First of all I would like to explain my medical whereabouts for the past 4 months.
During March (uppssie... it has been quite a long time) I rotated in Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology (ENT). It a little complicated to explain how that month fitted 2 specialties, but in practice it was pretty simple.
Ophthalmology - Two days a week I would go to a private yet charitable (is that a word? beneficencia publica anyone?) with an Ophthalmologist graduated from my school to take class and afterward be assigned a resident of various services, say Uveitis, Retina, Glaucoma, General Ophtha etc..
I L O V E D it! Can I please get a slit lamp for my birthday?? They are the coolest medical equipment I can think of, and the eyes... oh goodness!! I could see eyes all day and not get bored. Retinas are so so sooooo pretty, and in this hospital I got the chance to see some really cool things:
* not one, but 4 crystalline lens subluxations... FOUR... I mean... JESUS!! You could see the zonules so perfectly, it was unbelievable! Like teeny tiny white hairs holding the lens.
* a central serous retinopathy ... it looks just like a drop of water right above the macule! And in case of doubt ... we made an OCT to corroborate ... you read correctly, we did an OCT right that second!
* the most beautiful papilledema I have seen!
* Avastin intravitral injections. I so wanna stick a needle in an eye!
I know most of you (medical and non medical readers) don't understand my excitement .. but I'm talking about TEXTBOOK images ... LIVEEE!! All those retinal and corneal thingies you read about: microaneurisms, druses, flame hemorrhages, corneal lacerations, conjuntivitis etc etc but right in front of you!! At your disposal to fully explore and analyze! I'm telling you, I did not want to leave that place ever!
The residents were so nice, I particularly liked hanging out with one who is even weirder than me... and that's a hard thing to outdo. He got so excited with every eye he checked, and if there was any weird or interesting finding he immediately dragged me from wherever I was so I could check it out too: "Come see this beautiful retina", "You have got to see this eye and tell me what you see".
It was a great experience. I learned a lot and I even learned to use my direct ophthalmoscope properly. So kudos for that.
Otolaryngology: now, this is a bit trickier to explain. See, two days a week we spent the mornings at the department of NeuroOtology at the National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery, and the afternoons at a private practice with an Otolaryngologist, and the third day we stayed the whole day with this doctor. Understood? No? don't panic, it is quite irrelevant, I just tend to give a lot of useless details that sometimes turn out to be confusing.
Anyhow, the private practice was great. The doctor is excellent in so many ways: the way he treats patients, his work ethic, etc plus for the first time in my medical life, someone was excited about my liking of ENT. So it might be a biased opinion about this doc, heh. We got to see many larynxes, noses and ears via the endoscope, which happens to be a great teaching instrument, since the students (like me) get to see in the screen exactly what the doctor wants you to see, and even save images for future reference. All this without bothering the patient more than their regular check up. We also attended several ENT surgeries in this private hospital (adenoidectomies, timpanoplasties, septumplasties etc)
The NeuroOtology part was also very interesting. We saw some pretty cool nistagmus (I finally understood how to perform the Dix Hallpike test), facial palsies, vertigo and the best ... brain surgery. Why brain surgery? well, ENTs participate in various neurosurgeries, for example: transsphenoidal surgery, vestibular schwannoma removal, frontal sinus cranialization etc. So there you go, ENT its not just about mucus, serum and spit.
The hardest thing about brain surgery is not the gazillion hours they last, or the fact that you have to be standing (as Medstudents, the surgeons obviously are seated) ... oh no, the hard part is fighting the impulse of sticking your finger into the brain RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!! INCHES AWAY!! The one that looks so squishy and poke-able!
Mmm... have I embarrassed myself enough already? Is there any doubt I'm a weird-medical-bloody-gross freak? I hope not :P
Anyways, I have to get some sleep. Sorry internet, but you'll just have to wait till the next post to find out what I've been doing the past three months. Nighty nite!
