Axolotls + mud = medicine

This week has been one of the best weeks so far! Monday and Tuesday were spent in Bonn but we traveled for the end of the week to northern Germany which was really great. On Monday we went to the Museum of Anesthesiology where Dr. Stroeckel, “an artifact himself” showed us around the museum that he helped set up after his retirement. It was really fantastic to meet someone who could be considered one of the influential people in modern anesthesiology! He was the first to use a closed loop feedback system in 1987. Dr. Stroeckel was so nice and was very enthusiastic about the history, machines, and science having to do with anesthesiology so it really helped the group get interested even though we were all pretty tired after our weekend in Prague. After lunch we went to the HARIBO STORE!! The phrase, “like kids in a candy shop” never had a better meaning than that day as we ran through the aisles trying to determine what to buy. Michelle and I both bought duffle bags there since we’re running out of room in our luggage for all of our souvenirs…. After this sugar rush we went to the Beethovenhaus! Beethoven is one of the biggest “claim-to-fames” that Bonn has so its really cool to see a big piece of their history. The house was the same one that Beethoven and his family grew up in and, even though there wasn’t much furniture, they did have the original famous portrait of him, his actual piano that he played on for a little while, and a really cool gift shop ^.^ but the floorboards were so squeaky!!

Nothing too exciting happened on Tuesday, just an interesting couple of lectures by Dr. Wasser about the Paleolithic-man and health in those times. We also discussed epidemic diseases and then the rise of health care and knowledge through Greece and then Rome. And then we were off to Hannover early in the morning on Wednesday! Hannover is most known for its Medical School (considered the “Harvard” of Germany) and its making great strides in research and technology. For everyone in the group, human or vet med, this experience for the 2 days there was really wonderful. We were able to have a great discussion with Dr. Jan Schmitto who is a cardiologist and his department deals a lot with any thoracic problems and transplants. He showed us devices that they have just recently improved with the help of American scientists that will pump blood through the heart when the muscles become too weak. Supposedly Dick Cheney had one of these while waiting on the organ donor list! We were also able to talk with a patient who has been through this processes and get his feedback on how he liked living with the LVAD (Left Ventricular Assist Device) which requires a battery belt to be worn around the waist and charged periodically. He told us his story over the past few years and was a really awesome guy!

Our second day at the MHH was one of the most fun (for me) I think because we started off talking to Dr. Reimers about Axolotl which are salamanders that have been suspended in their larval stage and have regenerative properties that can be studied! Their genes are being researched to determine if this is a trait that humans can at some point use to re-grow limbs as well! I love science like this that seems so far fetched but wonderful, and the Axolotl were so adorable! I am very highly considering getting a couple for my fish tank since its almost empty ;)

Dr. Reimers also showed us where they do research on silk spiders in which they harvest their silk and test it for how many strands will be the strongest (60 with 3 threads) and also they are learning about healing processes it contains. For example if you were to put some of the silk in a wound it would heal faster and without a scar than doing nothing! The group was joking about how this fact will one day save us on a deserted island or if we wound up in the Hunger Games haha. We then went to another part of the hospital to talk to Dr. Kielstein, a nephrologists and internist. He mainly talked again about the differences in the German health care system and our own in the US. We’ve had this discussion with Dr. Wasser and a bit the day before with Dr. Reimers and I think its always great to hear because I don’t know too much about my own health care system so it’s teaching me that as well as what is happing in politics at the moment that will soon effect my future. He then talked to us about dialysis (hemo and peritoneal). It was really interesting because I didn’t really understand what dialysis was so it really sunk in when he let us see and talk to a patient! This entire experience at the Medical School was informative for my future and really made me feel ahead of the curve as an undergraduate student.

Thursday night we took a train to Emden as a resting place outside of Norderney (since its so fancy and nice it gets booked up so fast!) Emden was the cutest little town on the canal and we found a nice restaurant where we could eat fresh fish! In the morning we made our way to the Island of Norderney on a ferry where we got to see seals!! The mudflut hiking was one of the things I was most looking forward to on this entire 5 week trip and it didn’t disappoint. Our tour guide showed us which plants you could or couldn’t eat in the wild of the mud flats and also taught us about the creatures that lived in this habitat. We dug up worms and each held one before letting them race back into the ground, we collected muscles and saw how they stuck together, and we found exoskeletons of crabs! We also had a great time just walking through the deep mud trying not to fall over and then a fun but difficult time trying not to hurt our feet as we walked over the tiny crabs, worm poop, and shells on the way back to shore. The IFR Clinic (rehab-system and thalassic therapy) was almost as equally entertaining. We learned about the types of diseases and sicknesses that they treat there and how to get prescribed to spend weeks in this wonderful place! We toured around the center and saw where people could get massages, mud wraps,  do sleep studies, workout, talk to a psycologist, etc. Almost everything there seemed to make you want to relax which I know would also make most anyone feel better! Its really cool that studies have shown how well the clinic works just being in a place as clean and nourishing as the Wadden Sea. I wish I could stay there!

And now I’m on a bus back to Bonn with half of our group (the other half went to Hamburg for the weekend!) This truly was an exciting week while also not being overwhelming. Three of us out of the five heading to Bonn are going to Strasburg, France tomorrow! I’ll post another blog about that momentarily to hang tight!