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Today was our second day of placement! We had a new mentor today. We got to see two ACL repairs and a total knee replacement. The first ACL repair was for a middle aged man who was having trouble playing soccer. He wasnt in a ton of pain but his knee was very week and would give out at times. Our mentor allowed us to feel how his knee popped out of the socket while it was moved. In order to do an ACL repair, they have to harvest a tendon from elsewhere. In this case, they harvested one from the hamstring. The doctor dug into the muscle and literally just pulled on part of the tendon until it came out. After that, the doctor tore up the broken tendon, which looked like it had fuzz on it. Then they cut little holes in the tissue of the knee to insert thier tools. Then the doctor drilled a hole from the head of the femur to about 6 inches passed the head of the femur. It was crazy to see a drlll go through all that bone and go through the skin on the other side. A string was threaded in the hole to help guide the tendon into place. The tendon was then attached and the surgery was done. It was one of the craziest things I have ever seen!
Our second surgery was also an ACL repair. This one was from a motorbike accident. This guy was in a lot of pain. Instead of harvesting the tendon from the hamstring, they had to get it out of the ankle.
The third surgery we say was a total knee replacement of an older woman. She was having pain kneeling and walking. They removed the head of the femur and tibia to insert the artifical joint with cement.
After placement, we went had a global health class. This one was talking about health care in Thailand. Most health care is free here. However, they have a tier system. First the have to go to a general practitioner who refers them to a specialist and so on. It was actually really interesting to compare it to the US, Australia (Liana), and Switzerland (Jenny).
It was raining hard all day long! So after placement, we went to the spa for a Thai massage. It was unlike any massage I have ever had. They streched you while doing deep tissue stuff. It was a struggle to figure out how to put the outfit on but I figured it out. All 5 of us were massaged in the same room. Our massage therapists were so giggly and kept making jokes about tapping out if its too hard and how we were all cracking so much. I asked for mine soft (while everyone else did hard, I must be the wimp of the group) and it felt so good. It was only around $7! After the massage, we attempted to make a stop at the night bazaar. We walked around for like 20 mins but it was POURING! We ended up sprinting back to Jimmy in the songtheaw so he could take us home. We will try to get there again sometime this week before we leave!
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