Exam Exam Hospital Rotation

When we last spoke I had just passed my cardiology block exam. Being now in the second semester of the third year our schedule shifts from the traditional style to one that lasts 4 to 5 weeks, followed by an exam in that course. In these blocks we learn everything there is to know about those specialties, the pharmacology, surgery, and pathology. We also revisit the anatomy and physiology of the organ system in focus. This current block had two topics: Principles of General Surgery and Gastrointestinal Disease. Last Monday I took the written exam for Principles of General Surgery and was unsuccessful in passing; however, due to the system of rejecting or retaking exams here in Italy, I will have another opportunity to retake the exam at the end of July.

Today I took the exam for Gastrointestinal Disease. This exam went considerably better then the last. I accepted a 26/30 and was very happy with my mark. This was a 30 question written exam with a mix of multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank questions followed by an oral component. I felt that I left both this course and Cardiology with a basic understanding of the organ system related disease.

Starting tomorrow (yes, fast turn around), I will begin my first two-week clinical rotation. I am very excited. For this rotation we were given a list of specialties and were asked to select our top three choices. My top three were Cardiology, ENT and Internal Medicine. I am happy to say I received my first pick. This is one of the major perks to being in a small program. During the two weeks we are paired up with a current resident in Hospital San Raffeale. That means that whenever they move, we move. If they have overnight, we have overnight. If they have weekend, we have weekend. If they start at 7:25am, we start at 7:25am. Lucky for me my resident told me to come in at 9am the first day, but I don't think this will be a recurring situation. I am pretty sure I will be starting earlier the rest of the time. Either way I am very excited. I would come in at 7am if I had too. My resident told me he is in the TICCH, which my friends and I believe is the CICU (Cardio Intensive Care Unit). I am a bit nervous, mainly because I don't want to say something stupid (which I know I will, heheh), but also due to my lack of spoken Italian. I hope that my slowly progressing Italian will improve more being at the hospital, but we will see.

In the middle of the rotation next week is the Gelato Festival, so I am praying I will be able to go again. It is literally the highlight of my year. :D Well, I am off to prepare my bag for the morning.

Till We Meet Again,

~M~

Cardiology Milan 2014

Over valentines weekend I couldn't think of better way to spend the holiday then attending a congress on Cardiology (the heart). This international congress was meant as a continuing education for physicians and residents however the host of the congress was my current professor of Cardiology, Professor Camici, so I along with about 5 of my classmates were given the opportunity to attend. They were a long three days including my Saturday at University but it was well worth it. I learned a lot of interesting things about Atherosclerosis, Inflammation and Plaque Vulnerability as well as many others related topics. 

click here for the link to some of the lectures if you are interested. I was given the great opportunity to hear Dr. Wood from the UK speak about prevention problems. This lecture was very interesting as it shed some light on the fact that we should be trying to prevent these problems then fixing them after there are complications. 

Dr. Libby from Brigham and Women’s Hospital gave a great lecture on the role of inflammation and atherosclerosis. This lecture explained how decreasing systemic inflammation can be a major treatment and prevention tool for atherosclerosis which is one of the leading causes of heart attacks.  It was so refreshing to hear lectures done with such passion. These professors are truly in love with their jobs. It gave me some hope that after all the work and pain there is light at the end of the tunnel. 

This congress made it more evident that choosing the specialty for the correct reason is important. Choosing a specialty because it pays well or you are just good at it are for me not going to cut it. I need to find the specialty that I can't think of doing anything else. It reminds me a lot of when I decided to swim competitively. It started with me liking sports in general. I loved the high I got when competing.  I starting swimming to rehab an ankle injury. However, in no time at all I couldn't imagine doing anything else. I ate, drank, and slept swimming. I put my whole mind, body and soul into it. It became my life. Now that the competitive part of my swimming career is over it has been quite a transition. Redefining how I saw myself came with a move abroad far outside of my safety net. This move forced me to clarify what I value and where I was going with my life. With out a doubt I find my self missing the passion that I once had for swimming. I still love the sport but from day to day it is not an active part of me anymore. So my goal for 2014 is to find passion again and hopefully once again in medicine. I know I will find it. It is just a matter of where.

This opportunity of attending Cardiology Milan 2014 was a great way to study for my exam, which came three weeks later (which I passed with flying colors). I learned about new advances in cardiology and that cardiology might be where I find my passion again. However if it is not it gave me hope that i will find it. Its just a matter of time.

Till We Meet Again,

~M~

Some of these pictures are thanks to Marco Montagna

Turning 25 in Italy

Turning 25 can be considered one of those milestone birthdays. As a friend of mine put it best "congrats you are now a quarter of a century old".  When I turned 20 I definitely in a million years did not think I would be spending my 25th Birthday outside of the States, let alone in Italy. Yet 5 years later here I am. With a month of exams ending the day before I had two reasons to celebrate. Oh ya and did I mention my birthday landed on a friday. That means birthday weekend :D.

We had all these wonderful plans for my actual birthday: going shopping, out to lunch, baking cookies and cakes then a wonderful dinner and drinks. What actually happened was I made the cupcakes the night before (red velvet which turnout to be pink velvet),  I slept until 10 ate cupcakes basically all day while I watched TV in bed with the biggest cup of coffee in hand. It was raining hard most of the day so it was a fitting way to spend it. Then the troops were rallied and we did go out for that wonderful dinner and drinks :). We checked out this cute restaurant in Brera (the art district) called fiori chiari plates. It was a fun rustic sea side feel. We had a delicious antipasti plater for starters and then pasta all around.

We then headed over to a wine bar just around the corner N'ombra de vin (Their website seems to be under construction) where we drank prosecco the rest of the evening. This place was a fun change of pace from our normal location expect for their odd variety of music from Abba to the Rolling Stones. My friends were fantastic they gave me a bottle of wine and a gift card to one of my favorite, not so secrete anymore, places in all of Milan Signor Vino. I can't wait to use it maybe after my next exam??? We finished up at Shockolat one of the best Gelato shops in all of Milan. At the risk of sounding lame I am happy to say we were home by 1. I know I know but an easy relaxing evening is just what I wanted.

 

 

Day 2 of birthday weekend started out about the same as day 1 minus the cupcakes, well at least the excess of amounts of cupcakes. Alyssa gave me a salami in the shape of a pig yes a salami pig. It was soooooooo good. It was truffle favored so it had a hint of truffle in it. It went really well with Philadelphia cream cheese and Bea's bread from home. Then it was off to the local pub Matricola for some drinks with more friends. This night we did a Bellini toast with some great new and old friends. Once again we were home by I think 1:30 but it was so nice to get extra well needed rest.

 

Finally on day 3 the sun decided to make an appearance on birthday weekend. I woke up around 9 and went to church at Chiesa del Carmine. I don't go every week but every now and again it's nice to go to help put life in perspective. Then I met Daria, Moad and Bea to go ice skating out side in MILAN :D.  Followed by gelato from Grom. We also stumbled upon a massive foosball table in the middle of the piazza, so naturally we planed for a while. We ended up tying 1 win for each team.  After we were done there Bea and I went to do a little shopping I mean who doesn't need new nail polish when its only 1 euro. Then as our legs started to feel the burn from skating so, we decided it was time to go home. I made another batch of cupcakes to bring to University the next day, FaceTime with some friends and family, did my nails and that was the end of birthday weekend.

Monday starts block scheduling. Our first block is Cardiovascular disease. I can't wait. Stay tune for an update soon on the first block and Milan Cardiology 2014 a congress I will be attending over Valentine's day weekend.

Till We Meet Again,
~M~

Winter has come and so has exams....

A decent amount has happened since I last wrote you all.

I hosted my first thanksgiving with my amazing roommates. The great turkey hunt of 2013 ended very successfully the day before thanksgiving at Essalunga :D. Here in Italy they don't eat turkeys whole on a regular basis (in some place for christmas but not a lot) so it was quite the hunt to find one that would 1st fit in our oven and 2nd was in one piece. But alas we found our Tomas the Turkey (Tom the turkey italian style ;)). The only disappointment was our apartment is a bit to small to invite all the people I wanted to. Everyone had a great time. For most it was their first Thanksgiving so it was extra special sharing my families traditions with them. A few were pleasantly surprised about how great cranberry sauce is. I also made the perfect pumpkin pie this year wayyy better then last year. Some of these great pictures were thanks to Marco (green apron).

Then came the start of the Christmas season and the INTERNATIONAL FAIR. The only way to explain this fair is that it is kind of like a State Fair in the the United States yet better. hehe. We started with Tai food, yum yum, followed by a trip to Africa where I bought a lamp for my mom. Then off to the rest of the world. I found some amazing presents and ate some tasty treats.

 The following week my roommates and I set up our christmas tree. It was an interesting night as we also tried our hand at a batch of chocolate chocolate cookies. They tasted great but.... not exactly cookie shaped. They may have melted a bit.

Then we packed up and headed home for the holidays. Bea to Taranto, Gavin to Canada and me to Minnesota. I made it home just in time for Vinnie's University graduation :D It was great to be home minus the frezzzzzzzzzzzzzing weather. It was the coldest winter in 17 years while I was home. I mean really come on Minnesota coldest winter in 17 while I'm there thats just rude. :P We had a quiet christmas with family. I was able to bring home a panattoni for my family that was amazing. 

It was a working holiday tho because now it is January which if you have been following me you know that mean .... exams :(

This exam session I will be taking Clinical Lab Med, Basic Pathology, and Pharmacology. This past monday was the first sitting of Clinical Lab Med which is a 30 question written exam with 45 minutes to complete. You have to get 18 to pass the course. The results came out later in the morning and I passed. That's 1 down 2 to go and a great way to start both the week and the session. The next 2 exam will be at the end of the month one day apart so I will really need to get to work to pull this off.

Tonight we are going to a local pub (Matricola) for a beer for a classmates birthday and tomorrow it all starts again, so good night for now.

Till We Meet Again,

~M~

And so it begins again

With the change in season also come the start of a new academic year and a new apartment :D. I arrived back to Milan on September 18th. I ate some food and went to bed the next day was the day to go sign the official contract for my new apartment :D. So exciting. Along with my new apartment came two new great roommates and also new challenges. Anyone who ever said Ikea furniture was easy to assemble is lying. 38 minutes, 13 seconds and the brains of two medicals students later I had a desk... only a chair and dresser left to build :(. But we managed and a few weeks in everything was settled for the most part. The apartment is nice three bedrooms, living room, bathroom and kitchen. :D

After we signed for the new apartment and kinda half moved in I started my General Surgery Ward attendee where I shadow a resident in General Surgery at San Raffeal Hospital. This was great fun. I had one over night as well as the weekend shift. The surgeries were interesting but it was not my first time in the OR. To be honest the weekend shifts seeing patents was the most interesting to me. We had about 10-15 patients we saw that were staying on the ward. One I had seen a few nights before during my ER overnight shift. So that was really neat to follow some patients for a few days. It was also nice to see one of the patients a week later doing much better around the hospital grounds. I don't think he remembered me but it was nice to see him doing so much better.

Lessons began on October 1st. This semester I am taking Basic Pathology and Immunology, Microbiology and Mechanisms of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Laboratory Medicine. So far Micro is the most interesting to be but Pathology is a close second. My schedule this semester is good because expect for wednesday we rarely have more then 1 or 2 lectures in a day which leaves a lot more time to study this semester.
Another exciting thing this past month was having my parents and our family friends come visit me in Milan. They got to go see some great sites of Italy as well while I studied but it was great while they were here. We spent a few days touring Milan and showing them where I go to University as well as introducing them to my friends here. My mom was very excited to get her hair cut and styled here in Milan and it turned out so wonderful.

On the Saturday they were here we went to the city Bellagio on Lake Como for the day. OMG totally going back. Although the weather was only ok it was still a great place, just beautiful. This spring I think I will need to take a weekend trip back. Then we hurried back to Milan to go grocery shopping because the next day my parents cooked dinner for my friends at the new apartment. We had a great dinner with veal piacatta and polenta. There was enough food to last me for like a whole week :D An additional benefit to having them around.

They then went on the rest of their trip around Italy while I studied. The day after they left my university put on an exam that was a moke NBME (national board of medical examiner) they returned a week later for just one night. We had a calm evening with dinner at a pizzeria near my apartment. The next day they left to go back to Minnesota. I was sad to see them go but I knew there was no way I could focus on my studies enough if they had stayed.

Next up study study study until it is Thanksgiving time.

Till We Meet Again,

~M~