Hannover and Norderney week

This week has flown by so far. I am on a train to Amsterdam right now trying to recall the events of the week and it as all a blur. We were in Bonn for Monday and Tuesday, went to Hannover on Wednesday, and spent Thursday and part of Friday in Norderney. In Bonn we had a lecture on anesthesiology before checking out the anesthesiology museum and receiving a tour from a former anesthesiologist that was almost part of the exhibit. The lecture was very interesting and it is funny to think that the compounds and techniques that we use today to anesthetize patients were not discovered very long ago. So, every surgery until the discovery of ether as an anesthetic was surely a bad time for everyone involved.  It is also amusing to me that for the scientists discovering anesthesia, a successful guinea pig trial meant human trials on themselves. Sir Humphrey Davy just bypassed the animal trials and inhaled a disturbing amount of chemicals to observe their properties. He became addicted to nitrous oxide, and even wrote about its painkilling properties. It never occurred to him that it could be used as an anesthetic, which was pretty unfortunate because nitrous oxide wasn’t, used an anesthetic for decades after Davy experimented with it.   I also really enjoyed our movie night with Mira when we watched The Last of Us. It made me feel thankful that I live in a country where I don’t have to worry about disrespecting the government. The movie was really good and offered quite a bit of insight into what east Berlin was like in the cold war era and I think it was good preparation for our trip to Berlin later in the program.

            Then we went to Hannover and saw the hospital there and it was really cool. I really enjoyed learning about the Left Ventricular Assist Devices. Implantation of these devices is a pretty simple solution to a dilated cardiomyopathy, and according to the doctor the surgery is pretty simple too. I think she was just being modest though, any surgery where you punch a hole through the wall of the heart looks pretty complicated to me. Meeting the patient with an LVAD in his chest was fantastic too. Aside from not having a pulse, he is a pretty normal guy. He wears big batteries to power his LVAD, but they don’t really hold him back. He said he has a little trouble climbing the stairs but he can move around a do most everything he wants. Before the LVAD he was just laying around at home because he couldn’t do much so his quality of life has really improved. He also let us all listen to his chest with a stethoscope and I heard the whizzing of the little pump which was really really cool. We also saw a man who has been on the waiting list for a donor heart for six months, which must be horrible. He just has to wait in the hospital day and night for a new heart without being able to leave. If it were me, I would have just had an LVAD put in because that can be done immediately with no wait for a donor.

            Then the trip to Norderney was really rejuvenating. The two-dollar air was totally worth it. I loved walking on the mudflats and seeing all the life in the mud. The mud was so chock full of worms and mussels and crabs it is easy to see why so many birds stop in Norderney to feed while migrating.  The mud felt fantastic too. It was cool, wet, mucky and refreshing.  Normally I don’t believe that things like mud baths have very much benefit, but I must say my feet felt amazing after the walk in the mud. We also all went to the beach one night, watched the sunset, and stayed until the stars became bright. It was a really busy week but it was tons of fun and I learned a lot too. Next week is our last week in Bonn and it feels like everything is going by way too fast. I’m on my way to Amsterdam now and I will have updates on that soon!