Post-Operation Appointments

Today was my final day in clinic with Dr. Schweitzer. It was a busy day as there were about 45 patients on the clinic schedule. Today there were many post-operation patients that we met with. It was very interesting to meet with patients that we had diagnosed in previous weeks. For example, last week we diagnosed a patient with an achilles rupture. There are two methods to diagnose an achilles rupture. The first is to feel for tension in the achilles (no tension= ruptured achilles). For the second method, the patients must be laying on their stomach with their feet in the air and the knee bent. Then, a doctor can squeeze the calf muscle. If the foot moves when the calf is squeezed, the achilles is still intact. If there is no movement in the foot then the achilles is ruptured. This patient had undergone surgery for the ruptured achilles and was returning to the clinic today for a post-operation appointment. It was very interesting to see the patient both before and after the surgery had occurred.