Vienna [1/13-1/15]

It was hard to get out of bed this Friday (the thirteenth!), but I managed it, and it was very worth it! Our first adventure on this day was to the Vienna Medical School. We had a presentation that basically compared medical schools in the US and Austria. We were joined by a student, Robert, who joined us and gave us additional input from the student perspective. We got to go to the Josephinium and see the extensive collection of wax models, including the obstetric models. The attention to detail on these wax models was unreal. They looked so real! They would be great for a student’s individual study or tutoring and it seems they are still true to their purpose as our group of pre-med students learned from them! The figures were true to size if not bigger, and intricately prepared. They were in their original casings of Venetian class, an impressive feat indeed! We got lunch at a unique restaurant that offered delicious Indian food and had an interesting business model based on a pay-as-you-like principle. We got to take a tour of the University’s main campus. It had a beautiful courtyard and busts of many important figures of academia! We made our way to the Narrenturm, which was at one time an insane asylum. This looming circular building has such an interesting appearance and really sort of emphasizes the fact that patients there were not at all treated like the rest of society. The building now houses the Federal Pathologic-anatomical museum which has more than is fair share of medical moulages and preparations of actual pathologies. I had actually hoped for more history of the Narrenturm as an asylum-- perhaps some case studies--but I really enjoyed the Museum tour. We headed out to a coffee shop. I had some of the richest hot chocolate that the world has probably ever seen and we had a little journal writing party. I headed out with Shelby, Chris, and Justin and we wandered toward Stephansplatz for a little shopping. We went into a store that contained the most chocolate I have ever seen in one place. We had dinner at Restaurant Führich and I give it five stars! We traversed the city for gelato; we grabbed a U-bahn toward the Danube and followed the lights to the water. We passed the St. Francis of Assisi church in Mexikoplatz. It’s not the most historical of churches, as some brief research tells me it’s only about a century old, but it is beautiful and it looks like a castle! Perfected by the snow falling and lights shining up on it! Finally, we made it to the river. Guten tag of medical school and museum adventures, guten abend of exploring the city!  January the 14th was a real mixtape! We took a train to Mödling where we visited the hospital’s heart station. We were introduced to many materials and oriented to imaging screens so that we could better understand what was going on, what the images should look like, and the problems that we would be seeing. We saw a heart catheterization via the femoral artery; it was very visible on the imaging screen as it snaked up into the heart. I learned a lot I did not know about catheters, wires, shunts, saline balloons, and other tools of the trade. We got to see an ultrasound of Zach’s heart and then some replay of some pretty dramatically abnormal ultrasounds. Later we got to visit the home of Dr. Frass, a homeopath and an MD. But first, Dr. Kerschbaum of the Austrian Red Cross presented to us an overview of Red Cross world involvement and philosophy. Onto the lecture on homeopathy, I strove to keep an open mind. It is important to understand the philosophy behind alternative medicine, and it was interesting how quickly his presentation told me that my assumptions about homeopathy were pretty much all wrong. I thought it was a nutrition-based doctrine; I thought it was like like eat some yogurt, take some vitamin C, and you’ll feel much better. In fact, homeopathy seeks to use a single remedy to treat all the whole patient, guided by the law of similars and prepared by serial dilutions and vigorous shaking. Most of it is based on case studies and the science that my “western mind” craves to back it up was scarce. However, the experience has served to at the very least broaden my definition of what some in our society considers to be Heath and/or Medicine. The way I see it, if it helps some people get over some illnesses or discomforts and it isn’t hurting anyone, I am all for it. However, it’s not an area of practice that I would like to be a part of. This night we had our first farewell dinner at an Austrian Restaurant where we at a long table in a wine cellar. The food, wine, friends, and intriguing conversations made this one of my favorite evenings. After we got back to the hotel, a group of us changed and headed back out to go dance (yayyy!) at a club that Robert suggested. It was called Volksgarten. We had a lot of fun finding it, and then dancing (part of) the night away! Note to future students: it is a very NICE club, so dress up! The 15th of January was absolutely incredible. We had lecture in Freud’s house!! THE SIGMUND FREUD HOUSE! After our lecture, we had a guided tour of the house, where he lived and had his practice. One very cool thing: his waiting room was intact. So many patients that we’ve read about sat in there! The museum was put together by his daughter, and one very unique contribution was home videos of the Freud family. I really enjoyed this experience. Our next stop was the Natural Historical Museum of Vienna and I enjoyed walking through their collections. Highlights include: the dinosaur room and the giant turtle skeleton, much of the zoological taxidermy, and the butterfly room. Then we went to our (really, it’s the last one this time) farewell dinner. Many of us enjoyed wienershnitzel, and we all sang a rather rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to Sophie! This was a fun night and a night for many thank you’s. I am so thankful that I was able to be a part of this trip and for each and every person in our group and each person who crossed our path to teach us, lead us, help us, or feed us!