“You got to be able to walk around Vegas,” said Carol Cadwell, a 69-year-old retired special education teacher.
So, Dr. Richard Stanley made sure Cadwell’s occasional trips with her children to the Entertainment Capital of the World would not cease.
Her left hip began bothering her about four years ago. “It came on kind of gradually,” she said. “It would start hurting if I walked. I didn’t want to go walking anymore. And walking up stairs was awful, really painful.”
She went through a series of cortisone shots that helped for a while. “To be honest, the cortisone shots were much more uncomfortable than the surgery was,” she said with a laugh. Dr. Stanley replaced her hip in June 2013. “There was no cartilage left,” she said. “It was bone on bone.”
She recuperated at her daughter’s home for two days. “After that I was fine. I and everyone else were surprised that I rebounded so fast.”
She believes her hip issue might have stemmed from her left leg being a little shorter than her right. “I think that over a period of time, just that little extra weight on that side might have caused it. I don’t know.”
One thing she is sure about, however, is her satisfaction with Dr. Stanley. “He knows so much about what he is doing,” she said. “I realize that being a doctor is real serious, and you have to have a serious side because it’s a serious business. But he is just so personable. You can talk to him; he’s just like a friend.”
Cadwell stays busy in her retirement by tutoring elementary school students who have been expelled. In addition, she is employed by Work Unlimited, a non-profit corporation that provides vocational training to people with developmental disabilities.
“Right now I am cleaning parking lots,” she said. “I never would have been able to do that if I did not have my hip surgery, that’s for sure. We also wash dishes, so I would not be able to stand for long periods.”
Nor saunter down Las Vegas Boulevard.
