Bone thief

One week in orthopedics rotation. At first I thought I was on a verge of a new discovery, a glimpse on what I'll be doing later on with my life. The sight of bone within flesh. The sound of the drilling. The sweats on the my attending's forehead. The screwing. The hammering. The titaniums. Hah.

And then on the second day I saw an amputated leg. Osteosarcoma. A middle aged man. And a young women, having a bone biopsy, suspecting again; bone cancer. I had second thoughts. Although, wherever we go in medicine, it is there. No way to run. But the idea of our patient blaming us for the rest of their life for cutting out their leg, or hand. Is theoretically unbearable.  

I saw an operation to repair a dislocated calcaneus on a thief, who originally acquired the injury by jumping off a wall running from the police. I saw the Anterior Cruciate Ligament of the knee being repaired without even doing an incision, just by pocking holes, Tendon grafting. I saw amazing things being done.

Maybe Orthopedics, maybe. Lets finish up whats in front of us first. 

A femur prosthetic, this was in a patient once; said my lecturer.