Subaqua Sternal Rubs

Sorry I kind of zoned out there for a bit. If you haven't guessed, I have safely made it home. I spent a week "relaxing" (working at the hospital and riding ambulance), but now I am in the midst of my US Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) Step I studying. (Note the new countdown timer in the sidebar. Though why does my life always seem to revolve around countdowns?) Anyways, posting on here will be sporadic for the next month and a half, as I spend most of each day in the books. (Posting about studying can't be that interesting, I mean it's not that interesting to begin with.) I plan on resuming a more regular posting schedule after the exam is done, and I start my 3rd year in Clinical Rotations.

It's official — I am finally done with the Caribbean forever. Though it wasn't with the usual German efficiency (8.5 hours vs. normal 3), grades for yesterday's Pathophys exam were up, and I officially passed. I am really to exhausted to write much, and hot (since I am in the lecture hall without A/C - disconnected internet at home), but needless to say I am ectstatic about finally being a 3rd year (well, I guess I do have that pesky Step I still in the way). Going out to a celebratory dinner tonight, then I have two days to pack and get ready, and then my flight home is Monday morning. Can't wait to see everyone!

I was weak. I had made it through 26-week Terms before, but during this, my 6th Term, (which is only 18 weeks long), I took a short sabbatical and went home for a week. It was right after passing (and getting a better than average score) on my second exams when everyone I know was either 1) going on vacation to another beach (not interested - gets kinda old after being in the Caribbean for 2 years), or 2) going on a scuba diving vacation to another island (which I can't as a result my little accident). So for about the same amount of money others were spending on a weekend away, I spent a whole week at home seeing family and friends (or at least the ones that were working either at the ambulance or hospital when I was.)

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… you have the number on your passport, US driver's license, Grenada driver's license, and all other forms photo ID memorized. (Yes, seriously - filling out all those Embarkation/Disembarkation cards.) Sorry for the lack of posts over the last week, but I was off the island, at home. I am now back in SVG, and will chronicle my adventures over the last week soon, or at least as soon as I am not so tired. Time to go to bed after the 4 long (ok 3 long, and 1 short) flights plus layovers it took to get back to school.

Evidently there is such a thing as a free lunch. My federal income tax refund was direct-deposited in my bank account today, and I ended up getting 202% of the taxes withheld back, for an effective tax rate of -3.32%. I did even better with my state taxes, where I got 2.72 times the amount withheld back. I guess the government felt sorry for me that my adjusted gross income from working at the hospital over semester breaks didn't even reach the standard deduction. Now if they would only feel sorry enough to cancel all the Stafford loan debt, that would be great too.

When I scheduled my latest dentist appointment 6 months ago, I really had no idea when I would even be in town, so I just took any date. As luck would have it, the original appointment was in two weeks, which really didn't help, since I am leaving tomorrow. So I asked to be put on the "stand-by" list for any open appointment. Of course, someone else didn't want to get up early, so I got stuck with an 8AM slot. I made it to the appointment only 5 minutes late, and only slightly tired from staying up too late the night before. As I was walking into the waiting room, one of the staff members comes out, and I naturally assumed that she is my dental hygienist since there was no one else there. Evidently, in my slightly tired state, I didn't catch on that she called someone else's name, or the fact that there was actually someone else in the waiting room that I just totally missed. I finally caught on when I started hearing the sound of drills, and the dentist saying, "So we are just doing two teeth today, right?"

Morale of the story: Make sure you get enough sleep before you go to the dentist, otherwise it could turn out badly for you…

Back to packing… Who am I kidding? Time to start packing. T minus 9 hours…

I first must apologize - the computer gods conspired against me to prevent my churning out the usual drivel featured on this site since I have been home. Just before I left Grenada, my motherboard was fried to the point where the unit would not even post to BIOS (yes, I realize that is Greek to most of you). Since my on-site service contract had run out only weeks earlier, I had to ship my unit into the repair center just before Christmas. Surprisingly, I got it back within a week or so. However, when it came back, the Hard Drive failed, and I once again could not boot my computer. This time I was lucky where Dell just sent me a new HDD, and I got to install it myself. I am still working on re-installing everything.
After that whole computer-less period, I went on a family ski vacation where I was forbidden to bring my laptop.

But now you can rejoice, I have my laptop back with working HDD and Internet connection. I am leaving for St. Vincent (the island just to the north of Grenada) on Friday morning (well, I guess 2AM is morning) to continue my medical studies for Terms 5 and 6, and have created a new category to chronicle my experiences on SVG. Tune in for further updates shortly… Sorry don't have time to write more now — in usual fashion, I leave in less than 24 hours for a 4.5 month stay and I haven't started packing (or even finished the laundry) yet…

Wow it's been a while. So I made it back home safely yesterday. And I have to go to work at the hospital today. Updates about what I've been doing the last week or so soon!

Well, I am back in Grenada, my new home away from home (I spend 11 out of 12 months/year here). Vacation was good, but as always, waaay too short (2.5 weeks after 7 months studying). I ended up working in the hospital and the ambulance a little bit, and spending some time with my family when they finally all made it back in town. Sorry no cool EMS or ED stories — all pretty mundane stuff actually. I was hoping for some good trauma or at least a complex medical case, but after 36 ambulance calls (in 2 weeks), the only blood I got on me was from some drunk elderly man that fell down while out walking his dog, and subsequently had some lacerations and blood coming out of his ear canal. In the ED, I was mostly working Sub-acute, with more simple lacerations, extremity injuries (sprained/fractured ankles, wrists, etc.)., and processing detox admits.

After "relaxing" with an insane work/volunteer schedule, I had a few days at home with the family before I had to start packing (at 10PM, the night before, in usual style) for my return to Grenada. One of my flights was delayed, but for the first time ever I got my luggage when I arrived. I was so happy about that.

After getting to my dorm, I headed over to a party/barbecue that one of the other RA's was hosting. Sunday was spent checking people in, doing storage duty, etc. After another barbecue Sunday night, a few of us went to check out Grenada's Carnival. It was a fun party, but we got out of there before the 5AM splashing of paint on each other. I was quite proud of myself for being able to drive through the throngs of people without running anyone over.

Today more check-ins, storage, and tomorrow classes start.

Sorry I've been lazy… I've been home for the last week, and I took a break from posting. (Mostly because I've either been working at the hospital or volunteering at the ambulance 24/7.) I should get something new up soon.