mrugger27

April 23-27 Last week in Dunedin :( This unfortunately marks the end of my time working at the hospital in Dunedin. I'll quickly give the highlights of this past week. On Monday we had another scoliosis case. I once again tried to make matchsticks, and Mr. Cartstens once again made fun of them. Whatever! I thought they were beautiful. On Tuesday we again had fracture clinic. I had a very embarrassing mistake of stating the dermatomal distribution rather than the correct L4 was S4 (the perianal area). On Wednesday night we had dinner at Mr. Hodgson's house with Alan and Ginny (his nurse/assistant). Yesterday there was a mobile clinic in Christchurch to help with the relief work. Today, we again had fracture clinic...and I had to say goodbye to my team. This was such a rewarding ... read more

April 10: Today we had more fracture clinic. Nothing too exciting happened. I found a gym on the University of Otago's campus. I'm also staying at a different hostel, now Penny's backpackers. April 11: Today I got to wear a spacesuit! We did a full-knee revision which requires extra gear (which I call spacesuits). The surgeon was Canadian and we jokingly jabbed at each other's country. It was somewhat comforting to have a fellow North American in the room. Those spacesuits are hot, though! We had another minor surgery in the afternoon (tibial fixation). April 12-13: Yesterday and today there was more fracture clinic. It's interesting to see how this socialized medicine system works. Many of the patients we had the past two days were rugby players. One guy had a ruptured achilles tendon - ouch! ... read more