Twas windy, twas cold and I did not want to get up at 07:00 o’clock. How is that any different when I’m in The Netherlands? It’s not.

It would be my first day at the hospital in Fossvogur and while I wasn’t excited at all a week before, I still didn’t sleep very well yesterday. Nevertheless I got up, had breakfast and we went out for the busstop. Did I mention it was windy? Man, it blew and I did not like it! Apparently the weather in Iceland can change in an instant and it is very unpredictable. One day you’ll have some sun with a reasonable temperature, the next day it can be snowing and freezing. You know, I was laughing at you guys in Holland with temperatures going below minus 10 degrees while we were comfortably sitting at around 0 degrees. It definitely did not feel like 0 degrees today however and I sure hope I don’t get a payback from y’all for laughing at you.

We met with Sigrún, the coördinator for Maastricht University in Reykjavík, who was already speaking with another exchange student from Denmark. A nice guy who said he was living in an apartment which wasn’t even bigger than our bathroom (7 m²). Our apartment is way too big for the two of us and we were glad to have him if he chooses to live with us. We’ll see!

Sigrún gave us a tour in the hospital and after getting our godforsaken ugly hospital clothings (which, in hindsight, were actually nurse clothings) we were dropped off at our departments which was General Internal Medicine in my case. And that was pretty much it. What the hell am I supposed to do here? Helga, an endocrinologist, introduced me to some people who I would follow for the first two weeks. They were really nice. An Icelandic intern who was also new explained some things to me while we doing rounds, a Kandidat (a 7th years medicine student if you will) who was very kind and gave me suggestions what I could do after the visits and a studying Internist who offered to drive me home!

After the visits I really had no idea what I could do because the staff said that it’s mostly paperwork in the afternoon. I asked the Kandidat (sorry, I forgot your name! Icelandic names are hard to memorise…) what I could do and he honestly didn’t really know either. He said he knew some foreign students who’d just go home at 13:00 because there wasn’t anything interesting left to do for them after the visits. I wasn’t really planning on going home that early so he then suggested I should have a look at other specialties and see if I can do anything there. Coincidentially, a very friendly anesthesiologist came in and he offered me to come with him to the OR. He explained where I could get changed, where the surgeries would take place and that I was welcome if I wanted to attend some. Awesome.

That’s good and all, but not everything went peachy. The Icelandic intern said they have lectures in the afternoon and I asked her for an email so that I could mail the lecturegivers to see if they were prepared to give their lectures in English. The guy from the email forwarded my request to the lecturegivers and they gave me a reply in Icelandic which sounded something like this (after using Google Translate): “In my opinion, it is unreasonable to change this. He does not belong in these lectures. He’s either already had them or otherwise he will get them later.” The rest of the lecturegivers all sent a mail saying they all agree. That’s such bullshit. I mean come on, what kind of education is this? They’re either too lazy, too scared, exceptionally bad in English or a combination of those three to translate their lectures. Well screw your lectures, I’ll go do something more useful.

Other than that, the day was good. And I’ll definitely bring my own white coat tomorrow! I’ll see you guys!

Together with my sister, who was seeing me off, I left Arnhem for Schiphol airport with much excitement. However, heavy snowfall caused huge delays in many departures at Schiphol airport and after waiting for over three hours in the plane, it finally took off. My excitement quickly faded as I was getting cranky because I had only eaten one sandwich and figured I could buy lunch once I arrived at Keflavík airport (Reykjavík airport is only accessible to import flights). The flight itself luckily went without any problems. The first thing that struck me upon arrival was the vast emptiness of the landscape. There is literally nothing. Just some snow, rocks, grass and mud. My ride to Reykjavík, about 45 minutes, had WiFi which was a nice surprise and I made good use of it to tell friends and family that I had arrived safely. No point in looking outside anyway since it was dark already, even though the time difference with The Netherlands was -1 hour.

I called the landlord of the apartment, Stina, and she said she’d pick me up from the bus terminal. A nice British guy overheard me while I was calling and asked if it was my first time here in Iceland. He gave me some tips regarding Iceland and said he didn’t speak Icelandic very well due to the fact that many people here, apparently, speak English quite fluently. Stina, a very nice Icelandic lady, arrived and we took off to my apartment. She took a little detour to show me where I could buy some food for the evening. A quick tour through the apartment and she had left for her dinner meeting.

I was starving and quickly went to the shop Stina showed me. I looked at the prices in Icelandic Krona and didn’t have a clue of how expensive it would become. Two packs of juice, one pack of milk, six eggs and some mini pancakes costed 1600 ISK. I remembered the ticket I ordered to get from Keflavík to Reykjavík which was 1900 ISK, about 13 euros. Holy shit, did I just spend 10 euros on those groceries?! Most of the fresh vegetables and fruits were imported from, you guessed it, Holland…The irony.

The apartment is huge: 128 m² for me and another intern who had yet to arrive. Two large bedrooms, a big diner room with a kitchen, a living room just as big and a nice bathroom. And all of that within 300 meters of the centre of Reykjavík. We’re very lucky. One thing that I noticed was the smell of the hot water: it smells like eggs. This is because of the sulphur the water contains and takes some getting used to. I wasn’t very sure whether I was clean or not after showering…

I was tired from all the traveling and went to bed, ready to do some exploring in Reykjavík the next day.

The buildings of Reykjavík didn’t differ much from other cities except for the colors perhaps. I’ve seen yellow, blue and even bright green colored buildings. One thing that you won’t see so easily in other cities after just walking for five minutes: mountains. You’re surrounded by mountains and it’s amazing. Now I really want to go out there and explore Iceland’s finest nature. Alas, for now it was ‘only’ Reykjavík. Supermarkets aren’t the only stores that are expensive: pretty much everything is expensive around here. Clothes, eating out, souvenirs (I’ll do my best my dear friends)… I’ll just have to get used to that I guess. It seems that I’ve also had Iceland’s national food already: a pylsur (hotdog). There is a tiny van just near the dock called Baejarins Beztu who apparently sells  the best hotdogs in the country (and many even say the best in the world!). Say the magic words ‘eina með öllu’ (one with everything) and you’ll indeed get a delicious hotdog for only 300 ISK, less than two euros. I’m going to eat a lot of hotdogs here guys.

Do you guys see the image at the top of my blog? A 10 minutes walk from my apartment and you’ll see that. Beautiful, innit?

It’s like I’m writing a book after proofreading this post, but I guess that’s good thing. I’ll be posting!

]]> http://ilev.nl/blog/2012/02/iceland-arrival-and-first-few-days/feed/ 4 http://ilev.nl/blog/2010/06/ferrara-day-28-liver-resection/ http://ilev.nl/blog/2010/06/ferrara-day-28-liver-resection/#comments Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:30:19 +0000 Lev http://ilev.nl/blog/?p=1034 Continue reading →]]>

Today was another exciting day in the OR! I would be seeing a liver resection and finally had the courage to take some amazing photos and videos. I found it awkward really, because people would see it as a violation of the patient’s rights in The Netherlands while here in Italy, they don’t seem to care a whole lot at all. Obviously, I made sure that our (amazing) surgeon, who has been guiding us through every surgery up until now, knew I’d be taking photos just in case he would be caught by surprise.

The patient was an older lady who had liver cancer. During the surgery, they saw that a tumor had attached to the diaphragm and therefore got very difficult to remove. It seems that they punctured the diaphragm in the process which took a lot of time to fix. After they fixed the diaphragm, another surgeon was called to do an echo. It was probably to make sure they had the right part of the liver and to see from where to where they had to cut. Our surgeon let us knew what he’d be removing by showing the parts on the pictures but in reality, it was a lot bigger. It sure looked like as if about 75% of the liver was removed. As said before, I was finally able to take some photos and it can be clearly seen there how big the dissected part was. After the resection, we were allowed to feel the liver and its tumors. It was amazing. Again, I made videos of that too. Last but not least, I was allowed to stand really, really close to him so I could take some photos from up close. He’s an example of how every surgeon should be: an expert in his field and one willing to teach others. The surgery took over 4.5-5 hours but it was worth every second of it.

Surgery was never a field I had a particular interest in (nor a disinterest), but after seeing these surgeries, I must say that it has grown on me. Who knows…

WARNING: The videos and photos are not for the faint of heart.

Ferrara Day 28: Liver Resection
Ferrara Day 28: Liver Resection 2
Ferrara Day 28: Liver Resection 3

Gallery is after the break.

I first had a little blog written for this post but decided to post these two videos instead:

Ferrara Day 25: Soccer
Ferrara Day 25: Soccer 2

Nothing much happened throughout the day. We were pretty much waiting for the house party of the man who is organizing Ferrara Maastricht Academic Medical Exchange (F.A.M.E.) at 17:30. Just as we were about to leave with the group and a couple of cars, all of a sudden a sand storm caught our attention. Boy had we no idea of what was to come. It began to rain and the wind got a lot worse. It was something I’ve never seen before and it seems that it’s not something that has ever happened here according to our (Italian) drivers. Quite a unique experience, even though it was devastating for the complex. Many windows were broken by the wind and even the roof of part of the complex collapsed. Either it was a really poorly structured building or people just didn’t think this would ever happen. I tried to make some videos and photos of it.

The storm quickly resolved and we were able to go to the house party. I had something in mind (some kind of villa; I thought the man would probably be quite wealthy). I was close. Wow, that house was huge. And very beautiful. Especially the surroundings were breathtaking and very tranquil. The food we were offered: delicious, just delicious. Real, Italian food. Man, it was good. Do you mind if we come again, sir?

Videos:

Ferrara Day 24: Storm
Ferrara Day 24: Storm 2
Ferrara Day 24: Storm 3

Gallery is after the break.

It was about time we went to the beach. I mean, it’s been 30-35 degrees Celcius the first day we arrived! The weather forecast predicted 35 degrees Celcius for today so it was a perfect day to go to the beach. After packing our stuff, a 1.5 hour bus trip and some walking, we reached the beach. It was huge! In Italy, there is an area reserved for those that are willing to pay for a parasol and two beach chairs. We were kind of forced to pay for three pairs because we sat on them without knowing we had to pay for it. It was worth it though, because we really needed those parasols to stay out of the blazing sun. The water was just as dirty (or perhaps, a bit cleaner) as in The Netherlands but (obviously) very warm. A funny thing was that in The Netherlands, the further you go into the sea, the deeper the water gets but to our surprise the level of the water fluctuated and we could still stand from quite a significant distance away, here in the waters of Italy.

As for the sun…It was nice, but I managed to get first degree burns on my feet from walking on the sand (it was so hot that it actually hurt like hell! Literally.). Not to mention my burnt ankles and back when I got home…Unfortunately, I did not take any photos this day (didn’t want to bring the camera).

This is it! This is one of my main reasons to come to Italy and attend a course: live surgery. You can’t get any closer: you’re literally watching over the surgeon’s shoulders. And today were my first of the many surgeries to follow! With much excitement, we entered the hospital and began our search for our surgeon’s office. It took a while, but finally did manage to find it. The assistant gave us clothes, caps and masks. Man, did we feel ‘doctory’ at the time, it was amazing. But the best part was yet to come: the actual surgery.

Our first surgery would be a cholecystectomie, the removal of the gallbladder. There was a patient lying on the surgery table and I thought it was the previous patient that was finished and being prepped for post-op. The patient was actually being prepped for the surgery we were about to see. I didn’t realise a pre-op would be so long (the patient did have a medical history though). Anyhow, after being prepped, the surgeon wanted to remove the gallbladder through a laporascopie but due to complications in the belly (the gas blown into the belly could not be regulated, which caused instability of the heart) the surgeon had to make a cut near the liver and remove the gallbladder ‘the classic way’. It took way longer than the surgeon had anticipated and we noticed he got a bit annoyed by that. Finally, the gallbladder was removed and he gave us the opportunity to feel the gallbladder (and its gallstones) with our hands. I was amazed by the precision and carefulness of the surgeon. I loved it.

The second surgery was a thyroidectomie, the removal of the thyroid. We had a lecture so we kind of entered during the latter part of the surgery. It probably was the most interesting part as well, so we were quite lucky. Again, with amazing precisions the surgeons had to cut away the thyroid without damaging the nearby nerve and trachea. After removing the thyroid, he showed the nodule in the thyroid which was the reason why it had to be removed. The tissue was then sent to the department of anatomy pathology for microscopic examination. Turns out it was a benign nodule.

The kind surgeon showed us how the surgery exactly went and what stuff had to be paid attention for in order to do a successful surgery post-op.

I can not wait for my next surgery…Which is tomorrow!

Today, we would be finally visiting Venice, originally planned for last Tuesday. After a 1.5 hour trip with the train, we arrived in Venice. It wasn’t until after we passed a big bridge to see the typical alleys and waters you’re familiar with when watching movies (i.e. James Bond).  From the moment we walked out of the central station and set foot on Venice, it was apparent that it’s a city flooded with tourists. Obviously, this means that there would be loads of stands as well. Famous are the masks, which you could practically buy in any store around the corner. We had no idea where we had to go, so we decided to buy ourselves a map. I remember the first time I saw the map, I was thinking: “Ack, that’s pretty big…”, but in reality, the city is pretty small. The distance comes from the small streets and many bridges you have to cross.

Regardless, Venice is beautiful. Even though it wasn’t anything I had expected (expectations probably formed by movies and such), it was a real treat for your eyes to see Venice. Many photos have been made and will be posted eventually.

However, as beautiful as Venice might be, I could not live there. The ‘living’ areas of Venice are quite bland and nothing special once you’ve seen one of the streets: they all look the same.

After a boring (and in broken English) lecture, it was time for our bike trip by professor Ricci. It was originally planned for last week’s Thursday but due to the weather he had to cancel it. There was nothing he could do about it, but it did give us another week to explore Ferrara. This pretty much meant that we had seen most of the buildings and streets he wanted to show us, which was a pity. Nevertheless, he was very enthusiastic and did know some pretty spots for us to make the much needed group pictures (we didn’t have any, up until now). Plus, he treated us on ice (yum!).

Day 15 (Friday) wasn’t much interesting, except for another boring (but okay English) lecture and group discussion regarding the case (Water management in Bangladesh: it can’t be less medical than this case!). After that, we rejoiced with Wendy to drink some cappuccino and went to the arcade not long thereafter.

I haven’t written about it yet, but we do go to the arcades quite a bit. Most games are junk, but there are (for me) two particular machines that really makes me want to go and play there. The first is, obviously, Dance Dance Revolution. I used to dance a lot at home on my mat, but got lazy and never did it anymore. With the arcade, this is the first time I’ve ever used the bar behind me to stabilize myself in order to do quick steps. I have to say, my steps are improving with the usage of the bar due to the balance improvements.

The second machine which is definitely worth going to the arcades for is the basketball hoop. The goal is just to throw as many balls in the hoop as you can to get a high score. It’s possible to do it with two players. Obviously, our goal was to improve the current high score. Our highest was 144 (high score at the time was 163) for the last couple of days, but Jeroen and I finally managed to beat the score with 178 today (I only took a photo of our previous high score 171, so hopefully, the 178 score is still there so I can take a new photo of it ;p)

While we were doing intensive (yes, yes) sports on an arcade machine, Tessy and Wendy would wander and throw some coins in gamble games where you win tickets. These tickets can then be traded for items. To my surprise, both of them had extreme luck. We have some photos with them winning a jackpot and other large ticket amounts.

We didn’t do much the last couple of days, even though we had a 5-day weekeend. After the Palio, we pretty much decided that day 11 (Monday) would be a day off. We wanted to go to Venice on Tuesday, but postponed it to Wednesday due to Wendy’s knee. Unfortunately, we forgot that Wednesday was a holiday and everything was closed… Day 13 had become another siesta day as well.

Tuesday was a day in the park. It sort of became a picknick and we held a whole day of siesta in the grass. Yes, I know, lazy. But that’s Italy.