week 12 - Sunday's Sundae was Lecker

This week was incredible, to say the least. Today while walking home I thought about how this trip has been so far and how it has affected me both professionally and personally. First, I could have never imagined the places and activities I have been fortunate enough to visit and experience. This week put the cherry on top of the sundae it has turned into for me. On Wednesday, we got to visit the Uniklinikum (hospital) in Bonn where we were all assigned to different anesthesiologists. In other words, we were allowed to shadow these professionals throughout their work day and witness the surgeries they would provide anesthesia for. Once inside the hospital, we were escorted through the changing room, where we changed into scrubs, and then regrouped once we were changed. The anesthesiologist that was escorting us then took us to our respective rooms for the surgeries. I didn’t have to wait long in suspense for my room since I was first to get dropped off. He introduced me to my anesthesiologist, whose name was Eva, and left. Once inside, Eva reintroduced herself, and the girl that was shadowing her. The patient was already on the table by the time I was inside. It was a little intimidating at first since there were about 4 others (all different ages) shadowing someone in the room, and I was the only one who didn’t know German. However, Eva and the girl who was shadowing her were both extremely helpful and glad to explain everything to me. The major processes were explained to me, and if I did not know any of the smaller processes, or medical devices, I would ask about and get a clear answer. The surgery was indeed incredible. After walking into my operation room, I soon found out that the patient is having a cardiac bypass surgery! That means they would operate on the man’s heart! I was excited to get to experience such an important and risky surgery. And I would get to see an actual heart! It was incredible from the very start of the surgery. The patient was already asleep when I entered, and I was able to watch the insertion of the catheter through both the man’s clavicle towards his heart, and through his urethra. Once the catheters were in, Eva took a long needle, and on a monitor, we could all see as she entered his heart with the needle and administered a stronger dosage to ease his pain. From there the nurses began to prepare the body for surgery by covering up his whole body except for his left leg and his chest. The last part covered was the head which had a sheet pulled up to block his head. The surgeon walked into the room and scrubbed sanitizer on her hands all the way to her forearms. The nurses then helped her put on her gown over her scrubs. She then grabbed a scalpel and cut through the skin of the patient’s chest. After that she grabbed a small electric saw that was used to cut through the flesh of the man’s chest. Finally, she took hold of a large electric saw and cut through the rib cage of the man. During the final process, I was surprised to see the lead nurse cringing slightly at the motion of the saw. The surgeon then took hold of a metal contraption and placed it on the insides of the patient’s chest. She the extended it out in order to increase the opening of the chest cavity, and screwed it into place. Then she cut through the pericardium to finally expose the man’s beating heart. At this point I was in pure awe at what was before me. A fully formed, unscathed heart that was fully exposed to the outside environment, and it was beating! The surgeon then began to work on preparing the artery to be bypassed. At this point, a male surgeon walked into the operating room and got into uniform and began cutting into the leg of the patient. The reason for this is to attached these smaller vessels to the heart to bypass the artery. These smaller vessels adapt to their surroundings after a few months by thickening their walls, and after a few years it is hard to tell that these vessels never belonged there. The surgeons eventually finished up the surgery and closed up the man by suturing and stapling his chest together.

Over the weekend, we participated in the Bonn Marathon and, without any previous training, I was able to fully finish the race under 2 hours without stopping at all! I was so proud of what I could accomplish and now feel confident enough to start running marathons on a more regular basis. There was also a bet placed between Kendrick and me to see if I could run the whole race without stopping at all. If I didn’t stop then he would buy me ice cream, and if I did stop, I would buy him ice cream. Luckily, I didn’t stop running in the race, and he promised to buy me ice cream later.