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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!

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.

The day began with exploring Ferrara with our guest and friend, Wendy. We had to some delicious coffee at a shop owned by an Asian woman. She started asking me if I were Chinese and after saying I was, she talked Mandarin to me. I said my Mandarin wasn’t very good but did manage to somehow hold a conversation with her. I was surprised by the fact that I can understand Mandarin quite well. Perhaps I should pick it up again…

While grabbing our lunch, we saw these dressed up people all going the same way. We knew that it was the Palio, a tradition that is celebrated here in Ferrara every year. It was wonderful to see them going towards the tribunes where horse races would be held. I took loads of photos and recorded (Jeroen mostly, because I had to take the photos) many movies as well. I’m hoping to compile them when I get back home so I give you all an impression of what it’s like. As for the photos, I’ll try to make a selection of them sooner or later.

Our first coffee in six days, you wouldn’t expect that from Italy, huh? I guess it’s the lack of opportunities and available shops near our complex. Anyway, the coffee was great (as expected).

Dinner was at the roof for everyone and it was very nice but it got cold real fast. After some casual drinking (well, not me), we went to the Architettura party just outside the city walls. The spirit was great but the music was baaaad…If they had one in The Netherlands, it would have been great.

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We’ve only walked up until today, because busses are very, very uncommon in Ferrara. I was quite surprised by that but could understand why they did it. I mean, the city isn’t too big. Everything is within walking distance. Still, walking to the center of the city each time (+- 3 kilometers) isn’t much fun and going back and forth to the university and hospital would be a pain in the ass as well.

By now, everyone has arrived and they all had to register and sign the contract for the apartments as well…As you could have guessed, it took sooo long. I’ll be saying this a lot, but man, the Italians are slowpokes.

Once everyone had signed and freshened up, we all went to the central station together to rent a bike. The owner did not speak English and pretty much tried to rip us off with €100,- for six weeks (previous med students hired a bike for €60,- for three months). Obviously, we would explore other options and the one rent a bike store advised was near the cathedral. To our surprise, the owner spoke English very well and the process of renting our bikes luckily went easy peasy.

Having our bikes gave us enormous freedom. It was great to go from A to B within a few moments. Definitely worth it and pretty much mandatory.