Almost getting over the jetlag!
In the mornings now, I hear voices. Is it the TV, are they talking in the living room loudly, or am I going crazy? Who knows...
Solid consistency, almost!
Outside my bedroom door, it became quiet. Rochelle had gone on a run. I slowly got up and out my door to have breakfast. Again, a cereal and sandwich with my atovaquone (antimalarial) and azithromycin (traveler's diarrhea)... wondering if I really need to take the former medication if both Rochelle and Ginger haven't taken them for years now every time they visit.
Today I planned to work without contacts nor sunglasses, though I've never done pathology through the microscope with eyeglasses. Do people typically take off their glasses, peer through the eyepieces, and then put their glasses back on to type out their reports on the computer screen? It feels so cumbersome to press both my face and glasses against the microscope.
The backup of cases from December had finally started to be whittled down, though we still have not hear back from BST consults. Rochelle thought people would be confused by the way I organized the files, but I think if Dan Child and Becky Yoda got back to me quickly, then it shouldn't have been a problem with the BST folks as well. Also learned a new thing during this- Austin Jones added Troy Hutchens to the email thread, so I guess he does BST as well! I've been on the CP side since he joined the AP faculty so I haven't really had a chance to work with him yet. A challenging inflammatory derm case came up, so we consulted Josiah Hanson and Luke Dang (Luke didn't respond -.-). Advice to future residents- my way of organizing the consults was just to shove them onto OneDrive into folders separated by subspecialty with the case clinical history imported into the folder as well. Then you can just easily share it with respective faculty/fellows.
This morning's grossing work consisted mostly of biopsies and replacing decal solution for some pending specimens (they are so rock hard, I don't think those bony specimens will be ready even if we gave it a year) while in the afternoon 15-20 thyroidectomies arrived from an outside institution, along with tonsils and adenoids. This was a lot on its own, compounded with the fact that they stick their thyroid goiters in container with a narrow mouth and strong formalin, where it is impossible to pull out without tearing the specimen. Good luck to those of you with short and/or fat fingers. The formalin from this hospital in northwest Africa, who may or may not have diluted the formalin, will sting your eyes as if you are cutting onions!
Apparently the prevalence of iodine deficiency can be up to 51% in Africa, affecting hundreds of millions. I wonder why salt here hasn't been iodized to counteract something so easily preventable? And to think our preventative medicine in the U.S. is lacking. During grossing I noticed the windows were opened up not only for ventilation but also to prevent TB. That led me to question if that's why they asked me to mask up. OR if it's because of my cough that I caught from my nephews over the break. My partner repeatedly testing negative, who was breathing directly into my face while snoring in bed, so I'm PROBABLY ok.
Back at the apartment, staring at living room, you'll see that there's no TV. One of my friends Nancy Lin, who I stayed with during one college summer, arranged her living room in similar manner "to spark conversation." Rochelle & Ginger actually play scrabble on their phones while sitting next to each other on the loveseat, and I'm at the dinner table or couch writing a blog post with more fervor and conviction than some research projects I'm involved in... (some of which I need to do this weekend! Apologies faculty members!)
Dinner menu tonight: a rendition of lasagna without pasta, like ratatouille (there's eggplant, cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms <3... side salad, and homemade bread. On my second bowl of the lasagna, Rochelle noticed I had mushrooms leftover, and she asked whether I saved them for last because I liked or hated them. LOVE mushrooms. Can't get enough! Who in their right mind would save the thing they like least for last and have that flavor linger in their mouth?!
It's barely been a week, but it's been fun getting to know more about the people I work with: their interests include jazzercise, wanting to be a dancer in the next life, seeing Elvis in concert in Seattle before he became famous, having their prom song be Everly Brothers' All I Have to do is Dream. I actually like Dr. G's music playlist. Back in the later years of high school and college, I had this sudden motivation to develop this encyclopedic knowledge of American music history, from the roaring 20s, to the soaring 60s, disco, 80s (!), early 90s hiphop, to the present decade. Although I feel like I've reached the stage where I probably don't and won't keep up with current pop as much, which is giving me deja vu of riding in my aunt or uncle's car and wondering why they only listened to old crap. Turns out it isn't crap! Or I'm just getting old =(.
***PICTURES: ONE DAY, I PROMISE***
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