joyancejames

Tag: #pediatricorthopaedics

  • The Hip-py Marriage

    Recently I heard a valentine’s day special interview where an orthopedic surgeon was asked if he could compare his marriage to a bone, which would it be, without batting an eye he replied, the femur. The femur/ thigh bone was the reply because that’s the strongest/largest bone in the body. When I first heard the response, I thought to myself that I too would liken marriage to the same bone. But the more I reflected on this, I realized a greater truth.

    Holding a Cadaveric hip bone, view from the side and from the front.

    Now if I were to liken marriage to a bone then it would be the hip bone. The hip bone is a composite of 3 bones ilium, ischium and pubis which finally fuse after adolescence to make the hip bone. Similarly, the covenant -marriage is a union of not only the husband and the wife but both of them as one in God who unites them.

    Another wonderful thing about the hip bone is that all three bones unite at the acetabulum (the cup of the hip joint), they come together in a ‘T’ shaped “triradiate cartilage”. This cartilaginous union of the bones allow the hip and pelvis to grow in size as the child grows and finally fuse once the child stops growing (after adolescence).

    The 3 bones uniting in the ‘T’ shaped cartilage. https://teachmeanatomy.info/pelvis/bones/hip-bone/

    The covenant of marriage unites the husband and the wife with Jesus at the cross (T). Just like these bones become one at adolescence, the man & wife become one after marriage. 

    Genesis 2:24 (AMPC). Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall become united and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. [Matt. 19:5; I Cor. 6:16; Eph. 5:31-33.]

    https://bible.com/bible/8/gen.2.24.AMPC

    Just as the hip is what connects the spine to the lower limbs, the united one flesh (after marriage) should link the heaven (vertical) and earth (horizontal). 

    The hip is also illustrates the Trinity. The 3 bones united to make one hip/pelvis, God the Father, Yeshua the Son and Holy Spirit are 3 distinct personalites but One God. 

    Deuteronomy 6:4 (AMPC). Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord [the only Lord].

    https://bible.com/bible/8/deu.6.4.AMPC

    May the oneness of the Trinity inspire our marriages to pursue oneness to become as strong and purposeful as the hip.

    God bless.🤗

  • Straightening children since 900 BC

    Solomon Ben David vs Nicholas Andry

    “…one must not neglect the body and let it become deformed, this would be against the intention of the Creator; this is the basic principle of orthopaedics […] this book is aimed exclusively at fathers and mothers and all people bringing up children who must try to prevent and correct any deformed part of the child body” – Nicholas Andry (L’Orthopédie 1741)*

    “Crooked tree” symbol courtesy Nicholas Andry

    The “crooked tree” symbol is attributed to Nicholas Andry. He reasoned that just as a crooked tree is made to grow straight when it’s growth is directed so a crooked bone/deformity can be straightened when it’s growth is directed. What started primarily as a medical speciality to correct childhood deformities has since then progressed to address all musculoskeletal issues from pediatric to geriatric age groups. Since then this crooked tree has become the logo of numerous orthopedic societies and institutions.

    “Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.”
    Proverbs 22:6 NLT – Solomon Ben David

    Here we see an distinctive resemblance in the thought process of both King Solomon and Nicholas Andry. Did Andry take a leaf out of the former’s book and applied it too literally? Both wanted to harness the mallebility of childhood for a better future (sans crookedness).

    The verb translated “direct or train” (חנך – chanak) means, first, “to put something into the mouth,” “to give to be tasted,” as nurses give to infants food which they have masticated in order to prepare it for their nurslings; thence it comes to signify “to give elementary instruction,” “to imbue,” “to train.” The Hebrew literally is, Initiate a child in accordance with his way. In the Hebrew Bible this word chanak appears 5 times and rest of the 4 times it’s translated as “dedicate” in English.

    A very good example of what happens when the parent takes initiative to train and direct is seen in the following 3 verses depicting the life of Samuel:
    1 Samuel 1:28 (Prayer of a mother)
    “Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD. And he worshipped the LORD there.”

    1 Samuel 2:26 (Straight growth of the child)
    “And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the LORD, and also with men.”

    1 Samuel 12:2,3 (Lifelong benefits of early initiation)
    “And now, behold, the king walketh before you: and I am old and grayheaded; and, behold, my sons are with you: and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day.”

    “Adeo in teneris consuescere multum est.” So much depends upon the habit in tender years.
    This hold true both for Orthopedics and for life.

    *Andry N (1741) L‘orthopédie ou l’art de prevenir et de corriger dans les enfants les difformités du corps. A Paris, chez la Veuve Alix et chez Lambert et Durand, 1st ed.