A Career in Orthopedic Surgery

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In January of 2012, I was playing in the first volleyball tournament of the club season. In the second game of the day, I dove to get a ball and landed wrong on my right wrist. My wrist was constantly popping and hurting when I needed to lift something. In May of 2012, my mother took me to the orthopedic doctor at Athens Orthopedic Clinic. I underwent physical therapy, took pain medicine, and played no volleyball for a month. When the month was up and there was still no improvement, I went to get a MRI. The radiologist said that there was nothing wrong, but my orthopedic referred me to an orthopedic surgeon for a second opinion. It only took a minute for my orthopedic surgeon to see what the problem was: a tear in my TFCC (a cartilage structure located on the small finger side of the wrist that, cushions and supports the small carpal bones in the wrist (Midwest). On August 8, 2013, I had surgery on my wrist. Ever since I’ve had surgery I’ve wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon. Although becoming an orthopedic surgeon takes years of education, hours of training, and hours of on-call work, orthopedic surgery’s advantages outnumber the disadvantages.
An orthopedic surgeon must be creative. The body is like a sculpture. When someone breaks a bone and the orthopedic surgeon has to go in and fix the bone with pins, the surgeon sometimes has to be creative with the way they put the pin in and where they screw it down. An orthopedic surgeon must like to fix things (Ryan). Orthopedic surgeons are similar to construction workers. Both use drills, saws, hammers, nails or pins, and many other tools. An orthopedic must not be afraid of blood, bones, or loud noises. When asked if ever disgusted at the beginning of medical school, Dr. Ryan was q...

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