Cardiac bypass and Vienna

Yesterday was by far my favorite day of the trip. We had the oppurtunity to watch cardiac bypass surgeries in Bad Oeynhausen at the Heart and Diaetes center. Before we went to the operating rooms, a short history of the hospital was givin along with some statistics of the procedures performed yearly. Lauren Link and I where able to be in the surgery that was done by Dr. Mirow, it was a quadruple bypass with a mitral valve replacement and he fixed the patients tricuspid valve, which was dialated. I had never seen any surgery before yesterday, so I was a little nervous on how watching all the procedures whould effect me. But by the time we were supposed to leave, I was reluctant to go. I really enjoyed watching the surgery and I hope that I might be able to see an entire surgery once I get back home. It started out with watching the anastesiologist prep the patient for surgery. Once the patient was wheeled in and everthing was set up we where able to stand on the platform at the head of the patient. This afforded us a view of the opening of the chest and the saphenous vein removal from the patients leg. I will admit that wathcing the doctor saw through the patients sternum was a little weird for me, but seeing the heart pumping in the chest was the coolest thing I have ever seen. I can not even describe what that moment felt like. The doctors and attending staff where very helpful and explained all they could during the surgery. I was able to watch the actual bypass surgery of the blood and the beginning of Dr. Mirow fixing the tricuspid valve of the patient. The doctor doing the bypass joked that it was the operation to prepare for the operation. I really enjoyed my time in the OR and I would have loved to see the rest of the surgery, especially the valve replacement.

The other half of the day was spent visiting the normal patient wards, where we were able to see the LVAD\artificial heart units and visit with patients who had them installed. There was one older gentleman who we where able to talk to about his living situation with the LVAD and how it had helped him immensly. I am amazed at everything that medicine is able to do at the present time and what it will continue to do. If I did not like clinical work so much, I might go into cardiac research. We also visited the ICU, where some patients have been there for 6 months! It seems that they keep getting problem after problem with no relief in sight. That just goes to show that even with all the technology of our day, there are still things beyond our reach. After visiting with the patients we went down to what felt like the basement and checked out the MRI machine. I had never seen one up close and we where able to feel its magnetic pull by placing a piece of aluminum sheeting (which is not magnetic) in the MRI, when you tried to pull it away the force against you was amazing. Also there was a hanger placed into the field of the MRI and we where asked to pull it out, instead of coming out the hanger actually bent! I was amazed, little side note, whenever I went near the MRI machine I could feel my belt pull away from my belt loops, I have many little metel studs on it and it felt really weird.
That evening before heading back to Hannover, we said goodbye to Steffi. We are all going to miss her, I really enjoyed her company and her help throughout the trip. Once we were back in Hannover Dr. Zäck met us at the train station, and he accomanied us to Vienna for the rest of our journey.

Today was not the best day for me and not only because we had to meet in the hotel lobby at 4:20 in the morning. I started feeling bad once we got into the taxis to go to the airport. Luckily I still had my bags with me and I was able to take an anti-nausea pill, which helped for a little while. Unfortunately I became ill on the plane about 15 minutes before we landed. I also became sick two more times on our way to the Hotel Zipser. It was decided that instead of me going to the cafe and touring the Stephansdom I would go visit a doctor. Dr. Zäck's sister-in-law recommended a doctor to us and I was able to be seen right away. He was 95% sure that the sickness came from my kidney stone, but was slightly worried that it might be appendicitis. So after paying for the visit and a prescription against nausea, the total coming out to €110!, I laid down in the hotel the rest of the day until it was time to go to dinner. I checked my temperature periodically and was relieved that I did not develop a fever. It is very unfortunate that I missed today because seeing the catacombs in the cathederal wuold have been very interesting I think. Our dinner was at a very nice italian restruant and the AIB paid for dinner. Hopefully I will stay in good health the last 3 days of this trip. I can hardly believe that our time here is almost done. I have had a wonderful time, despite the cold, and would dearly love to visit again in the summer time.