Around 10 years ago I had a conversation with a well-respected orthopedic surgeon who’s known as “the knee guy” in the Greater Toronto Area. He told me that he was about to see a patient who’s had 10 surgeries done on his knee and was seeking another one.

In the words of the surgeon: “The buck stops here. Each surgery that is performed complicates the issue and takes you further away from the original condition. If this patient was given the option to go back to the very first surgery and stop after that procedure, he would do it in a heartbeat!”

There are circumstances after an injury where surgery is required, but how do you truly know if the procedure was a success?

It’s very simple. You don’t need any sophisticated diagnostics. Just utter the following words:

“Oh yeah, I forgot I even had that done!”

If you catch yourself saying those words at any time after the procedure, then it was a success.

Leonardo da Vinci* once noted that “all injury leaves pain in the memory.” It’s true. Even if you’re no longer in pain following an injury, it will always be in the back of your mind especially if you had surgery. But if you get to a point where you forget that the whole thing even happened, well then in the back of your mind is where it will remain.