Revenge of Surgery: Orthopedic Style
I've started my summer job. Before I get into what I'll be doing, since that's not entirely clear at this point, and not the most exciting part of this post, I'll talk about my experiences scrubbing in on knee replacements. Queasy folks beware - much descriptive gore ahead. Knee replacements, and all joint replacements, really, are a very interesting kind of procedure in that they can be easily explained to a layperson without the layperson knowing what happens or how on Earth it's done. Take knee replacements. Ask Joe Everyman what a knee replacement surgery is and he'll probably tell you it's when the doc puts in a metal knee. Sounds so simple. But here's something Mr. Everydude didn't consider: how does this new metal knee FIT in there? You can't just stick a big hunk of metal in between someone's femur and tibia and expect their legs to remain the same length. But he understands that, so he could think for a moment and say, a...