Home Sweet Home

Hello everyone!!
I am home from Haiti. Emily Ann has a legal guardian in Haiti and I am one of her Marin's. It is like a god mother but we are financially responsible. I am not the only one, but technically I am named on the legal document... I have had to do a lot explaining. I hope it is only a temporary situation. I am trying to get her adopted out to the States. She has a wonderful wonderful caretaker in Haiti. She is a night nurse for the hospital. She would take care of Emily at night. Legally Emily, until we had her declared "abandoned," lived at the hospital. This was brought about because of all the legal problems in February with a few Americans taking Haitian children that were not technically orphaned to the US. or at least to Dominican Republic.
Luckily we had a lot of legal advice so we did not get into trouble trying to do something helpful. Anyway she is in Haiti. I will be setting up a fund of sorts hopefully to keep her and her new family supported and also to get money for her to be adopted. The night nurse, Natacha, asked us to find her a good family. She will take care of her while in Haiti so that she does not go to an orphanage.




I graduated barely a week ago. I am an official Medical Doctor! I still have a lot to learn, and do not feel any smarter because of this new title. It was good to see all the people around me for graduation. I was watching the end of RUDY the other night. As corny as that story is, I always tear up when Rudy finally gets to play (see movie for full details) anyway the movie does this great job of panning in on everyone that helped in on his journey. His family: parents, and brother, his tutor, the groundskeeper, his teammates, all the people that helped him get to that moment. That is what I felt on the Friday night I graduated. I had my best friends: Norah, Emily, Sara, Austin, Justin was there too, my roommates: Emily, Lindy, Christina my real family: Mom, Dad, and Lisa my sister, (my other sister Tiffany had her senior show to run and we both could not be at each other events) my friends whom have taken the roles of family in my life during some of my hardest struggles: Gary and Kay with Steve from Ames, Mary Kay and Gregg from Minnesota. Dr. Buresh hooded me. He is one of the co coordinators of the Haiti hospital, he also gave our graduation address, I hugged him and he told me how proud he was of me. I came off the stage and someone called my name. It was an Internal Medicine doctor, Dr. Rosenberger, in Des Moines. he gave me some good advice when I was on service with him, "know what you know, know what you dont know, and dont confuse the two." He is also the step father of the fiance of one of my classmates. My classmate died last year in a car wreck. His son is now almost a year old, and the whole family was there for the graduation. All these people have meant more than the world to me at some point along my journey. They were able to be there for one of my successes and I felt the impact all the more because of it.

My diploma incidentally says: Kristina Louise Sinnott has honorably completed all requirements for a medical degree. After the year I had with myself and my class being investigated for dishonorable behavior, I looked down at that and felt I earned that and I felt really good about it.

I now leave for Grand Rapids Michigan to begin a transition year residency. I am renting a condo. Please come visit any time. I do not know what lies ahead for me this year or the coming years. I continue to live the mystery of it all, some days better than others. It is a new racing season, there are lots of Triathlons in Grand Rapids so I look forward to that. There is a Church in walking distance, the hospitals are all in biking distance. I cannot really complain, I am nervous and more than neurotic about it but things are overall well. More updates to follow but right now I have nothing conclusive to report!
blessings and peace to you
kristina MD

Another Day Another Dollar

Sunday night has passed, and everything has quieted down for a time.
I am tired but feel good.
Teams come in on Saturday and they get oriented and ussually Sunday is the day that they realize they are practicing medicine in a disaster zone and Haiti. Some react in different ways, "we are not prepared for this, this was not in the job description. I know what needs to be fixed in order to run this hospital. I can save Haiti in a week, just give me the right tools" I listen and slowly my eyes glaze over, or I find myself repeating myself week to week. Mostly though I apologise and say sorry we cannot meet your expectations. This ussually causes some moment of reflection.
Moments of Reflection, this week I have noticed Leogane is slowly waking up from its slumbering depression. Haitians on the street are no longer greeting me with friendly "Hey You" now it is, "Blan, give me one dollar" or "I am hungry, give me something to eat" the refugee camps have stopped distributing daily rations, and Haitians are starving again, it is not fair. It is also time for me to be leaving I think. I do not know how to answer these questions, and there is no amount of money or time I can spend here to fix it.

Today is Wednesday night and I am finally back to my blog. We have a little newborn back with us. This newborn was delivered to a hospital in Port au Prince that had a ventalator. She arrived in a dump truck with a nurse and tech keeping her breathing and from cardiac arrest. After that they picked me up from the airport. 6 weeks ago now. She is back here. She was abandoned at birth so we are finding a family to adopt her in the states. We are bringing her back here to get a birth certificate and start the adoption process.

Life is good here. I cannot complain. Somedays are worse then other but overall it is tolerable.

The Grind...

I was walking through the broken streets of Leogane Haiti, looking at the collapsed houses. The second stories just collapsed on the first stories. Houses folded in on themselves. People, long dead were in some of them. My first thoughts were Superman could have lifted that up and gotten trapped people out. I kept walking but I began to dwell on the absurdity of how my mind works. Of course Superman would not be here in Leogane. He lives in Metropolis, Batman in Gotham City, Will Smith's Hancock in Miami or in California, Spiderman in New York, Luke Skywalker in a Galaxy far far away, no one lives in Haiti. Why? The place that needs super human hope, love, and strength. I need to stop watching comic book movies. Its convient to help out a trapped citizen of some developed city get out of one scrape. can comic book characters help an entire nation get out of several scrapes? Say, a lack of infrastructure. How would super human strength work that one out... I realize I sound jaded and cynical but the disaster area is starting to stablize and things are reminding me of what it was like living here 7 years ago. Somethings have changed but an undeveloped infrastructure has not.
I wonder what will happen after I leave in May. Did I make any difference? Yes our hospital has been successful through this crisis but is it going to sustain the lack of resources, Haitian management that may or may not be fully committed to keeping this hospital going. My favorite poem comes to mind right now. Rudyard Kipling, "If", "If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, and lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word about your loss;" I feel like this is not my life's work but I have put in so much energy and effort.
I have met with plenty of well meaning people telling me how to run a hospital. My fellow medical students, yes professional medical students, and I work to keep patients alive, keep a count of our donations of drugs, supplies, and keep teams semi organized. Yes there are things I do not like about our hospital. I cannot keep an accurate inventory no matter how many hours volunteers and I spend counting, we do not have enough money to finish building our clinics, and other unfinished things. Yes things do not get done... you are not doing anyone any favors by telling us how to run a third world hospital during a disaster zone.
I like my job, but it is coming to an end. I am watching as the refugee camps slowly stop handing out daily rations to the dwellers of the camp. They have returned to pre earthquake state of being, starvation. What will happen when we leave? the hospital will close down? We face this, it is a real possibility. No one can help the Haitian except the Haitians themselves. I have been refocusing my energy these last few weeks with the simple goal: What will happen when I am gone? Will this get done by anyone else? If the answer is no, then I set it aside and let it be. It may be important to me but it is not to the Haitians. Therefore it is really not important. there is a certain freedom in that decision. It lets me do things that are important well.

April Fools Day!

Today I am struggling and it is only 7am here. It is April Fools Day so I am hoping this is all a joke.
Two days ago a one year old coded at the hospital because she had been struggling to breath for 24 hours with an Oxygen tank. We do not have any ICU capabilities. I found a transport to Port Au Prince. The hospital I found in PAP has a ventilator, if the it was not already occupied would have the capability of taking her. I basically jumped on a person who was nice enough to drop some of our arriving team members to Leogane. He lived in Port Au Prince and was returning that night. I grabbed him and said, "can you take a 1 year old baby with you. I will get someone to explain to you where to go. I am sending a Haitian Nurse with you, and the mom." I took him over to the hospital. He of course had no choice but to say yes. We got there in time to help with the code. We worked on her for 20 to 30 minutes. That was a hard one for our team. She just needed a break from breathing and we have medical technology out there in the world to help her, it just was not here. The day I arrived to Haiti I was picked up in a dump truck. This same truck was used as an ambulance that morning to transport a nurse, a tech and a newborn in respiratory distress to a hospital able to take her. I know this situation well.We are a hospital working with the kindness of several other people and their cars to get our patients to any other hospital that is better equipped for patients we just do not have the capacity or ability to treat, on top of providing care we do have here.

I am facing the same problem today. I have a 17 year old girl that has Cardiomyopathy and we had to amputate her leg. Her Kidneys are now failing. There is dialysis in Port au prince again. The hospital is ready to accept her. I just do not have a car. I was also contacting Haiti Hearts, for her needed heart surgery. I do not know the line here between futile measures and reasonable measures. Can she survive here with all these problems? I am working so hard to give her that chance. Do I risk burn out myself?

It is now almost 8am, I found a truck that we can fit her into and get her to Port au prince. I am sending an American Nurse and a driver. it is not an ambulance but it is a vehicle. It is so close to working I am not sure if I am working too hard to get her somewhere else to die, or if I am giving her hope. I know that is not a question for me to answer. But I ask it anyway.

this field hospital is symbol of hope to everyone in this area. We work with Doctors without Borders hospital as well. Our field hospital is what is left of the haitian hospital and it represents a symbol to the haitians and the people of Leogane. All the organizations are collaborating to build this hospital, sometimes there is friction, sometimes frustration, but ultimately we are all trying to improve Leogane Haiti in our own way.

She is off. I put her in a double door cabin, a nurse, with an ambo bag, some medications, and a trusty driver. I called the ER in Port au Prince. They can expect her in an hour and half.
I said goodbye to her sisters, the only family she has now. I told them to be strong and now I am back to the regular day of finding funding, convincing people to buy a car/ambulance, paying salaries, the normal Hospital adminastration things that never seem to end.

Just a few thoughts from my part of the world, on this beautiful april fools day!

Haiti the first few weeks

3/22/10
Hello, hello, hello!!

I have been at the job less than a week. I have been handling it okay. I am a little nervous about when my predessesor leaves, how I will handle the stress. Abbey is a medical student and in the same class as I am at U of Iowa. She and I are the World Wide Village coordinators for Leogane, Haiti. We represent WWV, University of Notre Dame, University of Iowa, La Hopital St. Croix, the Episcopal Church in Leogane, the United States... Needless to say I have to keep my temper in check and mind how I say things. Both are weaknesses I have to work on, so I welcome it begrudingly!

I am working with a Notre Dame volunteer, Brennan. She has taken a year off of medical school to help with Disaster Relief and Medical care. She speaks Kreyol very well, and is kind of my partner for scheduling, administrating, and coordinating. She is coordinating the surgical teams, and handling most finances. We are still feeling out our roles, but I am definately on supplies. I am getting a handle on our medicines and our medical supplies. Everyone has been generous but we did not know what we had. The Hands on Disaster Relief volunteers have come in and offered logistics support. I know now what we have in our pharmacy and our stock room. To say they are a God send is an underestimation!!


3/26/10
Hello everyone!!

I am alive and well in Haiti. I am busy, and my internet connection is sketchy at best. Whenever I get a chance to send an email it is to organize or request something with the hospital or clinic that I am working in. I am an onsite coordinator for World Wide Village Health Initiative in Leogane. (worldwidevillage.org)
There are two of us here, we have teams coming down every week to staff the hospital and clinic. We spend a lot of time orienting, addressing dire medical situations, translating, keeping diplomatic ties and relationships with Haitians, NGOs, and our partner organizations.

I just do not feel like fighting to post a blog with the internet on most days so I have not forgotten anyone, I have just been so busy trying to keep a field hospital and clinic affloat I have not had a moment to myself.

I have a few good things to say. My little haitian boy is a grown young man. ti gari, a little boy that came to live with us when I lived in this house 7 years ago is not a young adolescent man. He has the same beautiful face. My mural I painted is present in my old room and I am incidently in that room again. Most of the street kids I used to hang out with are older, a few died in the earthquake... One mother I knew lost 4 of 5 of her children. Her grandmother who is also my Haitian grandmother broke her leg. I got her into see the Orthopedist and she seems to be healing well.

I sweat all day long while I am running between clinic, hospital, and odd jobs. I get a run in most days to the coast where there is a group of children that join us for a little while. I am always watched where ever I go and little kids love to yell "blan!" which is foriegner or white! I like to teach them my name so they yell some version of my name as I walk or run by.

Overall my spirits are good. I am too busy to think or worry about my future. I am moving to Grand Rapids Michigan next year! I will be doing a one year transition program. I did not match in a General Surgery Residency, but I was strangely relieved to not have to do that. I do not think I like being in the OR as much as I thought I did. So I have a new leash on doctoring. I am going to take a year, get some experience, and apply to a program I would really like to do for my career.

take care,
much love and blessing!
kristina

Crazy Week

Hello from Haiti!!!

I made it here this afternoon. I have lost a pound sweating but gained two pounds of rice, beans, and fried plantain... (okay I really have not but by the time I get back!!)

However I cannot share any pictures with you because my cord to connect my computer and camara are in my checked luggage that is somewhere between here and Chicago!

As are my clothes, my other cool stuff, and some other supplies I was bringing. oh well. I have a couple pairs of underwear and people have scrubs. My tennis shoes are checked as is my big towel. so I am using my hand towel until then, good thing it is micro dry.

I have a room, its actually the same room I lived in when I was here. It still has the mural I painted!!
I did not bring my tent so I was glad to have a room!

I have seen Ti Gary, my little boy that came to live with us when I was here in 2003. He has grown a foot at least, he looks fantastic, he told me he does not know how to read yet. I made him promise me to learn, but I also told him I would not forget my Kreyol. I have forgotten most of it, so I will have a steep learning curve over this week.

I started working almost right away. I am going to be running around administrating the hospital, and getting teams through their week.
Luckily I have a fellow classmate this week until next friday to orient me. I also am working with University of Notre Dame, my former employers here in Haiti!! There is one ND grad and current medical student who will be coming and going while I am here. I am grateful for the support and encouragement!

More info as this week comes to a close!

Take care,

blessings and Irish Cheer!!

kristina

Haiti Bound

Hey everyone!!

I took a little break from traveling to finish up my last rotations in Medical School!!! Hahaha, looks like I am gonna be a doctor!! There were a few times I did not think I would make it! Its been tough mentally, emotionally, and physically. So if I can make it to Graduation May 14 I think I might become a real MD.

As for starting a job that has a paycheck, I speak of residency, I find out monday, the ides of March, no joke!! if I matched or if I am one of the select few who has to scramble into a program next year. It means just that, beg everyone for a spot!
I find out where I matched on Thursday the 18th!
However I will be in Haiti on Skype at that time hopefully!
I leave for Haiti on the 17th! I am gonna ask everyone to drink a guinness for me!
I will be blogging about my experience. But I am basically going to be an onsite coordinator for the World Wide Village NGO organization (Worldwidevillage.org) The University of Iowa is the medical team that is responsible for it being in Leogane Haiti. They are located in the exact same place I was back in 2003. It is really gonna be good to go to a place I called home for a time.
Anyway WWV is setting up a long term hospital for the Leogane people since the hospital collapsed. I will be coordinating teams, administering the clinic, hospital and OR. I am not sure how much medicine I am gonna get to do but I speak Kreyol could volunteer 2 months, and they need some organization, so that is what I will do and get into the OR when I am able!
I will be posting when I am able I appreciate the prayers, support, and the comments!! thank you all for getting me this far on my life journey!

The pictures are of the Hospital and the newly renovated Catholic Church I attended when I lived there. It and the school were leveled and several priests, nuns, and students died in the collapse.

Canada

So I have had a lovely 3 hour lay over in Ottawa Canada. This is such a nice airport, they have given me free wifi, but I cannot streamline so no tv shows, no movies, reels or anything too dificult for my connection to handle. I was reading my book, but it feels like 10pm but it is really 4pm and this thought makes me want to go buy another cup of coffee. this is a long long day...
I forgot there is snow on the ground. and it is warm coat weather here. I was wondering around the last three weeks in light jackets or rain coats. Oh well at least I got to break up some monotony of winter.
My flight just got delayed another 20 minutes. They are missing one of the crew members. I hope its not the pilot, or the nice flight attendant. I feel like I always like one better than the others that have to put up with me for a flight. I have eaten four meals today already. It just does not seem right... I have watched 3 movies on the plane. I have been so productive in completely trivial pursuits.
oh they just called my flight.
see you all in the US!!!!

love to you all.

You Say Goodbye and I say Hello

Alright I have purposely stayed away from what I have been learning here because it was medical and sometimes dry, frustrating, or disgusting. So if any of these things sound not for you, please stop reading at this time.

My time on the John Warin Ward of Infectious Disease in the Churchill Hospital in Oxford was different everyday. It was often painfully disorganized and frustrating because some people did professional jobs, others did not. So it goes in medicine. I happen to be someone that prefers to do a complete job, and keep the patient care as my focus at all times. I am lax about professionalism I know this, and honestly my command of American English is pretty terrible so I did all kinds of foibles in British English.

For instance, when nurses are ignoring me, I informed my team, "they are blowing me off" this has a different meaning in British English and it was embarrisingly pointed out to me at that point. Other things, I just do not remember all the technical terms of things but I hope I learn them as I progress in my professional career. At this time I am woefully inept at using correct terminology and it tends to make me sound unproffesional and unknowledgable. I really see this as a self correcting problem and I cannot make myself learn it any faster if I put more pressure on myself to get it right. So I put up with lectures and try to figure out if I was true to my patient's issues they have with their health. That being said, I would feel like I had just inserted my foot into my big mouth frequently at the end of the day. Never with patients, with my professional colleagues and seniors.

When I was not being an outspoken "plain speaking" US American I was being harrassed for being a surgeon in a medical ward. However I did get to do some interventions here. I plucked larvae nesting in a patients skin and causing inflammation and unease as it moved around inside his skin. That was pretty intense and fulfilling when I pulled one out. I have taken care of AIDs patients at different levels of disease, HIV patients, TB patients, leishmaniasis, shistosomiasis, cystercercosis a lot of psychiatric patients that had questionable infections--(really medicine and surgical teams just dumped them on us b/c they did not know what to do with them) the nurses were always very good with patients, the abusive, the psychotic, the catatonic, the senile, the demented, the drug abusers and the prisoners.

what did I learn about the United Kingdom's health care system? Both the UK and the US system have their problems and fail their patients at some level. I cannot tell you which one is better or which one does the best job. I get very frustrated with both of them and feel there is a need for change but know that is as likely as me being out of a job because there is no need for medical care.

Sorry to disappoint but I did not walk away from this experience a convert to the UK health care system. I also continue to be disappointed by the US Health care system as well. I think it is inefficient, not cost effective, and not patient friendly. I am a product of this system so I continue to want to work on changing it for the better. However after experiencing another health care system and working in it for a very brief time as a student I have a little perspective on general problems all health care systems experience. For that I am grateful and will be learning from this experience for years to come.

Ward Rounds

My month here has been long, crazy ward rounds everyday. We did not finish until mid afternoon most days. To me, you spend an hour maybe two hours, but then you go to the OR. Not so with medicine doctors. All the same these have been extremely long ward rounds. We would consider every physical finding, every test, what test we should order next, and then what exactly is the diagnosis and how are we going to treat it? Most the time there is a muddle of things going on with patients and it is hard to pick out all the problems and what to focus on and such.

Yesterday we had our last patient to round on. Mr. E. He came into our ward with uremia encephalopathy. His urea was 40 for those that follow labs. He was a vascular path without legs, he was weak, quite confused, and aggressive. Last week he took regular swings at me on some days and then would invite me to sit down and talk nonsense for a while. He was entertaining. He had some problems with a urinary tract infection while with us, and still had all his medical problems. We walked into his room and he was laying there in bed dead.
It was not a shock, a surprise, or anything out of the ordinary really. He lifeless body layed there in bed. He had been alive only a few short hours before and was fighting with the nurse because he did not want his oxygen mask on. His swing was gone from his arms, his eyes fixed and dilated. We listened to his heart for a full minute, without any sounds, no pulses. His hopping around in bed with his leg stumps had ceased, his incomplete sentences, accusations, and loyal Britain singing was gone. I was no longer the dirty American trying to fool him. He was there helpless, alone, and lifeless.
His partner was an American, she could always calm him down, and introduced herself to me as, "the love of his life" I could not take to heart is anti US American names for me. He had three wonderful children and I am sure they will remember him as the fiesty man he was even at death. I really enjoyed him for the time that I had with him.
There was nothing to do but say a prayer over him quietly, cover his beautiful body up with a sheet, inform his wife and then we went to lunch. Life goes on, there continues to be another crazy patient that needs looking after and perhaps a place for him to die as well. He continues with me reminding me not every angry word or act of rage is directed directly at me. Most of the time it is just frustration reaching out for contact and needs my skills as a medical doctor if there is anything that can be done. And when there is not then it is to help him die peacefully.

The Irish Sinnott

So I flew to Ireland this weekend. My one flatmate was returning home and the other flatmates decided to make sure she got home. We stayed with her family in Galway for two nights. We saw the sights!!! It was quite good.
I was in Dublin for 1 1/2 days all together. Enough time to find the Sinnott Bar. I went in for lunch and ended up staying quite a while. I met some young Indian london bankers on a birthday weekend in Dublin. I helped them finish a keg of Guinness. I am not a huge fan of the taste normally but I think it tastes really good in Dublin and I think I would feel weird drinking anything else!!
Interesting fact about Sinnott Bar in Dublin: Each Table has two kegs installed in the center and a self pouring tap at the table. You have a choice of Guinness or Carlsberg- a lighter beer. There is an electronic tracker of how many pints you drink. This was just fascinating and the guys I was with and I had a great time tapping the keg!! I left them outside of McDonald's to finish my tour of dublin. They were going to go pass out! I love meeting fun people and having a few hours of good times. We each took responsibility for the worlds problems, the bankers- responsible for the economy, me- responsible for the Iraq and Aghan wars. We had several drinks to each respectively. It was a bit light hearted but we did find commone ground to discuss issues in a friendly way.
I stopped by the Celtic Whiskey shop, had some irish whiskey, went to Temple Bar area and listened to Authentic Live Irish Music, and then finished off the night with an Irish Coffee. It was over 4-6 hours just in case you thought me an alcoholic. I also had a maximum of 4 drinks with these events! I got on my train and never the less, took a nap and ended up in Galway.
The next day my flatmate and I went on a 7 hour bus tour of Ireland, including the cliffs of moher, the Burren-boggy area in Western Ireland. I had a fantastic time. Seeing the Cliffs of Moher made the long day worth it! and again my Anthropology bend on things was stimulated by the prehistoric findings, the English castles, and talk of the little people. There are Leprauchauns everywhere, you have to believe and you have to look for them...
My sunday was spent running in Galway to some sights and sounds. It is right on the coast and for me this was lovely!! I can count on my hands the amount of times I have run on a coastline. I am deprived in Iowa... We then did the Guiness Tour, it was fun to see how the process is made but not that much different from the Miller Brewing tour, which is free. But one overarching theme to my weekend was, "I am contributing as much as I can to the Irish Economy" everytime I looked at the price of trips/souvenirs/food. It is expensive but their economy has been devastated since the the economy failed. So again I felt socially responsible.
I did the city tour and say the K----- gaol (cant remember the name of the jail, but very historic like, alcatraz but involved with all the Irish independence events), the Jameson whiskey factory and some cool sights in Dublin, that are associated with Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, and Michael Collins.

If you get a chance-- I highly recommend it!
I am flying back next week on monday so I think I will make one more post and then catch up with most everyone from the States until I go traveling again...

take care, blessings, and love!
kristina

All of England in one Weekend

Hello hello hello!!!
so I had a busy weekend. some of the Elective students and I rented a car, and drove to Stratford upon Avon, Bath, and Stonehenge. I know, crazy. and it was, especially me driving the car. We had two students that knew how to drive on the other side of the road, so I though I could do this as long as I had a trusty navigator. One of them stayed out all night and was completely dead for the drive, awesome. wish I had that good of a time... the other one was very critical of my driving, had a GPS that sometimes worked, and in general pointed out to me what was wrong after I had decided that myself. The only one that was really good to drive with was the European same side of the street and car driver as I am. If you have an opportunity to drive in England with a car full of foriegners not familiar with the area, I recommend the bus, or train.

Anyway that stressful time aside, Stratford Upon Avon was lovely!! We went to the Royal Shakespeare production of Arabian Nights. I bought the standing room seats just to say I did it. I was mesmerized they could have gone on all night and I would have stood the whole time. However a seat came open after intermission and I sat.

Bath was good to relax in. Beautiful city. I can see why it drew the Romans and the British aristicrats from 1700 on. I toured the Roman Baths, and the temple dedicated to S. Minerva. My Anthropology flag was raised and flying high!!!

We got to Stonehenge 30 minutes before it closed. I decided not to pay the entrance fee and just took pictures from the fence 15 m from the stonehenge, even if you paid you only got 3-4m away from it... lame!! Instead I spent several pounds buying some really cool overpriced stonehenge gear for souvenirs. i got a book for 5 pounds and thought that would be more memorable than the 6 pounds to get into the park. I liked it.

All said and done I am glad we did it all in one weekend because we only had that weekend but I am so tired!!!

Incidently I did make it over to the Eagle and the Child. it is a pub in Oxford that JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis used to hang out and talk about literature. If you dont know what they wrote please google it and really appreciate how excited I was to do this!!!!

Alright rolling into my last two weeks here. I am on waiting lists to go to Haiti might try to go in March. I am not leaving just yet. sorry if I gave everyone that impression.

peace and LOVE to you all

Martin Luther King Jr Day, Haiti, Liverpool, and general life

Hello!! I have happily worked all day today on this US American Holiday! I did spend a lot of time thinking about Slavery this weekend.

I stopped by Liverpool and visited a friend I met in Haiti. She lives in Liverpool with her family. I had not met her 4 year old daughter yet. We went to the Liverpool Slave Museum. It was really fascinating. The whole Middle Passage I remembered from grade school but Liverpool's role as a port town and a slave traders business partners was very new to me.

Audrey, my friend, and I talked about Haiti all weekend. I would also like thank everyone who has asked after everyone I know. I have to say as of today, I have accounted for all the friends that I have tried to keep in touch with that continue to live in Haiti. The last one I heard about was my most important. Ti Gary, my little orphan Haitian boy the house adopted while I was there. We have not spoken since I left but I have just gotten word that he got out of his school before it collapsed and many others did not. He has always been my main reason for going back there.

In addition to all the networking I was doing I also signed up on the Partners in Health Website to return to haiti as a medical student going into general surgery because I can speak the language and would like to help. I have no idea what this will do to my medical school career at this point but I cannot stand by and watch all this happen. MOM dont worry I will work it out!! but I might try to rearrange one of my electives to Haiti.

I am doing well overall and would like to wish you all a very happy MLK Jr. Day and continue to work out injustices in a nonviolent manner. I think that would be Martin Luther King's legacy, at least that is what I take away from that...

take care and blessing and peace to you all.

Oxford in January

I am not feeling great today I woke up with Jaw pain and took some tylenol/acetomenophen and layed down. I woke up in time to call work and tell them I am not coming in. I might try to go to lectures today since they are in the medical school and hospital that I live very close to.
The John Warin Ward is the Infectious Disease Ward. All Cellulitis, H1N1 flus, HIV, TB, and other infections come here to this ward. It is its own little building situated close to Churchill Hospital, I live close to John Radcliffe the ER, the medical school, the women's center, and the main hospital are all at the John Radcliffe. Churchill handles all elective surgeries in all areas: general, urology, transplant... It also has a lot of internal medicine patients, and the ITU which is the ICU. It works well because then we can consult patients better at Churchill than JR. Although all teaching is done at the JR.
We had more snow last night so I think my HIV clinic that I am missing is likely not that busy. I enjoy going to work. I like the group of doctors and I like the patients. They are as always to me, entertaining. The family situations, the personalities, their illnesses, are all unique and I feel very fortunate to be able to encounter them and learn from them.
Last night I went for a walk to Iffley Track and field. This may have made my trip. There in front of the Gate is a sign. Roger Bannister, the first person to run a sub 4 minute mile and then later go on in medicine professionally is an inspiration to me.
Did you know after he ran a sub 4 minute mile 12 more I think did it that year? The following year another 3000 people broke this barrier. Previously it had always been said it could not be done.

"It only takes 1 person to prove that the "impossible" is possible"

I believe that I find that is true in my faith, my career, my hobbies, and my life. I look for those people in my patients, my friends, my mentors, my spiritual guides, my counselors, my teachers, my family. I like proving the "impossible" will someday be possible. Maybe not on my timeline, or my lifetime, but I am working to make it possible someday for those that come after me. And they will need guidance as I seek for it now. It reminds me that what I do matters and I am apart of something bigger than I can ever fathom. That gives me a lot of peace and hope.

Weekend in Oxford

My weekend in oxford consisted of staying here b/c of the bad weather. Doing a "pub crawl", shopping of course, and museums. Incidently the other rooommates moving in were hospital workers. We share this flat with shift workers that live here for a few days while they are on, and then move out until the next time.
The Pub Crawl started out all right. We had dinner at the first pub. I had "bangers and mash" sausage and mashed potatoes. I wanted to say I tried it. Not my favorite in the world but I ate it all now I can say: I had some.
The next pub was fun, with young people, lots of atmosphere, but it ended abruptly when one of my roommates got sick all over the other one. It was so bad, and it might have been a bug from the hospital, food poisoning from dinner at previous pub, or just bad luck. Anyway, I had a weekend of nursing and mothering. It was her first time being sick away from home and mom. I hate being sick and away from what is familiar. So we tried to make sure she was okay.
Today, Sunday I went to the Museum of History of Science. it was flipping cool!! Best part was the exhibition "Steampunk" Show. I kept thinking of my little sister and her art work. It was like History buffs, meets art, and results in science fiction. Really cool. and words honestly cannot explain, but videos can:

http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/steampunk/video-steampunk-at-the-museum/

Tonight I am teaching my roommate how to make Pumpkin Pie, with sweet potatoes b/c the whole of Oxford does not have pumpkins this time of year... and Pecan pie because she loves it!! I will let you know how that turns out!

Another Postcard from a Chimpanzee

Greetings from over seas!! My roommates and I wish to send you warm wishes from snowed in Oxford!
So my first week on the job:
1.Infectious Diseases is the dept. where I am doing my elective. I am loving the learning. I have run into almost all the microbiology pathogens I studied as a second year in medical school. The list is long but includes: HIV, PCP pneumonia, camphylobactor enteritis, TB, tuberculoma, H1N1, cellulitis of the legs, head, and some tropical medicine diseases we had to consider because of some of the traveling my patients have done. Its awesome!! They are internal medicine doctors, so rounds can last from 9am until 3pm. we get pages and interruptions a lot, but really we spend a lot of time considering all the possibilities. that part is hard for me. I am like, done- treat them, next patient. this is good to teach me patience and consider all possibilities, I just dont want to think about them when there is still more work that needs to be done. otherwise I am having a Fantastic time!
2. My roommates, one is from Ireland, the other is from New Zealand. I bet you can guess the Irish red head? and the Korean islander? We are getting along great with one another. I think as I am typing another roommate has moved in, but have not met that person yet. First my roommates brought in a cute minature snow man. He lives in the freezer. Then we had a snowball fight last night, my two roommates were outside of a pub and when I stuck my head out they nailed me in the face with snowball. The group of us in the pub were asked not to bring the snow in, so we left and we were like, "game on..." and it was fun!!
3. Speaking of the snow, did you know it is blizzard like conditions here? we have gotten close to a foot of snow. This is impressive for a city that does not really own snow plows, cut the budget for sanding the streets- b/c it is not really a priority, and no one really owns shovels. I saw a lady clearing her front porch with a garden hoe... just her porch, she stopped right at the sidewalk. Apparently no sidewalk ordinances exist here, because my tennis shoes and I (not snow boots, b/c in England it rains, not snows) trudged the whole mile and half in it this morning to go go work.
4. I am getting a bike, so more adventures to come!! I have mapped out a few rides so I will be able to explore all of oxford and maybe oxfordshire while here. the snow should clear up by next week so I will let you know how that all goes!!
goodnight, blessings, and peace to you all!!!

Oxford 1st impressions

I am settled!! I made it to Oxford yesterday. Joe and Carole drove me here and we picked up groceries, and I settled in. I am liking this. My flat is 99 room 2 of 3. I share my kitchen with 6 total and my bathroom and shower room with 3. I have met one of my flat mates. we walked back to the grocery store for her. she is from New Zealand, she is 23 and graduating from medicine this year too... 30 vs. 23? where did I go wrong? anyway they spend another 2 years doing internship then specializing. I am off to explore Oxford on this cold January day. I begin at the hospital on monday, so I will have to update everyone in a few days. take care!!