I love to watch Mike Holmes work ... and teach. He's a Canadian general contractor who started his foray into show business with a home renovation show called "Holmes on Homes" - then "Holmes Inspection" and now "Holmes Makes it Right." His motto has always been, "Make it Right." His dad taught him that if you do something right the first time in home construction, you'll never have to do it again - and his shows are all about folks who are suffering from some contractors' decisions NOT to make it right the first time: to cut corners, to take shortcuts, to slap things together. So, Mike comes in and (pun of puns) makes it right. Most of the time, he makes it better than expected.
He never expected to have the success he has had. Yet every day, he receives hundreds of emails from people who have had a raw deal from the "bad and the ugly" - respectively described by him as the ones who mean well but don't know enough, and the ones that are out to bilk the home-owner.
I was thinking of Mike today because my daughter injured her knee (dislocated patella) on November 30, 2012. After seeing a doctor who referred her to an orthopedic surgeon, and after conservative treatment for 2 months via physiotherapy, an MRI revealed what we suspected from day one: torn ligaments beneath the patella and chronic ligament laxity. What that means is surgery - and soon.
Today she got her surgery date: April 4th (perhaps sooner if there's a cancellation), and a pre-surgery clinic scheduled for March 21st.
The surgeon will be shortening those three stretched ligaments under the kneecap. However, he will also be doing some structural changes while he's in there. He is going to change the focal point of her knee by removing a tendon at one end and re-attaching it to the top of the shin-bone , because the knee has always been in a valgus presentation. In layman's terms, she's knock-kneed - always has been. Once that minor deformity is corrected, it will make it less likely for her to re-dislocate that knee.
After the surgery, and more physiotherapy, if the other knee is posing a problem with the new stance, he'll schedule surgery on the other knee and shift the focal point to match.
It's quite possibly a long haul for her over the next little while, with time for healing and rebuilding muscle strength. However, the doctor is "making it right" ... and sometimes, that takes time.
Starting with the right foundation is crucial to ending up with a strong house... and starting with the right stance will not only keep her from re-injuring her knee, it will teach her to walk straight, and might even gain her an inch or two in height. It will also reduce her back problems.
She may quail at the thought of the infirmity that lies ahead. We'll be here for her while she's going through it, confident that she'll end up an even better "her" than she thought possible.
As in construction, so in life - whether bum knees or a tired soul.
He never expected to have the success he has had. Yet every day, he receives hundreds of emails from people who have had a raw deal from the "bad and the ugly" - respectively described by him as the ones who mean well but don't know enough, and the ones that are out to bilk the home-owner.
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| "Doctor In Surgery" courtesy of taoty at www.freedigitalimages.net |
I was thinking of Mike today because my daughter injured her knee (dislocated patella) on November 30, 2012. After seeing a doctor who referred her to an orthopedic surgeon, and after conservative treatment for 2 months via physiotherapy, an MRI revealed what we suspected from day one: torn ligaments beneath the patella and chronic ligament laxity. What that means is surgery - and soon.
Today she got her surgery date: April 4th (perhaps sooner if there's a cancellation), and a pre-surgery clinic scheduled for March 21st.
The surgeon will be shortening those three stretched ligaments under the kneecap. However, he will also be doing some structural changes while he's in there. He is going to change the focal point of her knee by removing a tendon at one end and re-attaching it to the top of the shin-bone , because the knee has always been in a valgus presentation. In layman's terms, she's knock-kneed - always has been. Once that minor deformity is corrected, it will make it less likely for her to re-dislocate that knee.
After the surgery, and more physiotherapy, if the other knee is posing a problem with the new stance, he'll schedule surgery on the other knee and shift the focal point to match.
It's quite possibly a long haul for her over the next little while, with time for healing and rebuilding muscle strength. However, the doctor is "making it right" ... and sometimes, that takes time.
Starting with the right foundation is crucial to ending up with a strong house... and starting with the right stance will not only keep her from re-injuring her knee, it will teach her to walk straight, and might even gain her an inch or two in height. It will also reduce her back problems.
She may quail at the thought of the infirmity that lies ahead. We'll be here for her while she's going through it, confident that she'll end up an even better "her" than she thought possible.
As in construction, so in life - whether bum knees or a tired soul.
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