Today, I ventured to the Raleigh Hand to Shoulder Center to shadow Dr. Schricker, a hand surgeon and specialist. We started off the day with a man with gout in his wrist, which is basically when small crystals form in your joints due to your uric acid being supersaturated (shoutout to Mr. Rushin). This excess acid, which should be disposed of in urine, hence the name ureic acid, spreads to various joints and crystallizes, so it basically feels like you have glass shards in your joints. Yes, it is as painful as it sounds. But, it was easy to treat: a simple cortisone shot was objected in the area and he was good to go.
As the day progressed, I was learning more and more about your hands and fingers. The nurses joked to me that after I go home, I’m going to get all these diseases and disorders now, but hopefully that isn’t true! The one most interesting thing I learned about was a trigger finger, which is very simple yet extremely painful. Dr. Schricker basically explained that your fingers are controlled by strings connected to muscles in your forearm, so there are no real muscles in your fingers. However, that string passes through these eyelets, just like a fishing pole. A trigger finger is caused when your strings get knots in them and can not get through the eyelet, so they essentially get stuck and make a popping sound when getting unstuck. For mild cases, a cortisone shot can be used to losses the knot, but we saw some very severe cases, where surgery was needed. In one case, the lady’s finger was completely stuck and even the doctor couldn’t get it to open!
Dr. Schricker and his team are all very nice and love to talk, which I truly appreciated. They seemed very close and made the day fly by because they were always moving. All the patients were extremely nice and seemed very grateful, even though they sometimes didn’t want to get the shot or the surgery, but both the patients and the doctors never failed to make me feel unwelcome.
Fun Facts:
- Dr. Schricker’s 30th anniversary is coming up and he and his wife are going to Charleston to celebrate.
- Arthritis is caused by spurs in the bones, but sometimes these spurs don’t cause any pain.
- Arthritis is completely genetic, but there is no cure. There was a 30 year old woman with terrible arthritis, but this other 108 year old lady had no arthritis at all!
- Hand surgeons require 14 years of school/education after high school.
- Dr. Schricker has 3 little chickens, 2 big chickens, and 2 ducks (if I remember correctly)