Interview with Dr. Doug Clouse

Discussion Details: We discussed his origin stories, his treatment philosophy, what he considers great care, different options outside of surgery, and why he does what he does.

Benefits of Watching: Learn about an incredible surgeon that deeply cares about his patients and his work.

Address of Guests Business: 2450 S. Gilbert Rd Suite 109 Chandler AZ, 6410 S Kings Ranch Rd Suite 5 Gold Canyon AZ, and 21300 N. John Wayne Pkwy Ste #116, Maricopa, AZ

All right hi. This is Dr. Brigg Woods owner Polaris PT and Wellness and host the Professional Spotlight series. With us today is someone that I deeply respect and I know you guys get a tenant value from. In fact. I had him fix my elbow when I when I tore my biceps tendon and he did a fantastic job. Dr. Doug Klaus is a board certified orthopedic surgeon who specialize in hip and knee preservation and replacement as well as does other surgeries like my elbow. He’s passionate about helping active adults and athletes stay moving for life and he’s built a reputation here in the East Valley for his collaborative approach with both patients and providers outside the room. Dr. Klaus is a dedicated family man, an Olympic weightlifting competitor, and he brings that same energy and care to the way he treats his patients. Welcome. Dr. Klaus. Oh, thank you man very nice to you, man, yeah, you’re making me sound too nice, too good. Dude, oh dude. It’s all it is all true. Uh. Also kind of U. Congrats on Grandpa dude.

Thank you dad, that’s brand new that was just two months ago. She literally hit her two month marked yesterday. It’s thats, that’s fun. Yeah, thats, yeah, you get it. You get the fun part of like, hey, it is, it is, it’s it’s funny, because even I kind of, you know, when I’ve had friends or people who have a new baby, like, I’m not one to want to really like, hold the newborn. Oh yeah, she’s like. Ah, it’s fragile, like, it’s okay, you know, just wait and then, but man, when I saw her. I was like. I gotta hold her, come on, give her to absolutely well, you can’t get it. You can’t get enough of your somebody told me it was you just get that feeling of what it was like when you had kids and butz is you don’t have to deal with all the extra stuff that’s like, like, it’s like having my own kid again. But oh dirty, oh dirty, she’s’ fussy. Can I who can I pass them off to? But? Yeah, man, so that’s awesome. Um.

So I guess really quickly like first and foremost, what, what really drew you into.

First I guess medicine and then for medicine. Orthopedic surgery.

So actually I, it’s funny. Its like I remember being in college and in college. I just I knew I was going to graduate school. I never remember a time where at what I was like. Oh yeah, I’m doing graduate school you. I come from a family of, you know, a lot of professionals, you know, dentists, lawyers, you know so, and I’m the youngest. So I was like I had to one up everyone. So I was like. I obviously got to go to med school, but I actually was going to do physical therapy. So I was a physical therapy major is what I was really like that stuff that just’s I’ve always liked it and I came home one summer and worked for a doctor. And you know, he kind of just let me follow around and do things and I was just like, man, this is really, i just was like, this is so cool. I. I love the diagnostic part of it of just trying to figure it out and I was like, this is really fun and he kind of nudged me. He’s like you should consider med school. So I was like. You know what? I think I’m going to go that and then.

You know as I started kind of thinking about it and I’m a man of faith and I started doing a lot of prayer, just I got an answer that that’s what I’m supposed to do. So kind of that combination is what. When I got that kind of answer. I was like. This is what I’m supposed to do with my life, you know so. And then when I got into med school it’s kind of funny. When you get med school.

There’s this at least when I was at Tulane, i was at Tulane in New Orleans, which was awesome school, loved it, loved New Orleans Green. I remember when I first showed up, it was kind of almost taboo to say, yeah. I think I want to do orthopedic surgery, you know really immediately, that makes you like, you’re a gunner, you know, you got to get because it’s a competitive residency. So you got to be at the top of your class. So you don’t want to come across like. Yeah, I’m surging and people like. Oh, man, this guy’s a jerk, you know. So. So you would always be like. I don’t know. And so I knew I kind of liked Ortho, but I wasn’t sure if that was the path I wanted to go. And so in my first couple of years I had a chance to go do all these different rotations. I hung on the ER. I went to the The surgery suite. I was able to spend time with Family practice pediatric. I did all those things and what you find is your personality matches a specialty.

I mean almost to the point where it was a game in med school, you’d be like you, you’re an ophthalmologist. No, no, you’re a family, you just their personality, just mash it. And literally, the first day I did my ortho rotation. I just just sitting around and I was like all these different residents that I was with. I was like I would hang out with these guys in a heartbeat. You know, they just we just everything just clicked and you know, it was just fun. That’s when you know, sometimes you do rotations and it’s just like I’m getting through this rotation. Okay, oh yeah, no. I din. I did an acute care rotation in the hospital. Now was just like I’m so glad there’s somebody who wants to do this because exactly. And then ye. The first day I did ortho. I was like. This is a blast. I love this stuff and then that literally. The day I came home that first day and told my wife, I’m like I’m doing ortho, that’s great. They never look back. That’s awesome man. U was there anybody in particular? I guess that first physician, what was what was he?

So he was actually phsiatris so he so he did. I. It wasn’t quite pain management, he did a lot, he actually did a lot of sports medicine his pace, sports medicine a lot.

You know, had a lot of physical therapy so he wasn’t like a big like tons of injection type guy. But he was just little little more in inferiorguring, didactic wise. And so that’s kind of what drew me to it was that and just his openness to it was awesome. Yeah, was there anybody else along the way, like a mentor in particular, that really influenced your path? Oh yeah, my, my fellowship. Director. Dr. Jesse de Le. So I did sports medicine fellowship and he was he literally. He wrote the textbook for sports medicine and so he’s you know, i did my fellowship in San Antonio. Texas, so he’s definitely he’s this Texan. He’s awesome. He’s just just hardest working orthopedic surgeon I’ve ever come across, like the hours we put in when I was working with him. I mean. I put in more hours with him than I did when I was like an intern. He just he would like start surgeries at 6 AM and.

Churn out three or four total knees or total hips or and then we would run off and get to clinic by 11 or 12 and go to clinic till like six and then afterwards he’s like. Oh yeah, we got to do this and i’d have a list of things to do. I mean it was insane wow most Oross. I know if they arere doing a surgery day. It’s just a surgery day and they’m not going into the clinic. He he packed as much as he could in a 12 hour day and it was and and I mean just it’s i just love how he did, how he approached everything, how he treated his patients. He’s very caring, i mean, he just he was awesome.

And because I’ve even found like if if he was to come into even watch me do surgeries, he would probably be like that’s how I taught you. There’s just so many things he taught me that I still even do today because it works like I was like this technique works yeah and I, and so so he he was. He was very influential on how I do things, and and you said he’s super car, i mean. I. I noticed I mean we have a personal relationship prior, but.

Other people that I have sent over there that they have been to see you. They’re always like. Yeah, he took more time with me than most ors. Take time. I mean, most ortho. My experience. A lot of them has been like. Hey, cool, this is what you got going on. We’re gonna need to catch do surgery, so get you the scheduler and uh, yeah, see ya.

Yeah and I understand that I mean I get it too. I understand it and I understand in the way how insurances are in the reimbursement that you you’re almost forced to. I have to see 20 patients in a morning. I got to get to 3040 patients in a day just to be able to cover all these expenses’s. It’s gotten kind of stupid and kind of silly Andes. I think it’s damaged the doctor-patient relationship and so I’ve tried to take a different approach.

At least when I try to do it, i try to.

I try to feel like I my job is to educate. Yeah, you know, like my job is to say, let me teach you what you have. Show you get it to explain it in a way that the patient goes. Oh yeah, that makes oh my gosh that makes complete sense. You know, you love it when you explain and they go like. Oh my gosh that explains you what last week and you’re like exactly, you know, you get it and then be able to just take some time and say. And you know there is one of the things I feel is like every patient has a unique treatment plan. There is no one. Hey, you do the you do physical therapy, you do an injection, you do surgery. That’s it like I usually try to show hey, here’s a lot of different ways. There’s some alternative ways that are open know, we don’t always just have to go do surgery. Maybe we try some like biologic injections. PRP injections or try some other things you know. And so, but that’s more a little bit my personal philosophy. That’s because I’m interested in that stuff for sure. And so I like to at least provide that those options. So I like to consider myself a little bit more of a.

I try to educate people more if I can well no and I think that’s most people get more buying and I think you’ll have better outcomes. That’s why you have great outcomes because people people bought in and they’re on board U for you? When did you realize that this kind of north being a orthedic surgeon or doing what you do had deeper meaning for you beyond just the medical side.

That’s a good one. Well. I think the fact that like I shared with you that I kind of felt like I had like an answer when I prayed that this is kind of my path in lifeah. So I’ve always kind of viewed that there’s a higher purpose for me of just than just this is my job for sure. No.

You know there there was a time. There’s a guy actually a couple times when I when I just in the last few years. I think during Covid.

Covid really that was hard for a lot of people, you know. I mean for everybody. I remember as physicians I was very. It frustrated me because seeing so many people be able to lack access, we tried to stay. We stayed open when we were during Covid, just because it was a personal. I was like we need to, but I remember going through that and the challenges of running a business. I mean not just being a doctor and trying to figure out how do we do this and during Covid but also trying to keep your doors open was so challenging and I remember probably a year or two after that, maybe 2100 and 22 just being just burnt out just like I am just so burned out. I mean, it wasn’t just physician stuff, it was just, you know, ye, i mean, private, you have live business owner and you’re like those the best of year they were so so those were like tough years and I remember those being very, very challenging. I remember feeling very burnt out.

And really having to go back and you know there was a time where I was like you. Okay, why am I doing this? Yeah, and really the only joy I would have in a day would be when I would be able to go into an exam room and shut the door and be with a patient. And that was it, you know. I didn’t have to worry about. Hey, here’s the report that your Your End Today report or here’s your your finance report. Hey. This bill came in how we go to pay that, you know.

To my employee two of my employees are fighting, I’ve got to go bad dude. I gotta go figure that one out, you know um and those would. Those times would just be very frustrating. But then the minute you could go into a room and shut the door and just be like it’s just me and my patient like those are the times where I realized like this is what I love doing. You know. I hate going back outside to hear and that other stuff. But you have these little tiny moments where you’re like this is awesome just connecting with a with another person and just being able to help them and and improve their life. Letting that’s that brings a quality of just enjoyment of this job. It brings purpose because if it’s just like hey. I saw this number of patients and I was able to collect this amount of money and this it.

That doesn’t bring a lot of joy. Honest with no, when you start when you start looking at PDS numbers and figures and financial windfall, it’s yeah, it. You could be doing anything but the humans aspect of it and the connection. But also, yeah, i mean, when I get to see somebody, you change people’s lives. Man. And when you change somebody’s life and you see their their face light up and you see that they realize that somebody actually leavess a crap about what they’re going through like that’s, that’s that’s it. Ye, that’s everything, man. Yeah, and and I guess to that end is there any Patient Success Stories right? You don’t have to like identify Know Hipaa, but any patient Success stories that have really kind of stayed with you and sort of reinforced why you do what you do.

That’s a hard question to some degree, because.

Because honestly you don’t remember your successes, honestly.

You almost kind of because what we do I think for the most part does bring success. And so a lot of the patients that we see I almost kind of walk in. I’m expecting success. I’m expecting us to be able to make things better, improve it, and to be honest with, that’s what we typically see. So you almost kind of forget the successes. Now I can tell you what I never forget are the complications.

You just you and I wasn’t necessarily prepared for that as well as when I came out that how hard a complication hurts. You know, it’s not just. I mean, for the patient too, but like if you have a patient that you know something happens in surgery. Maybe they get an infection or something like you lie awake at night and you’re just you can’t sleep. It’s just it’s hard and you so you don’t. You never forget those right. You know, i remember one patient this was years ago who I did. I did a hip replacement on and everything seemed to go great in the surgery. No problems. But you know, and she got discharged. But within, like a couple of days. She’s back in the ER and she’s you know, she’s anemic, you know, looks like. And so you know, you know, we Godhead and come into the ER. Seer, you know, talk with, she gets admitted. We talked to the hospitals, we kind of like. Well, it looks like she kind of stabilized. She had to get a little transfusion. We like Oka. Maybe she’s a little bit older, maybe just a normal little blood loss need a little transfusion. She seemed to stabilize.

Got discharged and then a couple days later shes she’s back in the ER. I find myself back in the ER with her. We’re trying to figure out like, okay, she obviously has a bleeder, took her back to the operating room because she’s like there’s a beer big old hematoma there but couldn’t find a ble like nowhere like searched everywhere like what is going on here in this hip, you know, wash her out, close her. She she’s stable for the next several days and we’re like, okay. I guess that was good. She’s good to go send her home. Sure enough, four or five days later, she’s back, you know, same blood, you know, levels dropping and you know.

Kind of talk with the hospitals who finally kind of get a plan and get, you know, intervencial radiology involved, which is, we talked ourselves out of doing this early on and I’m kicking myself. But then they did a little scan of found the yesh. You have a little bleeder that had retracted back into the pelvis, so you couldn’t even see it ye early when we did the surgery, the way we positioned her like it would kind of basically press off the vessel, so it wouldn’t believe there was not ble. Yeah, so it only occurred to me. She would leave her up, be upright and walking around. Yeah, so.

So we were able to find that, cauterize that or emolize that and it took care of it and she was. She was great, but there was like multiple times of me stressing out, talking with family, going back and forth from the ER and I just, you know, remember, that’s I remember that being very frustrating like what is going on with this lady where we’re trying to figure out what’s going on. But I also remember that she she was alone out here, her daughters lived out out a state and and I would always try every time I I would call the daughter. So I called the daughter multiple times, let her give an update and even then I just remember one time driving home. She was just like.

Just expecting the gratitude of thank you so much for you know, for just you caring, you know, and just. I mean, and to me, I’m just like I’m just trying to do my job and getting better, you know, but just that little word just made me kind of just kind of hit me. I remember her specifically, it just kind of hit me kind of going, wow, that, yeah, you know, actually. I was very grateful that she that she expressed that because thats just really meant a lot to me, yeah, and and you know, and who knows how many other people would have put in the same amount of stress and worried about it and took the time to call the family and keep them updated? You know what I mean, so yeah, that’s great. And to that end. I guess what?

What in your view I guess. What defines exceptional care beyond clinical outcomes.
H.

Outcome, great Well, i mean. I think there’s I mean there’s a lot. I mean, there’s a lot of good great physicians here in the valley. I mean, it know a lot of them. They’re really good. A lot of them are personal friends of mine. Sure. I respect a ton of them, or that’s.

I think obviously it takes a level of just of knowledge and skill. I think that’s like a base. You got to have that. You got to be able to be technically able to do surgeries, to not be rushing through a surgery, but just almost having just a very systematic approach to things. I think that’s one level of that, that of like, for a good ortho surgeon is there is a skill level and there is varieties of skills that you see.

Knowledge base is another one and I think you know the other one is.

It’s kind of a harder because it’s going to be are you willing to take the time for a patient? Yeah, you know, because there is a tendency to just get through the day as fast as you can. And sometimes there is a push to. You know, stack a lot of patients up just because there’s a demand and you end up taking less time and.

You can wait two weeks or you can sit in the waiting room for yeah an hour and get a little more time with me. So I mean. I think the when you’re kind of the times that I’ve. I felt like I’ve really provided like, really good care has been the times where I’ve been able to take the time with the patient I’ve been able to listen to just sit there and listen to them really feel like I understand be able to teach them. I mean. I love. I love to teach. I love to explain things and you know, but when I’ve been able to have that, be able to kind of have that valuable time together, or it’s not just boom in and out and you’re going like those actually are more meaningful to me 100 percent, so kind of moving on to sort of what you do who you help. I guess what are the kinds of what conditions or cases do you most frequently see?

Well I’m mostly sports medicine. So Bobby, that’s probably 80 percent of my practice is a lot of shoulders and knees, so that means you’re dealing with a lot of athletes. Soft tissue injuries, tendon tears, ligament tears, meniscus tears. ACL tears. That’s probably 80 percent of my practice is well, maybe not. Maybe 70 percent of my practice is that. And then there’s the. Also the, the, also, the.

Because of the need just because people are so active nowadays. You know, sports medicine isn’t just the 20 year old or the teenage 20 year old. I mean sports Madison now is going all the way to your 80 year old, 90 year old to be honest with you because they pick football baby, they. And then you’re just naturally because you take care of like knees so much. I do a lot of knee replacements as well, so seems like I do kind of a yeah might. Maybe 7080 percent of my practice is taking care of some type of shoulder or knee issue that soft tissue, arthroscopic or knee replacements. And then the other kind of 20 percent is you know, I’m go to you. I kind of think kind of think that once you’re kind of part of my patient like I’ll see anything. You know if you got a back issue, you an elbow hand, foot, you know, you know, hip, I’ll see it now. I may not do surgery on everything you know right, i at least will will see it, evaluate it if I can treat it. I’ll treat it if I, if you need if it’s a foot.

Case that needs surgile. Then I’ll get you to my buddy that I trust that does great jobs at foot surgery. You knowah, you know. And so that’s kind of that’s. So that’s mostly what I do. And then.

On the other side of a little bit, i in the last like maybe four or five years, I’ve gotten a little bit more of the regenerative medicine type because it kind of blends well with sports medicine. So PRP injections. Stem cell injections. Certain ingestion called an AW M. Inelel injection. So there’s different types of alternative treatments.

That you know there’s some people that are just like surgery is not what they want to do, and so it just at least gives them an alternative treatment option. That’s great when I was goingnna be something I was going to say what’s something that people misunderstand about your role in specialty. When you said sports Met is not just your high school or like 20 year old kid, it’s all the way up your 8080 s now. Yeah, thanks absolutely, I’m in my 50 s. Now. I still feel like I’ I’m active and I’m doing stuff. Yeah, work Madison Guy. Yeah, yeah. I hear you. I’m 40 gosh. I can’t believe I’m 43 and I definitely need, yeah, occasionally need a sports med guy.

What are some for whatever conditions or just what are some early warning signs that somebody shouldn’t ignore like something that’s gona be like. Hey, you know what you really shouldn’t ignore that you really should come see somebody like like an orthopedic surgeon like yourself.

Probably.

If something’s persistent, you know I mean all of us are gonna like do a little something to our shoulders or knees like I’ll go work out and.

Do in my training? Yeah. I might do something where my knee will hurt. But you know, a little bit of a hey, I’ve just maybe irritated or flared something up. Okay, a few days, maybe week it should kind of be gone. You know.

If it’s just something simple, but if I’m like sitting there like Hey, this has been going on for three weeks, four weeks, it’s not going away. It usually kind of tells you there’s something going on now. It could be a structural problem of you.

Actually have some tissue damage or there be be more of a deficit. There’s a motor deficit, there’s a muscle deficit, there’s a weakness, there’s a muscle imbalance. That’re you’re putting some type of functional stress somewhere that you’re not aware of. And so you just going to the gym and that I see this all the time. You know, someone may not have some structural damage of their knee, but functionally, and this is what you see this all the time. Functionally, you’re like. Oh, my gosh, look at this muscle imbalance. They’re not firing this muscle. They’re weak here. And so because of that, they’re overloading this part of your joint like, and then like, and then in their mind, they’re like. Well, I’m gonna go to the gym and keep working out. Well, you’re working out with these poor mechanics. Yeah, so all you’re doing is just adding more load and just continuing the cycle. Its enforcing, yeah, the poor mechanics. And yeah, so like it. So that’s particularly for stuff like that. That we see all the time is like. Yeah, if you’re seeing some, there’s something that’s kind of persistent. That’s.

Kind of a clue that hey something’s wrong. Yeah.

Yeah I would agree with you,

So how I guess and to that, yeah, so kind of how does you? How does your care complement physical therapy or any other provider? Maybe not PT in kind of Do you ever take a multidisciplinary approach? Oh, okay, want hear, you want to hear. I probably have this conversation. You get to be my patient for a second. Let’s do it. I literally have this conversation multiple times in a day, and it’s simply’s. It’s when I try to explain pain to somebody and I just say when we’re looking when I am evaluating somebody and and let’s say it someone maybe that’s been having pain for a long period of time. Yeah, like I usually ask myself that when I’m looking at their evaluation, it goes, there’s four possible causes of your pain that we need to evaluate. The first one is structural, second one is mechanical right, third one is some. Oh, what’s.

Cement not no, that’s not the word. I just now you’re making me blank on my my my phrase, i guess I don’t say like that a Systemic. I’m sorry yeah. Third one is Systemic and the last one.

Is almost kind of like.

Is kind of de more kind of a stressors mental or mental stressors. Okays, yeah, yeah, so you kind of look and say. Okay, let’s look at those four things, because a lot of times someone’s diagnosis might have a little bit of everything. And so you need to kind of figure it out. So you say. Okay, let’s start with structural. Okay, structural has. When there is a structural piece of tissue that’s torn, there’s tissue damage and that tissue damage is causing pain. Okay. And if that’s and so that’s where a lot of times, why we do our imaging studies is, we’re looking for structural damage. We’re look, that’s what the x-rays, that’s what the Maris are going to do. We’re seeing. Is there a torn rotator cuff tear? Sure, oka and and then, because it’s torn, that’s the source main. So that’s a structural problem now. A.

Mechanical problem is more about how you move and this is what we’re talking about your the motor deficiencies where you look at, hey, are you weak, someplace, tight, someplace? You know the way you’re moving is, you’re putting an abnormal stress. Now our bodies are meant to be adaptable, but they’re only.

Adaptable up to a point right. So if we are moving inappropriately, we have a muscle tightness, weakness. We’re not doing so. Your body is going to be fine, but eventually your body’s going to go all right. Enough’s enough. You’re putting too much stress here. If you keep doing this, it’s going to cause a structural problem. So I’m going to cause inflammation. And now you have pain. Oka.

So theres are more of our mechanical. Then you look at kind of your systemic. Is there something else going on in your body? This is where do you have an inflammatory condition? This is where your rhatory arthritis is. This is where maybe your weight. You look at your weight. So maybe someone who has knee, some mild knee osteoarthritis is their weight putting more load. You know, diet in you know. So you’re looking more kind of the whole body on that person and then the last one you kind of look at stressors are there stressors in your life. We know that people who have, you know, stressors in their life that are very high that they can actually manifest it as pain like you. Someone who has a panic attack has chest pain. There’s structural, there’s nothing wrong here, but if you talk to them, they have paint. You know, there’s been studies that show that people who under a lot of stress when you look at their pain scars on like a musculkele of injury. If they’re not under stress, it might be like a three out of ten. But when they’re under stress, it’s like a seven out of ten. You see these changes. So.

When you’re addressing that and you’re addressing a problem, you kind of have to look at all four of those issues. Okay. And then you look at them and go, okay. Is there stressors, there may or may not be okay. Maybe you look at them and say. Hey, with your knee pain. Look at, you know, from a systemic time, your weight’s an issue here. What can we do about your weight now? Again? We may. I don’t need him to lose 100 pounds, but hey, can we lose ten? You know, know, let’s just start small.

We look at your you look at their mechanical issue and say you see this muscle imbalance. You see how you’re tight here, you’re weak here. This is what’s causing the problem. This is where my Buddy Briggs going to come into play and he’s going to teach you how to fix this oka and then you try to educate them and try to help you by saying this is not going to be easy. This is gona take some time and work. Don’t expect a fix in two weeks. This may take six or eight weeks, you know, or even three months or six months but be prepared for that. Yeah, and then if it’s a structural problem, okay, now do I need to be involved? Do I need to go do surgery and fix that structural defect? Do I need to do some type of injection to help that of some kind? So that’s kind of how I approach these problems. I just try to look for like these are my four factors of paint. Do any of these four factors?

App applied to this patient and if so tailor that plan to them. So it’s not just hey, you need surgery because there’s a Starr problem. It’s like. Hey, you need surgery. But you know also, this is damaged because of these poor mechanics. So let’s get the PT and you know what your weight or maybe you know what you have some find, i think you might have, you know, rheumatoid arthritis. Let’s get our rheumattologist involved or something like that. So you need to approach a problem like that to get the best outcomes. And if you do that like you get great results 100 percent. Yeah. I mean, and to that end like I know that when I’m in a Hashimoto flare up.

Yeah, my my knees feel worse when I’m 100 percent, and there’s so many times that we if you don’t take the time and kind of figure that out or talk to them like, you’ll miss that ye, you know, because you’ll be like. Oh, your knees flare. Oh, they’re inflamed. Oh, obviously it’s it an arthritic flare. So let’s do a cortisone injection and be on your way when you’re like. Okay, yeah, but.

What are you doing to address the Ahimotos? You know, talk about that for a second 100 percent. Well. So if what happens, then I mean. What have you seen? I’m sure you’ve seen people come in right when they’re kind of having an issue, and I’m sure you’ve seen people delay things to.

What happens when people wait too long to seek care? The biggest thing is that you limit your options. You know. I mean, that’s the biggest thing is, you know, if you wait till let’s just do osteoarthritis. Okay, why, because I have it in my knees, and so I’m doing there. You go. So you know, you have someone. You start having symptoms and you have some mild signs of osteoarthritis. Well, we can pretty much everything’s on the table for you for treatment, you know, you know, physical therapy may be fantastic for you, you know. Maybe if you’re having a flair, we need to do a quarter. You know, some type of biologic injection may work perfect for you.

Even maybe even a simpler surgery if we even have to go that. But there just you just have so many more options, you know. But if of course, if you know, you just kind of wait and wait and you finally come in, you’re like, yeah, your knees, just the carla’s gone. You know, straight to the TKA, yeah, like, you’re like your. These injections aren’t gonna work really well. The physical therapy. I don’t think works that great when you’re like bone on bone, you know. And so yeah, you’re talking like our only option may be surgery now it’s a still good option, but you know, it. Just it limits the patient where they’re like. Well. I guess this is all I got, you know. So yeah, kind of getting in earlier, it increases your chance to have a lot of options. Yeah, yeah. I agree, u. And it’s better to have more options than less. Absolutely that. Certainly. So if somebody was hesitant about reaching out, uh, what would you want them to know?

What do you mean reaching out like reaching out to you to like go, get a point like reaching out to go and seeing like an orthopedic surgeon. What would you want them to know?

If they’re like. I don’t know, nervous. I say there’s, you’re committing to nothing. Yeah, there’s no commitment. Right, you come and see an orthopaedic surgeon, if someone is the like. For example, if I’m someone where look’s like a spying patient like I mean, I’ll see my patients that have spine issues. I help them get diagnosed, but let’s say they get to a point where I’m like this might need surgery. You know. Maybe maybe not, I’m not a spine surgeon. So you know. I don’t really want to say either way, but I’ll talk to him as like, what’s the harm in just going and talking to him? Percent having them getting a consult and just hearing, having them educate you so that you can make an informed decision. Ultimately, the decision is always the patient. You, but kind of hard to make a decision. If you don’t have all the information and if you don’t have all the information, the decision maybe make it maybe be a bad one. Yeah, you know. So to me, it’s like.

It never hurts to get information. Yeah, and I think sometimes people are worried. I don’t know. I think people are worried about like if, surgery or whatever’s recommended. Just almost like disappointing the provider by like not committing to doing a surgery or like not committing to come in and seeing us and I’m like I.

It’s your body do what you want. No, no. I mean. I. I try to approach it and that this is a team. Yeah, like, this is a team effort like I can give you my opinion of what I think you should do. But if you’re not bought in. I don’t want to do it. Like, if I think hey, you should do surgegery and patients like. I don’t want surgery. I don’t want to do surgery. No, no, because I’m just like U. If I don’t have someone who’s like Hey. I, I’m committed and bought in then then we’re good. Yeah.

You gethin.

Okay, sorry, it’s all good. Yeah, no, we’re, we’re getting close, so.

Just to kind of bring it on home in what’s the best way for somebody to get in touch with you guys and book an office with your visit? Book a visit with you. Obviously, you can, you know, find us online at azurehethcare. Org. O. You can also just, you know, look in phone number 4, 800, point and ninety-n 9 4 3, 33. So.

I mean Google me. It doesn’t get easier than that. Pretty, it’s pretty pretty easy. Just go, you’ll find us. And you know we’re in here in Chandler Gilbert area. But we also have an office in Gold Canyon in Maricopa as well. Nice. I dont know those three locations, so anybody it’s in those locations can find me. And then what for first time, patient, what are they? What should they expect during their initial appointment? Lots of paperwork? Sorry, not not my choice, not my choice. No, it’s, it’s dude. Trust me, we. We just, i mean, it’s just we didn’t matter at your insurance company. Yeah, we had to implement a new EHR system. Electronic Medical Records Today. Today was day one of a transition and so like.

You’re like. Oh. I got to redo all these forms and it’s just so painful for everybody. But unfortunately for the first appointment, that’s just the nature of the beast, sure than that, hopefully we can actually. I usually try to block off a little bit extra times, particularly for those first patients, so that we can kind of get to know each other and be able to kind of have a meaningful like here’s what’s going on, here’s all your options and so wholeway can.

I might overload some people with information sometimes yeah, no. I get it. But yeah, that’s great. And then any final thoughts for somebody. Currently.

Silently kind of going about struggling with either shoulder pain or like knee pain. Who isn’t sure where to start.

I would say I don’t think people understand how many options there are for them. Yeah, there’s a lot of op treatment options that we have that don’t necessarily involve surgery. I mean. I mean. I love doing surgery. It’s one i became a surgeon for a reason because I love doing it, but I love doing it when it’s the right patient at the right time, oka. And so that’s not everybody. But there are a lot of options for people. And so if someone is hesitant, then I would say then the main thing would be too, come in at least get get the information, come in at least get the information. So you know at least what your options are because you might be surprised at what things you can do and the things that we can do to help. Yeah, well, man. I, I’m busy got a lot going on. I appreciate you taking the time in to sit down and tell us more about you your practice and and kind of why you do what you do. So, yeah, if there’s anybody out there that needs or see somebody about anything they got going on. Dr. Doug Klaus of The Man. Well, thank you, big man, you’re awesome, appreciate