On Monday (5/23/22), I visited Dr. Karl Schweitzer. I shadowed him for about 6 hours and gained wonderful insight on orthopedic clinic and procedures as a whole. I was exposed to many different, unique cases and also that human bones are often made artificially for replacements. They create these by 3-D printing or using lasers to sculpt a metal alloy based replica.
Today I shadowed Dr. Summers at Wake Orthopedics to see what a day in the life of an orthopedic doctor was (at least when they’re doing clinical work). Before I came to shadow, Dr. Summers told me to review the muscle groups of the general areas he sees the most, shoulder and knee, and sure enough, 90% if not more of the patients today were for the shoulder and knee.
The morning was mostly smooth sailing except for one difficult patient who was requesting some things the doctor just could not give her and feel medically ok with doing. I know that sounds vague, but for obvious reasons, I can’t really explain further. I must say though, the most informative part of my day was actually learning how to read an MRI scan. I had always seen them on the computer screens in those medical tv shows, but it just looked like a bunch of black and grey blobs everywhere. By the end of the day I was able to spot some of the tears in ligaments in the knee on the MRI scan without Dr. Summers having to specifically point it out, which was a major accomplishment in my opinion. Because I got to work in Cary today, I was actually super close to my mom’s workplace and got to drive over there for their potluck lunch and visit Hannah! It was great getting to see a friendly face after so much time working and so little time to hang out with people. We had an amazing lunch and then it was back to the races.
The reason I named this post “Catch 22” is because that was a phrase that can sum up a lot of the patients’ stories. For many of them, their problem was caused by a lifestyle choice, and by fixing their lifestyle choice they could fix the problem. The catch 22 though, is that the problem often inhibits them from being able to make that lifestyle change, therefore leaving them between a rock and a hard place.
I did very much appreciate by time in orthopedics, although brief. It sparked a new interest I never really knew I had!
Today was my first day at the Raleigh Orthopedic Clinic and overall it was a very interesting experience! In total, I saw about 20 cases with Dr. Logel ranging from torn or sore Achilles tendons to crushed ankles to crooked toes. I think one of the most interesting cases that I saw today was a case where the patients ankle was crushed between pipes and was left with little to no mobility. He came into the clinic today for a checkup, but ended up needing his caseworker to come in and help get a note proving that he was immobile and needed to find a new job. It was interesting to learn that there are programs that help you find a new job when you are permanently injured, and help train you quickly. Another interesting case that I enjoyed to see was a patient that had a “reverse bunion”, so instead of her toes being forced inwards, they were all forced outwards. She had a realignment surgery that straightened her big toe and shaved off bone of her other toes so they would lay evenly. I had never really thought about realigning your toes, but it was interesting to see how it was done, the x-rays of before and after, and the recovery process as she had recently had the surgery. Lastly, I dove right into the real world of office life today as we had one patient who was very frustrated that she had to wait for her appointment and proceeded to yell at Dr. Logel, saying how disrespectful it was that he made her wait and that her ankle wasn’t in any pain anymore. I had forgotten that there are some very interesting and rude people in the world and it was great to see the way Dr. Logel handled the situation. Overall, it was a very informational and interesting experience and I’m excited to put the material I have learned today into surgery tomorrow!
