Last Day at the Hospital...

Heya folks,

     First off I have to say that this trip has been wonderful compared to the last. What makes it so great? It's the cold weather, more/better pain drugs and the ton of movies, games and TV shows to keep me occupied as well as having great conversations with some of the cooler hospital staff (the days went by fast, hence the lack of blog updates!). The nurses were much friendlier this time and I learned that it's because they had an internal audit a couple months back which affected many of the nurses and their attitude towards patients that pay out-of-pocket (which has been a problem in the C ward before I was even a patient there).

     We also made friends with a physical therapist, an ICU nurse, a newer C ward nurse(the gamer) and one of the newer doctors who operated on me who offered to hang out with us sometime during our last 2 weeks here. They are awesome people (who speak English) and we look forward to hanging out with them in Dresden and get a less touristy view of Germany (since they know all the cool local spots) and as a bonus I get to learn more about the hospital and what goes on during my surgery. Since I might have to come back here next year it's worth it for me to treat this like a second home.

Visiting the sacred operating rooms

     I've been asking Professor Rolle to show us his laser/operating room since I'm morbidly curious about what happens during the 5-6 hours where I am knocked out and since this is my second operation here I felt inclined to at least ask. He offered to let us see the operating area this morning so we accompanied the awesome doctor I mentioned earlier into the surgery area. Connie and I were split up since the male and female changing rooms are separated so I hung around waiting for someone to let me into the male area until a random nurse finally opened the door for me. I waited in the changing room until one of the doctors got really upset at me for being there and kept saying " no patients in this area, only staff, please leave." I was like "buuut Professor Rolle said its okay." The doctor kept telling me to leave and to tell the Professor when he arrives (he was on his way there). I ended up leaving the room and was quickly greeted by Rolle who let me back into the room and showed me how to put on the surgical scrubs which are needed to get into the sanitized area.
     Connie and the other doctor were already on the other side and she gave us a tour of what was happening in both rooms. I was expecting to see an empty operating room but we got to see 2 procedures in-progress!(one person was getting prepped and the other was undergoing surgery) There are a total of 2 main operating rooms in the hospital and they are similar to what you would expect from watching hospital dramas and movies expect for the automatic giant metal sliding doors which are foot activated and portable laser machines (yea it's pretty high-tech and awesome). There are also a bunch of people in the operating rooms working on different tasks (a mixture of doctors and nurses) just like in the movies. We were able to tell that our presence upset the staff but since Professor Rolle was there nobody said anything. The doctor that yelled at me earlier even apologized saying he didn't know that we were "allowed" and that he was only being cautious. I was thinking "Yea, that's right we're cool with the professor so step aside". It was also comforting as a patient to know that the staff here take their work so seriously. I mean would you want random untrained people showing up while you are naked and passed out being cut into..who knows maybe?
     Our visit to the operating rooms was short but it was an awesome experience nonetheless, a great finale to our hospital stay. Goodbye Fachkrankenhaus Coswig! We leave early tomorrow morning and are heading to a farmhouse/hotel near Dresden that John Nee booked for us (Thanks again John!). It's 3 bedrooms so if anyone is in the area and wants to visit we have plenty of extra beds for you.


Professor Rolle gave us this print of his involvement in laser development. He's been making surgical lasers since the 80's, that's pretty fucking legit to me.

Here's me with another smiley face on my side.

 I only need a scar going across my mid section then I'll look like I've been cut in half.