Our last full week in Bonn started off with a complete and utter
moment of panic when we received an email from Professor Waltz at 10:17 asking
where we all were and said that class was supposed to start at 10:15. According
to all of the schedules we had, our class didn’t start until 11:45, so we were
all confused and then tried to quickly get up to AIB. Professor Waltz was
understanding about it, though, and we had two interesting lectures on the
neural pathways of an aural stimulus. We learned about how there is a
conservation of the tonotopic map produced in the cochlea on the cochlear
nuclei. We also talked about how the brain interprets things like inter-aural
time differences (ITD) and inter-aural loudness differences (ILD) in order to
localize the sound. While listening to these lectures, I was so thankful that I
have already taken anatomy and a neuroscience class because otherwise it would
have been difficult to keep up. However, I was able to understand a majority of
what Professor Waltz said, and I found the material to be incredibly
fascinating. Later that evening, we took a trip with Professor Waltz to a local
organ factory (like the musical instrument… not the body parts…. I was confused
at first). We were able to tour the facility and see all of the parts of organ
production: from the pouring of the molten lead and tin alloy, to the rolling
of the metal sheets, to the final packaging. Seeing this factory and learning
about the meticulous work it takes to make each organ pipe sound correct. This
trip definitely gave me a new appreciation for organs, and I will remember this
excursion any time I hear an organ in the future.
The next day was hands-down one of my favorite days of the
trip. Half of our group went to the local hospital to observe surgeries!
(AHHHHHHH!!! It’s felt like it’s been forever since I’ve been in an OR.) For
the majority of the morning, I observed two different orthopedic surgeries. The
first case was a woman who was an amputee that had acquired an infection in her
remaining tibia and the lower portion of her femur. For the operation, the
surgeon opened the end of her amputated leg, cleaned the end of the bone, and
took some samples. They were going to send the samples for testing in order to
determine what the pathogen was and if the infection could be treated by
antibiotics. If antibiotics were not an option for treatment, they would have
to go back and amputate above the sites of infection. While they were finishing
up and waking the patient up, I went into the antechamber room where they had
the next patient. I spoke a lot with the anesthesiologist and even got to help
her intubate the patient. She had me hold the oxygen mask on the patient while
Propofol was administered. The anesthesiologist then explained how to provide
air to the patient by using the back until they could use the endotracheal
tube. She then had me bag for a while until the patient was asleep enough to
put in the tube. It actually took a bit to get the hang of it, and I definitely
need more practice, but it was such a cool experience. This patient was then
taken into the OR to have a metal plate put on her clavicle fracture. For this
surgery, two surgeons worked together to install the hardware in order to
bridge the gap made by the fracture and stabilize the clavicle. At one point,
the surgeons asked what I wanted to specialize in, and I responded by saying
something with surgery. They like this, of course. I had also made a comment to
the anesthesiologist in the room earlier about how shocked I was that the
surgeons weren’t wearing any eye protection. The anesthesiologist said that
surgeons typically didn’t, but she thought they should because it protects the
surgeons better. During the surgery, the anesthesiologist mentioned the comment
I had made previously, and they laughed and said that they really should be
wearing eye protection. Once this surgery was done, I went into another OR
where some friends were and watched a portion of the ongoing operation in that
room. The patient had hydrocele, and the surgeon opened the scrotum and drained
the fluid. As he was beginning to close up the vaginal tunic, I went to go to a
different OR with Juliette. In that OR, an ENT was removing a tumor from the
inside of a woman’s cheek. They had one half of the patient’s face pulled back
and were meticulously working to remove the tumor. We were able to watch the
surgeon excise the tumor but had to leave before we could see the facial
reconstruction portion (we got hungry…. I wish we had stayed though). During
this surgery, we talked with the anesthesiologist who explained the process of
a blood transfusion and the criteria for giving blood. We talked about how a
normal hemoglobin level (at least for a woman of the patient’s size) is 12 g/dL
and how the patient was at 8 and still had a few hours of surgery so she was
given a blood transfusion. Overall, this day was just incredible, and I’m glad
I was able to see German medicine first-hand.
The next morning, we were driven to Bingen, where we went to
the Hildegard museum to learn about Hildegard and see a Roman surgeon’s
instruments. We then took a Rhine cruise back towards Bonn and were able to see
the beautiful countryside and many different castles. We ended the cruise in a
town where we toured a castle and crawled through its “fox tunnels.” After
touring the castle, we bussed back to Bonn.
The next day, we had an incredible lecture by Dr. Wasser
about the Nazi euthanization programs. We talked about the Nazi ideology and how
they used propaganda to promote their ideas. They viewed people with
disabilities as having “lives not worth living.” They began euthanizing their
citizens with disabilities and then later started sending people such as Jews
and others to concentration camps. Throughout the war, and even after, the
Nazis continued their euthanization programs.
On Friday, we had a lecture in the morning over sauna
medicine, which I actually found to be very intriguing. I actually a little
surprised to see data that shows that regular sauna-ing may actually help
decrease the risk of heart problems. In the afternoon, we went to Cologne to
visit the zoo there. While there, we had a guide who talked to us about the
history of the zoo and about some different animals. We were then able to go
behind the scenes of the elephant enclosure and speak with the elephant
caretakers. But the best part: we got to feed an elephant! We fed a pretty
large elephant some dried bread, which is a sweet treat to them. After our tour
was over, we were technically finished for with program activities for the day
so the 6 of us (Juliette, Katheryn, Hailey, Gabe, Carter, and myself) walked
around the zoo and the aquarium for the next hour an a half before we began
making our way to the airport for our late flight to Palma de Mallorca. We flew
with Ryanair, and the flight there was probably one of the worst flights I’ve
ever been on. For starters, the plane was very uncomfortable with no legroom.
The seats had no pockets, the safety instructions were stuck on the back of the
seats, and the flight attendants tried to force-hand you magazines with drink
prices and discounted perfumes and whatnot. The tops of the seats and the
overhead compartments were this bright, obnoxious yellow so we said it was like
the taxi of the sky. Even though I was slightly scared by the armrest that was
nearly falling off, the other people on the flight were the worst part. There
was a rowdy group of youngish adults who kept standing up, yelling, singing,
and chanting on a flight that was from 9:00-11:30 at night. It was absolutely
ridiculous, and I was very happy when we landed. The next morning, we headed
towards the beach and stopped for a breakfast that ended up being not so good,
but oh well. The beach (which was actually in Santa Ponza) was beautiful. The
weather was perfect: it was sunny and warm, but not too hot, and the water was
a nice cool temperature. We spent the entire day at the beach and got a little
sunburned in the process. For dinner, we ate at this nice Spanish restaurant
right on the water, and I had this amazing lobster and clam pallela. We watched
the sun set, and after dinner we went back to the beach until it got dark. It
was so peaceful… I didn’t want to leave. One of my favorite things is walking
along the beach right on the waters edge at night. We reluctantly went back to airbnb,
but I got up early and was out at the beach by 9:30. I paid for a beach chair
under and umbrella because my poor sunburnt skin needed the shade. I lay by the
beach in my chair until the others showed up about an hour and a half later. We
stayed at the beach until 4:00 when we had to head to the airport. The flight
home wasn’t as bad as the flight there, but we arrived in Cologne about 45
minutes late. I was sad that this was the last weekend trip we had…. But I’m
glad that we decided to go to the beach and relax for our last hoorah. I am
definitely going back to Spain someday, and hopefully I’ll be able to explore
the cities and more beaches. There’s a Carrasco region of Spain where my
ancestors are from, which I would love to visit as well as a Carrasco beach in
Portugal. Someday…
Still sunburned bu happy,
Alana
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