Cheese and Trauma

NO MORE CHEESE. I'm declaring this now. I'm boycotting cheese once I'm home. How do the vegetarians here not have serious health issues from all this cheese!? Don't get me wrong, they make GOOD food, and it's the best cheese I've ever had, but cheese for three meals a day over the past 12 days is kinda dragging. I'm wishing our meals weren't preordered, but given that the Uni here pays for the food, I'm not sure that I should be disgruntled. Luckily, it's almost the weekend, and that means that I get to order my own food!!!  Morgan and I have found several precious cafes that we want to try, so I'll keep you posted on our food adventures.
As for today, it was a bit of a roller coaster. I started off my clinical day getting attacked by the elevator at the hospital. Confused? The elevator doors in Europe don't mess around. There's no sticking your hand in front of the closing doors to make them start to open again. These suckers slam shut like a guillotine and yeah, they'll bounce open again, but not before you acquire significant bruising. Now, don't go scolding me and thinking that I was sticking my bad arm out in front of those doors. No, when the elevator doors opened in front of the ICU, I stepped out and got slammed into with, I'm sure, a couple hundred pounds of metal on my minimally protected, broken arm. That sucked. I'll be honest and let you know that I did not pay attention at all during class following that. I propped my arm up on a bag and put my head down while my arm throbbed. I spent the rest of the day bolting through doors if I had no other option than to use the elevators. Those things are scary.
However, lest you be concerned that I let my traumatizing experience ruin my day (and yes I know that I'm a tad dramatic), I cheered myself up by getting in on an emergency trauma surgery. Only in the medical field would that be considered fun. Ha. Well my patient was a 19 year old male who was in the passenger seat of the car that was hit. His seatbelt, though it kept him alive, lacerated his spleen and liver and completely cut his intestines in half. Now that he's in stable condition and his prognosis looks good, I can honestly say that it was an AWESOME surgery. They managed to repair the liver and spleen and perform a reanastomosis to piece his intestines back together. He's gonna be in a world of hurt when he gets all the anesthesia out of his system, but I'll be keeping an eye on him in the ICU tomorrow. The driver of the car was getting an exploratory laparotomy right after his buddy was stabilized but other than some wicked nasty scrapes and bruising on both sides of his hip, he looked to be in a lot better shape. I didn't get to watch the rest of the laparotomy, because Annita pulled us out for lunch, but I was still thrilled with what I got to see.
We did see Norbi again today! He was still wearing his makeshift name badge today and seemed genuinely thrilled that we're gonna be back in the ICU again tomorrow. It's nice to have friends on staff there, like Norbi, Annita, and Dora. They're all such wonderful people to work with that I wish I didn't have to leave them in a few weeks. I've got a few emails so I can keep in touch, but I'll still miss seeing them in action.
We seem to have settled into a pretty sweet routine over the past few days. Following clinicals, we head back to the hostel to drop our bags and change, then we go for a cup of coffee and some tiramisu at the local cafe which is owned by an awesome Italian guy who speaks English and seems to have welcomed us completely. Hey- it's guaranteed business for him til the end of May, and we get great coffee. (Forget Starbucks, this is real coffee). We watched his baker making some sort of dessert, which was awesome. I love little homey coffee shops where you can see your food being prepared in front of you. He's a very skilled baker and it was fascinating to watch him bake without measuring cups. He set the bowl on scale and poured ingredients in until he was satisfied and then he started on a new bowl. It was all very methodical, and I could tell that he was 'in the zone'. I would assume that I'm the same way with my nursing skills, or equestrian, but I've never watched myself, so I don't know.
After our coffee we took the tram to the Central Market in Liberty Square, where I added 3 new scarves to my collection. (I'm up to 11 now. My roommates are about to stage an intervention.) We did some casual shopping for a few hours and I successfully haggled for the first time ever! I saved a few hundred fts on a few things, which I thought was pretty good for my first time. Baby steps, right?
That pretty much it for exciting happenings today. We got new sheets and towels, so shout out to LB for helping me make my bed, but right now we're all just chilling out in our room (plus David) while we reorganize and finish homework. Tomorrow we're going to a party at Cage Torino (the Italian cafe) after dinner and Friday we're galavanting the city in search of hazelnut Nutella crepes.
This week has flown by, and I would definitely like for it to slow down just a bit, so that I have a little more time here before I get on a plane to Frankfurt, New Jersey, and, finally, Atlanta. That being said, I'm starting to get excited to be home too. I'm not homesick yet, but I do miss my shower and my bedroom. Ok, and maybe I miss my family and my dog. ;)
Goodnight America! I'll see you soon!
Sincerely,
No more cheese please


"Professor Dever just made a music video of me! It's on her iPhone!"
-David

"But you should understand that I am not crazy."
-Dr. Hollòs