Surgeons see patients who, for insurance or slowdown at work, find the end of December is the best time for an operation. STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Many people have elective and nonelective surgery in December
- Insurance coverage, time off work or school and “starting fresh” are some reasons
- Some plastic surgeons say this is the busiest month of the year
There were hats and party blowers and papier-maché rabbits for Christine Clifford’s New Year’s celebration. She counted down to midnight with her husband, children, relatives and friends in the only place where she could be with them that night: her hospital room.
On the morning of December 31, 1994, Clifford had a lumpectomy to remove her breast cancer. She’d wanted to have the surgery before the end of the year because she’d already met her insurance deductible and she wanted as much coverage as possible for the procedure. After the cancer diagnosis, she didn’t want to postpone her terrifying operation into the new year, and New Year’s Eve was the surgeon’s first opening.
“I remember the doctors and nurses thinking, ‘This is crazy, here’s this woman who’s had surgery, and she’s cheering everybody else up,’ ” said Clifford, who is now cancer-free, and has drawn cartoons about her experience. “It helped my mood tremendously, as you can imagine, to have people down there caring about you.”
Some people will have to have life-saving surgeries at inconvenient times this month. But others choose to undergo procedures they’ve been putting off or that they want to have for cosmetic reasons, because it feels like the best time. Surgeons in many specialties are seeing patients who, for a variety of reasons such as insurance and a slowdown at work, find that the end of December is the best time to have an operation.
anterior cruciate ligaments — and dislocated shoulders from now up to New Year’s, mostly because kids want to put those things off until finals are over and they are on winter break.
It’s a bad time to injure yourself and think you can get fixed immediately.
–Dr. John Xerogeanes, orthopaedic surgeon
“The last two weeks in December are usually kids that got hurt during the end of the semester or last month or six weeks and say, ‘Look, I just want to just do it when I’m home for Christmas or so I have time for my mom to take care of me, or so I don’t have to worry about studying,’ ” he said.
The bad news for anyone who gets one of these injuries now is that the operating room has already been claimed, he said. Xerogeanes’ office has a waiting list.
“It’s a bad time to injure yourself and think you can get fixed immediately,” he said.
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