Finishing up in Miami Beach and heading to New York City

Getting ready to leave Miami was a pain. Farley and I were doing our ER month of internal medicine,which meant that we were doing three 12 hours ER shifts per week (our shifts were not at the same time and we had to drive each other) as well as doing two or three 8 hours shifts with private practice physicians.  Farley and I also had our presentations due the week before we finished up in Miami.  About 10 days before the rotation was due to finish, we were informed that we were going to have to take a shelf exam, which is an exam over all of internal medicine.  In defense of our rotation, they were informed by the school about 14 days before the exam that we would be having it.  Luckily, I did well and Farley did excellent.  We had both been studying  during the entire rotation, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to study much in the 10-days before the exam.  

During the last couple weeks, not only did we have to get ready for the exam, go to class, pack, clean the apartment, but we had to do all sorts of odds and ends.  I knew we would get it all done eventually, but it was sure stressful, especially when we had 6pm-6am shifts in the ER to work around.  After my 6pm-6am shift, I took a picture of the ocean.  It was a little past sunrise when I took it, but I still think it is beautiful.

T
he last Wednesday we were in town, we went down to Ocean Drive to get some pictures of the hotels and restaurants at night.  I don't think that the pictures really give the feel of ocean, but they are the best I can do.  You have to imagine that it is 9:30 or so at night, it is till over 90 degrees with 95% humidity and there is dance music playing all around.
One of the last couple of days in Miami Beach, Farley went out to take a few photographs of Indian Creek.  Our apartment was in between Indian Creek and Miami Beach (there is about two blocks between them).  I haven't shown in picture of Indian Creek, so here they are. It really is a beautiful area.

I haven't seen an iguana in Miami, but Farley found one right across the street from us.

Below is what we saw directly to the left once we exited our apartment building!

We had our exam on the last Friday of July.  We had to drop our rental car off after the exam, so we asked our friend if he would mind dropping us off after the exam.  We ended up going to dinner with many people from our class and then we decided to go to "Salt."  Usually, I am Ms. Responsibility, but for some reason I figured what the heck, lets go to dinner and a move.  Farley and I were up until 3:40 packing because we had to do laundry and the laundry in our apartment was very small.  The next tenets were meeting us at the apartment to get the keys and they ended up being acquaintances from the island.  It was fun to see them before we left.  I was so tired when we boarded the plane and I kept waking up hoping that I packed everything (which I did).  Here is a picture of Miami from the air.

We had a great time living in Miami Beach, but all good things must come to an end.  Goodbye Miami Beach, Hello New York City!

LOLNAD: Little Old Lady in No Acute Distress

There is a very famous book about on doctor's intern year of his medical training (the intern year is the first year of residency) called "The House of God" by Samuel Shem, MD.  Apparently this book is very humorous and exposes all of the horrible things about medical training, as the intern year is suppose to be one of the hardest years in all of the medical training.  Farley just finished this book and has been telling me about it, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet.  Throughout this book are many acronyms and other terms which have become part of the medical lingo.  They were probably around before this book was published in 1980, but they have become more popularized because of this book.  One of those acronyms is LOLNAD: Little Old Lady in No Acute Distress.  I think I have seen half of the LOLNADs in Miami in the last week and just about every one I saw was hilarious.

First there were the two sisters.  They were both madly in love with the doctor that I was working with.  The 89-year-old looked like she was in her late 50s and the younger one was in her early 80s.  The 89-year-old was giving lots of health advise, which maybe better than advise you can get from the average doctors since she looked 30 years younger than she was.  She said that the reason her younger sister had so many health problems was because she didn't exercise enough, drink enough or have enough sex.  The 89-year-old said that you must exercise regularly, you must have one or two drinks per day (she preferred wine or gin) and you must have as much sex as possible.  Then the 89-year-old decided it was a great time to hit on the doctor, whose wife was the office manager.  She said something like, "My sisters and I all love this doctor.  But I don't just want him for a doctor, I want him as a man."  It was a little awkward in the room with them!

Only two more weeks in Miami Beach

I am sad to see my time in Miami coming to an end. I am not really all that excited about moving to New York City. New York will just be another adventure and I am sure that I will have a great time there too, but living on Miami Beach is going to be hard to top. I wish I could be enjoying the last few days in Miami, but I am doing ER work this month so my schedule is a little all over the place, I have a presentation this week and I am trying to get everything packed and ready to go. I've moved many times before so I know what I need to get done, but I really don't want to do any of it. Frankly, I'd rather be on the beach....

Hello Astoria

Looks like we have found a place to call home in NYC.  I am always nervous when moving to a new city (or country for that matter!).  As with all of my moves, I am moving to this apartment sight unseen, which always makes me a bit nervous.  This is the 5th time I've moved to a new area without seeing the apartment.  I've "walked" along the street" on Google maps and I have looked up all sorts of information on the area on the Internet.  I don't think that Astoria will be quite as awesome as living on South Beach, but I think it is going to be awesome in it's own way.  I am starting to get excited to move to NYC although I am also sad to be leaving the beach.  I have grown to love Miami Beach.  I don't think I would want to settle here forever (it is too far from family), but I do love this area.  Maybe I will come back here for some of my 4th year rotations.

Interns Give Me Hope

As many of you probably know, the end of June/beginning of July is an exciting time in the medical world: it is residency and fellowship start time.  Statically, this is when you do not want to be in the hospital!!!  There is a statistical difference in the error rates due to all of the newbies in the hospital.

Anyway, as a medical student, the idea of being an intern is exciting and a little intimidating.  I know that I will be ready when the time comes, but sometimes I wonder how anyone is ready to be a doctor.  No matter how many years of training you have, when something is new (your intern year, your fellowship, finally being an attending) it is a little intimidating.  The other day I heard a few interns that gave me hope: they didn't know exactly what to do either!  One had told the patient that they were going to hold his warfarin, the other had written a scrip for the warfarin and a third had told the patient that he would check with "the team" and get back to the patient with the plan.  I think they decided to talk to the resident before making the final decision.

I can do this.  I too can be an intern and work my way things to figure out what needs to happen....this is just another example that physicians in training are really in training and I am not expected to know everything in just a year and a half.

ER: Mean Doc

I was assigned to Mean Doc for my rotation this week in the ER.  He was nice to me, but he really did earn his title of Mean Doc with regards to how he treated everyone else.  There were two patients that he yelled at.  Yes,  yelled at.  It was all I could do to keep from laughing.  Now, he did have a few good points.  He was extremely good (shockingly good) with the patients that were not (1)  teenagers or (2) Old Feisty European Man.  He was happy to teach me things and explain things when I didn't understand and he was happy when I caught a minor (very minor) error he made.  He was mean to the nurses and ER techs.  In fact, I can see why they all dislike them.  None of the other ER docs are as rough when them as he is.

There was one teenager, who was in the hospital with psychiatric problems.  This teenager changed the answers to questions being asked.  I don't think the teenager did it intentionally or to trick Mean Doc, but he just blew up at her.  He started raising his voice (not quite yelling) and it was all I could do not to start laughing.  The look on both of their faces.  She was still completely confused and he was so frustrated.  I don't think anything was accomplished with their interaction.  It may have been one of the few times that I might have been able to get more information from a patient than an attending.  He wasn't patient enough.

Oh, and the Old Feisty European Man!  He was my favorite patient of the night.  He is a sort of regular at this ER.  He comes in so often that when fire and rescue brought him in, the entire staff started saying, "Hey Old Feisty European Man, how are you doing?  You haven't been here in days."  It reminded me of an episode of Cheers.  I don't know the whole past medical history, but I know he has chronic pain and he presented to the ER with chest pain.  Mean Doc wrote orders for pain medication for his chronic pain because they knew that they were going to have to do some things that would probably make the pain worse.  The only problem: Mean Doc didn't write the dose high enough for Old Feisty European Man (he has been taking this pain killer for a long time and needs more than most people would).  To make a long story short, Old Feisty European Man was yelling in his room for about an hour.  When the test results came back, he did have some problems and they needed to keep him in the hospital.  But by that point, Old Feisty European Man was so angry that his pain wasn't being controlled that he decided to go home and give himself the dose of pain medication (which was higher than the dose the ER gave him).  I volunteered to go talk to him and beg him to stay.  I let him know that Mean Doc ordered more pain medicine and that he would get it immediately if he just returned to his room and that he really did have some concerning health problems.  He said to me, "You are such a sweet girl, but if I have to die I'd rather go home and do it alone.  At least there won't be any morons there to bother me."  He then told me he wanted to sign the papers so he could leave.  Mean Doc came out and tried to get him to go back to his room, but Old Feisty European Man refused.  Mean Doc started talking as loud as Old Feisty European Man (which is loud because he is hard of hearing).  This continued to escalate until they were screaming at each other.  Finally, Mean Doc said that he didn't care anymore and would be getting the papers Old Feisty European Man sign out AMA (against medical advice).  I wish you could have heard them discussing how Old Feisty European Man was ill and that by leaving the hospital he could die.  It was like watching a poorly written comedy.  I think it was so humorous to me because it was so absurd.  I know that sometime things can get out of control (quickly), but this just seemed a bit crazy and I think Mean Doc added to the situation rather than being a calming force.  Oh well, no one is perfect and the rest of his 20+ patients were treated very well.  Shockingly well in fact.

Miami Beach 4th of July

I really wanted to go down and enjoy some of the 4th of July festivities.  Farley really didn't want to go, but I talked him into it.  They said that the fireworks were suppose to start at 8:00, which seemed early to me, but we headed to the boardwalk.  Here is a picture of the beach at 8:00pm.

 We decided to keep walking south, because the festivities were suppose to be at 8th and Ocean.  We walked down to 14th and Ocean and waited there for a while.  Below is a picture of Ocean drive from the beach entry at 14th street.

Farley seemed ready to go home, but then the fireworks began.  They were put to music, but we didn't have an FM radio to hear the classical music that the fireworks were dancing to.

is a picture with the camera in a different setting so you can see the palm trees and people.

Towards the end of the City of  Miami Beach fireworks presentation, we could see the City of Miami fireworks in the background.  It was amazing.  There were fireworks all over the sky.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get a picture quickly enough for you to see the amazing fireworks everywhere.  Farley and I took our time walking home.  There were tons of people on the beach setting off their own fireworks.  Here is a picture  from the boardwalk looking south with some fireworks people were setting off.

The final two pictures were of the boardwalk right at 26th.  There were tons of people right outside our apartment setting off fireworks.  It was beautiful.

Acclimated

I've been living in the tropics too long....

Yesterday, I decided to take a walk because I thought it was too hot to jog. After a few blocks, I decided that I could have gone jogging because it wasn't too hot at all. In fact, it was downright pleasant. A few minutes later I walked down past the Lincoln road area (I was on the boardwalk) and I saw a building with the current temperature: 96 degrees (without humidity)! I thought it was mild and temperate. I guess after living in Miami on and off for a year and a half and spending another year and a half in the Caribbean, I am acclimated. I am going to freeze moving back north!

I decided to go jogging today since the heat didn't bother me yesterday. There wasn't as much of a breeze so it was warmer today, but I didn't have any problems in the heat. I can't tell you how much I am going to miss living on Miami Beach. I am sure New York City will be great, but I am dreading leaving the beach.

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?

Competent

I am about a year and a half away from earning my Doctorate of Medicine.  The end is almost within sight!  A year and a half is a reasonable amount of time--it isn't the far distant future anymore.  That is exciting on one hand and down right scary on the other.  In a year and a half, I will be one of the people who (should) stand up when someone desperately asks for a doctor on a plane or in a busy restaurant.  I will be responsible for others' lives.  I will be a doctor.  Granted, I won't be on my own for at least another 3-5 years of residency training and if I specialize, I will have another 3 or more years of fellowship training before I am solely responsible.  Nonetheless, I wonder almost daily if I am learning enough, if I am working hard enough, if I am competent enough to be a physician.  Am I smart enough?  I think so.  According to my board scores, I am.  For some strange reason that doesn't bring me much condolence now that I am trying to master the clinical sciences.  I feel like I am having a much easier/enjoyable time learning the clinical sciences (medical school years 3 & 4) than I did with the basic sciences (medical school years 1 &2), but am I learning enough?  From talking to residents and attending physicians, everyone goes through these feelings and most people have told me it will get even worse during the intern year (first year of residency).  But as my dear friend Mary told me, "If medical school was easy, everyone would do it."

I should get back to the books...

Three Day Weekend!

I have a three day weekend because the doctor that I am assigned to this week is returning from vacation tomorrow.  It is another beautiful day down here on South Beach, but am I on the beach reading a novel, playing beach volleyball at Lummus Park, jogging on the boardwalk or enjoying a tropical drink while looking at the Atlantic Ocean: NO.  I am inside studying.  I am reading on the Cardiovascular system, I know, you are jealous.  Once I finish that,  I am reviewing an article on carbon monoxide poisoning that a friend wrote (actually, I am excited and proud about that because she will likely get published--yupee!).  After that, I am going to review my notes on a an article that I read over the weekend, which are discussing in class tomorrow on GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, aka, acid reflex).  Maybe, if there is still time left in the day, I will have time to write up a few histories and physicals onto "official H&P" forms from the doctors that I worked with last week.  If I am really lucky, I will get to work out at some point today so I don't become a tubby medical student....

Although this is not an atypical "day off", this would never make the cut for a Grey's Anatomy, House or even Scrubs episode.  I know, you are all wishing you were in Miami Beach studying medicine too.

Dancing and Computers

We were suppose to get together with some friends on Saturday night, but one of them called to see if we could move our get together to Friday night.  I slept horribly last week, so I wasn't too thrilled about going out Friday rather than Saturday, but I pulled myself together and got ready.  I knew I would have a great time once we were out, but I was just tired. 

We ended up going to Brix 46, which is a little neighborhood lounge in the Mary Brickelle Villiage in  Miami's financial district.  It was so much fun!  Farley and I went out with our friend, the PA student from OB/GYN last week, and we wanted to go out with her and her fience.  We also wanted to set up one of our fellow medical students, who also knew the PA from OB/GYN.  It just happened that the PA's friend was in town and wanted to go out so it worked out perfectly.  The music at the lounge was a mix of Latin and Hip Hop.  It was super fun, despite my inability to dance.  I was the DD for the night, which may have made my dancing even worse! Overall the night was a blast.  We were out until 3:00am!  I don't know about you, but that is extremely late for me.  I haven't been out that late since my OB/GYN rotation, and I don't think that really counts.  It was 4:00am before I got to bed and I slept most of Saturday away.  I didn't mean to, but after not sleeping well all week and staying up so late I ended up sleeping much more than I thought that I would.

I did manage to get some studying done Saturday night, so I was happy.  I headed to bed and then got up for Mass Sunday morning.  Farley's computer has been giving him fits and it finally bit the dust late Saturday night, so after Mass, we headed to Best Buy to find him a new one.  It wasn't on the plan for the weekend, but I am so glad that he was able to find something that works for him (and it was on sale).  While we were there, I had my a "tune up" done to my computer and I think it is working faster now. 

Luckily, we have a study day for tomorrow, which is great because I didn't get much studying done today.  I cannot believe that I only have five weeks left in Miami before moving to New York City.  It is hard to believe that the time has flied by so quickly!!! 

Things all patients can learn from two of my patients...

I saw a young male patient, who spoke both Spanish and English, and since he seemed uncomfortable with me in the room and I offered to leave.  The physician that I was working with said, "She doesn't speak Spanish."  Thus, the patient decided that I could stay in the room and they would discuss his problem in Spanish.  To be honest with you, I really didn't care if I stayed or didn't stay because I already had this guy's problem narrowed down to two or three different things just based upon those two sentences...Now, if you decided to keep the medical student in the room and speak in Spanish, I suggest that you do not spend the entire time pointing toward your nether region.  Also, I suggest not pointing to your nether region then taking your hand from a vertical position and flopping it down at the wrist.  These signs transcend all languages and I knew exactly what was going on with this Young Buck.

Another equally animated patient provides some other advice.  Don't check out the medical student in the room and then ask her if she has a boyfriend after learning that you don't have HIV or any sexually transmitted infections (STI). Generally, knowing the HIV and STI status about a potential significant other is wonderful but I am part of your health care team and I can't date you even if you are the Prince of England after being apart of your health care team.  It just makes things really awkward for me, so please don't do it.  However, I think that it was fun when he gave the doctor, nurse and me hi-fives when he learned he didn't have HIV or an STI, so you can do that at your next doctor's appointment.

7th Semester

Watch out world, as of today, I am a seventh semester medical student!  When I finish the end of the tenth semester, I am a doctor.  The finish line is almost within sight!

The Obdurate Opponent

I spoke with a good friend of mine from this island this weekend, who we will call D.C. An acquaintance of mine from the island, who is D.C.'s close friend., was recently diagnosed with stage three B-cell lymphoma. This acquaintance is a semester behind me in medical school and was getting ready to take her boards when she noticed an enlarged lymph node in her groin region. She went to the doctor and they worked her up, thinking it would be an infection or something relatively benign as she had felt fine; but, it was cancer that had spread all over her body. I suppose it could be worse, she could have stage four rather than stage three B-cell lymphoma, but this is really bad. She did her first round of chemotherapy and luckily coped well with the therapy, but it is too early to know if she is responding to therapy. I hope that she continues to do well and I hope that she successfully beats this cancer.

One of my colleague during my OB/GYN rotation just restarted medical school. He had been diagnosed with Philadelphia positive T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia after taking his first set of boards (that is a horrible diagnosis). He was told he needed a bone marrow transplant and that even with the transplant he was most likely going to die; however, he beat the odds and survived. It has been several years since he was first diagnosed. He is finally healthy enough to be back in medical school and doing great.

Both my colleague and acquaintance were in their late 20s, had just finished their second year of medical school and were given a diagnosis of cancer. I cannot imagine what their experiences are like. It makes me feel so lucky that when I had my surgery in January (when I too was in my late 20s and had finished my second year of medical school), there was nothing seriously wrong. I am so fortunate and I hope that my acquaintance will be fortunate and survive her cancer. I have a feeling in the pit of my stomach that she will be okay and I hope that I am right. I don't know her well enough to call, but I will keep her in my thoughts and prayers.

As strange as it might sound, hearing about my acquaintance and colleague made me remember why I love oncology so much. Cancer is a relentless opponent, but we (the medical profession) can fight it and we can win. I am proud of the pediatric oncology research that I help with. My input may be have been small, but I have already helped fight cancer. At this point and time, I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up in oncology or in obstetrics because I love them both. If I choose oncology, I will get to spend my life fighting with and for those in the most dire need--those with the obdurate opponent known as cancer.

Memorial Day 2010

I had to do a shift in the ER yesterday.  It started out slow, but after lunch a crazy number of patients came into the ER.  There were some interesting cases yesterday: a probable Steven Johnson Syndrome, a cachexic man who had terminal cancer and had an arterial block that turned his leg basically into a purple ice pop, stroke patient, and someone who almost drowned.  Now don't get me wrong, I love medicine; however, I don't love the ER.  I respect ER physicians and staff, but I don't think I have the personality that fits ER.  I really wouldn't be surprised if I went into oncology.  My favorite patient was probably the cachexic man with terminal cancer because I felt like I could do something to ease his pain by holding his hand while they had to examine him (even the smallest touches caused him pain due to the cancer).  Emergency medicine, obviously, involves a lot of stabilizing and admitting or discharging the patient.   I think I like being able to form relationships with my patients and being able to spend more time with them than is possible in emergency medicine.  There are so many of my peers who want to match in Emergency Medicine, but I know that I wouldn't be good at it and I know that I would make a great oncologist, pediatrician or obstetrician.  

Today, Farley and I decided to take a break and go to the beach.  Being a holiday weekend, it was much more crowded than usual but luckily we were able to find a little secluded place on the beach.  It was so nice to relax and read novels on the beach.  There was a breeze so it wasn't too hot and the water felt fabulous.  Being from the north, it always amazes me how warm the water is.  It was like cool bath water: perfect!

I started reading, "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield.  I started the book today and quickly read over 200 pages!  

Here are one of the airplanes flying banners over the beach.  This one is about a party at a club tonight. 

Farley enjoyed his time on the beach reading too!

I don't know how we were able to get such a secluded spot on the beach. 

This picture doesn't really show what I wanted, but it is suppose to be showing how many people were on the beach south of us.

This picture was suppose to show how many people were on the beach north of us.  It gives a little better idea of how busy the beach was.  There are usually just a handful of people near our apartment, but not today!

After we relaxed on the beach, we took a jog south to Lummus Park.  I did really well during the first mile of the job, but then it was like hitting a brick wall.  I was so hot.  I managed to make it back to the house okay and was able to jog part of the way back.  I probably was dehydrated from sitting on the beach all day, especially since there was a breeze and I was sitting in the shade: I probably didn't realize how much I had been sweating.  All and all, it was a great, relaxing day.

Internal Medicine: first few weeks

The first few weeks of Internal Medicine have been okay. Probably 80-90% of the patients in the clinic are Spanish speakers, so it hasn't been the best for me since I don't speak Spanish. However, the doctor that I am assigned to allows me a lot of physicals and I do get to do the whole history when the patient speaks English (or the doctor sends me into the room with the nurse, who can translate).

I had to do my first ER rotation last Sunday from 3pm until 2am and then I had to report to the clinic at 8:30 for my regular work day. It seems like everyone else is excited about these ER shifts, but I don't really like the ER all that much. It just isn't my favorite area in the hospital. In this Internal Medicine rotation, we are suppose to be assigned to an outpatient clinic for one month, to an inpatient physician for one month and to the ER for one month. I don't understand why they are scheduling us for the ER every month when we are suppose to have an entire month of ER. Also, the people doing the ER rotation are also having to go to some inpatient work. It would make more sense to me to do inpatient during the inpatient month and ER during the ER month. Even if I had to do four or five twelve-hour ER shifts per week, I think it would be better. I guess it doesn't really matter because I really don't have anything to do other than study and go to clinic so if I have to do ER for three months, I guess I do ER rotations for three months. Speaking of ER rotations, I was lucky enough to be assigned to an ER rotation this weekend. I really wish I didn't have to go into the ER this weekend because the traffic on Miami Beach is crazy. I hope that Farley and I have the weekend of the 4th of July off--not because I want to do anything all that exciting, I just don't want to drive anywhere!

Another Year Older

On the 17th, I turned another year older. I had to go to clinic, but it was an okay day. I really wanted to go to Espaniola Way for dinner, so we decided to get dressed up. I bought a dress on sale at the Nordstrom Rack when we went to Sawgrass Mills a few weeks ago and I finally had a chance to wear it! Here are pictures of Farley and I before we headed to dinner.

Farley bought me a pair of earrings for my birthday. Here is a close up of the earrings.

Here are some pictures of Espaniola Way. I know it is a tourist trap, but I just love it! I love the architecture and the feel. I just wish it was more than a block or two.

I wanted to go to a store that only sells linen, when Mom was in town, but we didn't have time. Thus, Farley and I decided to stop in the store. I have wanted linen pants since moving away for medical school in 2007. I have looked high and low and the pants either look horrible on me or they are expensive. I decided that since I've wanted a pair for so long, that if I found a pair I liked, I would go ahead and get them. I found the most beautiful pair of paints and I decided to buy them; however, I didn't have a chance because Farley got them for me as well as a linen shirt for him. This store was so much fun--I wish I remembered the name of the store. The owner was from France and all of her linen is from Egyptian cotton and made in France. Her store was filled with beautiful things and she was so interesting because she had lived all over the world. After shopping, we decided to go for Italian food. There were three restaurants, but we decided to go with one of the more inexpensive places. The food was great, but it started raining. It was the first rain we had in a long time. We were sitting under an awning and it was so nice to sit and watch the rain. Here are the pictures of the rain.

After dinner, we headed to a gelato place and had some yummy gelato. Here is a picture of the restaurant that we had dinner at dusk.

May 12th

This was a tough day for me. Despite leaving the Great Northwest for medical school three years ago, it is still really hard for me to say goodbye to my family. As usual, I cried when I had to say goodbye, but I am now used to it so I didn't' put mascara on until after Farley and I left for the clinic.

The rest of the week in the clinic was okay. Since I don't speak any Spanish and I was still getting over my illness, I didn't have the best week. The doctor and nurse I am working with are great, but I just wasn't feeling like myself at all. Luckily, they canceled our lectures for the first week and I was able to sleep a lot.

I decided to order "Instant Immersion Spanish: Levels 1, 2,& 3." I highly doubt that I will learn enough Spanish to really talk to anyone, but I am hoping that I will learn a few more words and that I might be able to understand a bit when people are talking. I never should have taken Latin and Ancient Greek in high school. Why didn't I just take Spanish like everyone else??

Mom's Visit to Miami: Tuesday, May 11th

Tuesday was my first day of Internal Medicine in the clinic. When I woke up, I was feeling significantly worse and within the first ten minutes of meeting my preceptor, she had written me a prescription for antibiotics. She did a physical exam and declared that my cold had progressed into bronchitis. Lucky me.

The clinic that I am working at has 80-90% Spanish speakers and I don't speak Spanish. So this first day was extra trying because I could barley speak, was coughing like crazy, felt horrible and couldn't understand what was going on. The doctor and nurse tried to translate for me, but considering how yucky I felt, it didn't matter all that much.

When we got home, Mom was down at the beach again and I decided to meet her down there. Here is a picture of her relaxing on the beach:

It was a little overcast and very windy, but Mom still had a great time on the beach. It was warmer than it looked!

Since I wasn't feeling too well, we decided to have a very laid back evening. We went to dinner at Cantina 27, which is less than a block from my apartment. The food was great!

When we got home, Mom and I decided that I needed a hair cut. Since she only took a carry on, she could not bring her hair cutting shears (they are too long). I had surgical scissors, so she decided to give it a go. Now, the surgical scissors I have are not very long and her hair cutting shears are 6 inches. This was the longest hair cut of my life, but it is straight! Poor Mom went on vacation and then had to work. We ended up taking 7-8 inches off my hair and I still have long hair!