Blood, Guts, and Bones… OR Just Another Day at the Office

So yesterday made me officially decide that I have the coolest host parents ever. Since the day I met my host dad, he has been telling me that I can come into work with him one day. Now for most students, this would sound boring, but my host dad is a foot surgeon. Therefore, the first day I didn’t have class this semester, I made sure to clear my schedule so I could go see some operations!!! Ok, so maybe not every student would like that, but for a pre-med, it is the coolest opportunity!
I went into work with him at Frederiksberg Hospital around 8am, then we had to sit in a meeting with all of the orthopedic surgeons for about an hour. It was all in Danish, so I basically just zoned out. Unfortunately my Danish language class didn’t teach me orthopedic vocab. Then I had to get changed into my scrubs so we could get started on the first surgery!
My host dad wasn’t sure how I would react to seeing him cut someone’s foot open, so for the first surgery he just had me stand off to the side and watch. That way I could look away or go sit down if I needed. The man he was operating on had a tumor on one of the nerves in his middle toe, but he was also missing a couple toes from an accident earlier in life. Therefore, there was a lot of scar tissue, and my host dad really had to dig and cut around it to get the tumor. It sounds gross, but I actually ended up inching closer and closer to see it. I actually thought I would be more grossed out than I was!

Then for the second surgery I got to learn how to scrub in so that I could sit next to him and really see what he was doing! I don’t think my hands have ever been cleaner in my life haha. When you are all scrubbed in, you have to make sure you don’t touch anything that isn’t sterile, so my host dad had me do the “angel hands.” In the second surgery, my host dad had to elongate the ligament to a man’s pinkie toe because it curled in and was causing irritation from his shoes. My host dad literally just cut halfway into the ligament in two places, then he pulled it apart. Crazy!
The third surgery was on a young girl who twisted her ankle and damaged her cartilage. This would be so illegal in the United States, but my host dad actually let me help him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was a laparoscopic surgery, so everything was done through three small holes in her ankle. He had a camera in one of the holes so we could watch on a screen what he was doing. At one point my host dad was holding this pick-type tool in order to chip away some of the cartilage on her dead bone, then he asked me to grab the hammer. I was like “seriously!?!?” I actually hammered the pick that chipped away some girls cartilage through a tiny hole in her ankle. SO COOL!
The final surgery was a 14-year-old girl who has having pain in the joint of her big toe. Nothing was showing up on the MRI scan, but the parents really wanted something done. My host dad ended up finding some damaged cartilage in the joint, so he drilled 5 holes in it so it would heal itself and grow new cartilage. This one was by far the grossest surgery. He cut into the side of her toe and literally just pulled the toe joint apart. He even had me poke the damaged cartilage and the normal cartilage with a tool in order to feel the differences between the two. I can’t even believe what I saw yesterday and that I actually got to help him! Whoever gets my host family next is so lucky!

Today is my final exam for Health Economics, then I am home free!!! Tonight I think I am making dinner with Gabi for her host family because mine is leaving. Then we are going dancing!
Hej Hej!
Emily