Flash!!! And so went my Thursday and Friday... Happy Saturday All!

I last left you all the night before my first big day... and how did it go?  Very positive, and a great couple of meetings!  (Don't worry, all of these meetings really are going somewhere...)

First I had a short meeting with the academians at the TB hospital (Dr. Ustian is the head of the Chisinau branch, so to speak.)  I chatted with the two pulmonology fellows who I will be learning from and shadowing for the next 5 weeks or so.  We talked about the goals for my study in Moldova, I explained where I was in my schooling (which required an explanation of K-12, Undergraduate, Graduate and Professional schools... a somewhat different structure than the layout of Moldovan schooling - K-12 followed by 6 years of medical school,) and of course there was time to talk about wine.

Then I was off to meet Dr. Cebotarenco and Dr. Cetulean.  I cannot express how lucky I am to have made successful contact with these women.  As it turns out, Dr. Cetulean is basically the CEO-equivalent of the TB hospital in Chisinau, as well as the lead organizer for all things TB in the Republic of Moldova.  And I should not leave out that she is the consummate host.  Meanwhile, Dr. Cebotarenco speaks perfect English, and is one heck of a networker across borders (she heads CoRSUM.)  Their combined abilities and energies are quite an inspiration... and with people like this fighting on the frontlines against TB, I really fail to see how TB stands a chance.

My meeting with them involved lots of coffee, many chocolates and long conversation.  All in all, we conversed for about 2.5 hours.  And in the midst of it, I also had the opportunity to meet a group of Finns who have been instrumental in the rebuilding of the children's wing of the hospital, as well as establishing regular on-site schooling for them.  During farewells, the stocky gentleman and I grappled forearms as a "true Finnish handshake."  :^)

-

-

Within our conversation I found out about two locations of interest to my study.  One, there is a special school in Chisinau to which children who were "contacts" of TB cases are sent while they are treated prophylactically.  Aside from separating them from other children in the city's schools, they also receive a special high-calorie diet to ensure their overall immune status remains high.  Secondly, there is a small town in Moldova which is dedicated to housing patients with XDR/MDR-TB.  Drs. Cebotarenco and Cetulean have already agreed that I should board there for a few days.  Obviously, I am excited to see/experience both facilities.

How about locations of non-medical interest, you say?  OK, I give in... well, each Sunday Dr. Cetulean's husband (a professor from the School of Music) plays the trumpet with a band in the center of the park I explored last Saturday (the park with the fountain... not the park of brides.)  She invited me to check it out this Sunday (which of course I will oblige!)  Also, aside from talk of wineries and caves... did you know that the capital of April Fools Day is Odessa, Ukraine?  Me either... but I am going to try to get over to check out the festival this spring and see if I can't get a little background info on this strangest-of-strange holidays.  Dr. Cebotarenco says it is quite a blast.

Thursday Night...

After returning home from the hospital, I was immediately out the door to get over to "The House of Romanian Language" for a two hour session with Alexei Acsa, my new Romanian instructor.  It went really well, although by the end of the lesson I was certainly ready for some sleep.  I think the lessons will really help hammer home what I learned this summer at Indiana University, and will leave me speaking Romanian in no time!

On to Friday...

The next morning, I returned to the hospital at 8 am to join up with Dr. Veaceslav Culev (he's one of the pulmonology fellows who is guiding my time at the hospital) and take part in case-presentations (which all staff are required to attend each morning.)  Together, they examine x-rays and discuss individual patient progress, as well as deaths... a fairly somber reminder of the danger of MDR-TB.

Next, we walked over to the patient reception... and no patients were waiting.  So we took a tour of the grounds:  one building is shared with a drug-rehab clinic and is shared by the TB hospital's administrative offices, the bronchoscopy clinic, and the laboratory (where cases of TB are confirmed and classified;) a second building houses the patient reception office as well as in-patients, with two floors for children (infants on one, and school-children on another,) one floor for MDR-TB patients, and another floor for "regular" TB patients; a third small building houses the kitchen; and, finally, a fourth small building serves as the morgue.

After the tour, we itemized my studies for the next two weeks.  Over that span I will be put through the same course of two-week clinical lessons that Moldovan med-students experience on a rotation in the winter.  Luckily, I was given an English translation of the 100-page manual on Tuberculosis.  After planning, it was back over to the reception area, where a new patient was being examined.  I will have to give this topic its own break-out post.  From there, it was back onto an autobuz (of which I am now a regular rider...) and home for the evening.

Well, now I am off to study (maybe I will find a coffee-shop of some sort) before I join Deano and Tricia tonight at 8:00 for our second official "Skyped U of M Game"... should be a fun game to watch, and of course the "noon" kick-off will be much easier for me to cope with this week.

Enjoy your Saturday!