I Think My Bone Marrow is Frozen

Similar to our very first day at the hospital, we followed the doctors, interns, and 5th-years around as the 5th-years gave a summary of each patient and the doctor asked them questions pertaining. While in English, I did not understand most of what was said because this subject requires a lot more background knowledge than vascular, and the doctor was a little intimidating and less willing to break everything down for us. In fact, we have noticed that this particular doctor, who's name we do not know, is very arrogant (or maybe he just comes off that way). During the rounds, while with a patient and 16 other people waiting to hear him talk, he answered his cell phone and spoke in Afrikaans for about a minute. I can't assume it wasn't extremely important, but based on his body language, it was a fairly regular conversation. This whole situation caught me pretty off-guard, but maybe it's a common happening.

We attended a 1 hour lecture about the questioning process that takes place in a clinical setting, such as, where is the pain? Is it constant or irregular? Do certain foods or activities worsen the pain? etc, which I found surprisingly interesting. We had an hour lunch break followed by a 3 hour lecture taught by Dr. Piers, which would have been pretty enjoyable had it not been roughly 35 degrees F in our classroom. As I have stated previously, buildings in Bloemfontein are rarely heated, so you can imagine a classroom in the middle of the hospital during a week of 24-40 degree weather. I won't sugarcoat it, I was miserable.

After returning to our dorm to warm up, we were chauffeured to the Waterfront Mall for dinner at Spur Steakhouse. The restaurant has a deal on Wednesdays for a burger, chips (fries), onion rings, a cool drink (soda), and a movie ticket for R79. It was unbeatable. Following our meal, five of us went to see "The Fault in our Stars," and the other five (including Sami and Sarah) returned home to use their ticket another time. As most of you may know, "The Fault in our Stars" is known to make people cry uncontrollably, but I didn't cry once! (as long as the first seven times don't count).