

Chockalingam

Invest your health For the sake of your loved ones!!!!!!!!!!!!

I spoke of health, money and the importance of time in our life in the earlier blogs. I also wrote on investing Health for your loved ones. If you invest on your health, it would be not only for yourselves but also for your loved ones.

I spoke mainly of exercises in the context of investing in health for your loved ones. This means that you exercise and the amount of exercise can be quantified and counted as your investment for your loved ones. Just like saving account you do for your child for example.

You can also extrapolate the same on your diet for example. If you make sure you eat healthy diet with vegetables and fruits, then you can count towards the same. If you did not eat healthily today, then you have not saved for health on diet.

Now imagine if you are the main person who cooks for the household or someone who serves food, you have then the responsibility of getting the right food on the table. If you do not, then you are not investing on your loved ones health.

In India, often you are asked to eat more than you can chew in the name of love or Virunthombal. This would then negatively affect your health and the person who insists on eating may be then drawing on your health savings account. You just have to make sure they understand that!


Happiness and rest and sleep or also important for your health. Hence if you take adequate rests, sleep well, then you are investing on your health. If you acaquire happiness by being with your friends and families, you would like to be with or go on holidays you wanted, then indirectly you do invest in your health and for your loved ones.

Now the calculation of how much investment you have for your health becomes interesting. if you have regular exercise, eat good food, be happy and take adequate rest and sleep well, your investment account of health is going to be looking good.

But what if you start off now with obesity or overweight. Then you have to start your health savings account now. Think of your body weight as an account and this is your credit card account.

I say this to my patients. Your body weight is opposite to that of a savings account. In a savings account you want to save more by putting in more money and taking less out. But in your body weight credit card account, you put less in and take more out if you want ot lose weight.

How to put this all into a measurable method. We thought of one method of really putting money when you exercise ,and you can do so if you have healthy food and sleep well and take adequate rest and so on.

I will let you know of a formula in my next blog.

My patient is ready they say and i have to go now

Regards

Chockalingam

How Sports Should Develop in India. learn from Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Association. Sports Medicine in Trichy including arthroscopy.

I had a discussion on sports with Sports Officer. It is true that identifying talent, nurturing them to appropriate sports, getting them appropriate gears and facilities, supporting them through injuries and getting them back on track are all issues which need lots of effort and money.

A country which is cricket mad, gets lots of money on advertising and TV rigths alone with an appropriate sports body, should be able to streamline money and resources to cities. these should not only be first tier cities like chennai, but also cities like Trichy.

Wimbledon as far as i understand does this very well supporting so many Lawn Tennis Association across UK by not only giving tickets but also supporting them as i mentioned in my first Paragraph of this blog.

What happens to the millions and crores of money which come through sports and affilitiations and advertisements and tv rights. Is the information available through Freedom of Information one wonders!

More and More people are taking up fitness routines at slighly later age and i see lot of ladies take up gym and yoga and get injured which probably will not come under sports injuries. but as an orthopaedic surgeon practising in Trichy, i see more of these over use and sudden stretching and strengthening exercise programs in older people.

I detect more and more meniscal injuries and Anterior Cruciate Ligament ACL injuries in sports and Road Traffic Accidents in particular in India. These knee injuries need surgery and extensive rehabilitation and we are proud to have one of the best facitlities in physiotherapy in Trichy and we are able to provide arthroscopic treatment methods to the international standards.

I am also proud to have conceputalised the design and i thank the KMC Specialtiy managment for implementing the design.

Back to the title of this blog however, lots of money and efforts should be channeled from the central sports bodies of the country to places like trichy to prevent injuries in the first place by providing the expertise and facilities. Then we at KMC speciality are ready to give them the best sports medicine and surgery facilities for any ortho problems they can come up with.
Regards

Chockalingam

Arthroscopic Surgery at Trichy, Key hole surgery to joints, cartilage tears and ligament reconstruction

Trichy as I left over seventeen years has not changed much. I can say only few major developments and it is busier with more traffic. but still i can reach from point A to Point B in less than half an hour at any point of time of the day. This is great considering that it is one of the major second tier cities in India. It also boasts an international airport and a major Railway interlink Juncion.

The people are many, mostly small business and agriculture base in earnings. BHEL is still the largest industry in the region with so many allied engineering firms nearby and linked to BHEL. Education is one of the strong points of Trichy and it has not changed as it used to be. There are more good schools and the old schools still retain their place as mine ERHS School.

The health needs of the people is still largely filled by the specialists in their own area of expertise and many private hospitals are giving good quality treatment. However health awareness has increased dramatically and people are aware of surgical methods of treatment to cure their illness.

For Example, bypass surgeries and cataract surgeries are so common for people to resort to improve their quality of life. Ortho problems are recognized as needing specialist treatment. People resort to surgical treatment of fractures without hesitation as they recognize that this can return them to normality more surely and quickly as opposed to conventional immobilization methods

So what else has changed in Trichy. Arthroscopy was introduced when i did my postgraduation in the 1990s with only the telescope without the monitor. However I am able to provide the state of the art High Definition Arthroscopic surgery to most joints in our body for treatment purposes.This is essentially key hole surgery to the joints as what a laparascopy surgery to cure gallstones etc

My patients have benefited from meniscal surgery including arthroscopic repair, ligament surgery including arthroscopic anterior and posterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, shoulder surgery including arthroscopic Bankart's repair and rotator cuff repair, arthroscopic ankle decompressions, and so on.

Compare the surgeries i was performing in UK before i left over two years ago to practice in Trichy and I am able to deliver the same to our patients and people. This is apparent in the arthroscopic techniques and joint replacement surgery,i use more than in any other sub speciality of Orthopaedics.

This is what has changed in Trichy from my point of view. Seventeen years ago, arthroscopic surgery was literally unheard of in Trichy from patients Access or awareness. Now our patients in Trichy are benefited from this state of the art treatment facility at our hospital.

Total Knee Replacement: India What we know and our Experience at KMC Hospitals Group

Total Knee Replacement: What we know and our Experience at KMC Hospitals Group
Dr S ChockalingamD.Ortho, FRCS [UK],FRCS [Tr & Ortho], Dr P R Ramasamy MS [Ortho], FRCS [UK]

This is an article I wrote for KMC News which is distributed to Referring and primary care doctors in Trichy Region on 14th December 2009

Total Knee Replacement is one of very successful and common Orthopaedic Operations we do at KMC Hospitals. The incidence of this surgery increasing in number reflects what is happening around the world.[Ref 1] The reason is why it is not more popular than it is at the moment is the cost of the surgery. This is obviously the point I would like to start of this brief about this surgery. The reason it is expensive at present to the reach of the common man is the technology that goes behind in the implant that is used.[ref 2]

The implant often made of strong Cobalt Chrome alloy, though titanium and ceramic are used in some designs. Any metal however polished, will have surface irregularities if one looks under the electron microscope. The surface finish and the material then become very important in reducing this irregularity and thus help in reducing the wear of the material with which this articulates.[Ref 3 and 4]

The material with this metal articulates is a specialized plastic called Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene. Newer highly cross linked Polyethylene has come into use in hip replacement surgery.[ ref 5] However the quality of the Plastic used is controlled in the way this plastic insert is manufactured. This helps in the long term success of the knee replacement surgery.

The long term success of the knee replacement surgery is more important that looking at short term benefits of this surgery.[Ref 6] Any material placed between the end of the femur and tibia will relieve the arthritic pain. What is more important however is the durability of the material in staying without damaging the underlying bone!

The damage to the underlying bone is the worst scenario when faced with the failed knee replacement surgery. One fears this as the damage often starts without any warning such as pain. When one faces a failed knee replacement, the surgical challenges becomes daunting and more importantly becomes very expensive.
This brings me back to the opening paragraph of this brief, the cost of this joint replacement surgery.

A little bit more cost at the initial replacement surgery has been shown to reduce the chances of revision surgery in the long run. Revision surgery after total knee replacement is not something an ordinary individual can tackle not only as a patient but also financially. One cannot expect the Government to subsidize that cost as well as it will be impossible.

What we do at KMC Hospitals to ensure the long term success of this surgery are as follows.
We have a dedicated team involved in this surgery. The chances of infection developing after such surgery should be kept to absolute minimum and we do this by controlling the theatre environment and the personnel involved. We have only used prosthesis which has follow up data in the long run. Post operative protocols have now been developed to suit our working conditions. There are specific appropriate pain control and rehabilitation in place for these patients, both of which go hand in hand.

I have shown some examples of patients we have operated and what they look like and what they can do after such major surgery!

After total knee replacement this patient is able to sit cross legged! and riding a two wheeler at four weeks!, a patient works as a security at the age of 70 going to work by bicycle|!




Kurtz S, Mowat F, Ong K, Chan N, Lau E, Halpern M. Prevalence of primary and revision total hip and knee arthroplasty in the United States from 1990 through 2002. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2005 Jul;87(7):1487-97.

Kester MA, Herrera L, Wang A, Essner A. Knee bearing technology: where is technology taking us? J Arthroplasty. 2007 Oct;22(7 Suppl 3):16-20

McEwen HM, Barnett PI, Bell CJ, Farrar R, Auger DD, Stone MH, Fisher J. The influence of design, materials and kinematics on the in vitro wear of total knee replacements. J Biomech. 2005 Feb;38(2):357-65.

Lancaster JG, Dowson D, Isaac GH, Fisher J The wear of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene sliding on metallic and ceramic counterfaces representative of current femoral surfaces in joint replacement. Proc Inst Mech Eng H. 1997;211(1):17-24.

Wang A, Yau SS, Essner A, Herrera L, Manley M, Dumbleton J. A highly crosslinked UHMWPE for CR and PS total knee arthroplasties. J Arthroplasty. 2008 Jun;23(4):559-66. Epub 2008 Feb 13.

Ritter MA. The Anatomical Graduated Component total knee replacement: a long-term evaluation with 20-year survival analysis J Bone Joint Surg Br. 2009 Jun;91(6):745-9.
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Empower with Knowledge: Ortho Problems Awareness Campaign at Puthur Trichy India

4th September 2010

Empower with Knowledge:

This is the theme we took on when we decided to meet the pensioners who have many ortho problems. Myself and Dr Aravindan decided to address the pensioners in Trichy on the current Ortho Problems. When possible i will upload my powerpoint presentation used for this talk.

The Bone And Joint Decade announced by the WHO was the basis of this talk concentrating on the arthritis, osteoporosis, back problems and road traffic accidents. We were able to highlight the problems and the treatment methods and preventive methods adopted to the World Class Standards.

I have written enough on the ortho problems already and i will stop here

Regards

Chockalingam

The Proof is in the pudding: Awareness strategy adopted for Total Knee Replacement

10th June 2010
Total Knee Replacement is one of the successful surgeries, in Orthopaedics and Surgery in General. The surgery has the benefit of relieving one's pain and improving the quality of life for an individual. This can be proved by various quantification methods such as Joint Specific Scoring Systems, and Quality of Life improvement tools.

I use these tools in my practice to the standards followed in the UK Joint Replacement Units. The quality of improvement can be quantified in other methods such as QALY. This method shows that the qualtiy of life improvement for the years ahead is comparable to Cardiac Bypass Surgery and better than cataract surgery.

Remember these two surgeries compared are done more frequently than the Knee Replacement surgery. Hence when I started my practice, we sat down with the marketing department at KMC Speciality hospital and worked on a strategy to improve the awareness.

I decided one of the ways would be to take the outcome improvement to the public directly and orgnaised the meeting called Meet Our Patients. We called on the press to interact with my patients who had knee replacement directly with no preconditions.

Patients were more than happy to narrate their quality of life improvement directly to the press who in turn took to the public through their media.

Proof is in the pudding,Right!. We are now in the process of orangising the awareness of arthroscopy in joint problems. I am calling more than 100 of my patients who had arthroscopy of knees, shoulders,ankles, elbow at KMC Speciality to come and narrate their experiences directly to the press.

We are calling this Sports Injuries and Arthroscopy Awareness meeting and organised this sunday.

I will post more on this later.

Regards

Chockalingam