Another semester is coming to an end shortly. Our final is next Friday at 8:00am. I'm so thankful that Farley and I had such a jam packed week last week---we are basically done other than the final. We have a 3-4 hour rotation tomorrow in pediatrics and we might go out tomorrow night so I can finally beat him at dance, dance revolution. However, bright and early Saturday morning, the non-stop studying for the final will begin. I don't think it will be too horrible and I don't think we have any classes next week, but who knows they often change their minds regarding our schedule.
We had to do our Spanish skit last night. I didn't expect to be fluent in two months and I've learned some Spanish so I suppose the class was a success. But as to be expected with only taking two months of Spanish, I'm not very comfortable with the language. In high school, I took Latin and ancient Greek ( alpha, beta, etc). I must have remembered more of the Latin than I thought I did because Farley kept telling me that I was trying to pronounce Spanish as if I was speaking Latin. I also kept saying "bene" which is Latin for good rather than "bien" which is Spanish for good. I wish languages came easier to me, but no one can have it all!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Busy couple of weeks!
Wow, I started this blog post weeks ago, but I haven't had enough time to finish until today--the 28th of July! It has been a crazy few weeks. Farley and I were assigned to a Gastroenterologist (GI specialist) for a two week rotation. I don't want to go into GI, but it may be my favorite rotation so far. Doctor was so kind, caring, and such a wonderful teacher. I really enjoyed all of our time with him. He is a workaholic, as were all doctors from a generation ago. He started about 8 or 9 am and saw patients most nights until 9:30 or 10:30. Obviously, we didn't spend that much time with him, but we did spend a good 8-9 hours a day. I just loved him. He moved a little slower through his day than some other doctors, but he always had time to stop and say hello to the nurses, to see how the family members of his patients were doing, to check up on the cafeteria lady who was ill a few weeks ago, and he even found time to answer questions when the housekeeping staff stopped him to ask about a prescription their doctor wrote but they didn't understand. He wasn't just an amazing doctor, he was an amazing man. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that he had lots of time to introduce Farley and me to Cuban food! 
After our two weeks with Doctor and getting ready for upcoming exams, we decided to take a few hours out and go to dinner at Trattoria Sole, which is an awesome Italian restaurant just a few blocks from our apartment in South Miami (picture from our night out above). I think part of the reason I love the place so much is the creative food. We went there for my birthday in May--it was so good. In May, Farley had the pumpkin ravioli and I had pasta stuffed with pears, Gorgonzola cheese, and walnuts with a butter and sage sauce. The second time we went, Farley had some amazing chicken that had been pan roasted in wonderful seasoning, mashed potatoes and fresh veggie medley and I had ricotta filled gnocchi with pesto sauce. We decided to try one of the deserts that night and WOW... it was amazing! We ordered the Mango Cake and I assumed that it would be some sort of white cake with mango juice or mango puree---I was wrong. It was a cheesecake (I think a rocotta based cheesecake) with mango juice. Extremely filling, but amazing nonetheless. When we lived in Miami in 2007, I had always wanted to go to Trattoria Sole, but never got around to going. It is a little pricier than some of the other restaurants in the area, but since Farley and I don't eat out often it is okay. Besides, everything they serve is made from scratch daily and everything tastes like a little piece of heaven! I also probably have a soft spot for the restaurant because the neighboring wood oven pizzeria, Blu, which is owned by the same people is where Farley and I had our first date. We have been wanting to go back, but it is a little more family friendly and thus a little louder. Trattoria Sole doesn't attract families as much and it is easier to have a conversation. But I think we might have to go to Blu for our second anniversary at the of August--since we are not going back to Argentina this year!
Last week, we had the week off from clinicals. However, it wasn't a light week at all! We had to give our SOAP presentation to an attending physician (a SOAP notes is a shorter note on a patent's condition and what you recommend). Next, we had to do our physical exam examination. It was a 45 minute, 200 point exam(by 200 points, I mean we had 200 things to do in 45 minutes) and a 90% is a C-. We were lucky enough to be assigned to the first day of examinations (testing goes for over two weeks). On one hand I was happy to get it over with, but on the other hand, people who go first fail more often. They don't tell you how you do on the exam, just if you passed or not--both Farley and I passed without any problems. I can't tell you how happy I am to have THAT over! Last Friday, we had class all day, which was a bit of a bummer because Farley and I both needed that day to prepare for our upcoming projects.
Saturday, was a rather gloomy day here in Miami, which was a good thing because I spent the whole day getting ready for my presentation on cutaneous anthrax that I have to give Monday morning a 9:00 (and I had to have the PowerPoint presentation ready to turn in by 9:00am SUNDAY). I wasn't sure if I could get the presentation ready to turn in, but late Saturday night I finished. We were not suppose to have class on Sunday, but our schedule changed and we did end up having to go into school for three hours. After that we had to go find our new clinical location, which is a pediatrician's office about a half hour from school. Farley and I were both pretty stir crazy after having spent every day either in class, clinic or studying for the physical exam (since we went to dinner at Sole), so Farley suggested we catch a movie Sunday afternoon since the sky was grey and we couldn't go sit by the pool and read. Thus, we were off to the movies. We were going to see Harry Potter, but it was sold out so we ended up going to see Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. I wasn't too thrilled about going to see it, but it wasn't that bad. We saw it on IMAX, so maybe that is what made the difference. I really don't like violent movies, but the majority of the action was between robots and I really don't feel empathy for injured/killed robots like I do for injured/killed humans in movies. Overall, it was much more fun than I expected. I spent the rest of the night reviewing my PowerPoint and trying to look up anything that I thought I might be asked about during my presentation. I barely slept Sunday night, which surprised me because I didn't think I'd be that nervous.
Monday morning came and the ten of us assigned to give our presentations sat in a huge classroom waiting for the professors. I wasn't nervous about giving my presentation--I was nervous about the questions. I'm a third year medical student and specialists in the field are asking questions---clearly, I know a lot less than they do so it was extremely difficult to prepare for questions. Who know WHAT they would ask. Since Farley and I had clinic at 1:00, I was assigned to go first. That was good because I got it over with and the presentation went very well (other than my movie not playing, but I had a back up plan in place). It was bad because they were not as worried about time, so I had about 5-6 questions were as my peers had only 1-2 questions because of time constraints. My topic was anthrax and I decided that since I only had 15-20 minutes to present to talk just about cutaneous anthrax (which makes up 95% of anthrax cases, but it is NOT the bioterrorism type of infection, which is the exact same bacteria only inhaled. Inhalation of B. anthracis is much more deadly than a cutaneous (skin) infection). Since we were told it was okay to narrow our topic given the time constrains, I prepared for questions regarding cutaneous anthrax. I should have just prepared for inhalation/bioterrorism questions because that is what I was asked about. I felt so stupid because I didn't know all the answers to the question I was being asked. None of the questions were unfair and they were related to my topic as the bioterrorism agent is the same bacteria that causes the skin infections; however, I expected more questions regarding cutaneous infections and vaccinations since that is what I talked about. I'm sure I scored well because I think it went well overall, I'm just disappointed that I didn't think to research more about bioterrorism (I just read a few things, I didn't study it well enough to really answer in full detail).
After that, I headed home to change before going to the pediatrician's office. I've got to tell you, the afternoon with the pediatrician was a kick. Those kids were so cute and (other than one) they were all so well behaved. I just had a great time. We got to listen to a little asthmatic's lungs--he was a very serious two year old. Another little four year old had an innocent murmur (kids can get these heart murmurs and they are NOT pathological). I've never heard one on a real person, just the simulators, so it was fun to get to listen. I think our little patient liked being the center of attention. I also like seeing the little one month old baby girl. Little babies have primitive reflexes, which I've seen before but I have not seen since studying them in medical school (I'll write a post on baby's reflexes soon since I know so many people who just had little ones). It was SO cool to see the little reflexes and this little girl was such a good sport. I'm shocked she didn't start crying with the doctor doing his physical exam, but she was just watching everything. It made me miss working with children--I'm looking forward to going back Tuesday afternoon. Since our day wasn't over yet, we had to go to Medical Spanish class after working at the pediatrician's office!!
Wow, after writing all this down, it's had to believe how much we've done in the last two weeks!
Oh and one more thing, a few weeks ago, I bought a melon that I thought was a honeydew. I was wrong. Once I cut into it, I realized that it was a hybrid--the texture of a honeydew and the taste of cantaloupe. I have always loved the taste of cantaloupe, but never liked the texture so this was an awesome melon to find--except that I bought a regular cantaloupe at the same time so I had twice as much cantaloupe in my fruit salad!! Here is a picture of the hybrid melon
After our two weeks with Doctor and getting ready for upcoming exams, we decided to take a few hours out and go to dinner at Trattoria Sole, which is an awesome Italian restaurant just a few blocks from our apartment in South Miami (picture from our night out above). I think part of the reason I love the place so much is the creative food. We went there for my birthday in May--it was so good. In May, Farley had the pumpkin ravioli and I had pasta stuffed with pears, Gorgonzola cheese, and walnuts with a butter and sage sauce. The second time we went, Farley had some amazing chicken that had been pan roasted in wonderful seasoning, mashed potatoes and fresh veggie medley and I had ricotta filled gnocchi with pesto sauce. We decided to try one of the deserts that night and WOW... it was amazing! We ordered the Mango Cake and I assumed that it would be some sort of white cake with mango juice or mango puree---I was wrong. It was a cheesecake (I think a rocotta based cheesecake) with mango juice. Extremely filling, but amazing nonetheless. When we lived in Miami in 2007, I had always wanted to go to Trattoria Sole, but never got around to going. It is a little pricier than some of the other restaurants in the area, but since Farley and I don't eat out often it is okay. Besides, everything they serve is made from scratch daily and everything tastes like a little piece of heaven! I also probably have a soft spot for the restaurant because the neighboring wood oven pizzeria, Blu, which is owned by the same people is where Farley and I had our first date. We have been wanting to go back, but it is a little more family friendly and thus a little louder. Trattoria Sole doesn't attract families as much and it is easier to have a conversation. But I think we might have to go to Blu for our second anniversary at the of August--since we are not going back to Argentina this year!
Last week, we had the week off from clinicals. However, it wasn't a light week at all! We had to give our SOAP presentation to an attending physician (a SOAP notes is a shorter note on a patent's condition and what you recommend). Next, we had to do our physical exam examination. It was a 45 minute, 200 point exam(by 200 points, I mean we had 200 things to do in 45 minutes) and a 90% is a C-. We were lucky enough to be assigned to the first day of examinations (testing goes for over two weeks). On one hand I was happy to get it over with, but on the other hand, people who go first fail more often. They don't tell you how you do on the exam, just if you passed or not--both Farley and I passed without any problems. I can't tell you how happy I am to have THAT over! Last Friday, we had class all day, which was a bit of a bummer because Farley and I both needed that day to prepare for our upcoming projects.
Saturday, was a rather gloomy day here in Miami, which was a good thing because I spent the whole day getting ready for my presentation on cutaneous anthrax that I have to give Monday morning a 9:00 (and I had to have the PowerPoint presentation ready to turn in by 9:00am SUNDAY). I wasn't sure if I could get the presentation ready to turn in, but late Saturday night I finished. We were not suppose to have class on Sunday, but our schedule changed and we did end up having to go into school for three hours. After that we had to go find our new clinical location, which is a pediatrician's office about a half hour from school. Farley and I were both pretty stir crazy after having spent every day either in class, clinic or studying for the physical exam (since we went to dinner at Sole), so Farley suggested we catch a movie Sunday afternoon since the sky was grey and we couldn't go sit by the pool and read. Thus, we were off to the movies. We were going to see Harry Potter, but it was sold out so we ended up going to see Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. I wasn't too thrilled about going to see it, but it wasn't that bad. We saw it on IMAX, so maybe that is what made the difference. I really don't like violent movies, but the majority of the action was between robots and I really don't feel empathy for injured/killed robots like I do for injured/killed humans in movies. Overall, it was much more fun than I expected. I spent the rest of the night reviewing my PowerPoint and trying to look up anything that I thought I might be asked about during my presentation. I barely slept Sunday night, which surprised me because I didn't think I'd be that nervous.
Monday morning came and the ten of us assigned to give our presentations sat in a huge classroom waiting for the professors. I wasn't nervous about giving my presentation--I was nervous about the questions. I'm a third year medical student and specialists in the field are asking questions---clearly, I know a lot less than they do so it was extremely difficult to prepare for questions. Who know WHAT they would ask. Since Farley and I had clinic at 1:00, I was assigned to go first. That was good because I got it over with and the presentation went very well (other than my movie not playing, but I had a back up plan in place). It was bad because they were not as worried about time, so I had about 5-6 questions were as my peers had only 1-2 questions because of time constraints. My topic was anthrax and I decided that since I only had 15-20 minutes to present to talk just about cutaneous anthrax (which makes up 95% of anthrax cases, but it is NOT the bioterrorism type of infection, which is the exact same bacteria only inhaled. Inhalation of B. anthracis is much more deadly than a cutaneous (skin) infection). Since we were told it was okay to narrow our topic given the time constrains, I prepared for questions regarding cutaneous anthrax. I should have just prepared for inhalation/bioterrorism questions because that is what I was asked about. I felt so stupid because I didn't know all the answers to the question I was being asked. None of the questions were unfair and they were related to my topic as the bioterrorism agent is the same bacteria that causes the skin infections; however, I expected more questions regarding cutaneous infections and vaccinations since that is what I talked about. I'm sure I scored well because I think it went well overall, I'm just disappointed that I didn't think to research more about bioterrorism (I just read a few things, I didn't study it well enough to really answer in full detail).
After that, I headed home to change before going to the pediatrician's office. I've got to tell you, the afternoon with the pediatrician was a kick. Those kids were so cute and (other than one) they were all so well behaved. I just had a great time. We got to listen to a little asthmatic's lungs--he was a very serious two year old. Another little four year old had an innocent murmur (kids can get these heart murmurs and they are NOT pathological). I've never heard one on a real person, just the simulators, so it was fun to get to listen. I think our little patient liked being the center of attention. I also like seeing the little one month old baby girl. Little babies have primitive reflexes, which I've seen before but I have not seen since studying them in medical school (I'll write a post on baby's reflexes soon since I know so many people who just had little ones). It was SO cool to see the little reflexes and this little girl was such a good sport. I'm shocked she didn't start crying with the doctor doing his physical exam, but she was just watching everything. It made me miss working with children--I'm looking forward to going back Tuesday afternoon. Since our day wasn't over yet, we had to go to Medical Spanish class after working at the pediatrician's office!!
Wow, after writing all this down, it's had to believe how much we've done in the last two weeks!
Oh and one more thing, a few weeks ago, I bought a melon that I thought was a honeydew. I was wrong. Once I cut into it, I realized that it was a hybrid--the texture of a honeydew and the taste of cantaloupe. I have always loved the taste of cantaloupe, but never liked the texture so this was an awesome melon to find--except that I bought a regular cantaloupe at the same time so I had twice as much cantaloupe in my fruit salad!! Here is a picture of the hybrid melon
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
I have stethoscope envy....
This is the beautiful Welh Allyn Tycos Latex FreeHarvey DLX Triple Head Stethoscope that my attending physician uses. Today, he let Farley and I use his stethoscope to listen to a woman who has a murmur (a type of extra sound) and a spilt S2 (During the second heart sound the aortic and pulmonic valves close. A pathological splitting is when the valves close at different times, regardless of the change in thoracic pressure due to normal breathing--physiological splitting occurs during inspiration). Listening with my stethoscope was like trying to adjust an old time radio, but still hearing static, and listening with his was like listening to satellite radio on bose surround sound system.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park
Yesterday was a fun day! Farley's dad was in town so we headed to Farley's grandparent's house to see his grandparents, uncle and dad. It was such a nice day. I've been really homesick lately, so to be around his family was wonderful. Farley's dad and uncle wanted to go to one of the beaches from their youth and Farley and I got to tag along and we were off to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. It was so beautiful! I didn't realize that a state park is probably 30 minutes from our apartment with beautiful beaches, a breathtaking light house and many tropical plants. I forgot my camera, so I am posting a few pictures from the Florida State Parks website.According to the Florida State Park's website, Graham Hitchen too the following picture. This State park so so close to downtown Miami that you can vaguely see Miami in the background.
After going down to the national park, we went back to Farley's grandparents and had a wonderful dinner with his family. Overall, it was a fun and relaxing day!Sunday, July 5, 2009
Fireworks from my balcony
I didn't think I'd get to enjoy the 4th of July, but we could see plenty of fireworks from our apartment. Unlike Washington, in Florida fireworks are legal so there were many amateur pyrotechnicians in the neighborhood. Best of all, we could see one of the professional firework presentations over the treetops to the south of our apartment. I'm not exactly sure where these were coming from, but they were extremely high and well planned so I'm sure it was one of the other suburbs of Miami holding a show for their residents. Here are some of my pictures from last night. Obviously, some turned out better than others.
This last picture was from one of the amateur pyrotechnicians in the neighborhood. I probably moved the camera, which is why it looks a little crazy, but I like it nonetheless.
This last picture was from one of the amateur pyrotechnicians in the neighborhood. I probably moved the camera, which is why it looks a little crazy, but I like it nonetheless.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Happy Independence Day!
Two years ago today, my mom left me in Miami to start my medical career. When I woke up today, it hit me: two years ago my dream was to become a physician and now I'm in the beginning of my third year of medical school. I've lived abroad, visited multiple countries (ten if you count all the international airports), taken more exams than I care to remember, met some wonderful people (there is one extra wonderful person...Farley!!) and I'm well on my way to becoming physician. In fact, this week Farley and I were part of a group of students asked to speak to students doing the semester in Miami before heading down to the island. It is crazy to think that just two years ago I was at such a different place in my life. Just like then, I'm still excited, nervous and even a little scared about the future, but after living through Dominica nothing is quite as scary anymore. I don't think we will get to do anything exciting for Independence Day. They are having fireworks on Miami Beach, but I don't know how much fun it would be to drive down there, find parking and get out. I think I'd be better off staying at home. There are suppose to be fireworks about a mile from here, so maybe we'll go to the top of our parking garage and try to watch from there. Since we are in Miami, obviously there are rain showers and thunderstorms currently so I don't think it would be very fun to be out at all today.
I haven't posted a picture in a while. It isn't the best picture of me (but Farley looks great, as usual). This picture was taken before heading to a clinic to see patients last week: 
Friday, July 3, 2009
Four days off...sort of
Yesterday was the first actual day off we've had in almost two weeks! It was so nice to relax for a day; however, we have a lot to do. We have a paper due next week and we have to present the history and physical (in the form of a SOAP note) to several faculty members. At the end of the month, we have do conduct a full screening physical, which is 45 minutes of palating, auscultating, percussing and instructing over the whole body. We know how to do everything, but the difficult aspect will be remembering to do everything and getting it all done in 45 minutes or less!
Miami is in the midst of the rainy season and when it rains, it rains! I'm almost certain that it rains every day, especially on the days that we have off and want to go spend some time down in the condo's gardens or by the pool. Unlike in Dominica, which just seemed have sprinkles of rain daily, rain in Miami is like turning on a shower and letting it go full power. There is often standing water and lightening lighting up the sky. In Dominica, the coast (where I lived) had about 70 inches of rain a year (the interior had about 210 inches per year) and Miami has on average a little under 60 inches of rain per year. I think the main difference is that in Dominica, the rain often came at night and in Miami, it usually rains in the afternoons. Nonetheless, this rainy season isn't working out well with my plans to get my studies done in the mornings or early afternoons then go to the pool for an hour or two to read a book and relax. By the time I'm ready to head down, the sky is grey and the thunder is loud.
Miami is in the midst of the rainy season and when it rains, it rains! I'm almost certain that it rains every day, especially on the days that we have off and want to go spend some time down in the condo's gardens or by the pool. Unlike in Dominica, which just seemed have sprinkles of rain daily, rain in Miami is like turning on a shower and letting it go full power. There is often standing water and lightening lighting up the sky. In Dominica, the coast (where I lived) had about 70 inches of rain a year (the interior had about 210 inches per year) and Miami has on average a little under 60 inches of rain per year. I think the main difference is that in Dominica, the rain often came at night and in Miami, it usually rains in the afternoons. Nonetheless, this rainy season isn't working out well with my plans to get my studies done in the mornings or early afternoons then go to the pool for an hour or two to read a book and relax. By the time I'm ready to head down, the sky is grey and the thunder is loud.
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