This morning I shadowed Dr. Kurt Ehlert. Dr. Ehlert specializes in general orthopaedics, but repairs lots of fractures. He was also one of my father’s professors when he was in medical school. We had a very light schedule this morning. Most doctors see 15-22 patients per clinic, but this morning we only had 7.
Because of the light schedule, Dr. Ehlert took the time to teach me how to identify fractures and even tested me on a couple ofx-rays. In the beginning it was difficult, but after a few tries I got the hang of it. He also helped me to learn and identify the major bones of the body, as you can see below on on my well-labeled image of Senor Bones.
While meeting with patients, sometimes D
r. Ehlert would ask me what a certain reaction to a mobility test or movement meant. 9/10 times I’d be making an educated guess. Luckily, sometimes I’d see the same thing with multiple patients. Some of the x-rays I was even able to correctly identify the fracture by the end of the clinic. At this rate, you can catch me operating next week!
In the afternoon I had the opportunity to shadow Dr. Ronald Summers. Dr. Summers specializes in sports medicine,such as knees and shoulders. He sometimes still will do total knee repl
acements, but doesn’t do total hip. He does surgery on items such as ACLs, menisci and rotator cuffs.
I got to see Dr. Summers give a lubrication injection to a woman to help her rehabilitate her knee. He used euflexxa, or sodium hyaluronate, which is a hyaluronic acid use to cushion, lubricate and protect the joints. Before inserting the injection, he sprayed a very cold spray to numb the skin. I noticed a change in color in the skin once it numbed. After he left the patient he showed me the spray and even sprayed it on my hand. I can confirm that it is, in fact, very cold.
Dr. Summers played football at Stanford U
niversity, so it was interesting talking about what it was like being a student-athlete and pursuing medicine. He majored in Human biology, and balanced playing for the football team. He recognizes that times have changed in terms of assisting student athletes and believes tha
t will be beneficial as I hope to follow a similar collegiate path.
Dr. Summers helped me to learn how to diagnose how a fracture occurred based on the x-ray. The lines in which the bone broke are reflective of how the injury occurred. For example, if the breaks spiral, often the bone twisted too far. If it is a straight break across, it often came from direct impact.
