So my first week of ortho at LLU is over and I really had a lot of fun. My 2 week rotation is with the Department chair who specializes in hips and knees so that has been my main focus when studying at night. My day normally starts out at 5 a.m. for rounds. The students (me included) print out all the notes, see the patients, write the notes, and bring them to the residents in time for rounds at 6 a.m. At that time, the on call attending comes in to see the X-rays for the new patients that were admitted overnight. Once this happens, then the attending rounds on all of the new patients. This usually ends around 6:45 a.m. After that, the students split up to go to their assigned attendings. Since my attending does outpatient surgeries on the hips and knees, I drive over to the outpatient surgery center to prep his patients for surgery. This involves listening to their heart and lungs (yes orthopods do use a stethoscope, lol), and writing any prescriptions that the patient needs. After that , we hit the OR, get done with our operations, and then I either go home, or go to the main hospital to help out the resident that is running the floor.
I only took about 2 calls this past week, so I only worked about 88 hours. I could probably do more, but since there are other students its a little harder to be at the hospital all the time because you don’t want to dilute the experience. The call that I took on Friday was the craziest call I have ever been on. I was in the OR from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. helping with a finger replant after some guys got his hand stuck in the gears of a wood cutter. That operation was cool because we got to suture the digital arteries back together using the microscope. During the middle of the case, the attending got up, and let me assist the resident while he was tying the arteries together. It was my first time using the micro-scissors and micro-forceps, and I have to admitt that it was a little rough at first coordinating myself. I even cut off the knot one time. When that happened the resident looked at me and said, “DoctaJay, don’t ever do that again okay?” I shook my head, and we kept on with the operation. By the end I got the hang of it, and I think that with a little more practice I could really get to like that microsurgery aspect of ortho.
After the finger replant was done, I went to the floor to help consults and we absolutely got destroyed that night. I literally did not sit down or stop seeing consults in the ER until 5 a.m. the next morning. We had a lot of interesting cases: 1) an FBI agent with a Schatzer 6 tibial plateau fracture, a kid who’s car rolled over 6 times, who only had some glass in his elbow (praise God), a 16 yo football player whose knee completely separated at his growth plate during a bad tackle, a tri-malleolar fracture 1 week out from the initial injury, 2 both bone fractures of the forearm, etc etc. By 6 a.m., I was literally falling asleep while standing, but I had a great and exciting night.
Its hard to really determine whether I am doing well, but I seem to be getting along fine with everyone, so I am crossing my fingers!
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