Our Second Month In Buffalo

 O Our second month in Buffalo started with a relaxing weekend visiting my parents in London, Ontario, Canada.  At this point we had all finished our first month of rotations and had grown accustomed to medical student life in Buffalo so it was the perfect time for a little getaway outside of the city. Also, Bálint, Réka, Niki, and I are inevitably becoming good friends so I wanted to show them the city where I grew up after immigrating to Canada from Dunaújváros.

          We headed out from Buffalo Friday night after loading up our rental car and drove up the Queen Elizabeth Parkway through south-western Ontario to London. My parents were eagerly waiting for all of us to arrive with some classic Hungarian Csirke Pörkölt and Uborka Saláta. It was the first home cooked meal we all had in over a month. After dinner we all chatted about our experiences in Buffalo thus far and my parents got to know a little about the other three students.

          The next morning we decided to travel to Pinery Provincial Park for a day trip to Lake Huron. With my parents and our beloved dog Ozzy in tow the seven of us set out for a day at the beach. Bálint has made it a mission for himself while he is here to swim in all of the great lakes. So far he has swam in Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and Lake Huron…we’ll see if he can do it !!!

          My second month of rotations started with two weeks of general neurology. After spending the majority of the first month learning about the dynamics of outpatient care in OB/GYN with Dr. I.M. I was excited to get my first taste of inpatient care at Buffalo General Medical Center. The general neurology team included one attending physician, one senior resident, one junior resident, two rotating interns, and four to five medical students who were there on a daily basis (including Niki and I!!!!). Each morning I would come in to the hospital and be assigned a new patient who the neurology team had been consulted for the previous night. I would start my day by learning the details of the patient history from the preliminary report and looking through any past and present imaging in the electronic medical records. My next task would be to go visit my patient and conduct a thorough physical examination so that I could refer all my findings to my attending physician.

          What I learned in hindsight is that becoming a neurology resident requires a wide subset of very specific skills! My following two weeks in neurology rotations were spent on the stroke team…and the dynamics of the stroke team were vastly different from the general neurology team.

          To be a good neurologist you have to learn the skills required to succeed in both stroke, and general neurology…as well as many other clinical disciplines you will rotate through throughout your years as a resident. It was very enlightening to be surrounded by so many junior physicians on a daily basis. Asking them questions throughout the day was where I learned the most over the course of this past month…

          The best way I can describe working on the stroke team in contrast to general Neurology is that in stroke care the timing of your actions and decisions is critical. Every minute counts. Decisions have to be made quickly. Once you are outside the window for either thrombolysis or endovascular surgery, there is a limited number of things you can do to help your patient beyond administering preventative medicines and rehabilitation therapy. Naturally to be a good physician on the stroke team you have to adapt to the fast paced style of medicine…because once the stroke consult phone rings…you have to be fast!

          Outside of daily life in the hospital this past month Bálint, Réka, Niki, and I did our best find some awesome activities to fill out our weekends. This month we were able to go see “Péter Bácsi” in Toronto as many of the past exchange students have. We learned from the others that Dr. F. has some amazing stories of early life as a medical student in Hungary during the Second World War. In particular my favourite was when he told us the Anatomy building on Tūzoltó utca one winter didn’t have a roof !!! That weekend we had some time to look around Toronto, the others had an awesome CN tower experience, which I’m sure they discussed in their blog.

      

         

          The following weekend Bálint and I returned to Toronto, but this time we were just travelling through as we headed up to Severn Falls in Northern Ontario for a weekend camping trip. I was particularly excited for this weekend because I was able to spend some time with some long lost friends from highschool whom I don’t get to see often since I have moved to Budapest for medical school. My old friends invited Bálint and I on a weekend camping trip which would be Bálint’s first experience in the Muskoka region of Canada (once discovered, never forgotten..as the saying goes). I was glad to be there to share this experience with him.

          The second last weekend of the month I stayed behind while the other students went to Washington to tour around the American capitol. I had my parents in town this weekend and we enjoyed a relaxing weekend in Buffalo. We went to nearby “Letchworth state park” to visit the Grand Canyon of the East. Letchworth is New York states #1 voted park.

Ákos Kazinczi

08/27/2018