Okay. I hate to toot my own horn, but I gotta brag a little on this one. Had a fella come in with a dislocated hip. He’d had a hip replacement and was doing some stretching when POP, out came his hip. He was remarkably calm, especially considering his hip was clearly not where it should have been. Usually when a dislocated hip comes in, you have to get an IV real quick, give em a crap load of pain meds, and then prepare the consent paperwork to turn off their lights, so that you can put it back in. That process usually involves a lot of resources and time. After you’ve got them counting sheep, the process of relocation looks a little something like this: doc squatting up on the stretcher, bear-hugging the offending leg, pulling until his veins are popping. It’s not a scene unlike a tug-o-war contest or trying to squeeze out the mother load. Well, I got it in my head that I could reduce this guy’s hip without sedating him. I am really quite good with shoulder dislocations, and I do them all while the patient is awake. Some of my partners don’t believe me, but I really do, and the patients love it. I’ve reduced plenty of hips by the method described above, but never without sedation. The guy was skeptical, but I was able to finally convince him to let me try. We carefully turned him over on his belly, and then I slowly let his leg hang off the side, much like how I do the shoulders. 
After a little gentle traction and wiggling on my part, the hip clunked back into place. The patient gave a huge sigh of relief and offered me his first born. I don’t know why I thought Jedi mind tricks would reduce that hip, but it just felt right. It’s kinda the Mr. Miyagi approach. I bet none of my partners have ever tried to do that.
Pic of the upcoming plantable, seeded tag coming soon. I know, it’s so exciting, isn’t it?
A killer idea came to me today while I was riding home from work. I’m going to mount a camera on top of my helmet for the Breck Epic. The Epic video from last year is super cool, but shot mainly by guys from the side of the trail. It would be great to have an Alchemist video blog from a rider’s perspective. I might try to do a couple races before that too. Maybe short track. Stay tuned for more on that.
Team Alchemist Blog 