July 15th

Well so far there has been no money raining from the sky, but my fingers are still crossed. We did, however, have another class about surgery. The first lecture covered different types of skin diseases and what they looked like. I would have benefited from having my own textbook with the images and information we were covering, but sharing a book with my neighbor worked just as well. We talked a lot about malignant and benign diseases and how they progress and the best methods for treating them. After lecture, we went back to the festival for lunch and today I tried a kudu (which is a species of antelope) burger and it was very delicious. I'm really loving trying all these new foods and I hope to try something else new tomorrow since this festival is here all week. After lunch we had another lecture about surgery. We began by talking about the expected operating room (or theater, as they call is here) behavior. We went over sterile technique and what to do and not to do while in theater. The professor then went on to discuss the different types of needles and thread and the history behind the classification of thread sizes. After covering the basics of operating room behavior, we then went on to discuss pre-operation and post-operation procedures. Within the pre-operation lecture, we learned about the various screenings and assessments that are used to determine patient risk factors and likelihood of successful procedures. The risk factors we discussed were smoking, obesity, drug use, renal failure, and pregnancy. We talked about how to approach these risk factors and what effect they may have on the surgery. We also learned about what to do after surgery, which included timely removal of any tubes, drains, or catheters, frequent recording of vitals and fluid balance, appropriate nutrition, and the assessment of the need for blood transfusions. The possible complications of surgery were also covered, including pulmonary, cardiac, urinary, and cerebral complications, deep vein thrombosis, and infections. There was so much information presented today and it was really interesting as well. The only bad part was that I was called on to answer a question and had no idea of the answer so I had to emphasize that I'm just a visiting student and I'm not actually in medical school yet...I will be before too long though! After lecture, I went back to the festival and picked up a few goodies to bring back home. Tomorrow night we're going to check out some of the live bands that are playing at the festival, so it should be a lot of fun!