Forgive my relative silence in the blogging world for the past five weeks or so ... it's been a busy summer! I'm two days away from enjoying my yearly state fair fix, three days away from photographing one of my best friend's weddings, and ten days away from flying to Stockholm (via Reykjavik!) for an international elective in surgery at the Karolinska Institutet! I will do a much better job of sharing stories and pictures while I am away ... but in a few words and pictures, here's what's been going on the past few weeks:
* I finished neurology and began my emergency medicine clerkship, which I have really enjoyed --- but, for the most part, it's nothing more than fast-paced, acute care family medicine! It's a good experience to get better at thinking on my feet and honing my list of "can't miss" diagnoses for chest pain, abdominal pain, and nausea/vomiting. The first time one of the clerks walked up to me and asked, "Dr. Hughes?" I was so startled that I sputtered for a few seconds before I managed to get out that I was only a student! There happens to be a real Dr. Hughes on staff, and I worked with him the other night --- he thought it was pretty funny and introduced us to patients as Hughes and Hughes ... !
* I attended the American Academy of Family Physicians National Conference for Residents and Students in Kansas City at the end of July --- well over 400 family medicine residency programs were in attendance, so it was a great opportunity to meet with folks from the programs that interest me, mostly schools in the greater Midwest and the west coast, with Denver, Boston, Ann Arbor, and Albuquerque thrown in for good measure ... ! I have finally finished my personal statement and have my letter writers contacted; I took my senior picture and had my Dean's Letter meeting. Now I am working on the online electronic application. It's a long process --- and it's only just beginning! Various programs can start downloading students' applications on September 2, and if they like your materials, they extend you an interview. Interview season takes place roughly November - January, so I will (hopefully!) be clocking in several frequent flyer miles this fall! Looking forward to crashing on a couch near you ...
* I started one of my senior electives called "Continuity of Care" in the small community of Lone Tree south of Iowa City by about 20 minutes or so. I work with one Spanish-speaking preceptor (Hence, we have a great patient mix, and I get to speak Spanish quite frequently!) an afternoon a week for the entire school year when I'm stateside. Yesterday, while I was in clinic, we got called to the local assisted living center to evaluate an elderly woman complaining of dizziness. After visiting with her, we got roped in to seeing an old man in the dementia ward who had fallen on his shoulder. For some reason, he was more interested in showing us a skin tag on his hand than talking about his shoulder until the man sitting to the patient's left tapped the doctor on his arm to let him know that it was HE who had the sore shoulder! We were examining the wrong patient! We got a chuckle out of trying to figure out who was more "demented" --- the patient or us!
* I have thoroughly enjoyed being around Iowa City for the summer --- and capturing a great deal of local events and sites on camera with my friend Thomas, including the Iowa City Jazz Fest, local gardens and prairies, and a nearby fossil bed unearthed anew after the flooding ... enjoy the photos!
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