Teaching and hanging out with the guys...and driving!!

Talking Orthopaedics...

Today was another good day in the OR-seems like everyday is (except that one day I mentioned..).  I did my first shoulder surgery since I've been here.  It was a patient who had a shoulder dislocation for almost 2 months, so I couldn't just yank on it and put it back in place.  It actually was exciting for me because back in New York throughout my training I have done alot of shoulder surgery.  I was able to show the medical student and OR staff some pretty cool anatomy during the dissection.  Everything turned out great and I was able to get his shoulder back in place without too much fiddling around-which was good because he is related to one of the scrub nurses (who by the way kept poking her head in the room!).

Reviewing xrays...

Between the cases today I gave the med student a few lectures which he seemed to appreciate and enjoy.  I think he was a bit overwhelmed with some of it because he says they don't get a lot of eposure to orthopaedics, let alone someone actually teaching it to them!  I downloaded some of my material for him so that he could have some stuff to review and maybe share with his other classmates.  Teaching is probably one of the biggest things that I can give to many of people I work with-they are the ones who are on the front lines here and will continue to be long after I'm gone.  It's important to provide some useful teaching for them so that they can be more competent and provide better care for patients. 

I did my second K-nail today for another guy who had a femur fracture after being hit by a car. I think that's one of my favorite cases.  The OR nurses have a lot of fun teasing me while I'm working-it makes the day go by a lot faster...and funnier too!  We go back and forth!

My 2nd K-nail!

The day went pretty well into the afternoon, so I didn't get to eat lunch until after 4pm.  I went to this local Lebanese place and one of my friends that I play football with came into the restaurant to hang out since he was in the area.  After a quick lunch he took me around with him to run some errands downtown.  The traffic is so hectic down there in the afternoon!  It was fun anyway just walking around and taking in some more of the sites.  He knows everyone too, so it was fun meeting people and watching him talk it up!  We went to this tailoring store to try and find some African fabric-I'm trying to get a scrub cap made out of some Liberian fabric!  I'll post a  pic of it later...

Since we were already out and about, we decided to make an evening of it, so 2 other people joined us and we made it a guys night out!  My friend let me drive his car today!  It was quite an experience too!  The roads are so bumpy, but I managed.  I guess if I can manage behind the wheel in NYC then I can manage anywhere!  We sat around my friend's apartment just joking around and laughing while having a few drinks and watching videos (well, I was drinking my water...).  It's nice to have made so many friends since I've been here.  I'm going to have alot of people to hang out with when I come back to visit!  As you can imagine from the brevity of this entry, I got in rather late so it's well past my bedtime...

"In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up that makes us rich."
-Henry Ward Beecher