Clerkships and Sierra Leone

Given that the title of this blog is plural and that the wife is currently on the other side of the Atlantic, I thought now would be an appropriate time to throw the husband hat of opinion/perspective/news into the ring.

Today I finished my first eight-week clerkship of third year. The subject was general surgery, the location St. Joe's hospital here in town. My daily schedule began on arrival at 5:30am for patient rounds, after which I would spend most of the day in the OR, and generally ended around 5-6pm. Throw in at least one call night at the hospital every week, and additional weekend call (i.e. come in Saturday morning, leave Sunday afternoon) and you get the picture. In any case, I enjoyed the rotation considerably more than I had anticipated I would, and depending on my final grades for the block will consider doing a general surgery sub-internship next year (much to Amy's chagrin, - a general surgery residency is two years longer and demonstrably more intense than one in family medicine).

Monday I leave for Cortez, CO (7+ hr drive away from Denver) to begin my family practice clerkship. The first four weeks are rural, the last four here in the Denver area. Should be quite the change from what I've been doing the last eight weeks, but I'm looking forward to it. The caveat to that last point is that when Amy gets back in a week and a half I probably won't see her for a few more days after that. Hopefully she'll be able to drive out to Cortez and we can do some camping etc. over the weekends that I should for the most part have free.

Speaking of the wife, I managed to reach her today via choppy, delayed, but viable phone connection. She and the group are doing fine and in good health, and their teacher in-service sessions have for the most part been well recieved. Tomorrow they will hike three miles to a neighboring village, something that appears to be a recurring theme as their appearances are apparently quite popular and everyone wants to meet our Denver contigent. Word has it that the woman who prepares their meals there does a stupendous job with both American and African cuisine. I'm hoping to reap the osmotic effects of the latter on the wife's return.

Well, that's about it for this spousal report. I'm going to enjoy the next two days with no obligations other than to get the house back to looking respectable (reversion back to bachelor habits has been alarmingly swift). Going to hit up a Rockies game Sunday with a friend coming up from Alamosa. After that, back to the third year med student grind, albeit hopefully a tamer and less abrasive one when compared to the previous eight weeks. I'll leave you with a quote I came across recently that seemed appropriate in regard to the obsessively heirarchical and goal-focused nature of Western medical education:

"Since most of us would rather be admired for what we do, rather than for what we are, we are normally willing to sacrifice character for conduct, and intergrity for achievement."

Please kick me if I ever give that impression.

tick tock

I leave for Sierra Leone tomorrow afternoon. It doesn't quite seem real. Probably because the night before a trip I am just starting to think about what I am going to pack, and this time I'm already packed. Very, very impressive for me. I usually finish packing at 3 in the morning for my 7 o'clock flight.

I can't believe it, but I'm kinda bored. I am rereading a favorite book to pass the time while Jules studies.

I also took my first dose of Doxy this morning which got me thinking. I am so thankful that we have the access to health care that we do. I am in general not a fan of our system, but when I stopped to think that I can get Doxy at little cost from my local pharmacy to keep me from getting malaria (hopefully), I realized how wonderful that is. I actually don't know much about the health care in Sierra Leone, but I can't imagine they have the same access to drugs, doctors etc that we do.

tick tock, tick tock...