Western Denmark!

Hej!

Sorry it's taken me forever to update this blog..... but this last week was amazing! Every program had their short study tour to Western Denmark last Thursday through Saturday. There are 4 MPP sections in all, so they grouped A& C (the groups going to Germany and Poland this October) and B& D (the groups going to Sweden and Estonia).... and while you might think the two groups would traipse off to all the same places, you're quite wrong. MPP A (A&C) went to two different cities (and definitely did not have quite the experience we did) while my group MPP B (B&D) travelled to Århus, Aalborg and Odense. We had SUCH a wonderful time, educationally and socially, and I'm really excited about the people in my group. Here are some details to make you jealous. ;)

Thursday morning our group was ordered to get up bright and early and be at the bus stop before 7am. We all joked about this because many of the other DIS programs had departure times of 8am or even 9am.... In our opinions, the international business and medical programs were up early because DIS is trying to get us ready for future careers. Doctors are always up at the crack of dawn, especially during residency, while Int'l businessmen have to be up at weird hours to communicate overseas. Maybe we overanalyzed it a bit, but it definitely made us all feel more important. haha. We got on the bus for the 4.5 hour bus drive to Århus which is one of the next biggest cities in Denmark. I laughed to myself about the distance because it pretty much equals a drive from Houston to Dallas, TX. But instead, we were covering the length of a whole country. Oh Texas.... you are much too big. Anyway, the bus drive was fine - our bus driver, Fleming, was wicked awesome throughout the whole trip, and I must admit I will miss him. He taught me a very cheesy joke that my family will love... but I'll tell you about that in a minute.

In Århus we were left to our own devices for an hour to do a "scavenger hunt" which nobody really participated in. Thats one tiny complaint I have about DIS is that they LOVE scavenger hunts. It's cute and all, but an hour to explore a major city and not get lost is actually quite a difficult feat. Instead, 2 of my friends and I walked around admiring the charming buildings (pics in the next post!) and made it to our meeting spot....... an ice cream parlour! DIS paid for all of us to have amazing ice cream; my combination? Tiramisu and Mint. YUM. After the ice cream we all had to go find lunch and by luck, the three of us (everyone kinda split off randomly) found the most amazing sandwich place for which we congratulated ourselves repeatedly. The sandwiches were like this: whole grain wheat baguette with chicken, pesto, etc etc OR the same bread with mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, among other veggies. Man I'm hungry now. After lunch we met back with the group to go see a General Practitioner's office in Skødstrup. We were told this is one of the best GP offices in all of Denmark, so I was REALLY excited for the visit. Most GP's in Denmark have one tiny office, one secretary, and a whole list of patients that they care for from cradle to grave. This office was like a home turned into a hospital - quaint, roomy, and loads of natural light. At Skødstrup, there are 8 partners, up to 3 training doctors, nurses, specially trained secretaries, etc, etc.... quite big for the Danish system. What I loved about the building was that, even though it was supposedly a bigger practice, it didn't remind me of medicine, emergencies, sterility, or anything else associated with a medical practice. After a wonderful lecture by Per Kallestrup (look him up online, he's quite amazing), we received a nice tour of the facility. For the last year or so I've been so intent on wanting to study surgery, so I was amazed when I realized that being a GP (only in Denmark, sorry America) would be a really rewarding job to have. It's hard to explain all of the differences, but GP's here in Denmark have structured job hours, they get VACATION time (what? a doctor?!), they actually have quite unpredictable maladies day to day, and they get the best amount of patient interaction - their whole lives! I really love working with people, so I can appreciate that difference quite a lot. Now, people can change their GP if they don't feel comfortable for some reason, but the Danes are quite happy with their system, and I don't blame them one bit. Malpractice is practically unheard of in a socialized system.... how nice! I could seriously go on and on about the differences between American medicine and Danish medicine, but that could get boring and quite long.... so if you have any questions, drop a comment or an e-mail and I can tell you all about it!

After the GP office, everyone was quite hungry, so we travelled to Danhostel, dropped off our belongings, and headed to a special buffet provided for us. It was a wonderful meal, and everyone was more than satisfied. By this point, my 2 roommates and I were so tired, that upon entering the room, we fell immediately asleep while others were attempting to experience the nightlife. While staying in Randers is pretty darn close to the city, apparently Århus is no match for Kbh and we didn't feel like we missed out at all. In fact, we were quite rested for the next day's busy activities.

The 2.5 hour trip up to Aalborg was again uneventful - nice napping time really. Out of the whole trip, I must confess that Friday was by far my FAVORITE day and that I'm quite in love with Aalborg. I'm not sure I could ever live there for long periods of time, but it's definitely a nice visit for someone in the medical profession. This part of the trip is also where the other MPP group missed out...... First we went to a Stem Cell Research Lab and sat through a few complex presentations, took an interesting tour of the facility (but if you've done research before, there isn't too much to ooh and awe over), and then went to the cafeteria for lunch at Uni. Aalborg. One of the main interesting parts to this tour was seeing a brand new, completely sterile wing of the lab shut down due to ethical debate. In America, when a lot of money is put into a project, its more or less understood that the project is going to be finished. Well, this part of the lab was going to be used for some kind of private medical research (not socialized: and sorry I really forget what it was supposed to be used for), and the ethical debate was not about the content of the research, but for the reason that "not everyone has equal access to such technology." So there stands a beautiful, ready-to-go lab unused and empty. Kinda sad. That may be one of the downfalls of socialized medicine.

After lunch, our group drove to the Aalborg Sygehus (literally meaning Aalborg Sickhouse, or also a hospital) to have a lecture on pre-medical and post-medical education, a tour of the hospital, and..... wait for it........ TIME TO PLAY IN A CLINICAL SKILLS LAB! This is something that only our group got to do, and I'm so darn happy I chose MPP D, because otherwise I would've been angry at not getting this chance. The faculty here were so cordial, and the hospital was gorgeous. It was also only 5 years old, but by using natural light, large windows, clean white paint, and an unusual layout, it was not your typical chaotic hospital that one would find back home. On the tour we got to visit their Internal Medicine ward (kind of like an ER part 2; a place where patients typically stay up to 24 hours after being admitted directly by their GP or after being stabilized in the ER). Then we got to see a Dialysis ward and learn how the machines work. It's interesting to note that the European technique for Dialysis is actually more beneficial than the American technique. Again, the US focuses on efficiency and less time hooked up to the machine (big shock). We dilate the veins as much as we can to get a bigger flow of bad blood to clean...... however...... that much dilation can cause more stress on the body and ends up not clearing all of the edema the process causes. The European technique keeps the patient dialysizing (?) for up to 6 hours instead of 4 which lowers the amount of edema experienced and ends up clearing out more bad blood. It's very interesting and it would be interesting to find some research on why American doctors choose a different method. My guess? We have a bigger population and waiting times are more important in the States than in a small Scandinavian country. Oh well, to each his own - as long as lives are saved! After the tour we went to the clinical skills lab and got to suture fake skin, play medical video games, recussitate a dummy, implant IV's into fake arms, and even play to win candy. Suturing is not like sewing by the way. There's a special technique which is quite tedious but pretty simple - no wonder lazy doctors staple or get their nurses to handle it. The IV application was hard only because our instructor's accent was too thick to really understand.... and she had a hard time explaining how to do it in English. "Put the needle in the "ween" and watch for blood." ---> Yup, thats how you insert an IV.... but wait! I see no WEEN! hahaha, my friend and I had a few laughs about that one. I am happy to say that in the end, we both succeeded. The first thing I actually did in the lab was a colonoscopy.... and it was amazing. I basically stood in front of this computer screen, twisting and inserting a cord into a fake patient, while using controls to move it around in my left hand. The colon-recto surgeon supervising the machine was really impressed with my ability to pick up the technique so quickly and told me I should be a rectal surgeon. In my "progress report" I was the only one who didn't cause any discomfort to the "patient, and had the fastest most accurate time for surveying the fake colon. Sweet! However, I'm not sure I'd like being a rectal surgeon, hahah. The video game was by far my favorite.... and perfect for wannabe surgeons. You grasp these scissor like controls and have different exercises that mimic certain surgical skills. I wish I could explain it properly, but it was quite fun. That machine is definitely on my wishlist for xmas.... ;)

After the clinical skills lab, we were given sandwiches and got to ask last minute questions about the hospital. Afterwards we all happily got on the bus, arrived to another Danhostel, and prepared for the best dinner I've had in a long time. Our group got to eat and tour a famous brewery in Aalborg called the Søgaard Bryghus. Now I'm not interested in beer at all, so I didn't care for the tour too much (even though the boys loved it). We were given some tasty bread with different kinds of pesto and butter and free samples of EVERY special beer they make while waiting for dinner. This is where I love Fleming, our bus driver, more than I can express. Since I'm not a beer drinker (and there were a few other girls as well), he kept trading my beers in for their house apple cider (yes its alcoholic)..... which was the best cider I've ever had. Cannot explain how delicious it was. After indulging on our beverages, we got our meal. I'm also normally not a pork eater, but their pork was so delicious and came with potatoes, a tomato salad, chive butter, etc etc....... all cooked to perfection. Fleming taught us the following jokeÆ At a meal, if you're asked about your nationality you say, "I'm Danish...... and I'm Finnish!" - then you give your empty plate to the server indicating that you are indeed "finished." hahaha really dumb but for you cheesy comedians out there, I know you'll appreciate it (*cough* MOM). At the end, instead of getting the normal mug, they gave us a GOBLET of the drink of our choice. Our whole table ordered cider of course...... and we couldn't be happier. I'll have to post some pics of that too.

After a wonderful meal (thanks DIS!!), we all went out to the city to experience Aalborg's infamous party street "Virgin Anne." I definitely don't think they were talking about Anne Boleyn, but I digress. :) Needless to say it was a lot of fun. I actually fit in pretty easily over here in Europe because I know all the techno songs by heart and can actually sing them in the Danish language.....There were quite a few interesting moments in one of the clubs, including me almost being molested by a very drunk, quite trashy Danish girl..... thank you so much for whoever yanked me out of that situation. hah! I still can't quite figure out the guys here, so I've decided that drunk men are generally pretty much the same everywhere you go..... Yup. There was this one guy who refused to speak English to me, and kept talking to me in Danish while his friends stood there quite amused. Finally when we all got up to leave, he grabbed my arm and goes "Are you going home?!?!" and my response? "YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?!?! UGH!" Quite entertaining, I assure you. We got back to our hostel around 1am so that we could wake up early for our 8:30 am lecture.

The lecture was by one of our tour leaders who works for the Ministry of Health (and DIS) in Denmark. Andreas explained the finite details regarding the Danish Healthcare system which proved to be very interesting. We all got back on the bus to travel to our final destination, Odense, for a day of exploring medical technology and ROBOTS. While many of the other programs got to go paintballing, bowling, etc.... we docs got to explore robots. How nerdy. In fact, I noticed that many of the other programs did not have as many lectures as we did or trips to any place of establishment concerning their field of study..... I actually feel quite lucky with the schedule we were given. Of course some of the students complained, but in my opinion, if you don't like organized routines and schedules, how the heck can you survive in the medical profession? I guess you can limit yourself to being an ER trauma surgeon.... but good luck with all the training you have to get through. Anyhow, the robot festival was cute, and some of the technologies we saw were really impressive. My favorites included this hightech camera that can be used in teaching surgical operations as well as this bouncing yellow "bot" used for autism therapy. Alas, it was getting cold, so some spirits got pretty low, and you can only be so interested in robots for so long. We finally got back on the bus and headed back home... to Copenhagen. :)

On the bus ride back, Pamela (our other tour leader who is basically my life role model for everything I want to do) announced the winners to certain trivia games and let us watch a movie. The scenery was gorgeous, and we were all very satisfied with the study tour. Here's a list of some observations I made:

1). Don't try to smuggle food out of a hostel because the owners will make you pay for it or eat it on the spot (I did not do this in case you were wondering haha).

2). Hostel breakfasts in Denmark basically contain salami, bread, butter, coffee, juice, and random non-cereal that looks like cereal. Fruit is not a staple breakfast food here.

3). According to Pamela's boyfriend, Søren, drunk danes are just giving you "offers" - consider them well. (hahahahaha, this was in response to a sarcastic comment I made on our Denmark trivia quiz).

4). If you don't wear a scarf, boots, a chic jacket, and sunglasses.... you are foreign. I love European fashion.

5). Cabs are really cheap in Aalborg when you split them between 3 people.

Well, in my next post, I'll give you some pictures from the trip as well as some other fun observations I've made here in the past 3 weeks. Sorry this was so long, but hopefully you enjoyed the info. :)

Skål!

Danielle