Day two started similarly to day one. At the beginning of the day, Dr. Huff and I met in the parking lot in front of his office. From there, we walked across the street to enter the main hospital building. We then went into the locker room to change into our scrubs.
In his first procedure, Dr. Huff had to repair a rotator cuff. During the operation, Dr. Huff used a variety of tools, along with his small camera, to help probe and repair the fractured tissue within the shoulder joint. Some of the tools included clippers and grinders. The clippers were used to snip the fractured tissue away from the actual rotator cuff. The grinder was used to remove a bone spur inside of the shoulder joint.
In his second procedure, Dr. Huff amputated the radial part of an index finger. The reason for the amputation was because the current condition that the finger was in was more of a bother to the patient rather than an aid. Since there was no dexterity in the stump of the index finger, it would just get hung up on objects when the patient was working. So, it only made sense to remove the small portion of the index finger.
In his final procedure of the day, Dr. Huff replaced a hip joint. To me, this operation was very interesting. Similarly to the knee joint, the concept was very simple; however, the actual work and procedure involved was complex. During the surgery, Dr. Huff removed the ball joint in the hip which was fractured. He then sized the different joint replacements accordingly to the right size of the hip. After he found the right size, he placed the ball inside of the hip. He then hammered to securing devices into the femur. The supports connected the actual femur to the replacement joint which was placed in the socket of the hip.
To finish off the day, Dr. Huff and I met with some of his patients in his office. We looked over the progress that they had made since their surgeries and what the plan was moving forward. Again, I particularly liked this portion of he day because I was able to see Dr. Huff interact with the patients he had recently helped. After making his rounds, we then traveled to the Lakewood High School to do sport physicals on students. This was program that Dr. Huff had initiated himself. He would contact local high schools and ask if he could do sports physicals on the students. Not only did this prevent any complications during the seasons with scheduling a physical, but Dr. Huff also helped raise money for the school athletic department. Each student was required to pay $10 in order to have a physical. Instead of keeping the money, Dr. Huff wrote a check back to the athletic department so that they could have funding for new equipment. To me, this was a creative and compassionate way to give back to the local community. Overall, day to was awesome and I am looking forward to another exciting day tomorrow!
