Breakfast

I know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

I think sleep is more important.

This is why my daily breakfast consists of whatever I put my hands upon at four in the morning.

Eggo's take too long.

Ice cream is too difficult to eat while driving.

Which is why my breakfast the past month has consisted of Gatorade, fudgesicles, and cheese grits.  This is not a diet I would recommend.  It does let me sleep me an extra five minutes, and those five minutes are essential to my well being.  They totally make up for my elevated cholesterol.

*Photo from A Taste of Home.  I'm sure they have it copyrighted.  It is not mine.  

Day 2 in the hospital

Julia took me to get a metro pass for the month today. I attempted this on my own yesterday, but got nowhere with the lady behind the counter. Julia, with her alternating cajoling and demanding Czech got much further. There was one small snag in the plan. They needed a passport size photo to put on the pass. Now while I am undoubtedly vain, I don't regularly carry around wallet size photos of just myself. I do carry around wallet size photos of my family.

M., thanks for sharing my genes.

Lecture this morning was in Czech, but I followed a great deal of it. They work much more on the "pulling student in front of class and drilling until embarassed" theory of education here. It went pretty well for me.

Hip replacements are a little different here too. The implants are essentially the same with the cups being slightly different. Also, they are doing elbow replacements - they only work for 3-5 years before failing due to fracture, so I'm not sure of the indication, but there they are.

Clinic is different too. Washing hands is a rarity, hand sanitizers are seen as often as leprechauns (note: they do not celebrate St. Patrick's Day here), and they spend two to five minutes with each patient. On the positive side, I'm at the nicer hospital, all patients strip down upon entering the room (gownless! Drapeless! Take that PAS and OSCE's!), and no one complains about the wait.

I'm looking for vintage shops this afternoon. Wish me happy hunting!

Hablas Cesky?

Lost seems to be a permanent condition of mine. Big surprise to those of you who know me well, I'm sure. Woke up late this morning, threw on my doctor clothes, ran downstairs, grabbed a kolac (poppyseed, blech), and hopped on the tram.

Going the wrong way.

Shoot. Hopped off the tram, got on another, made it to the metro, got on the green line. This would have been fabulous had I needed the green line. I needed yellow. Finally got on the right metro and made it to the hospital. I was an hour late.

Now I have seen some big medical centers- Baylor comes to mind. This place could have eaten them for a mid-morning snack. My instructions were "go to the orthopedics department".

There were seven orthopedic departments. NO ONE spoke English. Heck, I even broke out Spanish and a smattering of sign language. No go. I see a sign for Foreign vsitors ( that is not a typo). "Hooray," I think,"someone will speak English." Ah, optimism. You get me every time.

They did not speak English. Ricky Ricardo had a better handle on it. I made it through three of the departments before I found a friendly face.

Her name is Julia. (She's blonde and nice just like my other Julia at home). She's a fourth year medical student here, which is the same as a first or second year in the U.S. She's Russian and thus gorgeous. I also met two guys from London, Farris and Hugh, also in her year.

We have decided to trade talents. They don't know anything about physical exam, diagnosis, or reading xrays, and I know nothing about getting around here. I think I'm getting the better end of the deal frankly.

Another positive about this place - the students only work from 8 until noon. Seems like a much more civilzed arrangement than we have at home. The students all wear jeans and long white coats. I was overdresses in my slacks and sweater. Better luck tomorrow.