Chapter 11

This week we had classes that mostly started later in the day. I knew I had to start focusing for my second physiology exam, as I would not have as much time on the weekends to study for it because I was going back to Texas for my sister’s wedding. We had an exam review on Tuesday which just reinforced my scheduling. On Wednesday, our group of students got to go to Universitätsklinikum Bonn to shadow surgical procedures. 

We were ordered taxis to the hospital as there was another transportation strike. The taxi cab ride to the hospital was a wild one this time because the cab driver arrived about 15 minutes early and was ready to bounce as soon as possible. I thought ahead and texted my classmate who was next in line to be picked up, and attempted to delay the driver from moving on as my classmate was not ready yet. Luckily, my friend caught the door right when the taxi driver was about to accelerate away. What was scarier than normal about this was that the driver was in such a rush, that he almost ran over a man walking his dog, honked at a lot of people, all while his cell phone was ringing. The driver was yelling at whoever was calling him and hung up, but the other person on the line just kept calling back. The ride was rough, but luckily we made it to the hospital safely despite being a bit jarred.

Unluckily, the day we came to shadow was Children’s Day, which meant that multiple sections of the hospital were not prepared for student shadowing to occur. I had to wait a bit before I got to see some surgery get done. I observed part  of a surgery where a tumor was being removed from a spine, and saw the entirety of a surgery where a shunt was implanted in the brain. The patients brain looked like a deflated basketball in one position, but the head shape would shift depending on touch and head position. What was startling was how much strength the neurosurgeon had to use, because at one point, he had to essentially shove a rod through the patient’s abdomen to get to the cranial portion of the body. He further “flossed” the body to ensure that the catheter would follow through fully. I’m glad that I got to see these medical procedures and wished I was able to see more of it, especially with my past experience of getting shadowing experience. I may not be pre-med, but I am pre-dent, and in order to find a shadowing position I contacted over 30 dentists in my local area. That was unsuccessful. I was able to get a shadowing position through the Pre-Dental Society on campus. I believe it is a liability issue, as many of the faculty workers and interns were open to shadows, questions, and other curiosities as long as the patient was asleep. The only person who seemed against student shadowers was one lady who refused to be welcoming. I wish we had more days to shadow at the hospital, as it is great insight into the health profession. 

The next day, I had to prepare for a pharmacology quiz. The professor had multiple questions for the time allotted, and I did not even finish it despite all the studying I did. I am quite positive this quiz brought my entire letter grade down.

I had to go to the airport at around 3am, and I was lucky enough that my host mother was going to Frankfurt airport at around the same time for work. If she hadn’t, I would have had to get a flixbus, train, or airbnb overnight to get on my plane. For the better portion of this weekend, I actually felt like I lived on a plane. I tried to study on the plane but I kept getting dizzy and when I started reading the same paragraph over and over again, I knew I was mentally going nowhere. I had a one hour layover in London Heathrow, and the time was barely enough for me to “leave” the airport, reenter through security, and move myself to the other side to get to my terminal. I felt like I almost didn’t make it, even with the speed pass I got from one of the workers. My carry on luggage that was placed with checked in luggage did not make it, and by the time I got my luggage back in Texas, I was preparing to leave Texas to go back to Germany. This made me panic at one point because the shoes I was supposed to wear for the wedding were in my luggage. Right when I landed, I was picked up from IAH, went to the hotel for a quick shower, and then went to the post rehearsal dinner at Fogo de Chao. There was a lot of people I had not met in years, or even met at all (my new family!!) when I arrived. The next day, I was a part of the wedding and I also did a speech which made me nervous, but then again, who am I without some anxiety in me??? The wedding was American style, except there was dragon dancing around the end! The whole time I spent in Houston was not long enough, as I felt like I barely got to chat with my mother, father, sister, grandparents, and aunt. I did not want to steal my sister’s thunder, so I tried to keep the conversational topics focused on her. It was nice getting to see them after such a long time but it was much too short.

When I came back to Germany, I managed to get home in Bonn and when I sat down for a cup of tea to refresh myself for a couple of minutes, my roommate came and chatted with me. He started to give me clinical cases and asked me to solve the puzzles but my brain was quite muddled and then he gave me a long lecture about the lymphatic system. I was a bit half there the entire time, which I felt was unfair to him, as I was not fully present. Then I went to AIB for classes with the hot cheetos my parents bought me from HEB.