Monday, June 10, 2013

Weekend getaway

Friday went by quickly. We spent the morning working on the same dear from the day before. However, this time in surgery! We joined the surgeon and the wildlife veterinarian for their consultation on how to proceed. It was determined that he will attempt to repair the fractures but amputation may be necessary. Deers are very high stress animals so regardless of the procedure, the outcome may be poor. It turned out that the leg had become slightly necrotic overnight with the bandaging so that made the decision quite simple...amputation. He quizzed us on muscles and explained pros and cons to prosthetics, etc. Clearly, this animals won't be able to return to the wild and survive so a zoo is the best bet for recovery. Bruno (anesthesia resident) said he was going to sleep with the deer while it recovered all weekend. SPOILER ALERT: regardless of all the preventive measures and amazing post of care provided, the deer passed away on Monday. Sadly, that is the reality of veterinary medicine, and especially wildlife veterinary medicine. 

That afternoon we joined in on a mastectomy. Not going to lie, it was a bit of a shocker. They hacked away the skin and removed everything in a very dramatic way. The whole time I just kept thinking that Dr. P (the vet I learned from before school) would be cringing at the sight. What was most interesting was that it was a teaching surgery so 4 students were scrubbed in at once, all practicing suturing techniques. I was very confused as they used curved hemostats as opposed to needleholders when they were available for use on the table next to them? Even more confusing was how much difficulty they were having...clearly, very different techniques than I am used to in the States and Purdue especially. Again, the lesson of this trip is that every place and person has their own preferences, there is no right way or wrong way to do something (well, I suppose there is a wrong way...but rather multiple right ways). 
Driving the surgery a couple of the male residents gained some courage and started talking to me. I have never been so thankful to be wearing a surgery mask. I was literally in a room where everyone was talking about me and I knew it but didn't know what was being said exactly. Until one of them asked "some of the guys here want to know if you have a boyfriend." Umm...really? I said no and they all started laughing shocked apparently that I actully answered the question! Of course, this made me even more self-conscious. Once the laughing stopped, they asked us to a bar that night. Surprisingly, it was the bar we were alrewdy going to with Carol, so we said we would see them there. Best part of the story, that night at the bar, not one of the guys came up to talk to me! Must have scared them off, typical.
 (Carol and I at the bar Friday night)

That weekend we took a "vacation" while already on vacation. Simone offered us their family's beach house in Itapema. So we went to Florianopolis for the day and then stayed in Itapema that night and the next day. Florianopolis (or Floripa as the locals call it) is an island about 5 hours south of Curitba. it is touristy but beautiful. We spent the morning on the beach, afternoon shopping and all day sampling local "beverages". I even finally got to have true Brazilian Açaí on the beach, even better than my favorite kind in San Diego. It was a perfect day.
 (Açaí and surf shop on Floripa beach)

 Sunday we stayed in Itapema, a small beach town in between Floripa and Curitba. This was my favorite place, it reminded me of Waikiki Beach in Hawaii but without a single person present. No joke, there were 20 people on the entire mile plus strip of beach. The day was gorgeous and just what we needed. The restaraunts on the "boardwalk" had waiters deliver buckets of beer to you on the sand and I ended my day enjoying the most amazing frozen yogurt of my life, açaí and passionfruit twist. Everyone needs to taste this at some point. Hopefully you are more graceful than yours truly because half of it ended up on clothes; my white shorts have seen better days. All in all, a great vaca from "work" but we were excited to see what Monday had in store for us at the university so we made the trip back willingly. 
(Itapema beach, surrounded by gorgeous lush strips of jungle)

Note. I hate bus rides. Someone really needs to invent teleporting. 

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