Diary of a Caribbean Med Student

First, I want to say, Irene found out that she passed her Physician Assistant National Certification Exam!!! Now after years of hard work, she is now a certified PA! Now that we both know that she has passed,  and we both are finally here together in Romford, we can now take a deep breath and spend our time in the… Continue reading

So I’m finally here in Romford, and a week into my surgical training. Romford is a great place, with lots of shopping streets, malls, and markets, and of course, that marvelous British accent. Most of us AUC students live just down the street from the hospital, in fairly new accomodations, and within short walking distance from these lively commercial areas.  … Continue reading

So I’m back in Miami, and this month, I’m taking my first break since my wedding last March! I had decided to take this month off to help Irene and I move out of Miami, sell our furniture, attend Irene’s graduation ceremony next week (she graduates from PA school!), properly spend Christmas with family, attend a belated memorial service for… Continue reading

An elective rotation in Endocrinology was something I knew I always wanted to do during clinicals because as an aspiring primary care physician, I knew I would be seeing lots of patients with diabetes, hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, and other hormone diseases. After four weeks, I am so happy to have been able to finally do it, and with an excellent team… Continue reading

80 yo WF c PMH NIDDM x10yrs, HTN, c/o HA. Ø N/V/CP/SOB/Abd pain. PE: AAOx3, NAD, PERRLA, EOMI, MMM, Ø JVD, S1 S2, HRRR, LCTA, Abd NT/ND, BPPP. VS: 98.3° 150/80 80 18… About three years ago, I wrote a post titled “Second Language” in which I talked about how learning medicine comes with learning an entirely new set of… Continue reading

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Rotating in endocrinology and working with many individuals with diabetes have really given me a peek into the life-long lifestyle challenges of living with diabetes. For those who become dependent on insulin, seemingly worse than the multiple daily injections and finger pin pricks before each meal is the freedom that is taken away when one lives with diabetes: the freedom… Continue reading

Last Friday morning, I took my OB/Gyn NBME Shelf Exam that most US med students (and us AUC students) take at the end of the rotation.  It was the conclusion of an amazing 6 weeks, catching babies, scrubbing in for c-sections, and following new mothers. OB/Gyn has definitely been one of the more memorable and interesting rotations I’ve done, and… Continue reading

It’s the weekend before Halloween and the best (and really, the only) time to celebrate the holiday. Irene and I went over to a friend’s place to carve our pumpkins. Irene decided to paint hers green to make it different, and it turned out pretty cool because it made the pumpkin look like it was growing mold. We didn’t want… Continue reading

I love my iPad and I do everything with it, from reading books, to taking notes, to looking up stuff on the internet. I take it everywhere I go during my rotations, lectures, and travels. It’s just as useful as it was when I first got it as it is today. I got my first-generation iPad the beginning of last… Continue reading

In pediatrics, I had gotten the chance to see newborn babies soon after birth, and follow up on them for their first few days into life. Then, I got to see kids of all ages, all the way up until 18. Then in Internal Medicine, I got to see people from 18 and onward, through their middle years to old… Continue reading

I first met David during my psychiatry sub-internship rotation in Miami Beach. David had been diagnosed many years with bipolar disorder with psychosis. He was an overweight, cheery, Cuban-American guy in his late 50’s who had been in Miami ever since he was a child. He had been hospitalized several times in the past for his condition, and on this… Continue reading

Every morning around the world, medical students and interns wake up early before the sun rises, and head over to the hospital to partake in a certain ritual of medical education: the ritual of pre-rounding. So what is it? It’s when we go see the patients before the attending physician comes and do his/her normal rounds. By pre-rounding before the… Continue reading

Sometimes it takes a few fumbles to get the hang of a rotation, and I’ve made a fair share of them. With every new rotation that we start, we’re always a little bit lost, as each attending and rotation may have different expectations of us, and require us to have different responsibilities. However, there are a few expectations that don’t… Continue reading

“The Doctor wants you in Room 9… right now!” We could hear the urgency in the nurse’s voice as my fellow student colleagues and I walked through the door onto the labor and delivery floor, back from our 1-hour lunch break. We hurried to Room 9 to see what was going on, and when I entered, I immediately knew that… Continue reading

So usually when I introduce myself to a patient, I greet them by saying “Good morning, my name is Benjamin Ho and I am a medical student working with Dr. —. How are you doing today?” Or some variation of this. One of my patients started calling me Mr. Ho, then later that day it became Mr Hong. The next… Continue reading

After being here for the last 6 weeks, I can see why New York is considered one of the greatest cities in the world. Home to millions of people from all around the world, from all walks of life, and the center of multinational corporations, the UN, the stock exchange, some of the world’s top schools, and most influential news… Continue reading

I feel great today. Today, tomorrow, and the day after are my days off, and after that, I will only have one more day of Family Medicine before I’m done with the rotation! Today, I turned in all my evals, along with the paperwork assignments that was required for this rotation. I can finally relax these next few days, and… Continue reading

One thing great about New York City is that since there’s so many people here, you’re not likely to run into people you know most of the time. Because of this, it doesn’t matter how you look or dress, or what you do or say in public… nobody’s going to remember you. That is freedom. So don’t be afraid to… Continue reading

As Irene and I, and our friends Eli and Weena were leaving the Museum of Modern Art, we ran into a blockade of people by 53rd street. No, they weren’t waiting in line to go into the museum. No, they weren’t holding a protest. No, they weren’t having a street-side social, doing an Improv Everywhere skit, or forming a flash… Continue reading