Oh mister sun sun mister golden sun...where the hell are you??

hey all. so last thursday i went to the ER, it was great minus the whole i left my phone here and had to buy a new one since someone stole it thing...major bummer. but anyhoo. i got to scrub in on a sweet surgery, it was exploratory and there was this crazy nectrotic (aka rotten) ovary and i even got to use the cauterizer (aka thing that burns blood vessels closed). needless to say i am back to being surgery obessessed. this is a major issue. on thursday and friday we went to hospice. our little group met all these really great ppl and i of course wanted to cry half the time since old ppl make me so sad. but im glad i did it all the same

this weekend we went to drakensburg. its this crazy awesome mountain range that we got to hike up. we had a short hike the first day but a seven hour hike the second day. we stayed at this backpackers place which was nice but seriously freezing. i am talking sleep with a hot water bottle freezing...we called them our water babies:) so the night was a bit difficult but we survived and the next day was beautiful. the hike was great we got to see a waterfall and it was gorgeous! i couldnt believe how far we hiked and how amazing the views were. it felt great to be outside and active since i have been spending so much time in the hospital. my camera died but i get pictures from the girls so all is well, no worries!

this week so far we went to the orphanage and have been doing surgery. i have gotten to see some pretty brutal things in surgery...i will spare you all the details but its been really cool. and the orphanage was so fun it was so nice to escape and just play with the babies. dont worry mom i didnt bring home anyone yet haha. i guess thats all for now since i wont tell you about the cool gorey things ive seen, ill save that for my nerdy med school friends. xoxo.

Cor Pulmonale, COPD and Cancers...all in a days work

So i didnt get to go to the orphanage this week...something about logistics and the woman who runs it not being there, no matter how you cut it BLAH. needless to say i was peeved, but perhaps next week. so this week we have been on our nursery rotation, and i have been doing everything but. the people didn't seem very receptive to us so off we went. basically our little group has been following around this internist which has been super fun. we happened to serendipidously run into her while counting down until lunch and she took us all over. we have seen so much with her, and she has been super good about explaining everything to us. yesterday we saw kaposi's sarcoma of the mouth (seriously just look up a picture on images) and then we saw this heart failure and liver failure patient. i actually knew a bit about them so i was super excited. but today we started getting into things that i swear at one point this year i knew but totally spaced on now. i am getting frustrated that i know these things should be familiar to me and they aren't so i keep coming back and looking them up. and the doctor was asking us all these questions and i just could not for the life of me figure some of them out. i hope rotations aren't like that in the states, i better be more prepared than i felt today!

we have our weekly meeting today with Dr Kahn who seriously bugs me bc he has us write these pointless papers and i hate doing it. but since im such a freaking goodie two shoes i have to do it. sigh, i did not come here to do homework! ok back to work

so we basically go play with peds everyday. but we went today and our favorites have been released. i guess thats good but i still miss them! they were so cute we jammed out to music and they wore my glasses (so so cute) and we just played, it was fun. tomorrow we go to hospice, i know it will be really hard but i am looking forward to the change of pace for a couple of days. plus then ill be super excited to return to the hospital next week for my last week! i cant believe how fast this has all gone its incredible! tata for now. xoxo.

Lions, and Tigers and Bears...Not Quite

so i stink at this whole blogging thing and i am at like a once a week type of deal. sorry. so last week we were in peds which was good though i wish i could do more. all i want to do is hold the babies and hug them and stuff and we cant. i try to sneak in pictures and such whenever possible but its tough. i fell in love with this baby, hes blind and adorable and i basically want to bring him home with me, its an iss. we got to go to this seminar thingy last week which was cool cause we saw what drugs they are using and when and how they switch their regimine and all. i liked it alot. sometimes i think i know stuff...but most of the time im learning like crazy and trying to absorb it all. im trying to think of anything we saw last week which was super cool... oh yeah we saw a laproscopic surgery!! it was super cool and now im slightly obsessed haha. and we saw a baby being born, and man are these moms troopers. no pain med or anything just straight up deliver without yelling or crying, i dont know how they do it!

this weekend we went on safari, thats right i went on safari in Africa. i mean it was pretty much one of the coolest things on the planet and i was like a little kid the whole time. it was three hours away so we stayed at this backpackers lodge and that was fun cause we had a campfire and got to relax a bit. we started the safari at five am, that was a wake up call and a half! it was freezing but totally worth it. we saw the sun come up and it was so gorgeous in the park. i pretty much saw every animal i wanted. we saw a lion (i spotted him it was so cool!), hyenas, and even baby elephants! dont worry i took lots of pictures; ill be sure to share when i get home. the baby elephants were sooo cute they were right next to us! and the zebras were in packs it was crazy. i swear i could have hugged the giraffe it was so close. we bbqed in the park and had breakfast by the lake i felt like i was in the lion king! i felt like we were actually in africa since i spend so much time in hospitals its easy to forget that we are in this magnificent country with all this land and wildlife. i go to the orphanage tomorrow, i think this is going to be my pivotal moment...my oh wow one that i have been sort of waiting for but well see. maybe ill even write about it on wednesday this week instead of waiting until next week haha. xoxo.

Doctor Doctor Give me the news:)

ok so quick last week recap since im kind of in a rush to get to work and i havent written in a while. last week we were at st. marys. i had the best time...ppl here basically consider you a doctor if you are in medical school so i have been doing all the things that a doctor does! the clinic was amazing. i got to go to an ARV clinic for HIV patients, a clinic for mothers and children with HIV and Tb and such and a mobile clinic and surgery. i got to see a C section up close and personal, one emergency and one elective which was amazing...they do it in literally 15 min its crazy! the cord was around the babys neck so they had to do it right away. we saw some crazy stuff that i will leave out for the safety of your stomachs but needless to say they see things that we never would in the states. at the ARV (anti retroviral) clinic we got to do counseling and Tb diagnosis and listening to lungs and things so that was fun too, something totally different. they give meds for free here which is great, and they are so efficient seeing literally 50 pts in a morning!! at the mobile clinic i was in my prime. seriously everyone was calling me doctor since i was the only one there i was diagnosing chest infections, drawing blood and giving vaccines and dispensing meds! it was seriously crazy i was shocked at what i could do under pressure. i was being a real doctor...i even found mumps (thank goodness for that MMR booster haha). it was all seriously amazing and i felt so fortunate and excited for my career...though i keep loving surgery more and more which can be a serious iss.

on friday we went out downtown. it was fun just like home. we went to this pub with live music and everything was so cheap!! seriously they dont have regular shots but mini ones are like one dollar! it was great. this weekend we went to the beach, it was a bit chilly but beautiful!! they have this huge casino that leads right to the beach which is fun and so we did that on saturday. we went to the flea market outside on the street and that was so fun. i got to try to lower prices and all that stuff and i got tons of great things to bring home! i am super excited about it. on sunday we went back to the flea market then we went to their huge mall in the later afternoon! i mean huge like king of prussia big:) and i was so good i didnt even get anything! but were going back at some point and im sure ill cave haha.

yesterday we started at king edwards which is the university hospital. we saw a live birth and went to peds in the morning. in the afternoon we went to surgery and saw a titanium plate put in a wrist! and the doctor there lets us scrub in how nuts is that??? i cant wait today is my turn! its so sad to see all the babies that are dehydrated and malnourished, they all have sepsis and other horrible ailments. we followed rounds in the morning and they are just like our rounds, it was super neat bc i could actually answer some of the questions that they were asking since i just had the Tb and HIV test last term! i felt really proud of my school as silly as that sounds i was like yes i really am learning the right things. i think thats all for now. hopefully i will figure out how to post pictures soon though there are all these laws that prohibit us taking pics of patients...i guess ill have to rely on memory for those:) xoxo.

toto were not in kansas anymore

hey everyone! i cant believe i made it here without any hitches. i caught my flight, my baggage wasn't oversized and they didn't lose it! so lets start with my family. there are three girls, just like my family yayyy! The are 23, 17 and 11. the family has a maid...like she cooks and cleans and its awesome. they are all super nice and my house mom is totally motherly worrying about me eating enough and when i get home and stuff its funny. everything here is gorgeous! seriously there are flowers and red earth and all these amazing beaches. so far we went on a tour of the townships where we saw the not so good aspects of south africa. we visited an orphanage and of course i was super sad and wanted to adopt every baby i saw. and we saw some shantys and pretty much it was exactly what i expected.

today we went to the university and got our id's and its funny how much their school looks like an american school. in fact everything here is pretty americanized. the girls watch the bacholarette (last season sorry pooter) and love britney spears it's funny. the other ppl in the program are cool. i am the oldest and one of two med students here everyone else is still in undergrad, and from the west coast or mid west. the other med student goes to GW and is the same year as me, so thats nice.

i found out my schedule for the hospitals. i work in three different ones with the option of day tripping it to an orphanage, rural location and hospice. were doing one clinic with pretty poor conditions (st mary's) and two peds and one surgery rotation at st edwards which is where the medical school is. so that is super exciting! i start work tomorrow and seriously cant wait. i have been getting antsy to start, it is after all why i came!

we planned our weekends out and everyone in the group is pretty much on the same page so that is good. were going to rent a car ill let you know how that works out, but dont worry i wont be putting my driving skills to use just yet haha. i think thats all for now ill post pics when i get my butt on the ball and put them on a usb to bring them to the cafe (we dont have internet in the house).

Pre Departure Freak Out

So I leave in nine days and am officially freaking out about getting everything done in time!  I am starting to wonder how I will manage to organize my brain and belongings to pick up and go across the world to a completely new place.  Good thing the next couple of days are devoted to me figuring out everything from zulu to present buying!  Im excited that I can blog about my trip so I guess thats one thing to take off the list!  I promise to upload lots of picture to keep everyone updated, wish me luck:)