Ortho: Nothing to do

This morning there were two surgeries scheduled, so I arrived at 7:00 a.m. The ortho surgeon, Dr. JD, didn't arrive until 7:30-ish, and he barely acknowledged I was there. I kind of expected that after hearing from others who have had him, but it was still kind of awkward. The first surgery involved decompressing a frozen shoulder, where the doctor put a scope in the arm and used a metal instrument to debride tissue-like adhesions from the cartilage (kind of weird looking). The second surgery was a carpal tunnel release that took a grand total of 5 minutes to do. Since I wasn't allowed to scrub in, I could only watch (and get pimped on the median nerve and its functions). But for the rest of the day, I alternated between following Dr. JD and his PA, Rodney, to different rooms to see patients at the speed of light. Several of them had pain in their knees or shoulders and received steroid injections. Others were just given reassurance. Through it all, I might as well have been a ghost. A few patients acknowledged me with a smile, but rarely did Dr. JD introduce me to his patients. If a clinic day is like this, I hate to think what an OR day is going to be like =( I get the feeling I'm not going to learn very much about ortho these next two weeks.