Earlier this week I got another chance to go up to the Bonn University Clinic to shadow some orthopedic surgeons. Thanks to Dr. Wasser being so flexible with the lecture schedule, Cameron and I were able to watch an especially complicated and fascinating shoulder prosthetic implantation. What surprised me the most was that they reversed the mechanics of the ball-and-socket joint. Rather than the proximal end of the Humerus being the ball fitted into the shoulder socket, the prosthetic had the ball on the trunk of the body with the socket on the arm. The prosthetic itself was a mechanical work of art and it was interesting to see the whole process from beginning to end. It was actually kind of funny, because the rarity of the procedure required that the surgeons have a poster of step-by-step instructions kind of like you would see in assembling a particularly difficult Lego creation. They had made some earlier notes on it, and I didn’t see them really checking it for reference, but the fact that it was taped up to the operation theater wall was pretty amusing. Even though I didn’t get to shadow the same surgeon as last time (Dr. Göbel had been working really late the day before and was given the day off), it was really nice that the other team let us attend the surgery (even if they weren't as effusive as could be hoped). Now I just have to finish up my research for this independent study project, and things should be good to go!
The work-intensive part of the week ended on Thursday with an exam in differential equations. The only good thing I can really say about the heavy workload is that I think I might be getting used to it (a good thing, considering that all of our projects and exams wrap up in about a month)! Andrea and I started off the Easter break directly, leaving on a flight to Prague that evening. However, that’s a story I can only hope to fit in the next blog post. Until then—Tchüss!
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