Thunder Orthopedics

07/04/2026

Happy Fourth of July!

07/03/2026

Thunder Orthopedics will be closed today (7/3/2026) in observance of Independence Day.

07/02/2026

On this day in 2018, Dr. Megan Swanson was in Peru. 🇵🇪 🇵🇪 🇵🇪

Here is what she said at that time:

“Words cannot describe how excited I am to be here - Watching how these amazing (predominantly German) missionary physicians take care of the native Peruvians - the Quechua.
Diospi Suyana has an ICU, four ORs, and is a 50 bed hospital with a large clinic also.
It’s also fun to see how a European orthopedic surgeon practices and compare notes... and how to apply what we know/do to the challenges of this setting.”

https://www.diospi-suyana.de/

07/01/2026

Happy July!!!! Have fun, stay cool, and stay off this thing 😀!

06/30/2026

“As a female orthopedic surgeon, I receive calls almost every month from women who are enduring harassment and discrimination in their own training or careers. Sometimes the bias is blatant. More often, it is subtle, unconscious, and difficult to name. Either way, the impact is the same. These women feel discouraged, wounded, and exhausted. They question whether they can keep going, and they often ask me the same question: How did you make it through?
I rarely have easy answers. But I always return to the truth that sustained me: God has a purpose for everything He allows in my life. He has never wasted my pain, and He will use for my good everything the enemy intended for harm.
That is why I wanted to share this post. It contains the encouragement that has carried me through some of the hardest seasons of my life. My hope is that it offers the same strength and perspective to someone else who needs it today.”
- Megan Swanson, MD

06/19/2026

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Thunder Orthopedics will be closed today - in observance of Juneteenth.

06/14/2026

“Research keeps finding the same thing: having a female doctor is better for your health. Lower mortality. Fewer readmissions. Better outcomes across multiple fields. It is just not better for hers.”

At Thunder Orthopedics, we are committed to structuring our work so that we can still be here for you in the years to come!

She was so sure she was the slow one that she asked her own employer to run a time study on her. She watched her male colleagues leave clinic at 5 or 5:30 while she stayed for hours after, and she needed to know what was wrong with her.

The verdict came back. She was highly efficient. Fast. Her notes were so thorough the reviewer said a scribe would actually be a downgrade.

The problem was never her.

Noemi Adame, MD is a pediatrician with more than twenty years in medicine.

Research keeps finding the same thing: having a female doctor is better for your health. Lower mortality. Fewer readmissions. Better outcomes across multiple fields. It is just not better for hers.

Portal data shows the truth. Patients and staff make 25 percent more requests of female primary care doctors than male ones. The extra inbox messages, the extra refills, the extra forms. All uncompensated. All invisible. Work that no metric counts and no one rewards.

And it does not stay at the office. Two years ago, Noemi's mother died suddenly. Noemi owned the practice. She was the boss. And she showed no compassion to herself. She sat in the ICU watching her mother die while she answered patient texts and sent refills to the pharmacy.

That is what years of socialization does. Women put the needs of others first, and in medicine that instinct gets magnified until a daughter cannot put down her phone at her own mother's bedside.

She respects her male colleagues. She says so plainly. This was never about them. It is about a compensation system that counts how many patients you see in a day and never once counts the 25 percent.

Afterward she rebuilt everything. Restructured her workflow. Hired help. Outsourced her social media to her daughter, who she calls the family's favorite nepo baby. And she retrained her patients to expect a few hours for a reply instead of a few minutes, because she finally learned that no is a complete sentence.

There is a recent JAMA study she keeps coming back to. Generally, women outlive men. Among physicians, that advantage disappears.

It is the title of her article for a reason. Having a female doctor is better for your health. Better for your health. Not for hers.

Listen to the full conversation on The Podcast by KevinMD. Link in the comments.

06/13/2026

Sharing a sneak preview of Thunder’s new marketing campaign photos.

06/10/2026

Out of all specialties, Orthopedic surgery remains the one with the least percentage of female physicians. In other words: there is a higher percentage of female urologists than there are female orthopedic surgeons. Let that sink in.

It is extremely helpful, therefore, to have the Ruth Jackson Orthopedic Society highlighting challenges and opportunities. Women are 54% of the medical school class and we miss the best and the brightest when they don’t all feel welcome in the misogynistic world of orthopedics and choose other specialties instead.

2026 RJOS President Dr. Linda Suleiman is leading the society with her four Presidential Pillars of Agency, Visibility, Sponsorship and Ownership. Learn more about these important pillars that are moving women of RJOS into power, influence and permanence:

https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/64a78872fbb9f0a557f9b12f/69b0bc7b21af50f9a2a08199_RJOS_Dr%20Linda%20Suleiman%20Speech.pdf

06/02/2026

Why would a Nurse choose Thunder Ortho?