Julian Arroyo MD Spotlight

Dr. Julian Arroyo is a family man at heart and it is this value that catapulted him into orthopedic surgery. His father was a neurosurgeon and his brother is a urologist and so for Dr. Arroyo this is nothing more than a family tradition with his own daughters just beginning their crusade into medical schooling. “I enjoy talking and getting to know people, their stories and the intrigue and challenge of surgery.” Back when Dr. Arroyo was in school the hardest joints to operate on were shoulders and it was this challenge that Dr. Arroyo looked forward to. “I thought if I was going to do one thing for the rest of my life I’d want to do something challenging” and since then he has been in our practice for 21 years. Dr. Arroyo has taken on numerous challenging cases from sports to work and wear-and-tear; he loves the test.

Outside of work Dr. Arroyo is most likely to be found outdoors going golfing, fishing, hunting, snow skiing, wakeboarding, and surfing. Not surprisingly his favorite genre of music is country: “I lived in Nebraska for nine or 10 years and I tried to fight it off but it grew on me.” As an outdoorsman now in the state that sees all four seasons of weather in a day, Dr. Arroyo’s favorite destination is Maui. The weather is a little more constant and warmer so he can go out, surf and get that much needed sunshine. Something most people do not know about our original shoulder physician is that he is Spanish with the bulk of his family still living in Spain.

Dr. Arroyo’s favorite animal is a chocolate lab after their family dog, but oddly enough if he could be a cartoon character he would be a dog’s worst enemy: the cat. He said he would like to be a character from ThunderCats that he would watch after class back when he was in medical school; he did not disclose if he would be Jaga, Lion-O or Tygra but my guess is Lion-O. His favorite food is tacos to which he specified he likes a good street taco. Maybe it could be over tacos that he could meet Jacques Cousteau – his choice if he could meet any person throughout history, or quite possibly he would have more fun scuba diving instead.

Shouldering the family tradition of going through the difficulties of medical school are not easy.We here at Puget Sound Orthopaedics are very thankful that he did because of what he brings to this practice and the care he brings to his patients. Happy 21 years at PSO!