Housing and Hematology

It has been a stressful couple of weeks. We are in the middle of Internal Medicine, which is going great. We thought we might be able to stay here in Miami and complete our third year of medical school rather than moving to New York City, but it looks like the clerkship agreements won't be signed in time for us to stay (the pediatric and surgery clerkships for third year students will probably be in place sometime next year). Anyway, now we are trying to find housing in New York. Now, finding housing isn't too horrible (it is a big city), but I have never been to New York so it adds this mystery, which makes everything more difficult. But heck, if I can live in Dominica, I can live just about anywhere. Besides, as far as I know, there are no herds of cows running free and controlling New York City.

Since I have been stressed, I have decided to study one of my favorite things in medicine this week: Hematology! I know this sounds nerdy, but I think the clotting cascade is just beautiful. I haven't looked at it in a while and I almost forgot how breathtaking it is! There are multiple checks and balances to ensure that we don't clot too much, which can kill us, yet we are able to clot quickly and efficiently. We also break down clots in a timely fashion. We are constantly clotting and degrading clots. When things go wrong with the clotting cascade, everything goes to heck in a hand basket, for example Disseminated Intravascular Clotting (DIC). Since I get so excited about clotting, maybe I am destined for hematology and oncology.

Isn't it beautiful?

Better than I could have imagined in my wildest dreams...

Back home in Washington, there is some exciting news. The University of Washington has some medical students, as part of the WAMMI program, that do part of their training in Pullman. I guess it was just announced that they are expanding the total class size at UW's medical school and moving the Pullman campus to Spokane. It also sounds like students at the Spokane campus maybe able to do all four years of their training in Spokane. Also, the long awaited Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine school opened in Yakima, WA and welcomed their second class this August. There are definitely are more medical school seats in Washington than when I left for Dominica. This got me thinking about how my life would have been different if I would have gone to medical school closer to home. Obviously, it would be awesome to be closer to home, friends and family. I wasn't able to come home to say goodbye to grandma or attend her funeral and at least two weddings--and I'm only in my third year of medical school. However, there are a lot of great things I've been able to experience because of attending a Caribbean medical school. I have a lot of amazing stories to tell my children and grandchildren. Sometimes things in life don't work out as we imagine, but they turn out better than we could ever imagine. Here are some of the interesting, exciting and humerous things that have happened to me.

• Meeting Farley. I don't know how I would have met him without going to a Caribbean Medical school and I can't imagine going to medical school without him. Besides being my partner, he is my travel buddy. Here is a picture from the day we first landed in at the Dominican Airport. Note how close the plane is to the Atlantic Ocean. Not much room for error. They have since remodeled the airport; however, they still have limited flights (like no flying at night and they can only have small plans land).

• Speaking of traveling, I've done a ton of it in the last three years. Obviously, I've been to Texas twice to visit Farley's family and we hopped over the border to Mexico once. Of the Caribbean countries, I've been to Puerto Rico, Dominica, St. Lucia and Barbados. I have had lay overs in Martinique, Antigua, and technically Barbados on an overnight layover. We had to stay somewhere, so we stayed at the closest and most reasonably priced hotel we could find--it wasn't our fault it was a wind surfer's paradise and we were right on the Atlantic Ocean! Seriously, who gets to have overnight layovers in Barbados and stay at a beach resort? I may in fact be the most brilliant person ever--I'm still going to be a physician when I'm finished and I've spent my first two years of medical school living 50 feet from the Caribbean sea and having layovers in the tropics. Not too shabby, except for the insects, brown water and other hazards of living in a third world country, but third world living just builds character! After our first year of medical school, it was so expensive to come home that it was actually cheaper to go to Argentina for a week than to go home. Looking back, I can't believe that Farley and I did this, but opportunities to travel don't always arise and one has to take every opportunity she gets. When we traveled to Argentina, we had a lay over in Panama. I couldn't believe the Panamanian airport--there were NO Panama hats to be found. In fact, there was one restaurant and two hot dog stands in very large Panamanian airport terminal. On a bright note, this terminal was basically a mall of European designer stores and chocolate stores! I ate a lot of chocolate with my hot dog in the airport. But unlike in the USA, the airline gave us two meals, two snacks, and free wine (but since I don't speak Spanish and Farley was asleep, I didn't know the wine was free) on the six hour flight from Panama to Argentina. Guess, I didn't need a hot dog and chocolate after all. Below is a picture from April 2008 of Farley and me waiting for the ferry to go to St. Lucia. The ferry ride could have been lovely if I hadn't have been so seasick!

• Strange Critters on the island. Before classes started we went to the Cabrits (the national park that we could see from our apartments) to hike. It was a lovely day, but everywhere we went, there was a ruffling of the leaves and ground covering. I thought it was just the geckos at first: I was wrong. We were surrounded by galliwasps. Click on the link to see a picture of them on Farley's blog. They look like geckos, but they have really small legs and they move more like a snake. Another exciting creature was this insect found near the study space right before the first exam of medical school. Just trying to go to the bathroom was an adventure, you never knew what you'd see on the way:

• Getting caught between a crab and a four cows. Yeah, that really happened. We were having a date night first semester after an exam (it may have been our first exam that semester) and then we were trapped between a feisty crab and four cows. See here is the blurry picture of the scary crab to prove it! I didn't dare take a picture of the cows since they were lining up in an aggressive, military-like formation.

• Lizards. Giant Lizards that fall from the sky...or my third story apartment. Or that just decide to hang out in my apartment looking out the window. How about the one that decided to drop his tail as Farley was escorting him out and a gust of wind made the tail fly through the air toward me before it started flopping on the floor. If that wasn't enough, how about the lizard that died hanging upside down from my balcony ceiling. To top it off, that was just in Dominica. One of them, which I named Leo the Lizard, moved into my apartment the last time I lived in Miami. Lizards can't get enough of me.

• Animal herds: In Dominica they let the animals run free. I talked a lot about the cows, since they were everywhere. Heck, one even chased me as I was trying to go study. Now, that doesn't happen every day! But it wasn't just the cows running free in Dominica. There was a pack of dogs that went all over. I a little afraid of dogs since I was chased by two baby pit bulls when I was a toddler and I was bit by a dog in my pre-school years; however, these Dominica dogs were so harmless they didn't even scare me. They were, nonetheless, annoying. They'd brush up next to you as you carried your lunch and they'd try to get you to pet them (there are a lot of insects, bacteria and parasites on that island and I'm sure there were some creepy crawlers on those dogs--I sure as heck didn't pet them!). There was a cat that lived near my apartment and would try get people to feed her (I usually set something outside my door). I was most surprised by the goats running free in Dominica. Who would have thought that there would be goats in the Caribbean.
  

• Natural Disaster. Now so far, we have been extremely lucky and there have not been any horrible disasters anywhere I've been. However, there was one tropical depression in Dominica while we were studying there. The sea come up high and flooded the lawn near our apartment. The only good thing was that I got to take a nap (it happened near a test and I was extremely tired, so it gave me a few hours to rest). I can joke about the tropical depression because no one was hurt and the only damage reported was the dock near our apartment. Overall, if the only thing damaged was a dock, we were all lucky.

• Who could forget the time that I fell down the hill in Dominica and was covered in mud. I think I should have learned that going to my apartment if I forgot something while studying on campus, was almost always a bad idea. I would end up being chased by cows, attacked by insects or slipping on mud. That is how I earned the nickname "mudslide".


• Living in a Third World Country. It is amazing how much we take for granted in America. Living in Dominica reminded me that in many places of the world, water isn't safe to drink out of the tap, there are insects, parasites and bacteria with your meals, and the power will come and go. All of these things were very difficult for me to adjust to; however, I think not being able to get a hot shower with clear water had to be the most difficult. If it rained a lot in Dominica, the water would turn a brownish color (like really watered down coffee). The filtration system couldn't keep up with the demand when there was a lot a rain, which happened frequently as Dominica is a rain forest. First semester, the water heater worked but something changed along the way. I soon learned that if I wanted a hot shower, I needed to hop in between 4-7 pm because otherwise, it was extremely cold. I'm not even sure how the water got so cold as Dominica is almost always between 84-92 degrees. Don't even get me started on the insects in Dominica, I still have scars from the mosquito bites! However, Dominica has it's redeeming qualities too--some of the best sunsets in the world.

• Bats. I don't know if I've every blogged about the bats in Dominica. Usually, Farley and I saw them when we were walking on the trail at night either coming or going to campus. It was the most strange thing in the world because out of nowhere there would be this slight gust of wind and a black thing in front of you. Then it was gone. They really make little or no noise at all. Obviously, I was frightened as they'd fly by because I'd be so shocked and I hate all creepy and icky things. But they have sonar so they never hit us. One night in early 2007, however, I did come face to face with one of these flying, ugly creature. I had my wooden panels covering my windows open. I stepped out onto my balcony to enjoy the cool night air. The light from my room bled though the wooden panels and I heard an odd noise. I looked up and there was a bat lost and unable to navigate out of my balcony. Besides the wall of windows, two walls the ceiling and the floor were cement. The other side was open except for the railing and about a one foot hangover of cement. I think all of the cement towards the ceiling, where he flying around, had his sonar all messed up. In case you have not had the honor of meeting up with a bat face to face, let me tell you bats are really ugly. Clearly, I made a mad dash for my door, shut the wooden panels on my windows and hid--as if the bat was going to penetrate though the walls and attack me. I believe that there are only fruit bats in Dominica, but you know even fruit bats can have histoplasmosis or rabies!

• Living in Miami. There are few places in the world as unique as Miami. In fact, I think it is more essential to speak Spanish in Miami than it was in Argentina! This city is a mix of money, cars, beaches, model-like people on the beach, heat, humidity, Spanish culture, retirees, colleges and universities, insects, lizards, crazy drivers, and to my shock farmlands less than an hour away. But obviously, the thing I love to complain about the most is the drivers. I think I've mentioned before that Miami lost it's title of the country's rudest drivers, which it has held for the last four years. Yes, the rudeness of Miami drivers even impresses those from L.A.

• Rainbows: Living in Dominica really makes one have to be an optimist to survive. Medical school is so tough, let alone living in another country--a third world country--and being so far away from not only family and friends but also convenience, such as grocery stores. To survive, you really have to keep a positive outlook even when things don't go your way, both with the living situation and with school. I've never lived somewhere before that there was always a rainbow at the end of a storm other than Dominica. You could practically see a rainbow every day and usually there were two or three together in the sky. I think this is a cheesy metaphor for medicine. When times get tough, and they will, you've got to look for the light at the end of the tunnel, for the rainbow at the end of the storm.
  

I guess the bottom line is that things sometimes don't end up as I predict or think I want. But I'd never dreamt that all of these amazing things would happen to me. Being willing to take a risk and run off to the Caribbean to fulfill my dream of becoming a physician, is the best risk I've taken so far. Who knows what risks and opportunities will present themselves in the future!

Just ten minutes...

Before starting medical school, I was pretty good about working out 3-5 times per week. Since starting medical school, I have not been so good. I know that working out releases endorphins, decreases stress, and has a multitude of health benefits, but I still don't work out as much as I should. When I was home at Christmas, I decided to bring a few workout DVDs back to the island from the 10 Minute Solutions workout series. I really like the Quick Tummy Toners and the Fat Blasting Dance Mix, despite my inability to dance. I don't like the Hot Body Boot Camp as much because I can't keep up with her--I'm not cut out for hot body boot camp or military boot camp! I know, especially as someone training to be a physician, that I should work out more but with our schedule it can't always happen. On the other hand, I can find time to work out for 10-20 minutes in my apartment at least 3-5 times per week.

Speaking of just needing ten minutes per day, I found a free podcast from the Jesuits in the U.K. I LOVE the Jesuits so it should be no surprise that I love their podcast, which is titled, "Pray As You Go." They are ten minute little prayer and meditation sessions with music in the background, scripture and questions to reflect upon. The Jesuits started this project for Lent in 2006 so that people could pray during their long commutes, but they had such a great response that they have continued it--there have been over 5 million prayer sessions downloaded! Each prayer session is only 10-15 minutes long.

For those of you who do not know about the Jesuits they are formally known as The Society of Jesus. The Society of Jesus is a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church, founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola. The Jesuits are the largest male religious order in the world, with approximately 20,000 members serving in 112 countries. The contemporary mission of the Society of Jesus is the service of faith and promotion in society of that justice of the Gospel that is the embodiment of God's love and saving mercy. Different groups of Jesuits, in different regions of the world focus on different apostolic priorities within their region. They are especially involved in Education and Social Justice. Here is an example of some of these apostolic priorities from The Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus:

• Evangelization: Evangelize contemporary culture with special emphasis on the needs and aspirations of young adults.
• Collaborative Ministry: Strengthen partnership with lay colleagues, especially in leadership roles.
• Ignatian Character of Our Schools: Assure the Ignatian heritage, Catholic identity, and Jesuit mission of our high schools and universities.
• Intellectual Apostolate: Contribute to the intellectual mission of the Church, especially by scholarship, research, and writing.
• Solidarity with the Poor: Choose to be with the poor in lifestyle and for the poor in mission, locally and globally.
• Spiritual Exercises: Make widely available the opportunity to experience the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola.

Basically, the Jesuits given their devotion to Education, especially higher education, are very current with events and technology. Thus, it really isn't a surprise that the Jesuits have this super cool podcast. They don't just stop there. You can download the Stations of the Cross, review Ignatian Spirituality online, or you can even look at their web page with links of to helpful ways to pray. From my experience, Jesuits love youth and educating youth, which is probably why they even have a my space page devoted to prayer. Talk about changing your mission as society changes!

I think it is fitting for me to end this blog post with a common Jesuit saying: A.M.D.G.

*AMDG is the abbreviation of the Latin phrase: “Ad maiorem Dei gloriam.” In English this translates to “For the greater glory of God.”

The call of the wild....

I don't know what is is about the animals in Dominica, but I think they are working against me. On Wednesday night, I had another five or six inch lizard get into my apartment. The first little guy, came in via my broken screen (remember I don't have glass windows). I'm not sure how this gecko got into my house, but when I returned from the Introduction to Clinical Medicine Lab, he was waiting for me on my air conditioner.


I've been trying to write this story since last Wednesday, but I every time I think about it I get the heby-jebies. When I called my parents and told them about this gecko story, they thought it was one of thethe funniest thing they've ever heard so I knew I had to get over my heby-jebies and write this story. Be forewarned, this is a gecko story and I think geckos are gross, not cute like the Geico commercials.


As I previously told you, I returned home after a study session in the Introduction to Clinical Medicine Lab Wednesday evening. I popped down on my bed while I was talking to my parents and I got the eerie feeling that someone was watching me. I looked up above my head (on top of my air conditioner) and I saw a white gecko staring at me. I slowly stood up and directly exited my apartment. I pounded on Farley's door and he kindly came to get the "little guy out." When we returned to my apartment, Farley chuckled at me as I left the lights and television on when I exited stage left. Our little gecko decided to take a stroll around the room and was sitting above the door frame to the balcony. Farley propped open the door with a chair and grabbed the broom. He knocked down the gecko, who safely landed on the chair. Rather than leaving the room quietly, the gecko decided that when he left, he would ceremoniously be escorted out of the building. After landing on the chair, he flew into the air, hopped on the fan, then scurried into the middle of the room before finding refuge in my closet. As he was moving, I was screaming and running into the bathroom and standing on the edge of the shower (as to not be standing on the floor, which clearly wasn't much help as the gecko can obviously FLY). Farley looked at me like I was from another planet and reminded me that running and screaming in fear, does not help the situation. I wanted to know what was going on, so I kept the bathroom door open--obviously another mistake. Farley, slowly and carefully with the precision of a vascular surgeon, examined every shoe in my closet until the feisty gecko reemerged. Now, this Gecko did not move toward either of the open doors that lead to the outside; nope, he picked door number 3 and headed into the bathroom with me. Obviously, I ran out of the apartment screaming, jumped across the apartment (remember my studio is only 288 sq feet, so I'm not as athletic as I sound). I ended up on the bed, with my feet moving in a running motion (fast feet!) and I was continuing to scream! Again, Farley reminded me to calm down because I was obviously not helping the situation. I continued my fearful stance (on the corner of the bed) and I saw him usher out the offending gecko. I was so relieved and thankful as I closed the balcony door, but before I closed the door a huge gush of wind came though the apartment. Honestly, I had so much sympathetic activation that the cool breeze felt good--sympathetics are the 'fight or flight' mechanism. I turned to walk back into the room to thank Farley when he said, 'watch out!' At this point, I noticed one of my shower caps (see picture below if you don't know what a shower cap is). I didn't think much of it because I figured that the shower cap had just be caught in the breeze before we shut the doors: I was wrong.

Since I was hiding on my bed away from the action, I didn't realize that Farley had tried to gently move this feisty gecko by lifting him out of the apartment with my shower cap. In the shower cap, the gecko became very afraid and did what geckos do: dropped his tail. I'm not sure of the scientific term for this, but the gecko leaves his tail, which flops like a fish out of water while the gecko runs the other way. Well, the gecko dropped his tail then sprung out of the shower cap as if he was spring loaded. At this point, the shower cap became loose in Farley's hand and the breeze carried it across the room to me. When he warned me, I looked down and there on my floor was a gecko's tail, rapidly flopping. Obviously, I jumped over floor and the tail onto my post at the bed from where I continued my rapid foot movement, and make squealing noises every time I saw the tail flopping in the corner of my eye.

Poor Farley. Not only did he have to outsmart this feisty gecko, he had to calm me down. I've known for years that geckos can do this, but I never expected to have a tail fly across my room in a shower cap! Interestingly, there was no blood or gecko fluids on the tail and it continued to flop around for probably 120 seconds--it felt like 20 minutes, but I'm sure it was closer to 2 minutes. It was a crazy night. I was so worked up, even though intellectually I knew the gecko couldn't hurt me. I was so frightened of this little, feisty gecko.

The moral of the story is that geckos are NOT as cute as Geico makes you believe.

Hot Showers

When I was hopping in the shower this evening, I was reminded that in the U.S., generally, you can get a hot shower on demand. It is the little things that make a difference. It will be nice to have hot showers in just six weeks. There will also be grocery stores and glass on the windows, rather than just misquote netting. That will be so nice and I'm getting more and more excited aobut it. I think I'm closer to finding an apartment---it's too bad Miami is so expensive, but I guess when you are paying for medical school you are going into hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt anyway. Oh well!!

Miami it is...

I was hoping to be able to stay in Dominica for the transition semester, but I will be heading to Miami. Rumor has it that 100 people applied to stay in Dominica and they only let 50 stay with first priority to those who promise to stay for one or two of their clerkships, those who has a spouse attending Ross and is in the 1-4th and a magnitude of other things. However, the most important factor is if you willing to stay and do the clerkships here: neither Farley nor I were willing to commit to staying for two clerkships until we had more information about them. I think that is why we are going to Miami. Oh, well. It is kinda a bummer because we had a plan about the next few months, but it's okay. There will be hot showers in Miami, real grocery stores, and we won't have to fight with the cows when trying to walk to school.

We had a huge test covering endocrine, female and male reproduction, gastrointestinal (including esophagus, stomach, small and large intestine, appendix, gallbladder, liver and pancreas), and breasts in all of our subjects (Pathology, pharmacology, microbiology and introduction to clinical medicine). I'm happy to say that both Farley and I had our best exams of our medical school careers. It is a bit funny that this was both of our best exam, since it covered more information than any other exam--excluding a final or standardized exam. Exciting! I even beat my arch Nemesis pharmacology by earning an A!

Last night was the 4th semester banquet. It was nice to have our whole class (plus another 200-300 people who somehow came as "dates") at one dinner. However, it seems a bit premature to me as we have a million more test before we are finished with the semester on April 22nd. It was held at a gentleman's mansion on top of the Dominican hilltops. I wish I could have gotten more pictures of the view, but with the tents set up for the students, it wasn't really possible. Here are a couple pictures:

There has been a lot going on in the last couple weeks and we will be very busy for the next two months. I have to master the kidneys, which is easier said than done! I better get back to my studies.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

I'm sorry I didn't have my camera on my yesterday---I often carry it down here just in case something interesting or strange happens (which is often down here in the Caribbean). I guess I should start at the beginning.

We had a HUGE exam on Monday. Excluding our finals and standardized exams, this exam covered more information than any other exam I've ever taken. It was a battle, but happily, I think it went okay. I'm never 100% happy with my scores (one can always do better), but all and all I'm proud of my performance, especially in my arch nemesis: Pharmacology.

This semester, we have clinical medicine laboratory days on Tuesday and Thursday and luckily neither Farley or I were scheduled to be in the clinical medicine laboratory or working in the hospital on Tuesday. We had a great day off. There is a new coffee shop that opened a few blocks from campus so we strolled over there to have some ice coffee and read novels. That's right, we got to read for fun rather than school. Next we ran some errands and relaxed at home for a while. It was a hot day for March, even by Caribbean standards, so we decided to head to the pool for a while. Everything was fairly normal on this beautiful day--children were playing, adults were reading novels, listening to I-pods, and talking amongst themselves--then everything changed. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a cow walking around the fence surround the pool. I said to Farley, I sure hope "Betsy" doesn't decide to come in here. I didn't think she would actually be able to get into the pool area because I didn't think she could get through the gate (it is at an odd angle for a cow); however, I was wrong. She easily moo-ved right into the pool area and casually walked right up to the pool for a drink. I don't think she should be drinking the chlorinated water, but heck, I'm not going to argue with a very large cow with horns. Some dumb guy in the pool decided to swim over towards here, which did NOT make Betsy very happy. Now, I don't know about you, but if a large cow with horns (probably weighing over 1200 Lbs) was taking a drink of water, I wouldn't go get in her space. She wasn't too happy and he managed to move our of her way before she showed him who is boss. Next, she decided to go check out the area within the fence (there is a little bit of grass within the fenced area, and she decided to get a snack). This was the time that I said to Farley, we are leaving NOW. By the time we walked the 100 feet back to the apartment and climbed the three flights of stares, she was heading out of the fenced in pool area. I wish I could have taken a picture of her drinking out of the pool. She looked so peaceful and up close, bovine have the most beautiful eyes. However, I wouldn't take her picture that close up--what if the camera flashed and made her mad. I know that cows are rather docile creatures, but I'm sure as heck not going to make a huge animal with horns mad--I'm not that stupid!

Okay...

My blog is behaving badly. It appears that my posts are not showing and I'm not sure why. I first noticed it last night, but I thought it was because the Internet was flickering on and off (as was the power). I'll get to the bottom of this, sometime next week AFTER the exam.

The application for the transition semester came out this morning and we are filled out the applications as quickly as possible. Much to my original dismay, Farley and I have decided to apply to stay in Dominica. I hope that we will both be assigned in Dominica! I never thought I would want to stay here, in a third world country, any longer than necessary; but I think that this is the best thing possible for my career. If I get to stay here, I will be working directly under attending physicians and if those attending physicians like me, I might be allowed to practice some hands on skills that students in the States are not allowed to do until they are further into their medical education. One of the most important reasons to stay here is that we have to take a HUGE exam on Monday, May 18th: the National Board of Medical Examiners Comprehensive Exam over the basic science years of medical school. It is an extremely difficult exam and I'd prefer to spend my three weeks studying for the exam (which covers the first two years of medical school) rather than moving. I hope that we both get to stay!

Two short stories and a sunset

I'm no longer shocked by things I hear in Dominica. Today, within about five minutes, Farley and I heard two very strange things. First, a student who is starting classes in May came down to find an apartment and see the island. The strange part is that he wasn' t sure how to read his itinerary and thought he was leaving at 6:00am on the 5th when he was actually leaving 6th. I felt bad for him as he must have been overwhelmed with the culture shock of landing in the hot, hot Caribbean and then being in a poor third world country. Farley didn't have as much sympathy. Next, we tried to pay our rent; this the second time in three days I've been asked to come at another time. On Saturday, the worker said the credit card machine was down. Today the lady was more honest: she just didn't want to do it! She asked if we would come back tomorrow between 7:00am and 3:00pm because someone else could help us and then she added, but don't come after 3:00pm because I'll be working tomorrow at that time. I'm so glad Farley was with me and he talked her into taking our money so that the owner didn't kick us out of our apartments. Geeze, it shouldn't be that difficult to PAY someone, but I guess since she didn't own the place she didn't care if or when they got paid.

Here are some pictures from the beautiful sunset yesterday. I've got to get back to my studies as we have an exam on Monday. I think I'll be ready, but we have covered an amazing amount of information--if you want to say a little prayer for me, I'd appreciate it!

Above: Picture taken from my third floor balcony

Below: Picture taken from the end of my apartment's hall way on the third floor
The following pictures are taken from the end of my building facing the sea, at sea level:

The last one was taken about 10 minutes after the others and was again from the end of the hallway on the third story:

Things that make life in the Caribbean easier for me...

1. The Internet: I am able to keep up to date on current events at home and abroad as well as communicate with friends and family. Moreover, I get to keep a Blog, which surprisingly, reduces my stress. Farley always says that women have so many words per day that they need to say (basically women need to talk) and I guess my blog is a way for me to talk with family and friends even though I'm very far away. I can even talk over Google Talk or Skype, which is even better than typing to friends.


2. Coffee: Now, it isn't great coffee, but at least there is some coffee on this island. Being that Dominica just received it's independence from Great Britain 30 years ago (as well as many other islands), there is some yummy tea down here. I'm okay with substituting black tea for coffee for some variety.


3. My I-Pod: I LOVE that I can check my email from my I-Pod and it has even been helping me sleep better at night. The music has been so loud this semester that my parents bought me these rather strange looking earphone (see photo) that are designed to be warn while you are sleeping and listening to binaural beat technology. This binural beat technology is a way to help you relax and then it is suppose to drop you down into Delta sleep (deep sleep). I was skeptical at first because I like QUIET when I sleep, but to my surprise, these little sleep phones have worked when it is loud down here all but one night since I got them (but there isn't much anyone can do for you when you can hear the lyrics to songs that are playing in a bar 1.5 miles away).
4. Gregorian Chant and Classical Music: I didn't realize how much classical music I own until I looked at my I-Pod the other day. By far, the classical section is the biggest--by hundreds of songs. I go through phases when I'd rather listen to Scott Joplin, George Gershwin, J.S. Bach, or Gregorian chant to name a few. Currently, I'm on a chant kick--so relaxing. It just makes the pathology and microbiology that much more pleasant.


5. Discovery Health/TLC: When I take a study break, obviously I like to watch medical television. I especially like when I can diagnose patients on T.V. --it makes me feel so smart!


6. Nelson and Addison: Nelson has THE best chicken on the island--he has a monopoly on the chicken breasts and his employees are the best, gosh-darn grill men on the island. Yummy! Addison has a fruit juice stand and his fruit juice isn't the best on the island, I think it is the best anywhere in the world I've been. Amazing!


7. Dominican Sunsets: The sunsets are absolutely breathtaking at my apartment. The colors of the sunset just dance upon the ocean. Better than in St. Lucia or Barbados. Beautiful!


8. Balcony study spot: I have a little plastic table on my balcony that is a great study spot. I love being able to escape out there and feel like I'm not trapped in doors all day, while still getting things done.


9. Subway's expanded menu: It isn't as large as the U.S. menu, but we now have soup and pizzas in Dominica. There isn't a huge variety of choice on this island of things to eat, especially for me as I am allergic to seafood and shell fish. Being able to go to subway when I can't get to the "grocery store" is a life saver. Since we've gotten more items on the menu this semester, it's been easier just to go to subway as the default. Besides, everywhere but Subway and Nelson's fries things, which has made me gain weight since there are not enough hours in the day to work out as often as I should. I'm losing weight this semester by just eating subway more often when I don't have time to cook. I'm practically the new Jared.


10. Not being along: I've saved the most important thing on the list for last: Farley. Having Farley down here is such a blessing, even when we get on each other's nerves. It is so lonely down here and there isn't much time to make many friends as studying consumes so much time. It is nice to have Farley down here; I'm never really alone, even if I feel isolated at times since I'm so far from home. Farley is always just next door, which isn't far at all.
    

I didn't know it was possible to be that hot....

Last Thursday, we had our first Stan session. I hate to say it, but we killed him. I think it was much harder than working with a real patient, but I also thought it was fun. Medical students are not allowed to do too much hands-on work and we can practice hands on skills on the Stan machines. I think part of our problem was that we were so worried about not killing Stan that we thought too much and didn't act enough. Another part of our problem might have been that the air conditioner was turned off in the Stan room and we couldn't turn on a fan--it was probably 90-100 degrees in there with no moving air!

Yesterday, we had our first "Mini" exam of the semester. Don't even get me started on the "minis!" Each mini consists of 1/3 of the information from the semester from each class on one BIG (not mini) exam, which we are given 2.5 hours to complete. It is a mini examination compared to the USMLE Step 1, but these Mini exams, my friends, are anything but mini. When I left, I felt like I did horrible, but then after I talked to some friends, I think I did okay.

Today, I had to go to PMH (the BIG hospital on the island). I got up, got dressed, had a small breakfast and a Dramamine then I hit the road at 8:00. We took the 23 mile (>60 minute) drive to Roseau, the capital. It was a bumpy ride and I'm glad that I took my Dramamine, but I was extremely sleepy from the medicine until about 10:00-10:30. We were broken down into multiple groups and randomly assigned to physicians. If I had my choice, I would have rounded with the hematologist/oncologist since that is what I'm interested in, but I got the post-surgical rounds, which was fine too. The professors that we showed are Cuban and the first one (about 50-60 years old) had an extremely heavy accent. He was a great teacher, but I really had to listen carefully to understand him--part of that was that I was still drowsy from the Dramamine. I did manage to say a few thoughtful things, so I at least looked like a medical student with somewhat of a brain. Next, we went to orthopedics with the second, younger Cuban professor. I made huge brownie points with the second professor because I knew that osteoporosis caused micro-fractures often in the spine (fractures that are so small that they cannot be seen by X-ray). He asked how I knew this exciting information and I had to reply that I either saw it on Discovery Health or on a commercial for an osteoporosis medicine...not exactly doctorly, but I did know the answer.

Next, well, it was the embarrassing part of the day. Six of us followed the first doctor to the woman's ward to palpate a cyst in a lovely lady's axilla (arm pit). She had an ultrasound and they said that it was an abscess (infection) probably because she is diabetic and they are more susceptible to infections. All six of the medical students palpated to mass, then the doctor got down to business. At PMH, they have open wards so we had the curtains pull around so she could have some privacy. Six medical students, two physicians, and two nurses surrounded her bed (all within 2 feet of the bed because of the curtains). The hospital has no air conditioning, there were no fans nearby, windows were opened but there was no breeze, and worst of all it was probably 80-85 degrees before we all slammed around the bed like sardines. Next, the physician injected the woman in the axilla with lidocaine (a local anesthetic). I was cringing just thinking about a needle going into this poor woman's arm pit--her face confirmed the horrific pain she was experiencing. We don't cover anesthetic until March so I'm not sure how long it takes for lidocaine to numb the area, but I don't think it was as quickly as this physician moved. Probably less than 30 seconds after injecting the lidocaine, he injected his needle to try and aspirate the abscess. Our patient was quite, but her face was screaming. I asked her if she wanted to hold my hand and she said yes, so I tried to comfort her best I could, but I don't think it did much. This went on with little success for probably five minutes, then I got really hot. I don't mean a little hot, I mean really hot. I noticed I was getting hot then 30-60 seconds later, I thought I better move toward the "hallway" (the area in the big-open-room ward that is in between the beds and curtains). I tried to find a chair, but I couldn't so I leaned against the wall. Then I remember shaking and being so, so hot. I knocked over two empty water bottles and I remember falling into one of my group member's arms. I didn't think I fainted because I remembered all of it, but the two gentleman who were holding me said that I was holding myself up for all but about 30-60 seconds--I guess I did pass out. I was assigned to my own bed. One of the doctors come over and checked up on me, but it was obvious that I was just overheated. Apparently, 1-3 students pass out per day because it is so hot. I was so embarrassed, but they are used it. I don't think anyone else passed out when we were there, but nine other people told me they thought they were going to pass out, but they found somewhere to sit down, which I could not. In fact, the guy that caught me left the oven (I mean the patient's bed) a minute or two before me because he was sweating so much and almost passed out. I'm lucky we both didn't pass out. Everyone was so nice, but I felt so stupid. I usually drink about 2 liters of water a day and I didn't do that today. I will make sure to drink more water before my next hospital day.

After the fun fainting on the wards, we all picked up a taxi and headed to lunch. The people I was with wanted to go to KFC, why, I don't know. So, KFC it was. Around the corner there is a little, cute, cozy coffee shop, so we got iced coffee. After our two hour lunch (why did we need two hours, I don't know), we headed back to the hospital. We were again divided into groups and I again had to go to the second level to the woman’s ward (I like to think of it as one large sauna with smaller, hotter pockets that are like ovens). We were supposed to have three students to one patient, but the second patient was discharged so we had six students to one patient. I was rather relived that upon returning to the oven to interview our patient, the other five people in my group performing the interview all had to leave to cool down. I really can’t believe how hot the woman’s ward was. I didn’t know I could be that hot without being sunbathing in the Sahara desert. Anyway, our patient was great and made our lives much easier by being so nice and easy to work with. If I didn't know our patient was a seamstress, I'd guess she was a teacher because she was so patient and caring. Then again, perhaps she was patient and caring because she is a Mom. I think that our interview and patient exam went very smoothly. Our attending professor was an amazing woman. She had been a practicing physician for 40 years! It always excites me to see women in non-traditional roles. Now, about 50% of medical students are women, but there is a lot of variety once physicians specialize (traditionally, women are more often pediatricians and obstetricians and less often surgeons). Forty years ago a woman in medical school was amazing feat, let alone a minority woman in medical school. I wish I could have spent more time learning from her: she is great.

We all loaded up on the bus to head back to school, but a group talked the bus driver into going to KFC (I don't know why they all love KFC so much). I really wanted to get back, but I didn't mind that we had this 40-60 minute delay as it takes that long for Dramamine to kick in. It is a good thing that I had the Dramamine for the ride back to school because I was stuck in the back, the ride was extra bumpy and the driver was going fast. I felt like I was on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, but a Dominican version that could actually kill me!

Overall, it has been a exciting week. I am sad we killed Stan the stimulator, but I'm proud that we were good with our real, live patients. I hope the exam went well, as I studied and studied even after my head felt like it was going to fall off my shoulders. I'm starting to finally feel like I am on my way to becoming a physician; but most exciting of all, I think I'll make a great physician some day.

Laundry

Unlike in other parts of the world, there are no laundry mats and apartments do not have a laundry room in Dominica. No, I don't walk around smelling like the anatomy lab, nor do I wash my clothes in the rivers (like some of the locals). I use a laundry service. Now this sounds like a great luxury; however, it is not. There are several different services throughout the area. Generally they pick up your laundry about 7:00am and are suppose to drop it off between 6:00-7:00pm. Last year, Farley and I waited until our friends had done laundry and asked about the different companies before we had our laundry done. Waiting to do our laundry was one of the smartest things we've done. There have been people who didn't get laundry returned for a week, people who have had their laundry smell worse when it returned than before being washed and missing things. The laundry service that we use is overall pretty good. I've lost one wash cloth, our laundry was a day late once (when there was a big rainstorm and the water was brown) and a couple times we've had to call because we either were missing something or had something extra (but other than the wash cloth, we have gotten everything back). Our laundry is NEVER returned between 6:00-7:00pm, but excluding the one extremely rainy day, our laundry is always returned by 9:00pm. Another good thing about our laundry service is that it always smells like it has been washed; however, things often change colors. Light blue is often turned to an off blue white, black turns into dingy grey, other colors are dimmed, but whites are bright! The laundry is always hot, hot, hot! I never wash my clothes in hot water and I air dry a lot of my things (or I put them on low heat in the dryer). These hot clothes result in not only changing colors, but size and shape changes too. So, yes, it is nice not to do laundry (and the laundry lady folds things beautifully); but, I'd rather do my own laundry any day.

Mosquitoes

Since finding and buying liquid mosquito vaporizers, my life in Dominica has been much better. I have only had two bites since I started using them August. (As a comparison, I used to 6-12 bites PER NIGHT.) Well, Thursday night I got my second bite since I started using these amazing vaporizers. I think the mosquito decided to make me pay for not being mosquito dinner lately: IT BIT THE BOTTOM OF MY FOOT. I didn't think mosquitoes could bit there because it is thick rather than think skin. Well this tricky mosquito bit me right at the line where the skin turns from thin to thick skin (at the arch of my foot). I don't think I've ever experienced such horrible itching (probably because the foot has an incredibly high concentration of nerves). My usual tricks for alleviating the itching are not working (calamine lotion, diphenhydramine spray (Benadryl spray) and drying it out with rubbing alcohol). I've had to resort to icing it (except I don't have any ice so I'm "cold water bottle-ing it"). One of our professors said that part of the reason some people get so much more itchy than others is because some people have a hypersensitivity reaction (allergic reaction). I'm a text book example. I am itchy for about one hour after the bite then 24-48 hours I have the delayed reaction (itchy again) for another day or so. The cold is working and I think it is because it causes the blood vessels to vasoconstrict (contract) so less blood is getting to area of itching and thus my army overactive immune system cells and mediators are also not getting to the area of itchiness!

I keep telling myself that this stupid itching is due to end any moment (I should be nearing the end of the delayed reaction to the allergen), but then again, I didn't think mosquitoes could bit the bottom of your foot!

I'm so ready to come home

I've been back in Dominica for a week and honestly, I'm shocked I've made it though the year on the island with such a positive attitude. Besides the brown water, the power outages, the expensive flights, the cold showers, the limited food choices on the island and the horrible misquotes, Dominica is the loudest place I have ever lived. There is a club OVER a mile away from my apartment. When I first arrived in Dominica, I could faintly hear the music of the club but in the past year it has gotten louder and louder. I am so tired. At least 2-3 days per week, there is music so loud that I can hear the lyrics with my windows closed, air conditioner on and ear plugs in until 2 or 3 in the morning. It was so bad that I got less than four hours of sleep per night the last week of last semester--the week that we had tests 50% of our grade in EVERY class within 48 hours. I emailed the school today and this was part of the response: " There are many laws in Dominica; unfortunately most of them are not regularly enforced. [The Club] is an integral part of the local community and attempts in the past to broach this subject have been unsuccessful." Seriously, I doubt activities at this club, which keep the rest of us awake several nights a week are an "integral part of the local community". I just don't buy it. The majority of the Dominicans I have met are family oriented, active in their Church, hard working (maybe slow but hard working) and up very early in the morning. I understand that the Caribbean cultures like to dance and jump up, but I don't think that they are all out doing it at least twice a week. During their multiple holidays, absolutely--I'm sure the majority of Dominicans are out at the party and "jumping up" but NOT every WEDNESDAY night. Dominicans do have jobs--generally working somehow with the school or students as there isn't much of economy besides the school! It isn't too much for them to just turn down the music a bit, as to not keep everyone else on the island awake. Besides, Dominica has more people per capital over the age of 100 in the world; I suspect they don't want to be up at 3:00am either! My flight back to Miami is Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 2:55 pm. Let the countdown begin!

Yes, You DO have the right book!

Yesterday, Farley and I bought the review book of all review books: "Rapid Interpretation of EKGs" by Dr. Dublin. The book just cracks me up. The back of the book doesn't describe how the book is set up just why is it such a great book. It talks about the imitators and how other review books have replaced "EKG" with "ECG" etc. I was laughing when I read the back of the book. The first point that made me laugh, "Yes! You do have the right book." and later when it says (highlighted in yellow) "There are books you buy for a course...This is a reference you keep for life." Please note, I had a hard time taking pictures for you to see this great reference, so I apologize that they are not my best pictures.



Obviously, I had to rip off the plastic and read this book immediately. I was not disappointed. For example, the yellow box under the Table of Contents: "Since this book will be your lifetime reference, you should place an identifying tab on the first page of each chapter." Then it highlights which pages start the chapter in the table of contents.


Finally, I started reading the first chapter. This books is beautiful. Every page is glossy, colored and the pages are thick, but not quite card stock. Each page starts with a drawing, graph or table. Readers are to first read the caption then try to understand the content of the drawing, graph or table. Next, it has a few sentences about the drawing, graph or table and expanding on the topic at hand. These sentences, however, lack a key word which is in the margin and you are expected to fill it in as you read (and obviously you can check if you are not sure). For example, it might say, "Living in Dominica, Nicole has many sunny days but also many ____ days because Dominica is not only near the equator but also a rain forest." Now in the margin it would say "rainy." It was actually fun to read the book. Luckily for me, there was yet another comment after the first page of chapter one, which made me chuckle: "*Get yourself a warm cup of coffee, relax and enjoy...the rest of the book is just as easy and entertaining."

I've never seen such a cocky text book, but if all the things I've read about it are true I guess it can afford to be cocky. From what I've seen so far, it is fun and easy--I just hope it stays that way. It has been published for over 30 years, is in it's 6th edition and the 60th publication...seems like reason to be cocky.

Start of the semester

I'm a bit surprised that I'm excited to be in class this morning--the semester break just didn't seem long enough. Both pharmacology and microbiology/immunology are worth 3 credits each this semester, pathology is worth 4 credits and Introduction to Clinical Medicine is worth 5 credits. This most exciting part of this semester is that we are starting to get more heavy on clinical medicine rather than just the books. We will be doing hospital days more frequently than last semester, which is both good and bad. It is good because I want to be a doctor (in large part) to work with people not just to think about theory in a philosophical manner. It is bad though, because the drive to the hospital is an hour and the road climbs uphill and downhill as well as bending tighter than a hair pen. YUCK! Thank goodness for Dramamine (dimenhydrinate) because without it, I'd be sick enough to be a patient by the time I get to the hospital. With the two hours of driving and the eight hours of clinic time, we will have fewer hours to study (which is always a bad thing). We will also be required to write multiple history and physicals, which is a great thing for me because writing up patient histories is probably one of my strongest skills as a medical student. You might be surprised that writing a history and physical is extremely important and not nearly as easy as it sounds it would be.

One funny thing was said today in class. We were told that if we are too sick to attend a clinic that we must call in (obviously, you have to call in when you have a job so it makes sense you have to call in as a student). The funny thing was that our professor said, "if you are too sick to be in clinic [as a student] than we will send a transfer to pick you up so we can see you [as a patient] to check you out." That is one great thing about medical school: there are plenty of people to make sure we are healthy and wise!

Rainbow

There are lots of rainbows in Dominica. I guess that is a perk of living in a rain forest: it rains and then it is sunny so you get a rainbow. However, this is the first rainbow that I've gotten a good picture of--taken from my balcony of course.


I found an old Irish lullaby on iTunes that my Grandmother sang to me when I was little. Then, when she was dying of cancer, I sang it to her. I even remember climbing in bed with her and singing it together. I was only six when she died but I vividly remember that day. I remember pretending to be sick so I wouldn't have to leave. I remember telling Mom, very frankly, that Grandma was dying so I needed to stay home. Mom and Dad made me go to school and when she picked me up I remember standing in front of St. Joseph's Parish informing her that I knew Grandma was dead. She asked me how I knew and I told her that I just knew Grandma would be dead before I came home from school (Mom told me laster that Grandma died about 45 minutes after I left for school). It was the day I knew I wanted to be a doctor. The pot at the end of this rainbow is completing my Doctorate in Medicine. Grandma will be so proud!

Thanksgiving 2008

Farley and I decided to have Thanksgiving down here in Dominica. We are a bit weary of the meat in general, so we didn't try to hunt down a turkey (literally). Besides, I have a propane oven/stove, which is extremely difficult to manage the temperature (my oven is on or off); thus, I don't think a turkey would have turned out anyway. So, we decided to get chicken breast from Nelson's Chicken (the best chicken on the island and the only place to get chicken breast--he has a monopoly). I have never made instant potatoes or stuffing before (always from scratch at home), but I didn't have an option here. We bought the chicken early in the day, so I heated it up in the pot then made the stuffing with the chicken still in the pot. Honestly, I was shocked that the chicken tasted completely different than it does when we have it for lunch. We had some instant "Idahoian" potatoes, fresh green beans (which were the only thing that took longer than 5 minutes to make), and cranberries. I like my cranberries hot because we always make our cranberry sauce from frozen cranberries; thus, it was in a pan. Mom had sent me down black olives, which was such a treat, especially since Farley hates them! We also bought a bottle of wine, which was shockingly good. I wish the pictures looked a bit more artistic, but heck, my kitchen fits into a closet, so I'm just lucky I managed to cook all of this and have it all ready at the same time!

Above: There is our instant Thanksgiving meal.

Below: a close up of the stuffing/chicken dish.

Farley and I decided to take the night off and relax. We talked to our families, had some no bake cheesecake, and watched t.v. We can't ever really take a night off medicine, so we watched a plastic surgery show on Discovery Health, Grey's anatomy and the show with everyone's favorite OB/GYN: The Cosby Show. At one point on The Cosby Show, little Rudy said that she was board and Dr. Huxitable responded lets read a book to which she said I don't want to read. That prompted him to reply that he has 3 million dollars worth of medical text books and she couldn't find one interesting??? That just made me chuckle as I have, literally, thousands of dollars worth of books and I'm only in my second year of medical school!

Well, unfortunately, our day wasn't just no-bake-cheese cake and The Cosby Show, we had classes from 8:00-12:00 then we had an exam in Behavioral science-a ten minute full interview of a patient. I think we both did very well. Farley and I spent hours interviewing each other. We came up with some pretty interesting cases: patient with malaria and a G6PD deficiency (which mean that they can't metabolism some of the malaria medications and will get even more ill with medication), a pregnant medical student, a manic-depressant patient (Farley's shinning moment of acting), and a womanizing-old-man with erectile dysfunction and benign prostate hyperplasia (my shinning moment of acting). Well, all that fun practice helped out as we both were given great feedback from our examiners, but we don't have the final grades yet.

A few things I'm thankful for:

• Family and Friends!


• The Internet so I can communicate with my friends and family--it keeps me sane down here.


• The opportunity to be a doctor, despite my whining at times


• The semester coming to a close and getting to come home


• My health and the health of my friends and family, especially after learning about all the things that can go wrong. Heck, I'm surprised any of us are healthy there are so many things that can go wrong!


• Obviously, my Farley. Farley's picture is in the new Catalogue for Ross University School of Medicine that is sent out to all prospective student (see page 74). He looks so handsome and thoughtful in the picture. He is with Dr. "I LOVE ANATOMY", who perhaps, is the only person on campus who likes anatomy as much as Farley does (and when I say that I'm including all of the other faculty of anatomy. Farley and Dr. "I LOVE ANATOMY" are anatomy addicts).


• Which reminds me of another thing that I'm thankful for: I'm done with anatomy!

Doesn't Farley look like he is hanging on everything that Dr. "I LOVE ANATOMY" is saying. It's like Farley found a mentor who loves anatomy and teaching of anatomy as much as he does. Which is completely true, other professors are also great at teaching anatomy, but NO ONE is an enthusiastic as Dr. "I LOVE ANATOMY".

Hot water, HA, it' s been out for over a month!

That's right, living on a Caribbean Island may seem like sunsets, rum and lazy days, but my friends, it's not. I have not had hot water in a month--yup, I'm showering in ice cold water. I don't even think the bottled water on this island is as cold as my shower. It was luke-warm for about three days a month ago and before that it was another month. That's right it has really been more like two months since I've had a really good, hot shower. It is so bad that if either or Farley or I have not freezing water at we immediately calls the other to say "get in NOW, before the ice cubes start flowing again!" I'm not quite sure what we'd do without each other. We have a study buddy and a not-so-ice-water-shower-notifier. Yes, it is more than most can ask or even expect in a significant other! Farley spoke to the management yesterday and "told them what to do." Well, when I checked the shower water tonight, it is warm and even clear--not brown!!!! It's a good day!

As if the hot water situation isn't enough, our Internet has been out at our apartment for about a week. Yea--it stinks! But right now, we are back in business as I'm typing during a study break at my little apartment right this very moment. A great thing about the Internet being back is that I get these cravings for music and with the Internet I can buy whatever I want to hear. It is the only indulging I get on this little island, so I allow it. I missed my Dad today, so obviously, I downloaded his favorite Christmas tune, "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." I think Dad thinks he IS the Grinch, but he isn't. Before the last exam, I decided that I needed to dance to "Thriller" and "Billy Jean." Yesterday, I decided I needed to hear "The Mission--Gabriel's Obeo." Anyone who attended a Jesuit School probably, like me, is very familiarly with this amazing work of music. I didn't love the movie (with Robert De Niro), but I LOVE (can't emphasize enough) the music.

Another great thing about the Internet being back is that I can talk to Mom and Dad again on Skype or Google Talk (or anyone else if you email me and we can exchange Skype names---how fun!). Now that Mom and Dad have high speed Internet, the world is their oyster! They can even look at my smiling, tan face and I can see them.

I haven't posted a Caribbean Sunset lately and since I've been complaining, I should put something positive up too:

I only have a studio--no room for roommates, large lizard in my window!!

Remember Leo the Lizard?? I posed about him last August in Miami? Well, today, Farley had to save me from his great, great, grandfather! I was minding my own business at my little desk and I had the erie feeling that someone was looking at me. I looked at my window seal and there was about a 5.5 inch lizard. I thought he might be dead--then he blinked. I calmly stood up and marched to Farley's house. Farley, in his manly way, staggered over, took one looked at the lizard and declared him "a grandfather lizard." We both though he looked sick, that was, until Farley poked him with a pen. This time I didn't manage to walk slowly out of the room, I ran. Farley kindly pointed out that running, screaming, from the lizard doesn't help the situation. If Farley knows one thing, it is how to keep his cool---maybe he will be a trauma surgeon (I like to joke that his future career path changes each time we learn something new because he likes most of it so much).

At this point in operation lizard removal, I called maintenance; however, they were all on vacation (remember the five day weekend??) They were going to send up the gal at the desk or the housekeeper (who is probably 65). Well, my manly Farley wasn't going to stand for that! He sent me to his house to get some gloves then promptly stood on the desk and negotiated the lizard into the corner. Then he grabbed the little guy and took him outside. I took a picture of him. Farley wanted me to zoom more in on the little guy, but he tried to bite Farley. Well, lets just say our little lizard when on a little trip to the grass below my apartment complex. Don't worry about the little guy, he landed in the grass. Besides, remember when I told you about the giant lizard that fell off the landing and landed on the cement---he was fine.

Well this lizard got into my apartment via a screen that had been broken (and reported to maintence) three weeks earlier. I was a little too busy studying to be a doctor to follow up and well, I paied the price. Good thing my hero was around to keep me safe!!