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Dr. Caleb Davis - Orthopedic Surgeon
77 Plays1 year ago
Dr. Caleb is a orthopedic surgeon and he walks us thru the journey to becoming a medical Doctor and then specializing in orthopedics. He discusses the in and outs of medical school, residency, how to set yourself apart from the competition, the process to become a surgeon, as well as some tips to help solidify our joints against injury. From playing the cello, to medical school, power lifting and BJJ, this interview has it all!
Dr Caleb and his wife, Nicole, have an excellent podcast and the links to that and more can be found at DrCalebDavis.com
If you found the interview helpful and/or entertaining and would like to support the show, you can do so HERE. Thanks!
Music by: SnoozyBeats - Song Title - "Keep It Calm". Please check out SnoozyBeats on PixaBay for a ton of awesome content! -LINK
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Transcript
Intro
Introduction and Guest Background
00:00:21
The Jobs Podcast
Hey folks, you're listening to the jobs podcast. I am your host, Tim Hendricks, and we're gonna go ahead and get started with Dr. Caleb Davis. He is an orthopedic surgeon, specializes in shoulders, but he could probably fix any bone if you asked him. So um he's also the host, him and his wife own, or they host the wellness blueprint podcast. You can find that on Spotify, Apple podcast, YouTube, and Amazon. And is there any anywhere else that your, your show is found Dr. Caleb?
Caleb's Journey from Music to Medicine
00:00:49
Caleb Davis
I'm pretty sure it's hosted just about everywhere. you know I use Buzzsprout to host my services. They get it pretty much everywhere you can listen to podcasts.
00:00:56
The Jobs Podcast
There you go. All right, well, let's go ahead and get started with the origin story of Dr. Caleb. Where were you born? And just kind of walk us through your your youth and your education, and we'll go from there.
00:01:07
Caleb Davis
I'd love to. and And thanks for having me on the tim on on the show, Tim. I really appreciate it.
00:01:10
The Jobs Podcast
You bet. You bet.
00:01:11
Caleb Davis
So I was born in Orlando, Florida, um you know kind of rural part of Florida, which is hard to believe now since it's such a developed place. But um born and raised in Florida, moved moved out to Tennessee for undergraduate school.
00:01:24
Caleb Davis
Believe it or not, I um i ah just thought I was going to be a professional musician before I went to when i spent most of my life being a musician.
00:01:29
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
00:01:32
Caleb Davis
I started playing the cello when I was ah nine years old. And I got really, really into it. I really enjoyed it. Actually, that's how I met my wife. We met when we were 13 years old.
00:01:41
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
00:01:41
Caleb Davis
We were in the middle school orchestra together. She plays the cello also. And I got a full scholarship to the University of Memphis to go be a professional cello player. And so I took full advantage of that and You know, you would, you wouldn't believe this, but there's actually a lot of injuries associated with being a musician, not like big injuries, like shoulder dislocations or fractures, but more like a chronic tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, that sort of thing, you know, nerd injuries.
00:01:59
The Jobs Podcast
Really?
00:02:07
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Sure.
00:02:10
Caleb Davis
But when you're a musician and on the college level, you're expected to play about six hours of music a day. And I just got burned out with it. I really love music. Music's still a huge part of my life, and I still play. But i said I said to myself, I want to do something a little bit more tangible with my life. I want to do something that is a little bit more, I can see the effects of how my work helps people. And and music just wasn't doing that for me. And that's when I got really interested in anatomy and physiology.
00:02:36
Caleb Davis
I should actually go back just for a second on that story, because when I got to college, I gained the freshman 20. You know, they talk about the freshman 15, you gain 15 pounds and you get to college while I got the freshman 20.
00:02:44
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Mm hmm.
00:02:47
Caleb Davis
And I looked at myself as I don't like what I see, I want to get healthy, I want to be in better shape. but And that I took a deep dive into nutrition and health.
00:02:54
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
00:02:54
Caleb Davis
And that's really kind of how it all started. Really, if I'm being honest, when I got, when I started learning about diets and nutrition, but after I took a deep soul search into what I really wanted to do with my life, that's when I said, well, maybe a, maybe a physical therapist or something that, that to do with the body would be interesting.
00:03:12
Caleb Davis
And then I said, you know what? I want to go, I want to go straight to the top. What's the hardest thing I can do. And that's be be become a surgeon. And that's kinda, kinda how it all started.
00:03:18
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:03:21
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm. So what was, uh, what was the the first you're choosing? This is my career. What school am I going to go to? Did you think that you wanted to focus on orthopedic surgery or was there another aspect of surgery that you were looking into?
Path to Specializing in Orthopedics
00:03:38
The Jobs Podcast
Just kind of walk me through the fine tuning of ending up in as an orthopedic surgeon.
00:03:44
Caleb Davis
Yes, I was not completely set on orthopedics at the time. I just knew that I wanted to do something with my hands.
00:03:50
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:03:50
Caleb Davis
You know, I had good dexterity from being a musician. I think working with my hands would be really nice. So surgery sort of as a general category. And I didn't know a whole lot about being a surgeon. So the first thing you really need to do is if you're interested in medicine is go shadow doctors work with other doctors.
00:04:05
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
00:04:05
Caleb Davis
and see what it is they do. And there's there's a place in Memphis, Tennessee where I was doing my undergraduate work called the Campbell Clinic, which is ah this huge orthopedic practice. It's actually the oldest orthopedic residency program in the United States.
00:04:19
Caleb Davis
And I went and worked with the chief of sports medicine there. And I remember so seeing him do an ACL reconstruction, which for people don't know, it's a ligament in the middle of your knee. And you take a cadaver graft or or a graft of tendon from your body and and you recreate this ligament in your knee. So it's stable. And I, it just blew my mind. Just i my draw was on the floor, watching the surgery and seeing what they do. And I was pretty set from that point on just as a pre-medical student, ah seeing orthopedic surgery. And I was in love.
00:04:48
The Jobs Podcast
So you're you've decided you're going to medical school. What what's the the class shift or the the study shift that occurred? I mean, you were already in college.
00:05:00
The Jobs Podcast
How far were you into it with the cello before you decided you were going to go to medicine?
00:05:07
Caleb Davis
I was just starting my junior year of college when I decided.
00:05:09
The Jobs Podcast
Oh, wow.
00:05:10
Caleb Davis
So it wasn't on my radar before.
00:05:11
The Jobs Podcast
OK.
00:05:12
Caleb Davis
I didn't have any premedical pre prerequisites.
00:05:15
The Jobs Podcast
OK.
00:05:15
Caleb Davis
So there was ah not much overlap, as you can imagine.
00:05:19
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:05:19
Caleb Davis
As a musician, you had to take a lot of music history, music theory. um You had to do music education, all all these these other sorts of classes. you You were required to do some basic humanities, English.
00:05:30
Caleb Davis
um ah You had to take one science and one basic algebra class as a musician. so i had I had no overlap at all. So I had to go meet with a counselor, you know, an academic counselor say, I want to do pre-med and they guide you through the process and they tell you all the classes you have to do.
00:05:47
Caleb Davis
So just a quick rundown. It's, you know, chemistry, one and two physics, one and two biology, one and two organic chemistry calculus. So I was like, okay, I'm already a junior.
00:05:57
Caleb Davis
I need to, I need to get on my, get on the game. And just so I don't graduate in seven years. So I ended up taking summer classes.
00:06:02
The Jobs Podcast
You're playing ketchup big time.
00:06:04
Caleb Davis
Yeah.
00:06:04
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:06:05
Caleb Davis
That's right. Lots of catch up. So i I took summer classes.
00:06:07
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:06:08
Caleb Davis
I worked, I took like full credits every summer and i only graduated one semester late with all my pre-med requirements.
00:06:14
The Jobs Podcast
Oh, wow. OK. So then the after you finish with all your premed stuff, then you apply to medical school and that's correct.
00:06:24
Caleb Davis
That's correct.
00:06:24
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
00:06:25
Caleb Davis
But you also have to take a test called the MCAT, um which is the the ah it's, I don't remember exactly what MCAT stands for, but it's a medical um aptitude test.
00:06:25
The Jobs Podcast
OK.
00:06:35
Caleb Davis
I don't remember what the C stands for.
00:06:36
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:06:37
Caleb Davis
It's been a long, long time since I took it, but it's a standardized test that everyone has to take to get into medical school.
00:06:39
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
00:06:42
Caleb Davis
Most, most professionals have it. ah The lawyers have it, like the the LSAT to get into law school. And the your performance on the MCAT, you get a score and you submit it to medical schools along with your your ah GPA and your you know college resume.
00:06:48
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:06:57
Caleb Davis
And they basically rank you on that and decide if you want to get if they want to give you an interview in a medical school. So that's another one of the big requirements.
00:07:05
The Jobs Podcast
When you get accepted to medical school and you show up, am I correct in assuming that everybody starts and you're going to go for everybody's going to basically learn how to be a
Medical Training and Residency
00:07:13
The Jobs Podcast
general doctor. ah And then you then after that is when you dive into your desired specialty.
00:07:21
Caleb Davis
Yes, and I'm glad you brought that up because I found that a lot of people really have no idea the progression of what it takes to become a specialist in medicine.
00:07:29
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:07:29
Caleb Davis
You're you're absolutely correct. Pretty much everyone who becomes an MD is a medicine ah doctor of allopathic medicine. there's There's different types of school, but that's the standard one everyone thinks of.
00:07:40
Caleb Davis
They all go through the same three years of medical school.
00:07:40
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:07:44
Caleb Davis
And it starts off in the classroom. You're doing a lot of lectures, a lot of interactive studies. ah In addition to that, you're also doing cadaver dissection work on ah on a deceased person, learning the anatomy and and all of that from head to toe. After two years, you go into the hospital and start working in a clinical setting and in doctor's offices and in hospitals and actually getting hands-on training.
00:08:07
Caleb Davis
The fourth year is a little bit more flexible because you're starting to get an idea of what you want to do and you're applying for residencies. So that's post-medical school training in the, in your area of specialty.
00:08:18
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:08:18
Caleb Davis
So you're able to craft, you're able to craft your fourth year a little bit more and do a little bit more of the things you want to do in in elective time. And so I spend a lot of time in orthopedics for that, obviously.
00:08:29
The Jobs Podcast
I didn't realize that residency I thought that was part of medical school but if I'm understanding you correctly you finish medical school and then you get a job you're paid as a resident correct.
00:08:40
Caleb Davis
That's correct. The vast, vast majority of of doctors after medical school go to a residency. In fact, it's pretty hard to get a job if you don't do a residency. That would be mostly, and I'm speaking a little bit of an ignorance here, but most of the jobs I've heard of is being a insurance adjuster yeah for ah for a company as a medical doctor that did not perform a residency.
00:08:49
The Jobs Podcast
Okay. Okay. All right. So you're, you're applying for your residency. Is that, is that one of those things where you're kind of starting all over again, you're new, you're looking nationwide and you just submit applications or are there certain areas where they kind of recruit you or how does that all play out to get a residency?
00:09:23
Caleb Davis
You know, it's different for every specialty. So there's what we call the competitive specialties. And then there's the ones that are less competitive and the culture of getting a position in one of those residencies is actually very different. So if you think about internal medicine, meaning someone who just takes care of the ah adult.
00:09:42
Caleb Davis
with someone who has diabetes, or if someone's in the in the hospital with pneumonia, that would be an internal medicine doctor. Pediatricians, obviously taking care of children, or of what they call family practice or a primary care doctor, those are considered less um competitive.
00:09:59
Caleb Davis
And so they do sort of try to recruit you, say, oh, we'd love for you to come to our program and work with us.
00:09:59
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:10:03
Caleb Davis
And here's why it would be great. And then things like neurosurgery, plastic surgery, orthopedics, things that are considered incredibly competitive. It's ah much the opposite. though You have to sell yourself. why should Why should we choose you to come to our program? In fact, over 50% of the people who apply to orthopedic surgery don't get into the the specialty. They don't get to do it.
00:10:26
The Jobs Podcast
What's the residency length like I'm I'm assuming it depends on your specialty
00:10:31
Caleb Davis
for example, any surgical specialty, whether you're a ear, nose and throat surgeon or what they call an otolaryngologist orthopedics neurosurgery, there are going to be five years or longer where a, a, a general, uh, like a medicine, pediatrics, family medicine, those tend to be three years.
00:10:42
The Jobs Podcast
Oh, wow.
00:10:47
Caleb Davis
So it's quite a bit longer. Neurosurgery is actually a seven year residency. So that's, it's the longest one.
00:10:53
The Jobs Podcast
Good grief, you always hear about doctors, the residency is just such a grind, you kind of fall off the face of the earth for a while, and you're just living at the hospital in long hours. And is it pretty much that way in all of them?
00:11:05
Caleb Davis
It is. They're they're all grueling. yeah any Any doctor who went to a residency, is it's a very intensive process.
00:11:08
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:11:13
Caleb Davis
The reason they call them residents is because they were residents of the hospital. They lived there.
00:11:17
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:11:17
Caleb Davis
that That's shifted a little bit now, but not that much.
00:11:21
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:11:21
Caleb Davis
you know If you talk to any resident, they're going to have a work week that's lasted 80 hours for them before.
00:11:27
The Jobs Podcast
Wow,
00:11:28
Caleb Davis
The most I ever worked for a entire in ah in a week, I think, was around 110, 115 hours though.
00:11:34
The Jobs Podcast
wow that's brutal. the So when you start your residency, when, what's the transition like from when you're observing, you're in the operating room to when you're actually doing the cutting and the work.
00:11:37
Caleb Davis
it It is, and you it's just it's just part of, you you don't really remember those five years. It's kind of all a blur.
00:11:56
The Jobs Podcast
Do they, do they ease you in and help with different stages of it while the more experienced surgeon is there or how do they kind of basically guide you to be where you can do it on your own?
00:12:09
Caleb Davis
Every residency is a little bit different and I'm going to speak from my experience and it's, it's called graduated responsibility.
00:12:13
The Jobs Podcast
Sure.
00:12:16
Caleb Davis
So when you're a first year resident, what we would call an intern, you are basically just observing and assisting.
00:12:16
The Jobs Podcast
OK.
00:12:22
The Jobs Podcast
OK.
00:12:23
Caleb Davis
And then let's just say someone's broken their femur. and you are your first in your first year. You'll hold retractors, you're holding holding muscle and skin out of the way while the senior doctor is working and they're sort of talking you through their process and teaching you what they're doing and and they'll let you say, alright, I'm gonna let you close the skin and I'm gonna watch while you do it. You know, that sort of thing.
00:12:43
Caleb Davis
When you're a second year resident, they'll say, all right, I want you to start the surgery. I'm going to watch you do it. And I'm going to take over if you if you don't know what you're doing, that sort of thing, for lack of a better word.
00:12:51
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
00:12:53
Caleb Davis
And then as and then in your third year, there's like, i'm gonna I'm actually going to leave the room and come back and check on you. you know you've At this point, you've been working 100 hours a week, and and you've seen a lot of things.
00:13:03
Caleb Davis
and And you've been lectured. I mean, your whole life is surgery. that It's all consuming.
00:13:08
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:13:08
Caleb Davis
And by the time you're a fifth year resident, you're actually the one teaching the younger residents and and the attending surgeon may not even come in and into the room at times, although the they'll they'll they'll come check your work. But it's graduated responsibility. And and by the time you're a fifth year resident, you have to imagine you've done four years of medical school and five years of surgical training. And where your ah your entire life is surgery, you you pretty much know what you're doing by that point.
00:13:33
The Jobs Podcast
My goodness, I didn't realize it was quite that long.
Challenges and Responsibilities of a Surgeon
00:13:35
The Jobs Podcast
It's just the residency especially. But when you are in there working on a patient, that first time that you cut into somebody, I mean, do you have those little snapshot your snapshots in your mind where I specifically remember the first time I cut into a knee or a shoulder or whatever?
00:13:54
Caleb Davis
I absolutely do. and I'll never forget the feeling when the first time you're holding the scalpel and you cut into a live person's skin, you're just praying.
00:13:55
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:14:01
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:14:01
Caleb Davis
So I hope I don't mess this up.
00:14:04
The Jobs Podcast
double checking to make sure you get the right leg and or the right shoulder or whatever.
00:14:08
Caleb Davis
There's multiple redundant processes to make sure you don't have what we call a wrong site surgery.
00:14:13
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
00:14:13
Caleb Davis
I've never been a part of a wrong site surgery or witnessed one, but you you don't want that to happen.
00:14:19
The Jobs Podcast
When you you hear about these surgeries, and my son had a kidney transplant when he was four, and so I remember sitting in the waiting room for, I don't know, six, seven hours. And it's it's just such a long process. And I've wondered, when a doctor has a surgery that is so long,
00:14:38
The Jobs Podcast
Do you do it in shifts with other doctors on major surgeries like that or long ah procedures? Or is it literally just one doctor that's doing the whole thing? Because I would imagine that's got to be tough on your mind and your body to be hunched over a patient for five, six, seven hours.
00:14:57
Caleb Davis
It certainly is. it's it's a I've actually worn like a whoop strap or other biometric device to count my calories during surgery and and it's it measures it as intense exercise.
00:15:06
The Jobs Podcast
Oh, my goodness.
00:15:07
Caleb Davis
it's definitely It's definitely a long process. It's definitely grueling. However, it varies. It depends on the surgery. There are what will you call multidisciplinary surgeries where you have a team of surgeons working on a patient.
00:15:14
The Jobs Podcast
Me.
00:15:20
Caleb Davis
um The longest surgery I've ever been in was eight or nine hours. uh and i stayed in there the whole time as a this was as a resident not as an attending surgeon who not the senior surgeon
Innovation in Shoulder Surgery
00:15:31
Caleb Davis
and we never left the room however i have heard of longer surgeries that take ten to twenty hours where they do have shifts where someone will come and assist you ah so that you can go go to the bathroom eat something drink something that's that certainly happens not quite as common in my field
00:15:46
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Hmm. So you've gotten into orthopedic surgery. How did you dial in on shoulders or is is that all that you do now? Is that your main focus? Like you're the shoulder guy or do you most mostly focus on shoulders but do other joints as well?
00:16:05
Caleb Davis
Great question. I get that question a lot. I am technically, ah we ah we all do the same five years of training as orthopedic surgeons, so I can do hip and knee replacements.
00:16:07
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:16:14
Caleb Davis
I can fix a broken femur, fix a broken tibia, fix a broken ankle. I do all those things and I still do. ah my My passion is is for shoulder surgery. That's what I do. Probably 80% of the work I do is shoulder, but I can't focus just on that.
00:16:28
Caleb Davis
There's too many patients who need other things. Uh, I live in a fairly small city.
00:16:31
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
00:16:33
Caleb Davis
Um, so if you go to a larger city, you will find surgeons who do nothing but shoulder, nothing but hips.
00:16:36
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
00:16:40
Caleb Davis
Uh, but you have to live in a pretty large city where there's specialists who do nothing but the one thing. So I still do but a lot of general work. Um, but I did an extra year of training that I did nothing but shoulder and elbow surgery.
00:16:52
Caleb Davis
So on top of the five years of residency, I also did one year of that. So I can call myself a specialist to who did extra training to be certified to do this.
00:17:01
The Jobs Podcast
What was it about the shoulder and the elbow that that kind of drew you to it?
00:17:07
Caleb Davis
Couple things, yeah they've been doing hip and knee replacements since the 1960s. Hip and knee replacements are old. They've been doing them a long time. They've become very, very good. Shoulder surgeries are just starting to catch up in terms of complexity and modern ah innovation.
00:17:23
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
00:17:23
Caleb Davis
And I look at shoulder surgery as the new frontier in orthopedic surgery where we're coming up with all these new tips and types of designs of shoulder replacements. And we were talking a little bit before the show started all these different ways to fix a rotator cuff in the shoulder.
00:17:35
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:17:35
Caleb Davis
I saw this as a way of getting into the front line of of something new that's going to be the big big boom in medicine, and I wanted to be part of that. So that's that's one reason. The other is I also was a competitive power lifter and uh, I just loved the bench press and it's, and it's such a stereotypical thing for an orthopedic surgeon, you know, but we all, we all like to lift weights and exercise, but I really did.
00:17:54
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
00:17:58
Caleb Davis
And I looked at the shoulder as the most complex joint in the body with just the most degrees of freedom and motion. and and And I said, that's again, I want to have the most challenging thing I can do. And. To me, everyone thinks about the hand as the most complex part of the body and it is, it's incredibly complicated.
00:18:13
Caleb Davis
But to me, the the shoulder is the thing that puts the hand where you need it to go.
00:18:17
The Jobs Podcast
Wow.
00:18:17
Caleb Davis
Once you lose your shoulder, you suddenly realize that hand and elbow is not going to do the job of getting, giving you dexterity. That the shoulder is what puts it where it needs to be. And that's, that's my long-winded way of saying, I just love shoulders.
00:18:29
The Jobs Podcast
No, that's fine. um what is the You talked about the knees and the hips and how they've gotten really good at them. When you look at the the past and then what's coming up on the near future as far as rotator cuff or labrum or joint replacement in the in the shoulder, what are the things that you are seeing that are headed our way that kind of get you excited about the the next surgery?
00:18:55
Caleb Davis
Yeah, there are a few things and that come to mind that i'm I'm trying to be on the front line of innovating. And what one of them, traditionally when you had to do a shoulder replacement, there's a muscle that runs across the front of your shoulder called the subscapularis. And we always had to cut it off and to do our work.
00:19:11
Caleb Davis
One of the big innovations is we're figuring out new techniques on how to leave that muscle on and work around it to do a ah shoulder replacement, which traditionally we would leave someone in a sling anywhere from two to six weeks after surgery.
00:19:19
The Jobs Podcast
and Okay.
00:19:23
Caleb Davis
Now we're getting that sling off in one week and letting them start moving again immediately, which is more what you'd think about after a nipper, a knee or hip replacement. and And so we're sort of catching up in that way.
00:19:36
Caleb Davis
Another big problem with shoulders is that they, they wear out over time. You know, we, we put in metal and plastic and they start wearing out. And so they're coming up with new different materials that are more durable than we're thinking are going to last a whole lot longer without causing damage and having to go do more surgery in the future. So that's another really exciting thing.
00:19:55
The Jobs Podcast
Are the is that a titanium or ceramic or what are they typically using for the the new joints?
00:20:01
Caleb Davis
So traditionally we used an alloy called cobalt chrome, cobalt chromium.
00:20:05
The Jobs Podcast
and Okay.
00:20:06
Caleb Davis
And this newest one that I've started to starting to implement is, uh, it's actually a pyrocarbon, which is, so it's a sort of carbon derivative that matches the roughness and, and, and what they call the, um,
00:20:21
Caleb Davis
elastic modulus of bone so it's more similar to bone so your body doesn't react as strongly to it. um the Don't even ask me the mechanical properties because it's the process is sort of like super heating carbon to overlay it on top of a metal sphere.
00:20:36
Caleb Davis
And it has to reach insane degrees of of heat to be able to work.
00:20:36
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
00:20:41
Caleb Davis
But it's all about matching and making it the most anatomic and like the human body as possible. So it's it's very exciting. It's still pretty new in the United States. So we're still publishing data and and looking at long-term results.
00:20:53
Caleb Davis
But I think it's a very promising technology.
00:20:57
The Jobs Podcast
When it comes to orthopedics like the joints and whatnot, do you find that most of the advancements happen overseas? I'm assuming in Europe or Germany and then they work their way to the United States or how does that typically play out?
00:21:13
Caleb Davis
Typically the, the regulating bodies in Europe are not quite as strict as the FDA. So a lot of times what will happen is, and we have innovation here in the United States too. We, we, we do, we have great tech, but a lot of times they'll have some sort of tech in, in France or Germany, like you said, or United or United Kingdom, and they will get it on the.
00:21:21
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah, sure.
00:21:31
Caleb Davis
into people before we do. And then the FDA will say, okay, they've had it over there for 10 years, and it's not catastrophic. So we'll let you start using it over here now.
00:21:39
The Jobs Podcast
I see is the is it orthoscopic where you have the holes versus ah one large incision is that am I using the correct term?
00:21:39
Caleb Davis
That's that's generally the way things go. and And there's some really good tech from France in particular that we use in shoulders that are starting to become more popular over here.
00:21:57
Caleb Davis
Yeah, our arthroscopic is refers to putting arthroscopic refers to putting a camera inside of a joint.
00:21:59
The Jobs Podcast
arthroscopic
00:22:03
Caleb Davis
So you can do that for hips and knees and wrists and elbows and shoulders. Um, most of my rotator cuff work or any, what we call soft tissue work is done arthroscopically. Although for a shoulder replacement, there's, you know, you're putting large pieces of metal.
00:22:17
Caleb Davis
You really can't do that arthroscopically. So you're doing that through an open and what we call an open surgery.
00:22:19
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
00:22:22
The Jobs Podcast
Okay, you had mentioned that you were into powerlifting. I was looking at your your podcast website.
Personal Insights and Advice for Aspiring Surgeons
00:22:29
The Jobs Podcast
There was something mentioned about jujitsu and we talked before the podcast about you do some of that kind of stuff. Have you had injuries on your shoulders or have you learned exactly how to move and what to avoid to prevent injury?
00:22:44
Caleb Davis
I definitely have had injuries. Thank God. I've not had to have any surgery yet as a surgeon. I do not want surgery, but, um, I, well, it's just, I know, I know what people go through and, and I, I, and for my patients, I also avoid surgery for them whenever I can, but a lot of times I have to take care of them.
00:22:52
The Jobs Podcast
Comforting that's comforting. Yeah.
00:23:01
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
00:23:02
Caleb Davis
but and I know what they go through. I don't want to go through it.
00:23:04
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:23:05
Caleb Davis
Um, But I think, uh, for, for jujitsu, I've had some minor injuries that have healed without surgery. I think that I'm very body aware because of my expertise and knowledge, but I don't think you're always working with somebody else.
00:23:18
Caleb Davis
So it's always going to be a little bit unpredictable.
00:23:20
The Jobs Podcast
Oh yeah.
00:23:20
Caleb Davis
So you can't control all factors, especially when you're competing against somebody and their goal is to. in a, in a controlled manner is to hurt you. So I had a partial tear of my lat tendon that goes up to my right humerus, um, that healed and I'm, I'm currently recovering from an MCL tear in my right knee, also a partial tear. So both of those are healing up, but it just, I had to take time off for it to heal. But in the grand scheme of things, that's not terrible.
00:23:48
The Jobs Podcast
what Let's jump back to your career for just a second. If you were looking back on your journey from I've decided to change and and move away from music into the medical field. If someone came to you and said, I want to be an orthopedic surgeon or I want to be a surgeon and this is what I'm looking to do, what would you advise them to do? Are there areas that you look back and go, I could have done that more efficiently or that class probably wasn't needed or re-prioritize things. What kind of advice would you give someone that came to you and asked questions like that?
00:24:24
Caleb Davis
Yeah. And I get that question all the time. The first thing I'd tell somebody, if they want to go into medicine, as I said, can you imagine doing anything else with your life? And if the answer is yes, I tell them to go do that thing instead because the the road is so long.
00:24:34
The Jobs Podcast
Ah.
00:24:37
Caleb Davis
Like we talked about four years of med school, five years of residency, maybe a year of fellowship.
00:24:37
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:24:41
Caleb Davis
We're talking about working 80 to 100 hours a week. You're talking about potentially $300,000 of debt for medical school. you know I'm 35 years old and I just recently started my practice as an as an adult independent surgeon.
00:24:54
Caleb Davis
So it's a long, long road.
00:24:54
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:24:55
Caleb Davis
So with that caveat out of the way. I would tell people that probably the most worthwhile thing they can do is spend as much time in hospitals and with doctors as possible so they can really get an idea of what the culture is, what the life is like, if it's something they really want to do.
00:25:10
Caleb Davis
I'm sad to say I've seen people get through medical school and then they get into residency and they hate their life. And they said, this isn't what I thought it was going to be. And they ended up quitting, which is a shame just for some to spend that much time and money and dedication.
00:25:19
The Jobs Podcast
Oh.
00:25:23
Caleb Davis
to get some excellent training and then not finish and and do the job.
00:25:27
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:25:27
Caleb Davis
And that's not to blame those people. I think a lot of ways the system is not is not kind to us. It chews us up and spits us out in a lot of ways. But I think the best thing you can do is expose yourself to medicine as much as possible so you can understand what it is that you want, what your goals are in life.
00:25:44
Caleb Davis
And and maybe this is a more of a philosophical discussion and maybe you're looking for something that's a little bit more of tangible advice. and
00:25:51
The Jobs Podcast
No, it's philosophical or practical.
00:25:51
Caleb Davis
um
00:25:53
The Jobs Podcast
It's it's both plays in.
00:25:55
Caleb Davis
So I'll stick with that being the most important thing. As far as the more of like, what what are the physical actionable things you can do?
00:26:01
The Jobs Podcast
Mm hmm.
00:26:03
Caleb Davis
um if It's all pretty well laid out. you You talk to your class counselors on what it means to be pre-med and what's what's required. um ah As long as you take those classes and you and you stick to it, you get good grades, it's pretty much laid out for you on that setting. I will tell you, who you know is important. So if you can make friends with these doctors that you're shadowing and working with and get good letters or recommendation,
00:26:29
Caleb Davis
Or they can make a phone call and say, hey, this person's a very strong candidate, you should consider them.
00:26:29
The Jobs Podcast
Mm.
00:26:34
Caleb Davis
That goes a really long way. ah Because so there's so many applicants who have just fantastic test scores. So it's being differentiated is hard these days. So its it is important to have people who will will make phone calls for you as as corrupt as that might sound.
00:26:49
Caleb Davis
It's very important. It's it's all about who you know.
00:26:52
The Jobs Podcast
Well yeah, networking and and having contacts certainly can help. when When you have folks that are looking into the medical field, do you find that most of your counterparts are extroverts? Are they introverts? Do they have a lot of common personality traits? The people that kind of rise to the top, are they usually cut from the same cloth? Or do you see all kinds ending up in your line of work?
00:27:15
Caleb Davis
Again, it falls sort of on specialty. I think different specialties attract attract different people.
00:27:18
The Jobs Podcast
Ah.
00:27:21
Caleb Davis
um Surgeons definitely tend to be more of that what you'd say type A personality, very assertive, like controlling, they want everything just so, ah they're very particular, that surgery just draws that type of person.
00:27:36
Caleb Davis
um As you can imagine, pediatricians tend to be a little bit more bubbly and outgoing and and love children and love their playful people in general.
00:27:44
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:27:45
Caleb Davis
um Then you meet radiologists and pathologists.
00:27:45
The Jobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:27:47
Caleb Davis
They tend to be more introverted. They spend their time alone in rooms without windows. so so you All of these are stereotypes, but they're stereotypes for a reason because these specialties do attract different people. so And medical school, that they do the best they can to expose you to every subspecialty in field of medicine so you can get a feel for what it is you want to do. There's exceptions. you know i've A lot of surgeons have this stereotype of of being kind of unfriendly jerks. I like to think that I don't fall into that stereotype, but I guess you have to ask my staff.
00:28:19
The Jobs Podcast
Well, what um what do you think that medical school ah you've been through it? I'll say recently, um even though I know it's been a number of years. But what do you think that medical school gets right? And what do you think they get wrong? And I know that that's an extremely broad question. So, you know, just hit the high points if you can.
00:28:39
Caleb Davis
Sure. Yeah, I'll do my best. That is very broad, but I'll tell you the first thing that come to mind.
00:28:42
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:28:44
Caleb Davis
Uh, one of the most formative parts of medical school to me was the cadaver lab. Um, you, you are cutting into a real person who is deceased.
00:28:49
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:28:53
Caleb Davis
My school had a full cadaver lab, but there's actually a trend nationwide that they're trying to move to virtual cadaver labs where you're not actually touching a real human. You're, you're doing it all sort of on 3d projections and and going to the body that way.
00:29:05
Caleb Davis
i think that's a huge I think that's a huge mistake and I don't like to see that trend. I think the reality and gravity of of working on a real human body for the first time is, it's very disturbing actually, the first time you see a dead body in front of you. But my school did a very good job of saying this is a human, you need to treat this human with dignity. This person donated their body to science. So I think my school did a great job and I i don't like to see people going away from that. I think it's very necessary. So ah that' that's one of the things that comes to mind.
00:29:35
Caleb Davis
you know they They preach a lot about the philosophy of medicine in school, about empathy and caring for your patient. But what I don't see a lot of is talk about how do you manage your life after med school, after residency. This whole notion of you you work work hard, play hard plays out really profoundly in medicine. We work so, so hard and we we drive ourselves into the ground and then a lot of times we get out and we don't make the best decisions sometimes in in our social lives. And I've seen that play out with a lot of my colleagues, unfortunately, make poor decisions, maybe, maybe binge drinking, maybe drugs, ah and it ends up really damaging them professionally. I'd like to see more of a focus on how do you manage your social life? How do you manage relationships? How do you manage money?
00:30:24
Caleb Davis
You know, you go from, you go from making $40,000, $50,000 as a resident to suddenly making anywhere between two and $600,000 as soon as you finish. and And people have this massive amount of windfall of money and they do not manage their money appropriately. And and and that can be a big problem too. I think the the whole education of medicine has done fairly well, but I think managing your life and managing what it means to be a doctor sometimes falls to the cracks.
00:30:52
The Jobs Podcast
Well, that was an excellent answer.
Patient Care and Medical Education
00:30:54
The Jobs Podcast
What what is it that you like about your job the most? And what is it that you dislike your job? What about your job the most?
00:31:03
Caleb Davis
That's easy. I love when someone comes into my office and they hurt and they have a disability. They're not able to walk. They're not able to use their arm. And when I'm done with them, they're able to do that again. They, they're either pain free or have much less pain. They're able to use their arm again. They're able to do what they love, whether that be play golf or pick up their grandchild or, or just be able to take their walk every day again. That's just, there's nothing, nothing touches that feeling. It's incredible.
00:31:28
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:31:30
Caleb Davis
what i hate the most is insurance companies
00:31:30
The Jobs Podcast
What do you?
00:31:32
Caleb Davis
yeah
00:31:33
The Jobs Podcast
That's not a surprising answer at all that.
00:31:33
Caleb Davis
this
00:31:36
Caleb Davis
You know, it's, it's, it's predictable and it's everywhere. You see people, you see doctors on Instagram and TikTok talking about it and it's, it's, uh, it's there for a reason because I try to take care of my patients the best I can.
00:31:39
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:31:42
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:31:47
Caleb Davis
I, so this patient needs surgery and then the insurance company says they have to try six weeks of physical therapy before we'll approve surgery. I said, this person is in agony. If they have a torn rotary cuff tear, you know what, you don't want me to fix it.
00:31:58
Caleb Davis
You know, that's, it's just, it's just horrible.
00:32:02
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah, doesn't sound like there's much common sense applied to the scenario. But what mentors if any, did you have early on in your career or when you got to your residency or or moving forward in your medical journey? Did you have anybody that kind of took you under your weight under their wing and kind of said, Hey, this is how you want to do this and kind of guided you and gave you some solid advice.
00:32:27
Caleb Davis
Yes, more so in residency and beyond than in medical school. In medical school, I kind of felt like I was on my own.
00:32:30
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:32:33
Caleb Davis
i met I obviously met some good doctors when I was there and had good teachers, but I felt like I was just lost in a sea of medical students and sort of just fended for myself. And that's not me trying to criticize anybody.
00:32:45
Caleb Davis
It's just, it's a massive system and you have to get through it and everyone finds different ways of coping. My coping was exercising a lot and I had a small group of friends we all studied together.
00:32:57
Caleb Davis
um Medical school was less fun to me than than residency, even though I worked even more in residency. ah But in residency, I had lots of good role models and and people that I really looked up to who who would take me aside and and mentor me in the way you would you'd want.
00:33:12
Caleb Davis
um both in the education standpoint and the sort of spiritual philosophical standpoint. You know, I, I, uh, I know it's not a political or religious podcasts, but I am, I am a Christian and I have Christian values. and And that really is very formative in the way I make decisions in my life and how I take care of my patients. So it was very important to me that I had some other people who at least shared my, my religious beliefs who could show me how they live their life in the context of being a surgeon and how to take care of people. And, um, that was very important to me.
00:33:42
The Jobs Podcast
Do you have classes in medical school that, ah you know, when you sit down with a patient and have to deliver some bad news to them? You know, some people, they're it's not their personality. They're not prepared for that. I know when I got in the fire service, the first couple of times I had to deal with someone whose loved one was right there, dying in front of them. You're not, you know, I'm 28, 29 years old. I'm not prepared to have that conversation with someone that I don't know. And experience taught me a lot in that. But there weren't any any classes or just like a chunk of skills about how to navigate that minefield.
00:34:21
The Jobs Podcast
Do they do that in medical school at all?
00:34:24
Caleb Davis
They do. ah There is, there was a, at least in my school, it was called the practice of clinical medicine. There was a curriculum where it was, how do you treat patients professionally? How do you interact with them?
00:34:34
Caleb Davis
How do you communicate with them? And that was definitely one of the topics. And we actually had patient actors that we worked with people who pretended to be sick or have illnesses or have problems.
00:34:43
The Jobs Podcast
Oh.
00:34:44
Caleb Davis
And, um, we, I don't know if you ever watched the old Seinfeld episodes where, where Kramer got paid to be a patient actor and he had to, he had to pretend he had hepatitis or something like that or syphilis.
00:34:52
The Jobs Podcast
Oh, yeah. Yeah. yeah Right.
00:34:56
Caleb Davis
And it's kind of like that, obviously not quite as goofy, but, um, they, and so they, they would have the, uh, breaking bad news day and and and they did train you.
00:35:06
Caleb Davis
But as you can imagine, as, as someone who has, you've lived that experience of having to break bad news to people, nothing really prepares you for it. Um, but as you learn to better empathize and communicate with people, it gets hard, it gets easier, but I've definitely had to deliver devastating news to people.
00:35:14
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:35:21
The Jobs Podcast
Sure.
00:35:23
Caleb Davis
And only recently I've, I've, devast I've, uh, diagnosed a few different people with, with cancer and it's, uh, it, it gets easier, although it's always painful.
00:35:29
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
00:35:32
Caleb Davis
It always takes a little piece of your heart when you do it.
00:35:34
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. When you look at an up and coming student that is in medical school and now you're on the observing side for these people that you you you know you can relate to what they're going through the nerves and the uncertainty and trying to remember everything and whatnot. What kind of soft skills, when you look at an up and comer, do you see that the guys or the gals that are at the top, the ones that do well, what type of soft skills do they typically possess that allow them to kind of separate themselves from the competition?
00:36:11
Caleb Davis
This may be a little bit controversial, but I really think there's really only one thing you need to be a good doctor or medical student is just to have a great attitude and want to learn and work hard. Maybe a little cliche, but I've i've worked with students. they They never say no. It's always, yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. I'll get it done. And they just are eager to learn and help.
00:36:29
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:36:30
Caleb Davis
But I've also met medical students who are like, nah, I don't want to do that. I don't want to do the thing you just told me. I don't see how that's why that's useful. and And they're very entitled. And they can be the smartest person in the world and have the best test scores. That person is not going to be a good doctor.
00:36:43
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
00:36:45
Caleb Davis
it's your Your profession is to serve other people, even when it hurts and is uncomfortable. And if you're going to cut corners because you don't see why it how it serves you, you're probably you're gonna you're gonna probably gonna hurt somebody someday.
00:36:59
The Jobs Podcast
Well, they're putting themselves first over the patient with that mentality. Would you agree?
00:37:04
Caleb Davis
I absolutely, absolutely would agree.
00:37:06
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:37:06
Caleb Davis
I know some people who got into medicine for the prestige and the social status, sometimes for the money. Although I would say doing, doing medicine for the money is stupid because of all the debt you go into and how long it takes takes to become a doctor.
00:37:18
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Well, I think there's this image that, you know, you work three days a week and then you spend your days out golfing and partying and you have a ton of money and life is easy. And that's that's not accurate. And then you also overlook the what is it a decade of schooling and then the debt and whatnot. There's a lot that it takes to get to that point. So you can't overlook that. But.
00:37:40
Caleb Davis
If, if you include undergraduate, uh, along with all the rest of my training, it was really about, about 15 years of, of school.
00:37:46
The Jobs Podcast
Good grief, man. I could barely make it through a community college.
00:37:49
Caleb Davis
And, and I will say I, yeah, exactly. I will say I get paid. I'm i'm compensated very well for my work. ah There's no, no one's going to be crying over the orthopedic surgeon saying they don't get paid enough money, but it's, it's not an easy life.
00:38:02
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:38:04
Caleb Davis
You know, I, I work, I'll still work 60 to 70 hours on a week. It's not unusual for me. So we, we work very hard.
00:38:11
The Jobs Podcast
You're on call to typically do you rotate the on call type stuff or is that the on call mostly for the folks that are newer or how does it how does that play out.
00:38:21
Caleb Davis
Every hospital, every so every practice is different. ah my The way mine works is I work with a private practice with 12 other orthopedic surgeons.
00:38:24
The Jobs Podcast
OK.
00:38:30
Caleb Davis
um we the The local hospital here pays us to take call to cover any trauma that comes into the emergency room that that may need ah attention from an orthopedic surgeon. Typically anybody over the age of 50 gets out of the pool of people in in call.
00:38:44
Caleb Davis
So as as you become older, say, okay, this this person doesn't have to take call anymore so currently i need to do my math here i think there's seven of us in the call pool so just divide that up basically the responsibility but by seven people so it comes out to not a terrible call schedule um i don't have any children so i often will take other people's call especially around say spring break or holidays so i i do that for my partners who do have children
00:39:10
The Jobs Podcast
Well, it's a good arrangement. What is your best advice for someone that is dealing with failure? um I've said it on every podcast that I've done, we're all human, even the best of us, the most trained, we're going to make mistakes at some point in our career.
Preventive Health and Personal Interests
00:39:27
The Jobs Podcast
What is your advice on how to deal with that when it happens?
00:39:31
Caleb Davis
I wish I knew. No, I have a few different ways of coping. I think, and this is gonna, this takes time and it takes experience because like you said, everyone makes mistakes and everyone has outcomes but in surgery that they don't, they didn't want and they didn't expect. And you have to learn how to deal with that. There's a couple of different ways I handle it. One is to talk to other professionals and say, this happened. Please give me your advice, run them through it.
00:39:59
Caleb Davis
I said, and and they're also going to give you, they're going to give you practical advice on how to take care of a problem. And they're also going to give you emotional, ah philosophical advice on how to process that.
00:40:09
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:40:09
Caleb Davis
um My other, this is a good, this is a good story. Again, it's going to be a little bit more on the spiritual side. And I apologize for that.
00:40:16
The Jobs Podcast
That's okay.
00:40:16
Caleb Davis
um When I first started independent, meaning I was the surgeon, everything fell on me. I had so much anxiety. I'd wake up at night thinking about, I hope all my patients are okay. What if this person's not doing well? And and my my response was to just say, look, this is not in your control. there's There's a higher power and this is out of your control. And you can pray for your patients, but you can do the very best that you can do as a surgeon. But eventually there are factors that you cannot control.
00:40:43
Caleb Davis
and you have to learn to accept that and have faith that there's a a higher power than you. You can be any religion, you can have any spiritual outlook, and I think that's probably something that's healthy to adopt and in in any profession.
00:40:56
Caleb Davis
As long as you know that you are putting the utmost excellence and perfection into your work, that the rest of the of the whatever happens after that is out of your power.
00:41:04
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm. Hmm.
00:41:08
The Jobs Podcast
The, I want to go down a rabbit hole for just a second. And one of the nice things about having a podcast is if there's a topic that is of interest to you, then you can ask about it. And since I'm in the fire service and I deal with so many coworkers that have had serious shoulder injuries.
00:41:26
The Jobs Podcast
The rotator cuff tear is extremely common, specific to the fire service. And it's always these random little reaching over your head to pull the the hydrant hose or the five inch hose as we call it, or using hand tools, swinging, you know, things of that nature. Sometimes it's just a random little, you know, I'm old or I've i've overused my shoulder so much, it's a repetitive type of thing and it finally just gives out.
00:41:52
The Jobs Podcast
Are there any, let's hit the the hotspots as far as any types of exercises or stretches or anything that people can do to really help strengthen and protect their rotator cuff from that type of common injury?
00:42:11
Caleb Davis
Great question. And I'm going to give myself a little plug here and I actually covered a little bit of this topic on injury prevention on my podcast on the wellness blueprint. um There's a lot of different factors that come into play here.
00:42:20
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:42:23
Caleb Davis
I'm going to give you some general advice, although this this can apply to any joint, whether it be the shoulder, the knee, the ankle, the vote The most generic advice I can give you if you want to talk about exercises to rehab a joint is slow negatives. When I say negatives, I mean if you're doing a lateral raise with a dumbbell, as you bring up bring it up, what you want to do is hold it at the top position and just incredibly slowly with controlled rate lower the weight.
00:42:50
Caleb Davis
And that that's gonna be the best generic type of exercise to help strengthen ah what would i'd say attended with with a that may be prone to injury.
00:42:59
The Jobs Podcast
okay
00:42:59
Caleb Davis
Rather than focus on moving weight fast or big heavyweight, you want to have a slow controlled negative portion of the lift that applies to just about every muscle intended in the body.
00:43:01
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:43:08
Caleb Davis
The other factor that's so crucial that a lot of us can't control and I imagine firefighters can't either is getting good sleep.
00:43:15
The Jobs Podcast
Oh, yeah.
00:43:16
Caleb Davis
when we don't have good, yeah, i kind I bet you guys have a really hard time with that.
00:43:19
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
00:43:21
Caleb Davis
Um, when we don't sleep, our cortisol levels aren't balancing correctly. Our circadian rhythms aren't supposed to, aren't able to function the way we want them to. And we're more prone to injury. One is just the the hormonal component. The other is we're, we're less coordinated. We're more prone to injury just because we're not as, uh, coordinated as we should be. And we make bad decisions and we're not as body aware as we should be either. So there's, there's multiple factors at that.
00:43:46
Caleb Davis
um Down the line, it's also poor nutrition. You're eating more sugar and inflammatory foods rather than having enough protein in your diet. So it's, it's multifactorial, but I think sleep is probably one of the big, big things that affects a lot of us.
00:44:01
The Jobs Podcast
Two questions. First one is when you initially started answering that question, you talked about the negatives and the slow negatives. When you put that into practice, would that be a lightweight for a number of repetitions or a heavier weight for fewer repetitions?
00:44:19
The Jobs Podcast
Or does it matter?
00:44:19
Caleb Davis
ah I would tend to do a lightweight for more repetitions.
00:44:23
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:44:23
Caleb Davis
If you, if you start doing, let's say you're doing that lateral raise and you count to four as you lower that weight, that gets heavy pretty quick. It's that would be, hard it's, it's hard to do with a heavy weight.
00:44:30
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:44:33
Caleb Davis
You're, you're naturally limited to a lighter weight to be able to still keep good form and slow pace.
00:44:38
The Jobs Podcast
Okay. The other question was, are there any I know everybody wants to take a pill or a supplement to to basically avoid doing you know, eating clean and all that kind of stuff. But are there any supplements like magnesium or something that we just don't get enough of in our diet that are very beneficial for tendon strength or ligaments or joints in general?
00:45:02
Caleb Davis
controversial.
00:45:03
The Jobs Podcast
Uh huh.
00:45:04
Caleb Davis
You'll find some data saying yes, you'll find some data saying no, there's no difference. ah Most Americans do not have a great balanced diet and do not get a lot of good macron micronutrients. So I would my top supplements that I take would be vitamin D um and zinc and magnesium.
00:45:18
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:45:21
Caleb Davis
So you you magnesium and zinc are both play a huge role in healing and musculoskeletal recovery.
00:45:21
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:45:29
Caleb Davis
And vitamin D, d like that just has a whole host of different factors, including muscle recovery, bone recovery, immune system, even insulin sensitivity, like combating diabetes.
00:45:40
Caleb Davis
So though these are all relatively cheap and available supplements that you are easy to get over the counter. Now there's a whole host of other things that you can take as well, but those are my top three.
00:45:52
The Jobs Podcast
I a little bit of a rabbit hole. I recently read that if you're taking vitamin D, you want to take it with K2. Have you heard anything about that?
00:46:01
Caleb Davis
Yeah, that's a big, ah that's a big topic right now. I you certainly don't have to.
00:46:06
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:46:06
Caleb Davis
ah You do want to take D three. That's the most bioavailable form.
00:46:10
The Jobs Podcast
and Okay.
00:46:11
Caleb Davis
And most people you may want to talk to your doctor and get your blood levels checked just to see but most people just playing the odds need more vitamin D. You'll occasionally find someone who has enough but that's pretty uncommon.
00:46:19
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:46:22
The Jobs Podcast
Does vitamin e D?
00:46:23
Caleb Davis
As far as that as far as the Oh, sorry, go ahead.
00:46:25
The Jobs Podcast
was just gonna ask you is vitamin D. Do you need to take that with fat?
00:46:29
Caleb Davis
It's a fat soluble vitamin, but what that means is it just is stored in your fats fat stores. You don't need to take it with fat. Although i've I've read some studies to suggest that it might be taken better with food rather than on an empty stomach in terms of absorption.
00:46:37
The Jobs Podcast
Okay. Okay.
00:46:43
Caleb Davis
As far as the K2 goes, I think the two are synergistic. So if you had to choose between one supplement or the other, I would take it with the K.
00:46:50
The Jobs Podcast
Okay. To go back to the rotator cuff stuff. Was there any other pieces of advice that you had for folks that are looking to strengthen up their joints? I've I've heard isometrics are kind of kind of the hot thing for joint strengthening and tendon strengthening. But
00:47:09
Caleb Davis
Yeah, isometrics are where you basically just hold a contraction in a single position.
00:47:12
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Okay.
00:47:14
Caleb Davis
Um, so that, ah you know, metrics talking about the length of the muscle, so that muscles not changing in length. Uh, the, there's this idea of, of tensioning a ligament to crew make it stronger.
00:47:26
Caleb Davis
And this is certainly true. I'm not convinced that isometric is better than what we call eccentric, which is the slow negative.
00:47:34
The Jobs Podcast
and Okay.
00:47:34
Caleb Davis
I think both of them are good. I don't know that one is really better than the other.
00:47:38
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:47:41
The Jobs Podcast
yeah I think I know the answer to this question but I always ask folks if there was another occupation when they were younger that they thought they wanted to do when yours was was music but do you do anything on the side that I mean you have your podcast and stuff do you have a pretty full plate and and you're kind of set where you're at and this is your gig or are there other things you're looking at like writing a book or something along those lines Oh
00:48:06
Caleb Davis
I'm currently writing a book. um it's it's It's about residency. I don't expect that book to be done. you know I have very little time to work as we we talked about. um I don't expect it to be done for another few years just because I just write but so little at a time. um Basically, when if I go on vacation, which when my wife forces me to go on vacation, that's when I work on writing.
00:48:28
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:48:29
Caleb Davis
But but but i I do plan on publishing it if I can. ah My father is also an author. So he has some insights into that world. So he he publishes. um And as far as you know, what I enjoy doing, it's mostly exercise related jujitsu powerlifting, although I don't compete in powerlifting anymore.
00:48:46
Caleb Davis
um My one passion of what I enjoy doing is travel. My wife and I have been all over the world. We love to be in the outdoors and and hike and and and see all these amazing places around the planet. So I don't know that you could turn that into a profession.
00:48:57
Caleb Davis
But at one point, I was a professional musician. i and And I think i'm I'm very blessed to have been able to do two radically different things with my life and and end up where I am now.
00:49:09
Caleb Davis
I don't know if I really answered that question much so much as Rambled.
00:49:09
The Jobs Podcast
Very cool.
00:49:12
The Jobs Podcast
Well, no, that's fine. I it's just kind of neat. It's always interesting what people when they see their life, there's nothing wrong with being in your career. I think sometimes we're, we're led to believe that you always need to be looking for a change.
00:49:24
The Jobs Podcast
If you're happy doing what you're doing, and you're good at it, and you get satisfaction out of it, there's nothing wrong with staying with it. So that's kind of why I ask.
00:49:31
Caleb Davis
Well, on that note, the reason I started my podcast is because as as an orthopedic surgeon, I usually am i'm fixing a problem that's there.
00:49:39
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:49:39
Caleb Davis
You know, you hurt yourself, you you broke something or you have horrible arthritis or you tore a muscle. And I thought, well, I'd love to find a way to get back to my roots. You remember I talked about the reason I got into medicine is because I enjoyed fitness and nutrition and and health.
00:49:53
Caleb Davis
So but ah orthopedics doesn't really cover that so much. you know where We're really fixing a problem. So that's why I started the podcast. It's like, here's information I wish people had to stay healthy and not need orthopedic surgery. And so that that's sort of feeding that passion right now.
00:50:08
The Jobs Podcast
Okay. Tell us about your podcast.
Podcast Focus and Final Thoughts
00:50:11
Caleb Davis
Well, it's, you know, it's, it's me and my wife. we We do it together.
00:50:13
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:50:14
Caleb Davis
We have a lot of fun, which makes it really easy to record. Cause I get along so well with my co-host, but yeah, I pick topics.
00:50:19
The Jobs Podcast
There you go.
00:50:20
Caleb Davis
Uh, our first two episodes were about inflammation. You know, what does that mean? What does that mean to you? How can you change it? I did two episodes on sleep on there on importance like that, but we just pick topics. You know, I did a deep dive on what is vitamin D like, how does it work?
00:50:33
Caleb Davis
What's the chemical structure? Why is it important? The next episode was just going to talk about just what is protein and why is that important? So we'll do some very general topics or we'll talk about, we did one on seasonal affective disorder and why mental health is so important to your physical health. It's it's a very wide and broad range of of things, but hopefully my my goal is to give people actionable topics on how they can improve their life.
00:50:57
The Jobs Podcast
I hadn't seen the one about sleep and i've I've got all kinds of sleep issues and so do a lot of the people that I work with. I think being a first responder is just kind of part of the territory but I did see you did an episode on caffeine that I also plan to go and listen to because we always have the coffee coffee pot going in the firehouse which I'm sure you do at the ah hospital as well.
00:51:18
Caleb Davis
Oh yeah, I lived on energy drinks when I was a resident.
00:51:21
The Jobs Podcast
Oh man. Well, thanks a lot for your time, Dr. Caleb. I really enjoyed talking with you. You provided a lot of good information. And if anybody wants to find your podcast, it is called the Wellness Blueprint Podcast.
00:51:33
The Jobs Podcast
And again, it is on Spotify, Apple, Amazon, and YouTube. Is that correct?
00:51:39
Caleb Davis
That's correct.
00:51:40
The Jobs Podcast
All right.
00:51:41
Caleb Davis
You can also also check out dr Caleb Davis.com for more info. And we also, you can follow us on social media at wellness blueprint podcast.
00:51:49
The Jobs Podcast
Awesome. Thank you for your time today. I really appreciate it.
00:51:52
Caleb Davis
I had a great time. Thank you so much.