Uniklinik, enmodes, and lectures oh my

This week was full of lectures and a meeting with enmodes to discuss our problems. But we did get a day off and a day at the Uniklinik. On our day off, Ana Lindsay and I went to the Birkenstock outlet and got a steal on birks. It's my first pair of birks! They're quite uncomfortable but I've been told you need to break them in. Even though I didn't have German class, I still learned a lot in other classes like phyisiology. On Wednesday, enmodes came to visit to narrow our issues down. They enjoyed our ideas and were very nice, giving us constructive criticism when needed and helping us think outside the box. Then thursday, BMEN and BIMS switched so that they got their day off. The procedure I saw was one of the coolest things I've seen. It was a aortic valve replacement. Not only did I get to see the chest open and heart beating but I got to see them stop the heart and put the patient on the large ECMO machine. It reminded me of the RAS-Q that we're working with. The actual surgery was very cool, the precision of the surgeon was admirable. I left before they even finished suturing the replacement in. They replaced the valve with biocompatible material that looked like cloth. After seeing everything, I was so amazed with modern medicine. It also helped me see that I don't hate surgery as much as I thought since it didn't make me queasy. I was a little light headed at first but just breathed through it. I'm thankful for this experience!