It's a more common problem than you would think... You are getting ready to go out and you have just put in your favorite pair of loop earrings. But as you are pulling your sweater over your head, the earring gets snagged on the sweater and it enlarges the piercing just enough so that a few more wearings of the earrings and they eventually pull right through the earlobe causing a "forked" earlobe. It's not an emergency but it will require a surgical repair and more than "just a couple of stitches" to bring the edges together. There's really not much to an earlobe, just skin and a small amount of fat. In an earlobe that has been torn, there is a small portion of skin that has covered the torn portion that must be removed before the two edges of the lobe are stitched together. This requires a minor surgical procedure with numbing of the lobe with local anesthesia and removing that upside down "V" shaped piece of skin and then carefully stitching the two sides together with a very small suture (stitch) and a technique that allows the edges to heal such that the scarring is minimal. [...]

To a history buff like me, a movie like "Darkest Hour" is a feast! The acting is phenomenal and the chance to see how history happened is worth every nickel I paid for admission. The movie follows Churchill through only a narrow window of time, May and June of 1940. Hitler was on the move and was conquering countries left and right and heading for England. Indeed it was one of England's darkest hours as this new Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, had to face some very tough decisions in the coming days. In a 5 week period, he gave 3 major speeches to the people. The movie ends with his second speech, commonly called "We shall fight on the beaches" speech on June 4, 1940. Interestingly, his 3rd speech (June 18, 1940) was called the "This was their finest hour" speech and was delivered to the House of Commons just a month after he took over as PM. The speech (which was not shown in the movie) ends with this, "What General Weygand has called the Battle of France is over... The Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon [...]

Nathan Nascimento writes for the National Review and in his last article, "The Latest Problem Under the Affordable Care Act: Deductibles", he makes some great points about the growing problem of healthcare usage in America. As he says, "While monthly premiums can aptly be described as how much it costs to have insurance, deductibles are how much it costs to use it." The average deductible can now run into the thousands of dollars which can severely limit access to insurance patients can afford to use. For instance, if you cut your leg and seek medical attention at the ER, the average cost to assess, anesthetize, stitch and dress that wound is $1650.00.* If your deductible is $2,500, you will be paying the entire $1,650.00 out of pocket. Here's where we come in! At QuikSurg, the doctor (me) will see you immediately, I will do all the same assessment as the ER and have you out the door in 30-45 minutes with an average cost of less than the co-pay you would have to fork over at the hospital! Now THAT'S Affordable and THAT'S Care. Don't expect that kind of efficiency from the status quo. * Average ER charge for an "open wound of [...]