james shaw's blog: Galveston Day 2

Day 2.

Monday

First day of UTMB Galveston. First thing, breakfast. We got dressed in business casual and met up in the lobby to get picked up and taken over to UTMB for our welcome breakfast. It was supposed to be at the Harbor House at 7:45am but they didn’t really get there until 8:15am. We ended up calling Dr.Weigel who in turn called the people who were supposed to pick us up. Problem solved.

Breakfast consisted of muffins and some fruit drinks. At breakfast we met the program coordinator at UTMB, Dr. Ainsworth. He was in charge of us and all our activities for the week. He’s been at UTMB for over 30 years and he’s an awesome guy. After orientation we had our first problem based learning session.

Problem based learning is an alternative tool for teaching rather than lecturing. We are presented with a medical case that provides us with very little information. As a team we tried to figure out what the patient’s injuries were and the proper diagnosis to be prepared for when the patient arrive. A professor facilitates the discussion and we are all participating in the process. Gradually we are presented with more and more evidence and information so that eventually we can compare and see how close our diagnosis was. It was pretty interesting, I had a great time. I managed not to doze off, which is a huge step for me.

After PBL, we had lunch and listened to Dr. Jeff Rabek discuss the admissions process to Medical schools including UTMB. He gave great insight as to the selection process, interview process, and the reasoning behind all their logic. It gave us a good perspective on how applying to medical school works.

After lunch, we headed over to the patient simulation center where we learned about the mannequins that Galveston uses for training medical students as well as the staff. It’s basically a conglomeration of sensors and feedback devices. The mannequin can breathe (it’s chest moves up and down and you can hear it) it can blink, produce a heart beat and pulse, it can pee (you can attach a catheter and it can produce urine), and you can change the sex of the mannequin by attaching a wig and removing male genitalia. Underneath the rubbery skin are a bunch of sensors that are controlled by a panel in the room and also by a Apple computer in the back. The panel in the room controls the gases and mechanical pumping of the heart. The mannequin can monitor concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide as well as produce various levels of gases. The computer in the back can make the mannequin simulate various conditions a patient in the emergency room would have such as heart attacks or internal injury. The mannequin is mainly used by anesthesiologists for practice. You can inject it with various types of drugs and the mannequin will respond appropriately like a real person. Actually, you just inject water, but there is a barcode on each of the syringes that is read by a sensor on the mannequin that allows it to respond. The amount injected can also be measured, affecting the degree of response. So we played with it for a while, injecting it with epinephrine, adrenaline, beta blockers, and whatever we wanted to see what it would do. Basically we played crazy possessed doctor.

Checking out the tools

Awkward shot of the day. This is Rachel, she was helping us with the mannequin.

So they are really low on blood supply.Then we were picked up and taken back to our hotel. We got changed and some of us headed out to the Strand to walk around the shops. The town feels very much like New Orleans. There aren’t many people walking around and it’s kind of deserted. There were a lot of shops though.

These puppies were breathing. I checked for a pulse but there was nothing. Not as good as UTMB, but its ok.We came across the outdoor chess board and ran over.

Chanel + knight

Clair vs Mike. Game on

Clair + Chanel. Knight kiss

Me and Chanel.This guy standing nearby asked me if I wanted to play. I kind of wanted to but I figured since we were traveling in a group, I probably shouldn’t make everyone wait. He also asked Mike Y if he wanted to play. So we decided the two of us versus him. It was on. He was an older man and he wore the roll on sunglasses that the optometrist gives you after he dilates your pupils. I think he just sits there all day and plays people in chess. He was kind kooky and kept trying to convince us that he wasn’t that great at chess. The entire time we were playing he was acting like he was always in such a bind. Maybe he was being legit. Or maybe he was some sort of chess grand master and was toying with us.

Will Chamberlain, no relation to the basketball player. Grand master in chess. Member of the piss and moan club (shirt)Mike and I were doing quite well and I had him in a number of binds, but eventually I started getting impatient and just starting making rash moves. Long story short, we lost. He was like, ‘Ok um, I think I’ll go here… would you look at that? Checkmate.’ GRAND MASTER. So we thanked him and went on our way. Nice guy actually.

Time for dinner. We couldn’t come to an agreement on where to eat, so I decided on Italian for everyone. We went into this place called Luigi’s. Here comes a big mistake. As we were waiting to be seated, Travis picked up a lunch menu and started flipping through it. He was like, this doesn’t look to bad (referring to prices). Then one of the waiters came over and yanked it out of his hand. ‘This is a lunch menu.’ Then he walked up. This raised the first red flag in my mind. Walking in everything was classy. Second flag, this could be more pricey than I wanted. Then the menu’s. Wow, way overpriced. No one wanted to eat here anymore. They started setting down waters and bread. I was like, do we want to eat here? No one did. But do we just walk out? That would be kinda rude and embarrassing. The waiter came over and started listing the specials and stuff. The entire time I was like, this is my fault, how do I get out of here? We noticed at the bottom of the menu they said that they don’t split checks. So we used this as an out. We were like, ‘do yall split checks?’ He was like ‘no, I’m very sorry.’ ‘Hm, this is a problem. You guys want to go?’ Everyone said yes then we all got up and left. My bad guys.

We eventually found this place called Yagas, which was kind of a TexMex café. The atmosphere was much looser and the food more reasonably priced. So we ate here.

Food = good. Then we started walking back. Apparently Will Chamberlain, the old chess guy, had snagged another victim. It was close to 9:30 at night. His wife was still sitting there. Cute couple actually.