What an amazing adventure so far - I arrived yesterday and Jennifer arrived this morning and we each hit the ground running from the first second. I will say, I felt like I was on call but with a little more excitement because i did not sleep for 48 hours, couldnt sleep on the plane and obviously you cant nap right when you arrive in santiago! so sweet Cony (constanza pinochet) whom I became friends with in Bham, and her mother in law picked me up at the airport (after a 2 hour wait in customs...everyone was coming back from chilean holiday!). They had a sign saying "welcome to chile, martha mae", made me almost cry. Cony took me to her apt for cafe (oh by the way, nescafe is awesome...INSTANT cafe!), and then brought me to miraflores (my apartment) which is awesome. Dr. Gutierrez put us in touch with a friend who rents apartments (thanks Hector!). by the way, everyone here loves Dr. G! After the arrival to apartment it was off to the hospital where, oh my, i met Dr. Jorge Fabres the neonatologist here. He did a NICU fellowship in Birmingham, and let me tell ya, he LOVES Bham. on another note...exactly like Dr. Carlo (had a paper up and showing a CO2 graph....i about broke out in excitement,,lol. Dr. Fabres has been wonderful in making sure our trip is organized. He treated me to lunch along w nicu fellow and peds resident. lunch included avocado which is like the national food accompaniment here and makes me so happy. After lunch cony and i walked around and i was able to rest for a few hours before being treated to sushi and chilean wine (i love being able to say that!) at. phillipe and conys house.
now to today, friday: i made way to hospital (on foot, very short walk) and found cony who procured a cafe and media luna for breakfast. at first i thought, hmm, croisssant sweet bread is not my normal breakfast, but then i decided, im in chile and living as the chileans do - leaving all my routine back home and embracing the culture - it was delicious. cony said they are mostly typical in argentina but its a very common breakfast (simple and fast mini croissant) here in chile. I hung out with the pulmonary team who had a picu consult and a bronch. The intern, roderigo, went through the entire differential dx of a patient they were following and taught me so much. We spent some time together after rounds because only 2 people could go to the bronch since it was done in the OR for better access. At the same time, JENNIFER AND HER BROTHER HENRY WERE ARRIVING AT THE AIRPORT! carina picked her up and brought her to our apartment and even drew a map for her. roderigo and i walked back to meet jennifer to bring her to hospital for our 2 pm meeting w Dr. Abarca and Dr. Fabres, but we came to find henry taking a nap and jennifer had already taken to the streets en route to hospital there is no slowing her down - woman of my own heart :-) After returning back to hospital and attending a pulmonary meeting where they were snacking on coke light and peanuts and discussing a paper we all met for lunch and planned our rotations. We are very privelaged to be here. We will split our time between catholic university (hospedale universita cattholica) more like tertiary care/private...and sotero del dio (public, indigent). we cant wait. tonight its dinner and drinks and music (i think karaoke!!!) with our new friends (cony, carina, phillipe and some of phillipes surgery buddies). They are picking us up at 9:30 (definitely different schedules here), but since lunch is at 3 this makes sense.....like it, love it!
signing off from marta and jennifer will be on in just a bit :-) :-) :) XOXO hasta luego (...more on my attempts for spanish in the next blog,,,im learning and trying to convert my italian..difficile..)
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