Dr. Old: Granola***, I have something for you. I know you read a lot and I was looking through my ortho books and I found one that I thought you would like.
Me: Thanks!
He then gave me a copy of the 7th Edition of "Campbell's Operative Orthopaedics"
Don't get me wrong, "Campbell's Operative Orthopaedics" is a great book. It is such a great book that we are currently on the 12th edition, which I have online access to, and I have my own personal copy of the 11th edition.
The 7th edition was published in 1987. I was three years old, which means I was getting ready to start preschool when this book came out. You could make the argument that general orthopaedics hasn't changed much since 1987, except it totally has. In the past 25 years, there have been many, many, many medical discoveries. I'm pretty sure we didn't have arthroscopy back then. Joint replacements were in the early stages, bone substitutes hadn't been invented, neither had locking plates, and it was perfectly acceptable to leave people in traction for 6 weeks for a femur fracture. Even between the 11th and the 12th edition there have been some modifications. For example, the 12th edition has a chapter on ankle arthroplasty and the arthroscopy sections are more developed. I guess the anatomy sections of the 7th edition are the same, except that's about 50 pages in volume 1 and it's a 5 volume set (another change--we only have 4 volumes in the most recent editions)
So yeah...anyone need a paperweight? It also works as a great doorstop, not that I know this from personal experience or anything.
(I left it in the call room because I wasn't sure what to do with it. I didn't particularly want to take it home because then it's going to sit on the bookshelf until I move and throw it away, but it's not like I could tell Dr. Old that I didn't want his stupid crappy book from 25 years ago.)
***No idea why he's still calling me that, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't remember my real name by now so it works
Recycling bin.
ReplyDeleteThe neuro-ophtho doc had an old edition that he tried to lend me, and I said the new, shiny edition was currently at the library. I saw him again a month later, and he had the brand new edition that he would lend out. He's a pretty awesome doc, despite being like 70. And the only neuro-ophtho in the city (want to come to our city?? His waitlist went from a few months normally, to like 2 years when his partner left).
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