Surgery or American Politics?

This past week, as a group, we shadowed German doctors at Universitätsklinikum Bonn, and it was awesome. I've shadowed surgeons, physicians assistants, and nurse practitioners in America, and for the most part, things are pretty similar. There aren't drastic differences I could really differentiate between while shadowing.

I got the opportunity to watch two different surgeries with Sarah. First, we watched an inguinal hernia repair surgery, and to be honest, it wasn't the most interesting surgery. But our second surgery was a really sad case, but also much more interesting. We watched an explorative laparotomy on a young woman with stage 4 colon cancer. This was about her fourth or fifth procedure and she understood the severity and circumstances of her case. Depending on what they found (if the cancer spread further or not) different measures were to be taken. Although it was sad, the procedure was fascinating and seeing the malignant spots on her intestines was unlike anything I've ever seen. No longer were we viewing pictures from a textbook, which I must say, it was pretty cool to see our learning come to life. The explorative surgery was quite long so we were not able to stay until the end, but what we viewed was compelling.

I'm so glad I got to go along with a friend and have someone to chat with. For the most part we stood by the anesthesiologist and a last year medical student. It took them a little while to get warmed up to us I suppose, but soon after they enjoyed answering our questions. The surgeons were also intrigued by out interests and American accents. Of course once they discovered we were from America we got questioned about American politics and more specifically, Donald Trump. It was a conversation of light heartedness and good chuckles. I think they may have asked us more questions about politics than we asked about the procedures.

The heavy German accents were a little hard to come by, but I think Sarah and I both learned a lot last Wednesday (in terms of the procedures, methods, and german medical terms and organ/body parts). And I think I can speak for both of us saying it was a really great opportunity and we both enjoyed it a lot.