Update

Post-Mardi Gras was relaxing at first, but quickly became boring. With no parades going down the street, there was little to do but school work ;). Luckily, I like school work. This semester, my focus has changed a bit to infectious diseases - from Tropical Virology to Preventative Tropical Medicine to Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases. My classes continue to be interesting, but I now understand why med students always think they have what they just learned about. For example, the Friday before Mardi Gras (day), I learned about tetanus in my Preventative Trop Med class. Mardi Gras (day) I picked something up from a parade and a kid ran over my hand. Filled with grit and dirt, I was paranoid of getting tetanus! Irony of all ironies, two days after I went to my health clinic appointment to get all my vaccinations for Sierra Leone (in which I didn't get a tetanus booster), I stepped on a nail and needed to get a booster.

In addition to school work and Mardi Gras, I've been volunteering with a local health clinic. It's been a very interesting learning process. My project, determining the extent and reasons for missed mammograms, required much digging, time, and patience. The first step was to determine the extent of the problem. The clinic I volunteer with provides (almost) free primary care services on a first-come, first-serve basis. As recommended by the National Cancer Institute, women over a certain age are recommended for yearly mammograms. Luckily, there is another clinic in New Orleans that offers free mammograms. However, the process of getting a mammogram at this clinic is time consuming and frustrating. I did a brief phone survey of some patients and, frustratingly, found the main reason for a missed appointment was that they didn't know about it! However, the system was changed slightly, and I'm now evaluating again to see if the change had any effect. In addition, the work from my survey is going to be presented this weekend at the Society for Internal Medicine conference and will be published! I was very excited about that!

I've also finalized my plans for the summer - Sierra Leone! Starting June 5th, I will be taking a 2-week class in Kenema, Sierra Leone, learning and experiencing health care in one of the world's poorest countries. Following the class, I'm going to help an organization called Doctors for Global Health perform a needs assessment of the area around Kenema for my practicum (a graduation requirement) for the rest of the summer. I'm looking forward to it, despite the 1000 vaccinations I had to get (ok, maybe not 1000, but my arm was very sore).