Week 6/7: Birthday and getting out

Hey friends,

Hope all is well as you try to survive the heat this week in the Northeast. This past weekend I went up to Holy Cross to celebrate my 21st birthday and visit a bunch of friends who are living on campus interning and researching in the area. After pizza from the Corner Grille, we all just spent the night hanging out and catching up, and watching tv, which was nice. Sunday the 14th was my birthday, and in the morning I Skyped with my girlfriend who is teaching in Uganda this summer, which was fun. Afterwards my friends and I went to mass at Ciampi, one of the few buildings on campus I had not been in yet. It was cool to see where the Jesuits live and to celebrate mass in such a holy and humble setting. Afterwards we went to lunch at Culpepper’s, wrapping up a very “Holy Cross” weekend.

I returned to Hartford to meet and go out to dinner to celebrate my birthday with my parents, who, unbeknownst to me, invited a number of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was a fun surprise, which was kept well by all involved. We went out to dinner and ice cream in West Hartford, which we all enjoyed. It was great to see all of them and celebrate my 21st birthday.

It was back to work on Monday, which I spent in the Neuro- ICU. Today required an early wake up call, as I had to be in by 6:30 to attend rounds. During rounds I learned a lot about the brain and its incredibly complicated function, which was very interesting. I enjoyed interacting with the doctors, nurses, residents, interns, and medical students throughout the morning. Although I was clearly the lowest man on the totem pole, rounds were cool and I was proud to understand a good amount of the discussion. After rounds one of the physicians on the floor took a few of the residents and myself aside to give us an in-depth lesson on brain scanning. We learned about the complex physics behind the various types of MRI’s and CT scans and how to tell the difference. I liked hearing about how these technologies actually rely on somewhat simple physics but on a very high scale of complexity, requiring tons and tons of math. I also liked hearing about how different types of tissues display on different scans. Overall, today I learned a lot about how to read a brain scan and what types of normal and abnormal things to look for.

After work a couple of the other interns and I went for a run at the Trinity College track. Despite the 97 degree heat, according to one of our cars, we had a great workout and a good time. Running on the track has become a pretty nice after- work routine. After the track we went to central Hartford for dinner and then out to East Hartford to hit some golf balls. The weather was great, and exploring the town was cool. I was also pleased to see I haven’t lost my golf swing since the last time I played, which was about a month ago.

Overall its been a fun last few days. Keep cool in the next few days, and I’ll keep you updated.

A beautiful evening for hitting golf balls

ETC

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 16th, 2013 at 2:49 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments are closed.