Update from the Jackson Hole Correspondent

Our Jackson Hole Correspondent sends this update:

Week One complete in God's Country - Jackson, WY. I arrived to a hazy valley on July 18th. The smoke from the California wildfires keep the Teton Range in a foggy haze to its viewers. However when a thunderstorm rolls through, the haze subsides and the Tetons present themselves in all of their geological magnificence.

I am doing my orthopaedic rotation with Heidi Jost, M.D. at Teton Orthopaedics. She specialized in the hand, wrist, ankle, and foot. Her and her partners have been more than willing to invite me to surgical cases and patient visits to show me interesting pathology. This is one BUSY group. I would have thought that winter would be their busiest time of the year, but apparently July-September is their busiest due to the tourist factor. I have been on call since Thursday, and have seen some displaced distal radius and tib/fib fractures. The tib/fib repair is pretty gruesome. An intermedullary (within the bone marrow) rod is literally pounded into the drilled-out marrow of the tibia for repair, and the site around the fracture is secured with screws. That fracture has to hurt

like a son of a bitch.

Haven't had a lot of time to screw around yet. I hiked the weekend before this rotation started, and shot the picture below from the summit (8,005 ft) of Snow King Mountain. I am looking forward to an all-day hiking and sight-seeing adventure next Saturday. I will start by getting up at 5:30am to capture some pictures of the wildlife and the sunrise off the Tetons. I then plan to hike 10 miles up to Ampitheater Lake at the base of the Grand Teton, which is around 10,000 ft. I'll then conclude my day by returning to Jackson around sunset and capturing some pictures of the sun setting behind the Tetons.

The people of Jackson are beautiful. Everyone is active here, hence their bodies show it. It's refreshing to be in an environment where the population takes advantage of the resources here.

More to come...