BOGOTA COLOMBIA

Hello Everybody,I don't know if mom and dad got the last email that I sent to them to tell them I was alright so can somebody verify with them. Also let me know if you don't want to get these emails because it doesn't hurt my feelings if you feel like this is spam.We got into Bogota on Sunday night after I was bumped up to first class again. I thought of all of the flights that I didn't want to be in 1st class it was this one because I didn't want people to think that I was rich also the pizza factory dough is probably made out of potatoes because I was pretty gassy the whole flight. My stomache hurt so bad, I felt like I had date gut. When we got to Bogota. I was a little bit nervous but my nerves were calmed by how friendly everyone is here. It was also nothing that I expected because I had to get out my jacket because it was so cold. Sherrie and I went to our hostel and when they buzzed the door to let us in, I pushed a little too hard and flew down the flight of stairs. It was a great entrance. The place we stayed was a hostel with travelers from all over the world. We stayed in a room with three beds and a shower that would turn on when you would turn on the faucet on the sink or when the people downstairs from us would turn on their sink. We used the three blankets on our beds that night because it was so cold. We ended up talking until 1 am and had a hard time getting up the next morning. The next day we wandered around the city. We went to the main city square where there were thousands of pigeons and old women selling corn to feed them "toppins a bag." It was a huge square built by the spanish conquistadores and housed the court building that was taken over by the guerrillas in the 1980's where they killed 100 people and the supreme court justices. It was a cool place. We also went to a free museum that was donated by Bolero who paints portraits of very obese people, He repainted the Mona lisa and the last supper with fat people. There were also a couple of Picasos. We then went to Montserrate which is a cathedral on the top of 500 foot cliff on one of the mountains that surrounds Bogota. You have to take a Gondola to get up the cliffs. We met up with some colombian born USA ers who wanted to know how we felt in Colombia. We told them that so far we haven't had any reason to worry and they reassured us. We then went down on the gondola and I listened to nun talking to a soccer star from Africa about his life in colombia.We went and had arepes which are a type of tortilla made with a special flour. the man who owned the restaurant had a great time teaching us about the typical Colombian food. We also bought things for Scarlet's birthday (she was the one that was going to get married and the reason we came down, but called it off) We went to go pick her up from the airport because Sherrie had told her the wrong day that we were flying. Scarlets dad came also. He and her cousin drove us back to our hostel. He was a little concerned that we were staying in a hotel for only $7 a night (they are a well off family) and her cousin and he couldn't understand why we would want to travel the way were traveling. It definitely a cultural thing that I think falls more into European than American to back pack in South America. We finally found our hostel (I don't have the best sense of direction given that I took Sherrie to the same square 3 times and not on purpose) Today we went and helped Sherrie buy an emerald and bought our tickets to get back to Bogota from Cartagena. We then took a nice bus to la Valle de Leyva where we are now. It is a colonial city that is all white buildings and cobblestone streets in the Andes. We are staying in a great hostel and are going horse back riding in the morning and then off to San Gil tomorrow to do some white water rafting. We are relaxed and happy and definitely safe as there are police and military people every where. Fortunately I think that this is going to be a very relaxing and uneventful trip. I am traveling with two vvery attractive girls and people are always checking them out and then leave them alone when the see me. I am pretty intimidating

Family Medicine Rotation

I think that I have found my calling in life. Family Medicine is definitely a great route. I loved pediatrics and I love working with pregnant women so I think that this would be a great fit for me. I worked in a Community Health Center where Chris Hyer works and it was a good time. I spoke mostly Spanish and really enjoyed the diversity of the illnesses that came in. The doc that I worked with does C-sections and so there is the surgery aspect also. I feel somewhat relieved to have an idea that I can be happy in medicine especially after my internal medicine rotation.

Ditching my mom on her birthday to climb Nebo

Instead of going to lunch with my mom on her birthday, I went to climb Mt. Nebo with my roommate and some other people in our ward. It was a pretty cool trip. We left late because there was a VIDA race that morning. We started climbing around 2pm There was some snow especially at the top. When you are climbing on the spine of the mountain it is a little crazy when you don't know if your footing is very secure. Fun hike and definitely easier than Lone Peak. The best part of this hike was peeing at the top and the urine stream would turn at 90 degree angle.

Panama Planning Trip

During my family practice rotation I went to Panama for a couple of days to plan the future of VIDA in that country. We met with the chiefs of a community, Irgandi, where they have no access to doctors for 3 months of the year. They have problems with infant and maternal mortality rates during this time, diarrheal illnesses, malaria, dengue, and a list of other diseases. We are working with the health department to help teach the people simple things that they can do to help prevent illness along with building gardens to help with their nutrition. While there, we marched in the island breast cancer awareness campaign. It was a great trip and we got a lot of things planned. I also read A thousand years of Solitude, something not medical.

Cardiothoracic Surgery Rotation

What an awesome two weeks! Not only did I get to see and do some pretty cool things in heart surgeries, but the docs were so great to take the time to teach. I would have never have thought that surgeons would be more laid back than internists! I had such a great time with this group. I was able to help out with valve replacements and bypass grafts and removing tumors. I was able to learn how to cut and how to sow on patients with supervision. I pulled drains and chest tubes. One chest tube I didn't have the patient hold his breath and I heard air go back in, which could collapse his lung and prolong his hospital stay 3 more days...luckily he was fine on xray and not symptomatic. I had a hard time sleeping that night because I was worried about him. But now on to family medicine.

Internal Medicine rotation

Internal Medicine rotation was rough. During most of the rotation, my stomach was so tense that I would have diarrhea and want to vomit. Mostly because I felt that the attending physicians were going to attack me for something I didn't know. On my third day of the rotation, my attending asked me a question about diabetes management that he had mentioned in a noon lecture series that I couldn't remember what he said because I was eating lunch and it was the first time I heard about diabetes management. When I asked him what the answer was, he wouldn't tell me and told me to find it out for myself. I looked for four hours for the paper he was talking about and asked other students, residents and interns and couldn't find the answer. I finally found the answer and he never asked me the question again. I finally felt that I got the hang of internal medicine after two weeks and then I switched to cardiology where the whole game of learning what the attending wanted started again. This time it was more complicated because my attending didn't like guidelines. It was a pretty traumatic two weeks and then I got the hang of it. It was interesting when my attending told me that patients feel that doctors are like gods. I thought that the god complex was just a myth....

Lone Peak

I went hiking with my roommate Benj, his sister Katherine, and friend Wendy Lee. It was a pretty crazy hike. We started at the Draper side although it was supposed to be the prettier and less of an incline... The problem was that there was a huge fire there a couple of weeks before and had burned the mountain side and it was still steep but had 2 extra miles of flat. It did have an awesome view of the valley as you could see both the Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake (two of the most beautiful lakes in the entire world!) We also could see IKEA which the girls ended up getting a picture of. We came across wild raspberries and elderberries and ate enough to almost get diarrhea but we didn't. Along the trail there was a cabin that some brothers had made and had actually saved a couple of people from freezing to death when they were caught in a blizzard last year. It smelled like urine but it was pretty cool that they had taken the time to build it.

Lone peak had a incredible view and it was kind of freaky having to balance on rocks with sheer cliffs of a couple of hundred feet on both sides of you. But it was worth the climb. On the way back, I led us down the wrong canyon (as there are many trails to get to Lone Peak) and luckily Benj had his GPS. We ended up having to do a little rock climbing. It was quite the adventure. We finally made it back to our cars after 16 miles and 12 hrs of hiking. It is a good hike and not for the weak hearted but it is one I would recommend for the view and the experience.