week 4

This week I was able to shadow some surgeries at the hospital in Bonn.  The surgery that I started with was for a patient who had prostate cancer.  This doesn’t sound all that glamorous, but it was super interesting to watch because it was done using a Da Vinci.  I am normally not a queezy person, but 30 minutes into the surgery while watching on the screen, I started feeling lightheaded and had to step outside and get some water and coffee.  But after this, I was fine throughout the rest of the operation.    

The following day, we went to the organ factory.  I had no idea what a complicated process building and shipping an organ was.  

On Thursday after a day of class, we went to an anesthesiology museum.  The anesthesiology museum was really interesting, especially because I want to go into dentistry and dentists were one of the first people to start experimenting with ways to prevent people from feeling pain during procedures.  The anesthesiologist who the museum belonged to was also a super nice guy, and it was a great opportunity to meet someone who has recently impacted medicine.

Friday was the full day excursion to Bingen, which was one of my favorite trips that we have been on.  The first part of the excursion was a trip to the Hildegard museum.  I really liked having had a lecture over her prior to the museum so I had an idea over what Dr. Wasser was explaining to us during the museum.  Following this we went into the Hildegarden, where we were each assigned a type of plant to find.  My group was assigned a tree and we never actually found it. The boat ride down the Rhine was my favorite part of the day.  It was so nice to just relax on the boat and enjoy all of the scenery.  The day ended by taking a hike up to a castle where we were able to get a tour, and see some really pretty views of Germany.        

This weekend I stayed in Bonn with my host family and went to the Birkenstock outlet with Madeleine.  I am now coming home with five pairs of Birkenstocks (not all for me).  Sunday I went on a hike with my host family in Bad Godesberg and then had a small barbecue.  I was really glad that I was able to hang out with them since we have such little time left.