The Curious Scalpel

Even though I've been pretty sure for a while that I wanted to go into Orthopaedic Surgery, I was concerned up until recently that there wouldn't be much clinical decision-making involved. Just cutting and sawing. There are a few reasons I thought this, but primarily I think it's due to the perception other clinicians have about surgeons, that they're "all brawn and no brain." Well, I've now completed 4 months of Orthopaedics electives and I can safely say I'm not concerned in the least. There is PLENTY of clinical decision-making involved in being an Orthopaedic Surgeon. I would argue there's just as much as in any other medical field.  I found during these electives that, to my surprise, not every patient that walks in the door complaining of knee pain gets a Total Knee. Maybe they almost all do eventually, but there's lots of evaluation and calculation to be done before a patient can be indicated for surgery.  Yes, if they're 7...

It's been almost a year since my last post, and a lot has certainly happened over that span. I think the main reason I haven't posted this whole time is because of all the stuff that's been going on: I completed (and loved) my General Surgery rotation. I completed (and didn't love as much) several others. I completed (and loathed) one in particular... you know who you are... And all that stuff added up to finishing 3rd year of medical school which was not exactly the easiest thing I ever did.  But now I've been doing 4th year for about 5 months already and, surprise of surprises, it's not as easy as everyone else's when you're applying for a competitive specialty! I have several "away rotations" I've been doing that are essentially 4-week interviews, where you need to always be enthusiastic about everything, ever (but not overly enthusiastic) even when it means you're volunteering to wake up before 4:00am every d...