Hello world! Its been ages!

A lot has happened since the last time I blogged out my thoughts and feelings on medical school. I am almost done with third year! Amazing! Every rotation has been a unique learning experience. I started with internal medicine in May and was amazed at how much and how quickly I learned. At the beginning of the rotation, I barely knew what Liver Function Tests (LFTs) were and certainly did not know how to interpret them. On my second month of medicine, got my first choice of inpatient GI/Liver, so I had an entire month to master the liver and lumen. By the end of the rotation, I felt like a young hepatologist in training and developed a genuine passion for cirrhosis of all things! Since internal medicine, I feel like I've just been building on this amazing base of medical knowledge. Each rotation is another block on top of the knowledge pyramid!

Even with the stress and intensity of third year, I was able to go home to Panama and see my family over the holidays. We took a quick trip to Capetown, South Africa.. my first time to the continent! Although the trip was amazing, just getting to South Africa was a huge ordeal! We had four connections spanning three continents in two days! Crazy. During our layover in Germany, I realized I ran out of passport pages (SA has a two page limit or else deportation!), so during our layover I ran to the embassy just so I wouldn't risk deportation upon arrival. Thankfully, I got my pages and hoped on to our double decker plane (Airbus A380?) ready for a trip filled with food, wine, and sights. Here are some memories from the trip:

With those great memories from Capetown, I came back to school ready for the stress and excitement that is surgery. The hours were long and the expectations were high, but I survived the rotation! I'm now in the final stretch of my clinical duties with one month of neurology and another month of family medicine. So excited to almost be done with third year!