Boogers are fewer and far between in an arid climate

Greetings again. Martha has run out of steam today, so I'll blog again. She may be on in a while. 

I want to start by saying how much better my sinuses are here. I can actually breathe! A life without post-nasal drip is a good life indeed. My cobblestoned oropharynx is out of a job! Forget Flonase, relief is a 9 hour plane ride away!

Enough of TMI, on to other stories from our trip so far...

Guess who we ran into last night? None other than Martha's sketchy plane seat-mate! How many days have we been here and how many people live in this city? Can someone calculate the chances of that happening? Really, that's like winning the wrong kind of lottery. Anyway, we paid our bill quickly and quietly, and I shouted back to him that we had to work tomorrow. Moral of the story: awkwardness exists in all languages and cultures. 

Martha really did work today, and Henry and I continued our city exploratory laparotomy. We just cut into the guts of the shopping district. (You like what I did there? Huh? What, no? Well, ok, worth a shot.) We noticed several things today: 1) There is an entire "mall" dedicated to hair cut places, tattoo shops, and Triple XXX theatres, 2) I will probably get run over before I leave this country because I can't tell what's a cobblestone sidewalk or a cobblestone street (it's harder than you think), 3) Whenever you need directions, just ask the random guards or cops standing in the street, and 4) people tend to simulate sexual activity in the park. The last one takes some getting used to, but making love IS better than making war, right?

I realized yesterday that I forgot to tell you all about rounding in the NICU on Friday. It was really neat to see the size and type of babies they have there. They have a baby on ECMO for pulmonary HTN and they have another baby that has chronically been there on the vent for what I presume is PPHN. Dr. Carlo would be happy that, when I was asked when to feed a new 32-ish weeker, I said day of life 2, and the team gasped! The fellow said I was crazy, but I thought it was a legit answer on my part. I guess they worry more about feeding early here, but after seeing some cases of NEC, I understand the sentiment. Overall, the unit is small with perhaps 10 babies currently. They also had a baby with Trisomy 18 in the continuing care nursery, which looks more like our Newborn Nursery. I am amazed at the slight differences in the way we do things, but neither is really more correct. Dr. Fabres was even quoting studies about checking residuals from American journals. Now I see that the research from our institution helps other MD's make decisions all over the world. It's a neat feeling. 

Ok all, that's enough babbling from me. I hope you are doing well, and we miss you all muchly! 

Besitos!

Jennifer