Roaring Lions Newsletter
February 22, 2025
The Marshall Lions Club met at noon on Tuesday, February 18, 2025 at the Panola-Harrison Electric Cooperative Inc. meeting room, 410 E. Houston, Marshall, Texas.
While there are many relevant things captured in time on this day in history, in this newsletter I will focus on three events. On this day in 1930, Clyde W. Tombaugh, using a 13 inch telescope at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, discovered the dwarf planet Pluto. In 2001, American stock-car racer Dale Earnhardt, Sr., died from injuries suffered during a crash in the final lap of the Daytona 500. And finally in 2017, American activist Norma McCorvey – the original plaintiff (anonymized as Jane Roe) in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade (1973) which made abortion legal throughout the United States – died at age 69.
Connie Dowden and Cindy Ford from CC Catering provided the group chicken gumbo, white rice, dirty rice, bread, salad and of course, tea.
With President Chris Horsley and 1st Vice President Dare Westmoreland away, 2nd Vice President Brooke LaBouve called the meeting to order at 12:05 p.m. Lion Brooke reported that Lion Chris and Lion Dare are on a skiing trip and hopefully, they are not required to see Longview Orthopedics next week. Lion Brooke reported that we have 18 Lions in the den and two guests. We were blessed with attendance of Stephani Reeves (Longview Regional), Taryn Flanagan (Longview Regional) and Lori Smith (daughter of Lion Robert Wood). If you are bringing guests, please let Lion Angela Parker know in advance of our weekly meeting. For our at large members, the costs of meals are $15 for Catfish Express and $10 for all other caterers. Please provide this money to Lion Angela Parker whenever you make a meeting and enjoy lunch. If Lion Angela is not at the meeting, please provide the money to either Lion Chris Horsley or Lion Bob King.
Lion Brooke LaBouve called upon Lion Kent Reeves to lead our opening prayer.
Lion Brooke LaBouve called upon Lion Travis Keeney to lead our Pledges of Allegiance to the United States and Texas Flags.
Lion Brooke LaBouve called upon Lion Kent Reeves to lead our weekly songs. Lion Kent led the group in singing of the Navy’s “Anchors Aweigh” in honor of Lion Donald Hocutt and the Marine Corps’ “Halls of Montezuma” in honor of Lion Travis Keeney.
Lion Brooke LaBouve called upon our Tail Twister, Lion Bob King. With the silver plate aka apparatus in hand, Lion Bob started with fine collection for those that did not attend last week’s meeting and individuals present not wearing their name badge. Lion Bob reminded all to silence their cellular phones. When asked, Lion Kent Reeves responded, “It is National Wine Day.” As Lion Bob always reminds us, “A good Lion is an informed Lion.” Lion Bob King opened the floor for random topics that were in the paper recently. Lion Stan Spence brought up the passing of John Wilborn. Wilborn was 92 years old and served 24 years on Marshall City Council, which included two terms as Mayor from May 1992 to May 1994. Lion Marina Garcia-Heredia reported that there was a ribbon cutting event for the inclusive park at Lions Park at 10:00 a.m. this morning. Lion Bob King reported that we are losing the Waskom Dairy Queen. Also, Dairy Queens in Carthage, Longview, Rusk, Franklin, Nacogdoches and Diboll will be closing and are up for auction. Today, in a round robin fashion, Lion Bob King had a question/answer session about Lions. Who was the founder of Lions Club International? Answer: Melvin Jones. How many Lions Clubs are there in the world? Answer: 49,000. Who challenged Lions to become Knights of the Blind in 1925? Answer: Helen Keller. In 1917, the first International Convention was held in what city? Answer: Dallas, Texas. For our auction this week, we are finishing up from last week. If everyone recalls, last week, we auctioned off NCAA Division III championship lapel pins and had the NCAA Division III championship trophy positioned by two ball caps. Today, we will auction off the ball caps. Lion Donald Hocutt won the bid with $15.00 and received his hat of choice. Lion Alan Grantham received the second hat with a bit of $11.00.
Surprisingly, there were no birthdays to celebrate today. Instead, we honor Lion Ed and Kathy Hoffman celebrating their anniversary on the 16th. Lion Mike Haynes led the “Happy Song” in the key of EH for Lion Ed Hoffman as we honor their special day. Lion Bob King left us with words of wisdom from Robert Frost, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference.”
Lion Donna Lane asked Lion Dudley Swofford to poll the club for members that were Veterans. Evidently, Lion Donna is part of a group that will do something special for our Veterans on Veterans Day. From a poll of members present, it appears that the following members served: Lion Travis Keeney, Lion Donald Hocutt, Lion Robert Wood, Lion Dudley Swofford and Lion Charles Gillis.
Lion Robert Wood introduced Dr. Jordan Stanley. Lion Robert had a chance to meet Dr. Stanley as a patient under his care at Longview Orthopedics and although Dr. Stanley gave Lion Robert a clean bill of health, Lion Robert invited Dr. Stanley to come talk with the group today. Dr. Stanley is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon with Longview Orthopedics Regional Clinics. Dr. Stanley attended college at Louisiana Tech University and Medical School at Louisiana State University Medical School. He completed his internship and residency at Baylor Scott & White in Temple, Texas. Dr. Stanley is a member of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery, the Texas Orthopedic Association and the Gregg County Medical Society. He is from Sulphur Springs, Texas and has been practicing in the Longview area since 1999. Dr. Stanley and his wife, DeAnna has three daughters: Catherine, Victoria and Gabrielle. When he is not in the clinic, Dr. Stanley enjoys hunting, fly fishing, remote airplanes, precision shooting, and traveling.
Dr. Stanley is well versed in various orthopedic procedures/surgeries to include: total shoulder replacements, shoulder arthroscopy procedures (rotator cuff repairs, decompressions); hand procedures such as trigger finger releases, Dupuytren’s release, carpal tunnel release; cubital tunnel release, ulnar nerve transposition, olecranon bursa procedures; total hip replacements; Mako total knee replacements; Mako partial knee replacements; knee arthroscopy for meniscus tears; and fracture repairs to all extremities.
Dr. Stanley thanked Marshall Lions Club for providing a chance to talk with the group today. He has always enjoyed total joint surgery and this is a topic that he loves to travel and share information about. In his presentation today, Dr. Stanley will attempt to keep it short to provide those in the audience a chance to ask questions. He first performed robotic total knee replacements in 2009 and at the time, it was a partial or half knee replacement. Within the past five years, the discipline has transitioned to total joint replacement. Dr. Stanley performed conventional knee replacements upon arrival in Longview and for the first 10 years after his arrival. He is first to admit that the transition to robotic knee replacement was a challenge. A surgeon is operating on patients and used to a particular method and all a sudden, the surgeon is expected to try something different and new. In hindsight, he is excited that he made the transition that has further enhanced his expertise as a surgeon today.
The way that Dr. Stanley explains it, a patient comes to him with pain and he tries different methods to assist with pain management which involves non-surgical methods. In his experience, the first common condition is osteoarthritis characterized by the breakdown of cartilage in the knee joint, leading to pain, stiffness, and instability. Other causes of pain might be associated to rheumatoid arthritis, fractures that healed improperly, ligament and meniscus tears, infection as well as gout, hemophilia and bone tumors. As any of these conditions worsens and the pain intensifies, you witness decreased functionality to include range of motion. This also inhibits sleep at night, inability to stand for prolonged periods and walk for extended distances.
When he first meets a patient, he tries to build a relationship with the patient and avoid surgery immediately. In his years in orthopedic surgery, he has never met a patient and signed the individual up for knee replacement the same day. He normally tries oral inflammatory medication, cortisone injections, rooster comb injections, bracing, and physical therapy to name a few techniques before transitioning to surgery. But, when there is a situation of bone on bone, most alternatives are ineffective, leaving a surgical procedure such as total knee replacement as the only viable option. Dr. Stanley’s goal through alternative approaches is to delay the total knee replacement course of action as long as possible. In his belief, when a person is tired of the pain and the person’s quality of life has significantly diminished, the person tells Dr. Stanley to just fix it.
To hear it from Stanley, a total knee replacement allows an individual to regain their quality of life, range of motion and allows them to function in life without restrictions. The decision for a knee replacement surgery rests with an individual. While family members and friends may offer support, an individual must be mentally prepared for the decision prior to proceeding to its accomplishment. In his many years of performing either conventional or robotic total knee replacement, the cutting of bone is relatively easy for new component fit and alignment, but the soft tissue releasing and ligament balancing is more difficult to achieve an outcome of a knee that functions and has the range of motion to achieve the quality of life a patient desires. Without proper ligament balancing to position the knee in its normal alignment, the outcome of surgery will be unsuccessful.
As Stanley describes a total knee replacement, he leads a listener to better understand that the procedure is not actually a knee replacement. Instead, it would be better described as a knee resurfacing since little bone is actually removed to enable the placement of components that fulfill the surface portion of the knee. And as one would expect, one size does not fit all, so there are various size components to adapt to an individual whether large or small.
When Dr. Stanley started performing conventional knee replacements in 1999, it was not uncommon for the office in which he worked to perform 1,000 procedures per week. At the time, there were no robotic knee replacement procedures. In Dr. Stanley’s opinion, whether a conventional or robotic knee replacement, it is up to the orthopedic surgeon performing the procedure. For him, he has performed thousands of conventional knee replacement surgeries and knows firsthand the techniques required through ligament balancing to have a successful outcome. The only difference with a robotic procedure is preset limits assist the person performing the surgery.
In robotic knee replacement, a person also performs an assessment, but the surgeon relies upon a computed tomography (CT) scan to develop a 3-D model of a patient’s knee. The model is used to plan the surgery for ligament balancing and implant size and shape. During the surgery, a robotic arm is guided by the surgeon and provides continuous feedback to a computer screen to help the surgeon align the implant successfully. Some of the benefits of robotic procedures include: more accurate and precise implant placement, better alignment of implant components, enhanced surgical planning and quicker recovery. Dr. Stanley explained to the group that at no time during the surgery does a robotic arm act by itself. The arm is controlled by the surgeon throughout the entire process. The robotic arm does set boundaries for the surgeon and Dr. Stanley describes it as a coloring book in which the surgeon has no chance to color outside the lines. While the surgeon has the ability to change parameters during surgery if he/she feels that there is a lack of accuracy, Dr. Stanley is quite confident with the robotic arm parameters and he strongly believes that the robotic arm provides 99.99 percent accuracy. Through use of the robotic arm, he is able to complete a total knee replacement in about 35 to 40 minutes.
Since COVID, about 90 percent of patients that undergo a total knee replacement are discharged the same day of surgery. While this new discharge method was hard for Dr. Stanley to get accustomed to, it works great. He finds that patients respond better knowing that they are able to return to the familiar surroundings of home. Through time, there have been significant enhancements with pain management following surgery that enables a short duration stay in same day surgery prior to discharge. Dr. Stanley normally tells patients that in 4 to 6 weeks post-surgery, a person should be able to drive again.
As one would expect, procedures for an Anterior Cruciate Ligament repair today are not the same as performed in the early 1980s. As a result, most people that underwent that type of surgical repair during the 1980s, more than likely will require a total knee replacement as they age due to osteoarthritis. According to Dr. Stanley, more information will be gathered in the future regarding overall success with robotic total knee replacement. With only about 8 to 10 years of following patients thus far, there is not enough data available to make a precise estimate of overall success.
Today, most people rely upon robotic total knee replacement, but Dr. Stanley still performs conventional knee replacements. As an example, he had a patient 10 years ago that underwent a conventional knee replacement and had phenomenal results. The person returned for the other knee and opted for a conventional procedure due to their previous experience. Dr. Stanley does not try to convince the person to change and performs the conventional total knee replacement.
When asked, Dr. Stanley said that a total hip replacement is the hardest to do in East Texas. We have some big people and performing the surgery is often difficult because of an individual’s size. When comparing a knee, hip or shoulder, Dr. Stanley prefers a shoulder replacement although the knee replacement is more common than either a shoulder or hip.
As he closed, Dr. Stanley shared that in the art of orthopedic surgery, surgeons rely heavily on scientific data gathered that shows positive results over time. And while robotic knee replacement is the preferred method of total knee replacement, there are not long-term studies available greater than 20 years because the technique’s availability has not been around that long. While he was apprehensive performing his first robotic total knee replacement, he is thankful for the tremendous oversight offered by the surgical staff. As he recalls, he was accompanied by other more experienced surgeons offering their insight. The initial experience made the transition more enjoyable at the beginning and his preferred option today.
Lion Robert Wood thanked Dr. Jordan Stanley for such an informative program and presented Dr. Stanley a $25.00 gift card to Jose Tequila’s. Lion Robert also presented jars of candy to both Stephani Reeves and Taryn Flanagan. Lion Brooke LaBouve called upon Lion Kent Reeves to lead the closing prayer. The meeting adjourned at 12:53 p.m.
Lion Donald Hocutt
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