School's Out for Summer!

Well, the first year of medical school has come to a close, I've passed the proverbial threshold* onto my second year, and I've already embarked on and returned from one adventure and then began my summer trip to Puerto Rico and Peru! It's amazing how time flies. Not to mention the fact that I've been in Puerto Rico for over a week! Furthermore, I looked at my last entry which was in January...as if nothing noteworthy occured between January and June, bah!

So, let me switch gears a bit and introduce you, the reader, whoever you are, to what is in store for the summer: I'm here in San Juan, Puerto Rico working at the CDC's Dengue Branch (the official title, for all of you who hate government bureaucracy is: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cordinating Centers for Infectious Disease, National Center for Zoological Vector-Born and Enteric Diseases, Division of Vector Born Infectious Diseases, Dengue Branch, whew!) helping to catalogue last year's dengue fever epidemic in Puerto Rico by looking at fatal cases of Dengue (and its evil counsins, Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever and Dengue Shock Syndrome) and understanding patterns in the diagnosis and treatment based on the signs and symptoms that were progressively presented to hospital staff. What does that actually mean? Well, I am doing my best to march through medical records from these fatal cases and extract out key pieces of information to see what was going on. Is this the crazy public health field work that I might have otherwise been doing? Not exactly, but it is epidemiology at its core, not to mention that fact that the CDC's operations are pretty impressive to see, experience and be a part of.

Some more details: I am living like a nomad. I flew in on Monday (June 16) and stayed with a woman who offered up what I thought was her apartment and turned out to be her bed (she slept on the counch) for cheap in Old San Juan (or more appropriately Viejo San Juan), the center of action for the late-night, dance-hungry Puertoriguenos as well as the primary drop-off spot for cruise ships passing through (the picture is from the 2nd story balcony in Viejo San Juan). The place is undoubtedly influenced by the American mainland but at the same time, clearly something else altogether. Like most things in Puerto Rico, the conglomeration takes on a personality of its own. The narrow cobblestone streets and colorful facades have a colonial flavor which is interrupted by the occasional "Burger King", "MacDonalds", "Starbucks" and even "Marshalls" (yes, there is a Marshalls in Old San Juan). The entire island-city is surrounded by a beautiful stone wall which connect two forts at the East and West sides. So that was Old San Juan.

Then, I picked up and moved to Ocean Park, a little farther East, from where I am writing now. I am house-sitting/dog-sitting for the woman who was my connection to the CDC here, who has taken her family to Thailand where she is taking a class on Dengue Fever in Bangkok until the early part of July. I am nearly within spitting distance to the beach and I have a companion to keep me company to boot! I'll be here until July 8, at which point Andrea (my girlfriend) and I will be finding anther place to inhabit temporarily, likely in the same, beautiful area.

Our next move, aside from a few weekend trips, comes on July 19 when we fly out of San Juan and to Lima, Peru where we will begin the next link in our travels.

So that's what is coming up for the summer. I hope you enjoy the reading and comment away when you feel the urge!

*Proverbial or physical threshold? My friend Abe came down with pneumonia and and we learned in physiology that glucicorticoids and other steriods which help your body cope with physical and mental stresses, moderate the body's immune system, perhaps one reason why mental stress can have physical manifestions. Take a look here for some more, official, analysis.