First day!

So today was my first day and I think it was an overall success! I'm pretty sure I stick out like a sore thumb american, but I think I held my own. The morning started off with me not being able to find. Apparently I'm not the only one who pays for taxi's to go to work in the morning. Instead I had to flag down one of the taxis driving probably 70 mph (not kidding) on the street in front of the house. I had no idea how to get to where I needed to go so I really was praying that my taxi driver knew the address and could get me remotely close. The ride was rather interesting as the whole way there, which wasn't very long thank goodness, the driver wouldn't stop talking to me about how his wife just left him for a younger man and that he kissed her feet and she still laughed at him! Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. So as he's telling me about his wife and her new bf I quickly see that I'm close enough and ask to get out please! It was an interesting ride.

I got to the education building and after the mandatory purse check (this is required to enter any building here) I sat down with about 15 other med students and new residents starting rotations at the hospital. Talk about being intimidated! So after waiting in the group for about 30 mins I realized I needed to be in a different place since I'm an international student with totally different paperwork lol. Nevertheless, I figured it out and they sent me to the hospital to make the usual rounds: ID badge and White Coat. Here they don't allow me to wear my ATSU short white coat, they require us to wear the hospital emblem and a long white coat :) I feel special. Maybe its a preview of what it will be like a in few months! ANyway, I miraculously found my way to the ID badges. I did however, get so lost looking for the place where I collect the white coat (which btw is in a small grey seemingly abandoned trailer in the back of the hospital parking lot!). I'm pretty sure I ended up OFF of the hospital grounds, don't ask me how.  BUT I got everything and finally made it down to the ED before noon.

THe doc I'm with is amazingly nice and awesome. She teaches a lot and has asked me to teach her as well. She wants to learn english so she'll ask me how we say common diseases. My first patient of the day was great, it actually gave me some confidence since I was pretty nervous about the whole spanish thing.  I saw a little guy who's mom said she was feeding him, he rolled on his arm weird and since then he hasn't moved it.  She let me examine him and I was pretty sure it was a Nursemaid's elbow, it was pretty obvious.  The doc consulted orthopedics (which is a common thing here for anything even remotely related to orthopedics) and he found nothing and did nothing. SO, mom came back down and the doc let me fix it! It's no big procedure or anything, but it was nice of her to let me do that on my first day. Baby felt better within 10 minutes and everybody was happy, yay first patient!

The only other really exciting/frustrating part of the day was the trauma that came in. The kid was about 9 yrs old and he ran into a volleyball net and flung himself backwards and hit his head on the concrete at school. According to his mom he was fine for an hour and then started to drool and slurr his words, pretty scary.  Side note: in the midst of the say, one of the other attendings (also very awesome) assumed that I was a 3rd year Peds resident, something clearly got lost in translation lol. SO, we're at this trauma and she says "go ahead start, I'll be right there"......ummm....WHAT?! Luckily my initial attending had already gotten there and everything was fine. BUt i seriously, in less than 2 seconds, panicked and started sweating through my clothes lol. Anyway, everything was going on and I knew what I had to be doing to help, but I was so oooo frustrated! I could barely understand what the doc was calling out because she was talking so fast! Also, traumas seem to be run differently here, so I was a little lost. But the most frustrating thing was that I just couldn't get my words out fast enough. I think in english, so it takes me a second to think about it all in english and get it out in spanish. Everything was fine, he got taken to CT (which btw i had no idea is called TAC) and he ended up being fine. But i was really so frustrated that I felt like a total idiot standing there in the trauma bay. I felt helpless and like everything I know is useless if I can't get it out the way I need to. I know it was only my first day, but I hated that feeling so much. I am getting the hang of it and training my ear to the Bogota accent. That feeling is another huge reason why I came here. I need to practice! The spanish I speak in Phx with the mexican people is VERY different than here. Anyway, that was my excitement for the day.

A list of some things that are different here that I think are worth mentioning:

- Med students wear long white coats
- nobody does undergrad, they go straight from high school to medical school (6 yrs)
- you actually have to pay for residency, you don't get paid
- nurses are called "jefe"  (translation: boss) by everyone
- EVERYONE takes a full hour for lunch, even the ED attendings! (this I'm NOT used to)
- White coats are NOT allowed to be worn outside f the hospital
- Parents (for the most part) are very educated about what to do when their baby has a cold (waaaay more than in the US!)
- The docs aren't terrified of getting sued by everybody that walks in the door


More stories tomorrow and more will be added to the above list! :)