Doing ortho with childhood history of severe elbow and wrist injury?

[mighalg]

Hey guys, sorry for barging in here on the attending forum while a lowly premed, but I figured this is the best place I could possibly pose this question. Please don't consider this a "medical advice" question because it is not, I am simply looking for advice about the long term feasibility of pursuing ortho as a field given that I am likely predisposed to osteoarthritis in the future (ironic innit). To make a long story short, when I was 3 or 4 I broke the wrist on my left hand, was not taken to the hospital by my parents and subsequently had to have it re-broken as it did not properly heal. Then, at 7, I suffered some kind of injury to my left elbow that required a full chest cast for a few months. I'm not sure whether the injury was a fracture or a dislocation since I was young and staying with my grandparents at the time. Oh yeah, and this was in post-communist Poland, so there was no surgery of any kind for the elbow, if I remember correctly the doctor simply manipulated the joint with his hands after performing the xray and slapped on a cast. Definitely no fancy pins or other intricate stabilization procedures to ensure the greatest chance of preserving full joint integrity.

Anyway, fast forward to today. I have never had anything by way of pain in the left wrist and definitely have full range of motion and grip strength. I did however develop a wrist ganglion cyst in the last month which, when combined with the history of injury to the wrist is kinda an indication that the joint integrity isn't all there. The elbow I've also had little trouble with as far as pain and range of motion/strength. However, ever since I can remember, there has been significant crepitus when doing pushups, that is totally absent in the right elbow. Furthermore, over the past 5 years (I am currently 24) there have been around 4-5 episodes in which during high impact activities such as volleyball the elbow has experienced dull aching pains. That is to say, the majority of my life the elbow does not bother me at all and I never think about it except for the crepitus during pushups, but there have been instances when I feel the pain and think to myself, "yep, that's a foreshadowing of the arthritis to come."

So with that said, the point is this: I am highly interested in orthopedic surgery. However, the reason I am interested in it is the nature of the procedures, and those procedures (I imagine), even more so than in general surgery, involve strength and unrestricted use of the large joints of the arms such as elbows and wrists. So, after reading my story and being the esteemed experts in the field of orthopedics that you are, would you if you were in my shoes pursue the field? Or would you, from what you have seen in your practice of the typical speed and progression of osteoarthritis in the wrist and elbow, instead opt for a specialty less demanding on the joints in the interest of prolonging the maximum time you can practice? Thanks for any possible insight you can offer, I understand that the information I presented is extremely limited and it's hard to make any kind of pronouncements on the state of my joints without xrays and so on.

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[mighalg]

Nobody has any insight into this?

 

[bedrock]

Get evaluated by an orthopedic surgeon in person and ask him that question

 

[SouthernCross]

There are specialties in Ortho that do not have extremely physical demands in the OR. They would be similar to a career in any other surgical specialty. If you like Ortho...do what you like. If operating becomes impossible, there are plenty of opportunities for non-operative Orthopaedics who understand physical exam and can do clinic procedures.

 

[mighalg]

Get evaluated by an orthopedic surgeon in person and ask him that question

There are a few factors that have been preventing me from doing just that. Most immediately is the fact that I am currently living in China and have been for the past half a year. Even once I return, I'm not sure it would be wise to get an evaluation. The arm is really not bothering me right now, and even if it were medical science is helpless against the progression of arthritis. Up until such a time as I need prescription drugs to deal with the pain or some kind of surgical intervention, there is nothing medicine can do for me. On the other hand, were I to go for an evaluation and be diagnosed with arthritis, my health insurance payments would balloon and I'd have basically no possibility of acquiring disability insurance later down the line. That's a steep price to pay for what would essentially be an act of satisfying my curiosity.

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

Dude, if you want to do orthopedics do it. I have spent time with a freaking neurosurgeon that had a tremor so bad I thought she was using the mallet....rather, she was just holding it. One of my spine attendings has no index finger. Myself? I have a tremor too, and a trigger thumb.

Do what you love, the rest, it falls into place. I swear.

 

[musafirah]

Also if you're right handed and injured your left side, you should be ok for the most part since most instruments are meant to be right handed. And you can specialise after residency into a less physically demanding subspecialty.

 

[ddmo]

It sounds like you do not have any functional limitations, so you should be fine.