I Haven't Watched TV In Over A Month

Well I ought to preface this post by saying...yes, I am alive (clearly). I'm sure some of you were worried I got bitten by a killer centipede (they actually have those here) or something to that effect, but I am actually alive and doing quite well. I'm sorry I let down my avid readers last Sunday, but sometimes my responsibilities as a medical student take precedence over writing this blog. As I have said before, my plan is to write a new excerpt every Sunday night, but if you wake up on Monday morning (bright and early) just to read my blog and it isn't there, just know it's probably because I was really busy.

Since the last time I wrote on here, I took Mini I Part II, a Gross Anatomy Practical, and a Histology Practical...and passed all of them with flying colors. After spending the afternoon at the beach on the day of our Mini and celebrating a little that night, it was back to lectures the very next day. From then till now, we have had a week and a half of lectures/labs/small group learning...nothing out of the ordinary.

This picture is not of me. It's a random picture from
the SimMan3G manufacturer. We aren't allowed to
take pictures in Simulation, so this is the best I could do.

One aspect of school that was new since the last time I posted and probably one of my favorite activities that I have participated in since I came to Ross was Simulation. So, Simulation is probably exactly what you picture it to be. At Ross, we have a building that is set up like a hospital...with individual rooms for patients. You enter the a patient's room and the patient is laying on the table. Once we are given a background update on the patient's status, the fun begins. Now, the unique thing about Simulation is that we don't use real patients. Instead, we use Harvey (SimMan3G). Harvey is a computerized, human-like, human-sized doll that can pretty much do everything an actual human patient can do; he can talk, cry, scream, bleed, vomit, urinate, defecate...you name it, he can do it. He can dilate his eyes, you can take his blood pressure (in multiple places), you can give him medicine/injections, you can give him CPR, you can administer shocks to him through a defibrillator, and, of course, he can die.

I took a lot away from my first Simulation experience. Unfortunately (and I am extremely excited to use this for the very first time), I can't tell you what happened during Simulation because of Doctor-Patient confidentiality!!! But I think you can assume what happened. Do you think my first Simulation experience was about a patient with the flu? Or do you think it was some medical emergency that required immediate intervention because it was a life or death situation? Come on people, I hope you're picking up on these not-so-subtle hints. Anyway, I felt like this first Simulation concentrated more on the range of emotions and ethical issues associated with being a physician rather than our bleak medical knowledge thus far.

Besides Simulation, there isn't too much to report from Dominica. I know it's random, but I do want to share a conversation I had with a Ross Dominican maintenance man the other day; this conversation is both funny and sad, and I hope it demonstrates the importance of being aware of the world beyond where we live.

Him: Are you a new first semester student? (Picture him being very hard to understand because he is from Dominica)
Me: Yea, I am.
Him: Oh, how are you liking Dominica so far?
Me: I like it. The weather isn't too much different from where I came from, so I am used to the heat.
Him: Where did you come here from?
Me: Florida.
Him: How close is that to the United States?
Me: Hmm, well Florida actually is in the United States.
Him: Yea, but how close is that?
Me: Well, Florida is one of the states that makes up the United States. So when you are in Florida, you are in the United States.
Him: Oh, how long does it take to get there?
Me: To Florida? Or to the United States?
Him: No, from Florida to the United States?
Me: Hmm, not long because when you are in Florida, you are actually in the United States.
Him: Can you drive there?
Me: From Florida to the United States?
Him: Yea.
Me: Yea. It takes three hours by car. Sorry, but I got to run.

I've never been more convinced that I didn't know my US geography than at that moment. His circular line of questioning and obvious lack of geographical knowledge beyond Dominica almost had me believe that I was wrong. So strange.

In three days, it will mark two months that I have been in Dominica. While I'm in lecture or studying, time passes so slowly, but when I actually reflect on how long I have been here...time is absolutely flying. I try my best to remind myself of where I am, in Dominica for medical school, everyday...man it would be tough going to med school in a state like Iowa or Nebraska (so boring!). Anyway, these thoughts sort of made me think of some wise words that a great philosopher once said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91lJhEzMaH4


Have a great week everyone!

I'll Take A Tattoo And A Haircut

Woohoo! I'm on day three of a four day weekend, plus its Carnivale down hear in the islands! Party! Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?....and that's because it is. Looming in the near future are three big exams for us First Semesters; this upcoming Tuesday we have a histology practical and an anatomy practical followed by Mini I Part II the very next day. So as tempting as a four day weekend sounds in the Caribbean, this one couldn't be more of a buzzkill. But despite these upcoming events, I do have some exciting news.

I got my first......haircut. Sorry to disappoint, but to get your first haircut down here is kind of a big deal. They don't really have hair salons or barbers. Nope, there are no Supercuts, Great Clips, Master Cuts, Fantastic Sams, what have you...they don't exist down here. Instead, there are individuals that cut hair, amongst other things. They don't need to get a license from a cosmetology school or anything; all they need is a reputation. And I had heard from a few other guys that Benji's was the place to go for a good haircut. So that's where I went. I walked all the way to Benji's in the sweltering heat only to find out that he was out to lunch and nobody knew when he would be back. Okay, now what? Well, I had heard from a few other people about this place near a restaurant named Tulips. So I went there and found myself staring at some painted words on the outside of an apartment that read, "Chen's Tattoos and Haircuts." Hmmm, maybe I could let my hair grow out a little bit. It crossed my mind, but my heart was set on getting a haircut. So I opened the front screen door and stepped into....a living room? Yep, I walked into a living room that was connected to a kitchen where, lo and behold, was Chen and his wife eating lunch watching Chinese soap operas streaming on their computer. After (I'm assuming his name was Chen; I guess I never really even asked) Chen reassured me that this was indeed a place that I could get a haircut, he directed me toward a swivel chair in the living room that was next to a table that had a mirror resting against the wall on it. Even though their apartment was absolutely stifling because they didn't have any air conditioning, Chen insisted that I put on the impenetrable-yet-I-always-get-hair-in-my-shirt-anyway smock, which made me sweat even more. Then he began to cut. He used one razor to shave the sides of my head and to fade the length all the way to the top. But in order to get that perfect blend from the one inch long hair on top to the short sides, he swung the razor through the air, just barely grazing the tips of my hair. If I would have leaned to the side that he was blending by just a quarter of an inch, I would have been rewarded with a bald spot. And then to trim up the neckline and sideburns, he used a straight edge razor (I'm not used to that back in the good ole US of A). After all was said and done, it didn't look too shabby, and now I'm feeling fresh and clean. Plus it was only $15 EC (~$6 US). Meanwhile, his wife was still eating in the kitchen watching her husband cut my hair (awkward). 

Well, that's all I really have for you today, since most of my time in the recent past has been spent studying, but I hope it was entertaining nonetheless. 

P.S. Pictures of my new tattoo are pending. Stay tuned. 

You know you go to med school in Dominica when.....

1) A pack of stray dogs follows you all the way from campus to your apartment door at midnight.

2) You have tried every combination of breads, cold-cuts, vegetables, and sauces at Subway because you eat there every night of the week, and the employees automatically know that you buy two chocolate chip cookies with your sub every time (sorry, but that one was obviously pretty personal).

3) You go to that very same Subway (because there is only one) and they run out of bread. Yea, it's like going to a grocery store that says they ran out of groceries. How is that possible? I'll never know.

4) You can't look to the left on your walk to class every morning because if you did, you would see the alluring beauty of the Caribbean Sea just tempting you to skip class (I haven't done that yet!)

5) A lot of your conversations go something like this, "Hey man, what have you been up to this morning?" "Oh, I've been studying." "Nice, what about this afternoon?" "Yea, I think I'm going to study some more." "Cool, any plans for tonight?" "Well, I actually thought that I might switch things up a little and study." "Sweet, catch ya later."

6) You sit in an un-air-conditioned room for 2 hours for your small group learning (SGL) session, only to find out afterwards that nobody in your group thought to try to flip on the switch that controls the outlet for the air-conditioning. It felt like a sauna in there!

7) You no longer have your natural scent because it has been taken over by the stench of formaldehyde!

8) You tell your blog readers to oppose their pinkie and thumb together, while flexing their wrist to see if they have a tendon that flexes at the base of their wrist called the pulmaris longus (14% of people don't have the pulmaris longus muscle/tendon!) and then realize that it is very sad that you enjoyed telling them this.

9) You start to run out of things to say on your blog because all you can think about are the 19 muscles that exist in the human forearm that you dissected earlier in the week and still need to memorize their origins, insertions, actions, and innervations. Fun stuff!

10) It's Super Bowl Sunday and all you wish is to be back home, not to watch the Super Bowl, but to be with family and friends. Miss you guys! Until next week....