It's been a full week.  I spent the last 5 days with a plastic surgery team.  At the very least, it was good to see what non-cosmetic works they do in plastics.  Lots of nerve and tendon damage in the hand and wrist.  Breast reductions and reconstructions.  Lacerations of various sorts, repairing fingers that have been crushed by hammers or gates.  Removing skin cancer, cleaning wounds, making skin grafts for burns.  Seeing such a wide variety was great.  The team was fantastic -- friendly, and happy to teach. 

One particular surgeon has left an impression.  He is an Iraqi man, in Ireland now for a little less than a year.  He has been a surgeon for over twenty years, but at some point recently a group of militants started killing cosmetic surgeons.  So he's in Ireland, where he has to work for 2 years as someone much less qualified than he is, at which point he will be fully registered.  Fortunately his previous experience will allow him to have a private practice.  Otherwise, due to the politics and economics of the irish medical system, he wouldn't be able to advance very far in the hospital setting.

Next week I'll be doing ophthalmology.  It used to be 2 weeks, and the doctors try to cram all of the same stuff in to less time.  It sounds like the tutorials are interesting, but the ouutpatient clinics are fairly dull, as it's mostly watching doctors look at patients eyes.  I'll actually have to study this week!  They give us a written and a clinical exam.

Friday night an old friend of mine from Timberlake was in town with his brother, on a tour to support some work they do.  You can check them out at www.foundmagazine.com.   It was great to see him again, and get to show him around Cork.  It was a helpful reminder that I do have a life, and personality, and experience that goes beyond my time in medical school, or even my time in Boston.  It was a reminder I need more frequently than I'm getting.  Since I'm having trouble finding extracurrculars here, it is easy to forget about all of the other things I enjoy doing in life.  One of the good things about having this difficulty is that it is making me much more aware of the fact that I have to make some conscious decisions about my future in order to get some of my other interests back into my life again.

Good night, and good luck.