Final Thoughts on Ecuador

This picture is just to grab your attention!! But focus over here, not the picture!! Unfortunately the time has come, and I must return to the US. My last week in clinics was interesting. I was really hoping for some good time in the Neuro, but it didn't work out as well as I would have liked. The first day I was supposed to meet with the general surgeon I had worked with before, and he was going to send me to Neurology. It didn't work out that way, I went with him to surgery (a chole-lap) and then he said he would send me there... well somewhere between the OR and his office he disappeared. So no neuro for Monday. Tuesday was about the same, never was sent to neuro. Wednesday I went straight to neuro to find out that I need a certificate to observe in neuro, so that was a no go. I didn't get the certificate until thursday night. But thats the end of probably the most negative paragraph you can find in my blog!!

Friday was my first day in neuro, and last day of clinics. Neurology is on the tenth floor of the hospital, and is made up of about 20 rooms with up to three beds in each room. I don't know if it is mandatory, but all the residents in neuro were women and very beautiful. No surgeries on Friday, just rounds, but thats not to say it wasn't interesting. The first patient I saw was a women in her thirties who had tumor removed from her front left lobe of her cerebrum. The surgery was 30 days prior, but she was admitted because the suture became infected and was beginning to reopen. The next patient was a man in his twenties that was in a "transit accident" (that's all I got out of it) and was quadriplegic. They were monitoring his organ functions, which were normal. I tried to not let it get to me, but it was very sad to see someone not much older than me that will never walk again. But then what is "right" from a physician's point of view?? Is it "professional" to allow yourself to feel for a patient or should you be numb? Or is a definite point along a continuum between the two??

That about sums up the interesting cases. After that I felt like one of the interns that I so comically observe being grilled by a doctor. One of the residents who was very eager to teach had me read several pages (in spanish) about anti epileptic medication. After the reading she quizzed me (in spanish), which was very difficult to remember everything that I had read. She was really grilling me at some points and I felt like I knew nothing, but in the end was fun and now I'm a semi-expert on such medications. It was great to see someone in their residency who was still so passionate about what she was doing. She went off on several tangents about how great Neurology is and how I MUST specialize in it. 

Now that I think about, this wont be my last blog, I'll really wrap things up when I get back to the states, and I'll review everything I have learned about Ecuador as a country!