It has been a long time since my last post but considering I'm struggling to pay attention to our lecture on protein in urine (one cause of which is glomerular proteinuria) I thought I would share some more of my med school adventure.
I successfully survived Course 3 - Cardiovascular and Respirology and finished my first year of medical school. We completed our exams in March and then had a two week holiday which was very much enjoyed but a bit on the short side. When we started back in April we began Course 4 which is Renal (kidneys) and Endocrine (hormones). Since then we have been ploughing through the material. We've talked about hypertension, diabetes, low sodium, high sodium, and the list goes on. Our knowledge base is growing significantly and it is less than a year (only 9.5 months) until we begin our clerkship.
Because we are in a three year program here at UofC we technically finished our first year in March. This is actually quite comparable to an academic year at a normal university. However, when things changed was when we started back on the 5th of April to begin our second year. Our 'second' year will be 11 months long (less Christmas vacation). Fortunately we have six weeks of elective during the summer which will break up the monotony of 11 months of lecture.
Speaking of summer electives - I'M GOING TO GHANA. The 'A' on the map above is where I'm headed. I have most of my shots, I have a ticket, and I'm in the process of getting a visa. I depart June 26 and will be spending six weeks at Donkorkrom Presbyterian hospital. This is a 74 bed hospital in a poor and relatively remote region of Ghana and I'm very excited. I don't know precisely what I'll be doing. I'm hoping to rotate through the various departments at the hospital getting heaps of awesome experiences. I am also hoping to go to some community clinics or do health promotions work if it is feasible. However, there will definitely be more on this later. For now what I know is that I will be staying on site in a guest house, I'm the only student going from UofC, and it is going to be an adventure. I'm anticipating learning a lot about malaria and other tropical diseases and hopefully some of my clinical skills will be a lot better when I get back compared to when I left.
However, I need to get learning about the kidneys so I'll be less useless when I leave for Ghana in 38 days.
