I'm back ... it's been a while, and a fair amount has happened in my absence --- a friend's wedding, a part of Step 2 of the USMLE Boards, and witnessing Iowa River flood waters submerge downtown Iowa City and the campus. I hear rumors that all bridges between the east and west side of Iowa City will be shut down tonight; the campus is on "lock down" status through the 22nd, and classes have been dismissed. I-380 north to the Cedar Rapids airport is closed for a ten-mile stretch. Tornadoes touched down in eastern Johnson County tonight. It's been an exciting time, to say the least ... but not the type of excitement we like to see around here. Nonetheless, I am impressed with one of my favorite cities --- everywhere I look, I see children, college students, families, and and elderly folks pitching in and sandbagging. I was down home on the farm the past couple of days and returned with my dad's shovel and old leather work gloves. I will join the masses all day tomorrow, driving to a local high school to leave my car and then be bussed to areas of greatest need. I will try to snap a few pictures so you get an idea of what is happening around here. The river is expected to crest on Tuesday, but I hear that one of the Coralville levees broke, so that might push back river cresting a day or so. We are fortunate here in Iowa City compared to Cedar Rapids a half hour north, where 483 city blocks are completely submerged, only one of three water processing plants is operating, and one death has been reported. Normally, I would take the flooding and disruption in stride --- and I'm doing my best, but I have 23 students arriving from 14 states on the 22nd for a rural health conference I have been planning. Talk about stress ulcers! I am enacting contingency housing and meeting room space and making other adjustments as necessary. I don't anticipate my students having problems flying into or out of the Cedar Rapids airport, but I'm not sure if I will be able to retrieve them ... I-380 is projected to remain closed for one week. Please wish me luck! It may turn out to be a memorable week --- a conference in the middle of the second "flood of a century" during my lifetime thus far! Many thanks to you for the phone calls, e-mails, and texts ... I am safe and sound, as well as my home, and none of my friends have been displaced due to the bizarre circumstances.
In other less news-worthy news, I officially finished my third year a week ago with radiology!!! There was just one other student on the rotation besides me; we took our exam on Wednesday, gave three presentations each on Thursday, and after one hour of lecture on Friday morning, we treated ourselves to breakfast at Hamburg Inn and a free afternoon ... ! I packed up my van that day and took off northbound for Minneapolis, where I had a great time catching up with my "great-aunt" Pearl (with who I lived while doing AmeriCorps in CA) and her daughter Teri and son-in-law Neil, attending the wedding of my AMSA friends Mike and Britt (where I enjoyed testing my new zoom lens and pulled some muscle dancing for four hours straight!), and catching up with my college friends Missy and Ben. Pearl, Teri, and I had the chance to visit my friend John's grave (Pearl's husband) at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.
And, last but not least, I jumped one more medical school hoop last Monday --- the $1004 Step 2 Clinical Skills United States Medical Licensing Exam. Only five test centers offer this exam (Chicago, LA, Houston, Philadelphia, and Atlanta), and if you're not lucky to live within driving distance, you must also purchase a flight to get you there. And with a hotel stay, the day can become quite expensive. All my personal belongings were locked up, and I could only carry my photo ID and a credit card with me throughout the day in case of emergencies. I couldn't use my own pens and had to place a sticker over the University of Iowa College of Medicine Medical Student embroidered logo on my white coat. I then had to clip a number to my left lapel and pin a matching one to my left shoulder and pretend to forget that I was being videotaped and scrutinized through a one-way viewing window in each of twelve simulated patient encounters on the sixth floor of some obscure office building near O'Hare. Believe me, I was never so happy driving away, even when I did get stuck in construction traffic for hours! I take Step 2 Clinical Knowledge at the end of July, a 9-hour computerized didactic exam, so if you don't hear from me until then, you'll know why!!!
(Oh, and I nearly forgot the best news of all ... my braces are finally off! Now, I just have to get used to a lifetime of retainer wearing ... !!!)
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