Monday. I struggled to get out of bed. The next two weeks are crammed with exams, projects, and a never ending list of homework assignments. To put the cherry on top, I started to catch the cold that was floating around. Despite my desire to waste the day in bed, I mustered up the energy to go to school. This week, the pharmacology professor was visiting from college station. She generously hosted a pharmacology workshop for the non-pharmacology students. Monday was the first day. We spent about three hours looking into different medical research databases. She introduced us to pubmed, google scholar, and another resource that I cannot remember. After a break for lunch, we had an afternoon full of classes. First was BMEN 253, then German and finally an enmodes meeting. We continued our discussion on FDA regulations and the approval process in BMEN 253. Our professor also gave us the project of modeling an electronic toothbrush in SolidWorks. As cool as solid works is, it's a pain in the neck because I can't download on my mac. So, stay tuned to see if that issue gets resolved before the due date. German is always a pleasure, Hilde is so candid while she teaches us. Finally, we worked on our Enmodes project. Im really satisfied with my groups project. I think that our idea is really innovative and a viable real solution. I can't say much more about it because of the nondisclosure agreements, but its pretty cool. Happy that the day was over, Madeline and I stared our routine journey home. We recently discovered a tram stop 3 minutes away from the AIB, so we no longer had to make the 15 minute trek to the hauptbahnhof. Finally we were home. I went to bed early to try and prevent whatever cold I was catching.
Tuesday, I woke up early. I dilly-dallyed downstairs a bit while making coffee and eating my breakfast portion of fruit. I headed back up stairs to do some light studying before going to school for the pharmacology workshop. My cough had worsened from the day before and I began to feel achy. I decided it was best to try and tough it out since I only had the workshop and DFQ. During the workshop, we learned about the drug creation and marketing process. It paralleled a lot with what we had learned during our excursion to Bayer. It takes a lot of patience to work in drug development. There is an endless amount of research, testing, and paperwork that comes with bringing a new drug to market. As I have learned in BMEN 253, this is also the case with bringing new medical devices to market also. After sitting through another DFQ lecture, Madeline and I headed home. I went to bed right after dinner again, hoping that a good amount of sleep would help me feel better in the morning.
Wednesday I did not want to get out of bed. My head felt like an overblown balloon, pressure was pushing against every surface. I had chills, a terrible cough, and a runny nose. I gathered enough energy to make it to the AIB. I sat in class for about two minutes before deciding it was time to take care of myself. Ibk being the angel she is, helped me find someone who could get me to the doctor. I soon found out that doctors in Germany are only open during early morning hours on Wednesday. I talked to the student workers and they told me to come back the next day for an appointment. I eagerly headed back home, excited to spend the day sleeping. Madeline soon followed me as she began experiencing the same symptoms I was. I got home, made a cup of warm apple tea and went to bed. I woke up once for dinner, but spent the rest of the day asleep.
Thursday I woke up, dragged Madeline out of bed and went back to the AIB to go to the doctor. I found it a bit annoying that I could not just walk into the doctor like I could at home. Nevertheless, a very sweet student worker graciously walked Madeline and I to the doctors office. We walked in and there was a single attendant behind the desk. Unlike doctors offices in the states, this one was clean, organized and totally un-cluttered. After writing down our names, addresses and phone numbers we were shown to a room behind double doors. It was a clean room with chairs sitting along the perimeter. There was a circular table in the middle with a pile of popular German magazines. In the corner was a fenced in area with toys for children to occupy themselves. Madeline and I sat down in two chairs, both rather uncomfortable. There were other patients in the room, from what it seemed like most of them presented the same symptoms as ours. I found it peculiar that people would say "hallo" and "tschuss" as the came and left the waiting room. Of all places for Germans to greet each other, the waiting room of the doctors office was last on my list. After about an hour and a half, Madeline and I were finally called. They permitted us to go in together. After a brief discussion of our symptoms and a routine evaluation, the doctor diagnosed us with the flu. She sent us the the Apotheke with a perscription and told us to rest for the entirety of the week. Madeline and I picked up our medication and went home to sleep for the rest of the day.
Friday I woke up feeling a bit better. I stayed awake for the morning and looked over some homework. Madeline woke up and we went for a short walk to get some fresh air after not leaving the house for two days. We went back home after a few minutes and went back to sleep. We ate dinner with our host family later that night, then went back to bed.
Saturday, Madeline and I were back on our feet. After sleeping for three days, we both desperately needed to get out of the house. We hopped onto the tram and went into town to go shopping. We were still recovering from the flu so we were only out for a couple hours before our energy was drained. We went back home and did some homework and spring break planning. We ended the evening by eating with our host family and neighbors than watching Harry Potter. Im really glad my host family is watching this series with me because I would not have watched it on my own. I now understand a lot of Harry Potter references that confused me in the past. Once our peaceful evening ended, I went to sleep.
Sunday consisted of studying and homework. I woke up early and cleaned my room, then after family breakfast I started studying for the differential equations exam I had missed. I watched a days worth of Kahn Academy videos. Not to be critical, but I learned more from those videos than I have from my professor. I am frustrated with our online professor because the structure of his class is not conducive to student learning. Anyway, I went to bed relatively early on Sunday to prepare for the week ahead.
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