Wrapping up Orthopedic Surgery

It's me again! I just wanted to let everyone know how my orthopedic surgery rotation was going. I only have three days left, and I have really enjoyed my time. The doctors are great teachers and surgeons, and I feel that I've learned a TON during the past three weeks about everything from reading x-rays, treating broken bones, and when a patient's only remaining option is surgery. I've spent about half of my time in the clinic and the other half of my time in the operating room. In the clinic, I've gotten good at my musculoskeletal exam, and injecting steroids into knees and shoulders. In the OR, the most interesting surgeries that I've been a part of have been total knee replacements and ACL repairs, and it's still surprising how much they let me do. I've compiled a list of factoids that I've learned:

Top 5 Orthopedic Lessons Learned:
1. Always go to the bathroom before scrubbing into ortho cases...quite a few of the 3 hour surgeries turned into 6 hour surgeries.
2. Always stretch before ortho cases...holding up a leg for a few hours gets heavy.
3. Wear the waterproof booties when doing a shoulder or knee scope...imagine doing surgery inside a water balloon.
4. Ortho surgery is surprisingly similar to carpentry. There is lots of drilling, sawing, and hammering and orthopedic surgeons fix mistakes with bone cement like carpenters use wood putty.
5. A medical student can never win when he is in charge of the mallet. Hit too soft= wuss. Hit to hard=break the bone. Miss the chisel=hit the fingers of a surgeon.

That's all for right now. Next week begins my Internal Medicine rotation at NNMC where I'll be practicing the medicine that I'll be doing for the next three years!!