September, October 2019

Hey everyone! My name is Nora Kovacs, I’m a 6th year medical student studying at Semmelweis University. I am Canadian-born, with majority of my extended family living in Hungary.  I am incredibly fortunate enough to participate in the HMAA Buffalo Exchange program, and I have been having an amazing experience, which I am so grateful for.

If you are familiar with this program, it is always 4 students at a time in Buffalo, and I am lucky enough to be with 3 other incredible fellow classmates from Semmelweis, living together in our cosy apartment. 

Late September I started my first of three rotations, outpatient pediatrics-neurology at the Dent Neurology Clinic.  I worked alongside two doctors, who were absolutely incredible mentors, and the experience has strengthened my interest in becoming a pediatrician.  Our days at the clinic were very busy, and together with all the staff, up to 100 patients were being seen, which is pretty incredible.  I learned a great amount from presenting patients to my mentors after taking histories, especially of new patients (consultations), writing a history of present illness (HPI), examining patients, assessing them, coming up with differential diagnosis, possible treatment plans etc. The staff were very friendly and were always ready to guide a helping hand if I needed any help.

The clinic is a state of the art facility, equipped with some of the newest diagnostic and modern machinery.  From sending patients to electroencephalograms (EEGs), sleep studies, MRIs, or just for blood work, this can all be done on site. 

A clinic that has only the best staff to cater to the thousands of patients that go to and from the center.  In fact, it is so successful, they now have multiple locations, and with the incredibly compassionate care and thoroughness of all the staff, it is no wonder that patients love their clinics.  There are patients who come from many different parts of the U.S., and also from across the border in Canada. 

While being brand new to the city of Buffalo, we obviously had to check out the city and look for a place to have some classic “Buffalo wings”.  We went to the Anchor Bar, which was the location of the original bar that served Buffalo wings.  We enjoyed an array of wing flavours, and were satisfied with very full bellies after our meal. 

While being so close to the border, I was fortunate enough to visit my friends and family for Canadian Thanksgiving.  The world’s second biggest Oktoberfest (after Munich of course) goes on in a Canadian city called Kitchener/Waterloo (previously called Berlin).  I threw on my Bavarian dirndl and joined in on the festivities with my friends for the first time ever.  A very fun night with lots of Germans, Oktoberfest treats, and Bavarian music.  I highly recommend for any of the future groups that are in Buffalo in early October!!   Traditionally for Thanksgiving, the meals are very similar to that in the U.S., typically dishes such as turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and pie.  Of course, with our Hungarian background, we prefer to have duck over turkey, make a European version of the stuffing, and typically make Hungarian desserts, like bejgli or kokusz kocka. 

 My second rotation was in internal medicine in the oncology ward at Roswell Park.  I was at the thoracic, and melanoma/sarcoma clinic.  I rotated with different doctors each day throughout the week, and got to get a feel for the different approaches and styles each one had. 

With the Roswell Park Oncology center being the 2nd best oncology hospital in the United States, I was very lucky to learn from such an elite oncology team. 

There is extensive research that goes on at this hospital, and it was a great learning experience to see the different types of research and clinical trials that are on-going, and offered for patients.  There are several novel therapies that have had incredible results on patients, and even cured some states that previously would not have even been imaginable. 

While we were doing our second rotation, we were fortunate enough to be invited to attend the Annual HMAA Sarasota Conference down in sunny Florida.  We were able to escape the creeping cold weather in Buffalo and join the 30+ degree weather in Florida for a week.  We helped at the registration table, with setting up, and helping out with small tasks here and there, allowing us to meet one-on-one with incredible people along the way.    The conference included health care professionals from all around the United States, and different parts of the world.  Each day, there were scientific presentations held, and later on in the day there were several social activities planned.  We all had the honour to present an abstract during the scientific presentations, and the support we received from the attendees of the conference was enormous.

One of the social activities we could join in on was to go kayaking, which was a really great experience, and probably one of the highlights of my trip!  We also tried to soak up the sun as much as we could once the presentations were done for the day, whether it was watching the Hungarian vs. American men battle it out in water polo, or playing beach volleyball, the weather was absolute bliss.

Nearing the end of the week, October 31st was creeping around the corner…. Halloween!! And we sure came prepared!  The four of us dressed up as the cast of the Wizard of Oz (the tinman, scarecrow, Dorothy and the lion, and a special guest appearance by “my” wonderful Puli, Toto.)

 Once we got back from Florida, we tried to make some good use of our weekends to travel!

Before a winter storm hit, we decided to go hiking while there was still some decent weather.

We headed over across the border to St. Catharines to hike on the Laura Secord trails at Decew Falls.  Mid-fall in North America often calls for warm layers, so we bundled up and spent the afternoon exploring the beautiful trails, still catching some of the trees that were turning their beautiful fall colours in a rainbow of red, orange, yellow, and greens.  We also visited Toronto one weekend, just in time to experience some frigid cold rolling through the city!! And had some breath-taking sights of the city, and the famous CN Tower.

Nora Kovacs