Happy Birthday Nany!

11-05-06 --> 11-15-06

Hello to all!

Wow, these past two week were busy! Work was interesting; we talked about hyperkalemia quite a lot, which was nice. I’ve learned a mnemonic from the resident: ‘C BIG K’, which stands for the different treatments for hyperkalemia: C stands for Calcium (but only if there are abnormalities in the EKG), B stands for Bicarb, I stands for insulin, G stands for glucose, and K stands for Kayexalate, which increases bowel movement. Last Thursday we had an amazingly busy day. I saw a lot of patients did a bunch of blood work, gave many shots, and by the time I got home I was so very tired, that I only practiced my presentation once. The next day, Friday, I finally got to present my GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) lecture. I was a little nervous, but not too nervous not to be able to give a smooth presentation. I attribute my ability to keep my nerves at a manageable level to the fact that I practiced presenting this material for over a two week period with the prepared lecture. Since Mom and Omer came to visit me, I made it a point to complete the presentation before they came, and just practiced it since. Well, after my friends gave their lectures and I mine, we had afternoon lectures that were good for the most part. Now, after 3 months of straight ‘learning by doing’, I have a difficult time sitting through lectures… I get a little fidgety and bored a little too easily. I much prefer learning by doing, but I suppose lectures are essential once in a while.

On Saturday morning I flew out to Detroit for my great-grandmother’s birthday. I was so happy to see Nany and to meet her friends: Ethyl, Ruth, Thelma, Syd and… please forgive me, I forgot the name of some more friends… It was nice to finally meet them as well! I also got to see all of my cousins, second cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma, and many new additions to the family. I would definitely say it was truly 'wonderfully-hectic. I think this is a good depiction. With so many people and so little time, having a nice long conversation was practically impossible. Nany, thank you for a good time! I hope that in my next visit we’ll have a bit more time together… this was too short. Anyway, Detroit was surprisingly frigid! I was so glad I brought my big coat. New Jersey is still having a nice long (and very unusual) “Indian Summer”. I’m attaching pictures, and also a picture of the beautiful pillow Nany made for me. I absolutely love it, and I haven’t decided if it looks better on the bed (current location) or on the coach… The flight home was delayed by a few hours, but I made it back to New Jersey by night time, and fell asleep very quickly.

On Monday we had a busy day at work, and I got to see many different conditions, some were unique ones that I haven’t seen yet… others I saw many times before. On Tuesday we had our night hours, and the day just flew by! I saw an interesting condition called: Pterygium (teh-rij-ee-oom), which is basically tissue growth on the medial part of the eye. I have never seen one like that before, and I thought it was so interesting! I also saw two children with conjunctivitis… uggg… I washed my hands very good afterwards. That’s the last thing I would like to get now. For some reason, Dr. C decided it was pizza day, so we enjoyed a wonderful meal at the office. Then today (Wednesday) was very fun as well! I administered a flu shot and did a blood work in addition to everything else I saw. We also had the pleasure of going to lunch with the other Dr. C! It was a nice Sushi place… yum! The question of the day today was: “What are some causes of pancreatitis?” I came up with ‘yellow scorpion venom’ and was right! There are other ones such as: alcoholism, gallbladder stones, CMV, mumps, measles, trauma etc. … I still think scorpion is the most unique one! ...definitely important in Arizona.

Anyways, that’s about it here…

Loads of hugs and kisses!

Reut