Another Stab

Here I am again, writing in my blog after a few months of neglect. I passed the first year in good standing, won the Russell C. McCaughan, D.O., Education Scholarship, and just returned from a medical internship trip to Ethiopia.


In the second year, we focused on cardiovascular, respiratory, and renal pathologies, pharmacology, histology, and physiology. Throughout the year, I wanted to become a hematologist, then an oncologist, and lastly a nephrologist. Renal captured my attention the most, and right now, I can still remember most nephritic and nephrotic diseases.


I wrote a book about Ethiopia while I was there, so I only need to highlight the experience here. Four students -- I among them -- traveled to Ethiopia for a medical internship. We worked in Jimma University Hospital during the week, splitting up into two groups rotating OB, internal medicine, surgery, and pediatrics wards. On the weekend, we worked in Asendabo, a community 50 km outside Jimma. We gave talks on family planning and malarial prevention techniques.


Ethiopia encapsulated first year in review. We saw valvular heart diseases, COPD cases, chronic kidney diseases, and many other pathologies that we'd studied in first semester.


Emotionally, I think we were all a bit depressed in Ethiopia. I slept sometimes up to 12 hours, ate poorly, and felt downcast on many days. Was it the sights and atmosphere that brought me down? Most likely, yeah. I'm still fit for this stuff, but the hospital environment was devastating -- bloody gauze, needles, razors on the floor; doctors dispassionate about their patients; and patients in misery. On two occasions, I felt quesy: when a young women was screaming out in pain during an abdomen excise; and in the maternity ward. I chalk both up as patient emotion overcoming my scientific equilibrium.