Debbie's meniscus tear, the photo...

Debbie's meniscus tear, the photo...  At right is the most interesting photo of the 20 or so images her surgeon took through his arthroscopic apparatus.  What you're looking at is the space between the outside ball and socket in her right knee.  The fuzzy white material is the torn up meniscus, which is most likely the source of the knee pain she's been having ever since her injury last June.  The metallic object at the right (just above center) is part of the surgeon's arthroscopic tool kit.  He tried to describe it to me; it sounded like a cross between a pair of scissors and a router.  Anyway, he used some of these tools to cut away all the torn part of the meniscus.  The tears were all on the outer edge of it, which means there's a good chance it will repair itself.  Even if it doesn't, Debbie's knee pain should be gone.

Despite being a technology guy my whole life, I was still surprised that the surgeon could walk out to talk with me just a couple of minutes after he finished with Debbie, carrying a set of high-quality photos of the operation he had just performed.  Using the photos he was able to describe to me – about as far from a medical expert as you can get – exactly what he found, what he did, and the likely outcome.  Technology has transformed our world in many ways during my lifetime, and this is “just” another one of those ways – but even so, it seems pretty miraculous to me...