Blue Monday

Most orthopods prefer operating as opposed to seeing patients and this group is probably no exception.  After worship/hospital staff meeting we walked the gauntlet (see image below) through at least a hundred patients plus family member anxiously waiting to be seen.  

In reality, there were a number of really interesting cases to review ranging all the way from tumors, infections, fractures and congenital abnormalities.  

There were also a couple of surprises including the young man below on whom Scott and I had fixed bilateral radial clubhands on a trip to Cap Haitien in February of 2009.

The patients lined both hallways and overall were incredibly longsuffering and understanding including the little fellow below awaiting scheduling for corrective clubfoot surgery.

In between  seeing patients in the clinic, we fit in a few surgical cases.  In the background of the image below, Adeel and Jim are performing a proximal row carpectomy for a 5 month old trans-scaphoid perilunate dislocation of the wrist.  We were very fortunate to be able to use formal surgical tourniquet pictured below in the foreground.  This machine was procurred by Redlands, California orthopaedic surgeon Gray Frykman.

ICU nurse Wes Easter (on the left in the image above) was 2 for 2 on his first intubations performed under the tutelage of anesthesiologist Maria Adrianne (on the right in the image above).  We will soon be entering the inaugural nurse anesthesia training program at Loma Linda University. 

One of the innovations were experienced this clinic visit, was the use of the ipad for image review, a technique perfected by ortho resident Adeel Husain.  The concept really streamlined the review of xray images and was effective in presenting cases, including mini movies of patients ambulating, to Dr Nelson.

The image above depicts 16-case surgical load for today, probably won't get it all completed but we'll give it a good shot.