Travel Archives - Page 2 of 2

Oh The Places You’ll Go

October 26, 2021 4 Comments

Well hello again!

It feels like forever since I last posted…almost two months ago! It definitely wasn’t my intention to wait this long but I’ve been rather busy.

I spent the first week of September visiting my sister and her family in Rochester, New York. Then it was back to Ohio to get things moved out of my apartment and into a storage unit. Since I wasn’t going to be working in the area, it didn’t make sense to keep an apartment. When choosing the storage unit, I wanted one that was climate-controlled and big enough that I could set up my garment racks, dressers, and shelves in it. I didn’t want to have to look through boxes when I make pitstops in Ohio to exchange items between contracts.

Once the storage unit was found, I spent the next couple of weeks slowly moving things into it. At the same time, I was in the process of selling the car I had been using. I was also interviewing and working out details with the Au Pair agency. All of this didn’t leave much time to write.

Then, on October 7th, I flew back to Germany with my child and this time, Omi (my mother) came along!

Quarantine Baby

At the time of our arrival in Germany, children under the age of 12 had to go into quarantine for 5 days. This even applied to infants. Luckily my mother and I did not have to quarantine since we are both vaccinated. In order to make the most of the time either one of us could leave the apartment, I booked us an AirBnB right by Jungfernstieg in downtown Hamburg.

I’ve visited downtown Hamburg many times but usually only for day trips or I’d be in the suburbs visiting family. It was nice to be able to leave the building and be in the middle of the action. I let my mom be out and about most of the time. I spent my time playing with my child or crocheting (I’m really into that at the moment).

The Car Seat Saga

When I did leave the apartment during nap times, I spent most of the time looking for and buying cloth diapers. The car seat I had checked in at the Cleveland airport didn’t make it to Hamburg when we did. I had fastened the entire cloth diaper collection I had into the seat before checking it. I wasn’t about to buy disposable diapers. Luckily, I found some muslin cloth diapers and a new diaper cover I quite liked.

Three days later, I received the notification that they had found the car seat in Amsterdam and would be sending it to Hamburg the next evening. This would’ve given them a whole day to deliver it to the apartment (a 20 min trip from the airport) however, the night before our planned departure, it still hadn’t arrived. There wasn’t anyone I could call either, it was all done via email with the airline (not the baggage handlers).

I ultimately gave them the address of my uncle’s place and told them I’d have to rent/buy a car seat in the meantime since we had a long driving trip ahead of us. They said the car seat was already with the delivery service and that they would inform them of the new address. We took the train to go pick up my uncle’s car that was parked at my grandparent’s house. I went to a children’s store fully expecting to buy a new seat but the owner was so cool and offered to rent one to me instead.

Can a car seat earn airline miles?

Several days later, I received a call in the middle of the night (luckily unnoticed since I silence my phone at night) from Cleveland. The voicemail informed me that my car seat had made it back to Cleveland and they were wondering where they should send it. I called the baggage department back and actually got the same guy on the phone that left the message. We agreed that he would send the car seat back to Hamburg and that it would then stay there until I came back to drop off my mother for her return flight.

Luckily, this saga has a happy ending since I was able to retrieve the seat when I dropped off my mom.

The Germany Road Trip

The three of us covered quite a lot of road… about 2000 kilometers or about 1250 miles. The map below doesn’t include all the stops because Google Maps wouldn’t allow me to add more stops. You can get a pretty good idea of the distance we covered.

For my American friends, driving from Hamburg via Stuttgart to Munich is just a bit further than driving from Milwaukee, WI to Pittsburgh, PA. However, driving that distance in a European country means spanning various cultural differences in dialect, food, landscape, and traditions.

We had a fabulous time visiting family and friends along the way. Below are some pictures from our journey!

The First Illness

During the second to last leg of our tour, we were in Göttingen, the town I went to medical school in. Amongst other activities, my child and I went to visit some of my college girlfriends who now both have daycare-aged kids. We had a great time visiting, catching up, and playing with the kids. The day after our visits, however, my baby started the morning off by vomiting up all the milk they had just consumed. They then continued to frequently vomit copious amounts over the next two days. All that counseling I had done with new parents during residency when they were dealing with their baby’s first illnesses was taken from theory into practice. At one point, I was feeding just drops of pumped breast milk at a time with a little dropper bottle in the hopes that my baby would keep it down.

Many more outfit changes and long snuggles ensued before my little one felt better. Luckily, we didn’t have any baby vomiting incidences the day we traveled back to Hamburg. Unfortunately, now I had become a bit nauseous and developed body aches. The driver seat heater in the car was much appreciated. Fortunately, I didn’t have to vomit. I can’t say the same for my poor mother. She was not feeling well at all the night before the flight and I was contemplating changing her flight.

Luckily, I had a small home pharmacy of Zofran, Protonix, and Ibuprofen with me that got us through it. I felt back to normal the next day and my mom managed her flight back home fairly decently as well.

I guess I’ll have to be a bit more specific when it comes to “sharing is caring” with my kid. Sharing your germs is not ideal.

So what’s next?

As of right now, I will be in Germany until the end of December. I have a few more people I want to visit. I’d also like to explore a bit more of my immediate surroundings. I haven’t often been a tourist in Germany since I spend so much time visiting family and friends. I’m hoping to see a few new places and revisit a few old ones. Pre-christmas season is one of my favorite times of the year. I wrote about it last year. You can read that post here. I’m so excited to be in Germany for it again this year. It’s been 6 years since I was last here to enjoy the Christmas markets. With the way Covid is currently looking, I should be able to enjoy some markets again this year.

I have a few ideas for things I’d like to write about. I’d also like to share more of Germany with you as I explore it. It definitely shouldn’t take another 2 months before my next post. But you never know what life throws at you.

Hope you are happy, healthy, and well!

mfg

Happiness, Herstory, Locum, Travel

Chronicles of a Friendship

February 8, 2021 No Comments

Svikki MD

The last week of January was less eventful than the one before. There wasn’t so much unsolved mystery surrounding my patients. I did end up having to transfer one of the patients out to a higher level of care hospital in the middle of the night though. We had hit the point where we were no longer able to escalate our care in our facility.

Beyond that though, I was preparing my patient panel to be handed off while I take a week off. I was supposed to be going to Brazil for two weeks for a friend’s wedding but,… you know…. the pandemic. So instead of taking two weeks off, I just decided to take off one to visit my family back in Ohio for a few days and increase my Vitamin D level in Miami for a few days. As always, I try to do everything (short of not going) to reduce my risk of exposure during a pandemic. I try to be as diligent as I am in the hospital out in the real world. That means wearing my N95 during the entire duration of the flight, sanitizing high-touch surfaces, frequent hand washing and sanitizing, and distancing myself as much as I can from others around me.

Brrrr…it’s cold out here

I thought my winter in South Dakota would be heavier than winters in Ohio. Thus far, that hasn’t really been the case. Ohio winters are unfortunately very grey. One of the first things I looked up when I was considering South Dakota as an assignment was the days of sun during the winter. Lucky for me, I found that they averaged more than they did in Wisconsin (a winter location I tend to enjoy) and way more sun than Ohio. I arrived in Ohio shortly before the snow began to come down. Nothing close to what Chicago and the North East were dealing with but it laid a pretty nice blanket over the area. I certainly got my share of winter feeling in during the few days there.

While in Ohio, I stopped by my residency to say hello. It’s crazy to me that graduation was already 5 months ago. It sort of feels like I’ve just been on an away rotation. It felt so good seeing my residency family again; the front desk ladies, the MA’s, the residents, and the attendings. I’m really fortunate that my residency is such a lovely place to return to. I know many people do not have enjoyable residency experiences. The crew in Boardman, Ohio is definitely a special group of people.

Hello Sunshine

I have visited Miami countless times. These trips started during medical school when a German friend and I would fly to Miami and stay with one of my friends in Miami. Some of those trips were pretty wild and served up almost all the components of a good rap song. My Miami Friend has become one of my best friends over the years. I can’t thank her enough for her hospitality, kindness and generosity over the years. We have met up in several places around the world and I can always count on her to be down to travel somewhere. More on her in a bit.

Miami is open

In terms of the pandemic, Miami felt quite different from the places I have been spending my time at over the last several months. People are out in clubs, restaurants and bars like the pandemic doesn’t exist. To their credit, most people I saw walking around in public places were wearing a face mask. Miami also has the advantage of the weather and outdoor venues which are safer in regards to viral transmission than being indoors at a restaurant in say, South Dakota.

However, I still avoided the masses. My friend and I were mainly at her place. We spent an early morning on the beach when there was hardly anyone else around. The Rubell Contemporary Art Museum that we visited had limited visitors. If we ate at a restaurant, it was outdoors and well spaced from other guests. The days of going to the big clubs packed like sardines has been over for us for a while now, so I didn’t really miss that former staple of a Miami visit.

Keith Haring at the Rubell Museum in Miami

It was nice to spend a few days with family and close friends after not having much of any social interactions in South Dakota over the past several months. At the same time, I look forward to returning to work tomorrow in Deadwood. I’ve only got 7.5 weeks left of my assignment in South Dakota and I am sure they will fly by.

The Web

I often like to reflect on my life thus far and the experiences I’ve been fortunate to have. This often happens when I am on trips. It’s fun for me to run through the sequence of events that led me to that particular moment, that connection with someone, or the opportunity that presented itself.

Let’s take my Miami Friend as an example. Because of her, I have had amazing life experiences, met fabulous people I now call my friends and opportunities that I would not have had without her. But what needed to happen for me to meet her?

The Origin Story

Well, when I was about 14-15 years old, my younger sister and I did a photoshoot at home for fun. I showed the pictures to my father who suggested I research local modeling agencies to see if that would be something I could pursue. The Rock Agency in Madison Wisconsin is what I found. I called them and set up an appointment with their New Faces Director. After a short introduction of the agency for all people present at the New Faces Open Call, I met with the New Faces director individually. She saw potential and had me set up my first photoshoot. [The agency owner is one of my best friends now and she has created a whole web of connections and experiences in my life as well.]

My first photoshoot was a blast. I ended up befriending the photographer and make up artist and my family’s home was used as the location for a modeling shoot a few years later. Following the first, I had another photoshoot to build up my portfolio. Then, I was invited to attend a modeling convention in New York City that summer called IMTA. It’s a huge convention with hopeful models and actors from around the United States that participate in various competitions that are judged by model and acting agents from around the world. This lead to my first modeling contract in Milan. [I met one of my other best friends on this first contract in Milan, so our friendship’s origin story is the same up to this point.]

Photographer: Jeff Wilson || Make-Up: Anja Epkes

Ciao Milano

Two years later in 2008, I was back in Milan for my second contract. I was originally put into an apartment with a bunch of girls. However, I quickly befriended one of the other models from the agency who was living in a 2 model apartment in China Town. This model was my now best friend from Miami. We orchestrated a switch between her roommate and myself so that we could live together (the agency wasn’t very happy with us when they found out we did this without telling them…oops.) We would cook together, shop together and travel to other Italian cities. After our contract, she went back to Miami and I returned to Wisconsin. The only connection we continued to have back in that era was being friends on Facebook.

This is easily where our story could’ve ended and my life would be completely different if it had. Seriously, I could draw up a whole web of how many of the major experiences in my life and opportunities that I have had would never have happened the way they did if it wasn’t for having met her in Milan.

The Reconnection

Luckily, it didn’t end there. It was several years later, in 2013 while I was in medical school and wanting to do a bit of modeling on the side, that I had to fill out a form listing agencies I’ve worked with. I couldn’t remember the one we were with however, so I facebook messaged her. We briefly caught up on what the other one has been doing over the past several years. In this conversation, she recommended I come visit Miami if I ever needed a vacation from medical school. In 2014, I took her up on that offer. A German friend and I visited her for a week.

Welcome to Miami

My Miami Friend had worked in nightlife for years. At the time, she was working in the hottest club there was, LIV in the Fontainebleau Hotel. You know, one of the only clubs you will find multiple rap/hip-hop songs referencing? The club that gave the world LIV on Sunday which was THE place to be seen as a rapper or hip-hop artist. Depending on the night and who was performing, the admission rate to the club for general admission was upwards of $300. The amount of money spent on bottles of champagne or just thrown in the air to make it rain was insane. Yes, she worked there.

She introduced my German friend and I to the best nights of our lives. We were introduced to all of her friends who worked at LIV as well. Having worked in nightlife for so long, she had vetted her friends so the ones I ended up meeting and becoming friends with were all awesome, kind and genuine. (Kind and genuine is not always easy to find in a setting like Miami, so I was fortunate that she had done the weeding out beforehand).

The Miami Crew

This group of amazing people not only made sure my German friend and I had nights we will never forget, but they also kept us safe. We were only ever introduced to other good people. The bottle girls, bartenders, security guards, managers, promoters and bus boys I was introduced to became my second Miami family and LIV became my second Miami home. I could walk into a full lobby of people waiting to get into the club, bypass them all and be greeted by my name by the bouncer and let in. It felt unreal.

All thanks to my Miami Friend. And it didn’t stop at LIV, the people who worked there were wildly connected to other people working in Miami which led to great nights at other clubs, comps at restaurants, sporting events and concerts. I was given the opportunity to experience Miami totally different than your average Miami tourist. I can’t even list all the artists I saw perform live at LIV of Sunday but to name a few; Drake, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, 2 Chainz, Fabolous, DJ Khalid, Trey Songz and so many more. Thanks to the girls, I always had VIP access and drank the yummiest champagne. I’ve partied at the same table as Lil Wayne. I’m telling you, Miami was a different world back then and I am so grateful I was invited into it by my Miami Friend.

Beyond the party

It wasn’t only partying that she made possible for me, through meeting her friends and becoming friends with them myself, many experiences and opportunities started to branch off of me knowing her. After graduating from medical school, I took a year off before starting residency. My goal of that year was to work in a job that made good money so that I could travel around the world for about 4 months prior to starting residency.

Where else in the world would I go but Miami for this?! I knew the greatest people who knew the right people. With the help of my Miami crew, I secured an interview and subsequently job at the second place I worked and ultimately exclusively worked at, Hyde Beach Miami. I’ll share more about that year in particular at a later time but that year created a multitude of new connections, friendships and opportunities for me. For instance, because one of my friends in Miami invited me out to dinner one night with some of her friends, I met my now friend who helped me plan my one-of-a-kind 3 week trip to India! One of the greatest trips of my life! The web is big, my friends.

Moving on

Over the past several years, I often visited Miami as a little get away from residency. As my Miami Friend transitioned from night life to becoming a manager of an Art Gallery, my visits transitioned to a more feasible wake/sleep schedule. Many of our friends also transitioned out of night life into other careers. So instead of spending our nights in the clubs and sleeping all morning, we were meeting up with friends for brunch, visiting museums and traveling to other parts of the country and the world.

My Miami Friend was the first one to visit me in South Dakota. We met up in New Mexico for New Years last month. I’ve celebrated my last three birthdays with her; three years ago in Miami, last year in Tulum and this year, a bit belated, in Miami again. We are already contemplating when we will see each other again and look forward to the world being safe again for international travel. We have quite the extensive bucket list to work on.

There are so many stories in between that saga that I didn’t even mention. But for me, I trace all of those experiences in my life back to the moment my parents encouraged me to look into finding a modeling agency. You just never know what an experience in life will bring you, so don’t miss an opportunity to do something new, you have no idea how many wonderful consequences can emerge from it!

mfg

Happiness, Locum, Travel

Santa Fe Shananigans

January 10, 2021 2 Comments

Well… we’ve all made it into 2021. So much has already happened in the last 10 days…. take a chill pill 2021, no need to show off. No one is expecting you to outdo 2020.

New Years in Santa Fe, NM

I spent a couple of days in Santa Fe with a few girlfriends and the finance of one of them. As we are still in the midst of a raging pandemic, we took certain precautions to reduce our risk of exposure as much as possible. Everyone was either tested 48 prior to arrival or they had already had COVID and recovered. I wore an N95 mask for the entire flight time. Since this is what I wear when I am dealing with actual COVID patients on a daily basis, I felt this would keep me adequately protected during the flight.

Desperately needed a nap after waking up at 3:45 AM to get to the airport.

We rented a beautiful Airbnb a bit outside of downtown Santa Fe. We all wore something shiny and ordered take out for New Year’s Eve. Several intense rounds of Uno were played before we rang in the new year. We were all in bed about 20 minutes after midnight. We all had a long traveling day behind us and they wanted to leave early to go skiing.

While the others went skiing, I stayed home with my friend’s dog and fox. Yes, you read that correctly. My friend has a pet fox. I binge-watched Bridgerton on Netflix and read the book I’ve been waiting to have some time for, “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man” by Emmanuel Acho.

A day downtown

On one of the days, my friend and I checked out downtown Santa Fe. New Mexico has admirably implemented several restrictions to help stop the spread of Covid. You have to wear a mask when walking around, even outside. On our last day, we had time to kill and wanted to check out the Albuquerque Zoo… it was only open to New Mexican residents!

Entrance to Museum of Contemporary Native Arts

Almost all of the museums were closed but we did manage to get some of the limited tickets for the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts. My favorite exhibition was probably “Indigenous Futurisms: Transcending Past/Present/Future”. The artists combined traditional Native American artforms with the subjects of Star Wars, Startrek, and the likes. Check out some pictures on the website by clicking here!

Most of the shops were open. We browsed through Native American made jewelry, pottery and artwork. There were so many beautiful things. If I actually had a house to outfit with things, I probably would’ve bought a piece of the intricately painted black & white pottery.

Santa Fe is VERY artsy. Many of the shops are also galleries. Then there is Canyon Road, just a few blocks from the main street. It apparently has over one hundred galleries, boutiques and restaurants in one-half mile. The road is filled with colorful sculptures and artwork!

The adobe-style buildings are quite visually pleasing. I recommend coming back during warmer weather however because, without any greenery or blooming flowers, the scene is quite monotone. I’m sure the main square is a great place to spend time in a warm, post-pandemic time.

Svikki MD

Back at work, things have been relatively slow this past week. Overall, the system seems to be less full. The number of COVID patients in the large hospital was down substantially. Many of the smaller surrounding hospitals either had only 1 or no COVID positive patients. That is really nice to see considering healthcare is still wary about the aftermath of Christmas and New Years’. We aren’t quite out of the window of that surge but the trend looks good right now. During a meeting, we were told that South Dakota had vaccinated the most people per capita compared to all other states in the nation! Considering how hesitant a majority of the out-and-about public seems about following safety guidelines, that was great to hear.

Uncomfortable Conversations

I was contemplating starting to share insights from my time as a model and how that has positively influenced my life, but then this week was just so crazy in American history, and having just finished my book, I wanted to speak about the book real quick instead.

For those of you who haven’t heard about this or haven’t watched the YouTube episodes, please do! Emmanuel Acho is a former NFL player of Nigerian descent. During the protests this Spring/Summer, he started making episodes called “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man”. I eagerly awaited his new episodes week after week.

In them, Emmanuel sits down with various people to discuss “uncomfortable” topics related to being black in America. He has an episode about interracial couples, interracial adoption, a conversation with the NFL commissioner, one with Chelsea Handler, and an episode where he sits down with the police officers from the Petaluma Police Department in Petaluma, CA. Any a few more! {Click on the hyperlinks to see the videos!} As you can imagine, each of these conversations can touch on many subjects. The cool thing is that he creates a safe place to talk, to ask questions, and does so with an open heart.

My Life

Growing up in a small town in Wisconsin, we did not have a lot of racial diversity. You could count the number of black students in my high school on one hand. My experience was a bit different from my peers as I had a bit more exposure to different cultures. I myself was an immigrant and traveled frequently. I also have a love for other cultures and people who are different from me. Learning about other people’s cultures is one of my favorite things. Admittedly, I didn’t find myself immersed more in American black culture until I moved to Germany and ended up befriending a lot of the American basketball players overseas on contract. I learned a lot from them. Then, when I moved to Miami for a year, I learned more!

I’ve dated a few black men in the past and so the episode Emmanuel did about interracial couples was especially interesting. I could relate to a lot of the internal struggles Lindsey Vonn spoke on. There is so much we are afraid to ask or talk about because we are afraid to offend or come off the wrong way. But if we don’t ask, we can not truly learn. You can read all the text books on a topic but it really becomes real when you live it. I have made mistakes in the past and I have learned from them. Through asking questions, being observant and willing to listen, I have learned how I can be a more respectful, understanding person/friend/partner and ally.

Get started!

If you have been watching the social movement and have wondered how you can be more informed, I highly recommend Emmanuel’s book! It is easy to read through, gives examples of many great resources to further your learning if you so wish, and makes you look at your own way of living, and hopefully encourages you to make some positive changes. It is not intimidatingly dense and reads as though you were indeed having a conversation with Emmanuel.

It’s called uncomfortable conversations. I didn’t find them uncomfortable because I was so eager to learn and hear the conversation. My culture has a not so distant horrific history. What I admire about Germany is its openness about what happened, its emphasis on teaching it, and in doing so, hopefully preventing it from happening again. The USA could learn a thing or two from Germany on how to deal with its own horrific history.

Acknowledging your country has a problem doesn’t mean you can’t still be super proud to be from that country and love it for all its goodness. It makes your relationship with your country more real if you acknowledge the flaws. If you are only looking at the pretty surface and pomp and circumstance, your relationship to your country is comparable with that of you and your celebrity crush. You can’t truly love something until you love it for all it is.

Small things add up too

I can’t give up all my time to immerse myself in the civil rights movement of America or drop everything and enroll in African American Studies (although if you are currently in college and have the option, do take a class!). There are also many other critically important issues I am passionate about and am trying to learn about and support including international healthcare and the climate crisis. However, I can try to find things I can improve on or learn in my daily life. Emmanuel’s book was a great choice and gives me so many sources to follow it up with. The following list is some of the things I’m doing or have done. I list them not to “brag” about what I’ve done but to hopefully inspire you to look at your day to day life and see what changes you can make.

following several sites on Instagram related to the BLM movement and antiracism. This gives me little doses of information while scrolling through my feed.
trying to be more aware and support black businesses whenever I can
calling my black friends and having some serious conversations with them and also checking in on their well being
during my last month in residency, I organized a panel discussion with some of my black patients so that my co-residents and attendings and I (none of which are black) could have some real talk conversations with my patients and a black surgeon about what it means to be black in a predominantly white healthcare system.
I used the gift card the Medical Education department gave us for graduating residency to bulk order bandaids in 4 different skin tones for all of our exam rooms and lab. Ever think about how those Bandaids are white skin toned by default? With about 30% black patients and many pediatric patients coming in for shots, I wanted them to have matching bandaids for their skin color.

I continue to look for ways to be a better person and citizen of this Earth daily. From where I spend my money, recycling, lifestyle, personal relationships and really just about every aspect of life. I hope you do too 🙂

mfg

Happiness, Locum, Travel

So ready for 2021

December 27, 2020 No Comments

With a name like 2020, this year really had the potential to be great. In some ways, it really was. A global pandemic brought people together on a scale that I have not seen in my lifetime. Scientists were able to make an extremely effective vaccine within a year! (They were able to move forward so “quickly” because many of the barriers that usually hold up vaccine development were lifted.) The social movements in the United States and around the world brought necessary awareness to society and will hopefully continue to bring on much-needed change. We’ve seen our lives completely turned upside down and people continue to persevere.

Hopefully, we all get through this experience with a greater appreciation of community, value for our health, and a sense to try to be better in this world. It’ll definitely be a year I don’t forget and will be telling my children and grandchildren about.

From last year’s Christmas and honestly my favorite video of my niece.

Svikki MD

Change is coming to my work schedule…again. If you’ve been following along over the past several weeks (thank you!), you will have noticed that I was reducing my clinic hours to make more time for the volume of patients in the hospital. This week, I finally had to make the move to focus primarily on hospital work.

It was getting to be too much trying to be in two places at once. There was plenty of work that needed to be done in the hospital. I’d have to jump over to the clinic in the afternoon to see patients. That also required time, follow up, and brainpower. I felt like I had to compromise my full commitment to either one side or the other.

Consequently, I spoke with the office manager and laid out observations I had made over the past three months. Physicians and nurses alike seemed frustrated. Doctors in the office were interrupted while with their clinic patients due to calls from the floor nurses. The floor nurses were having a hard time getting timely responses from the clinic docs. The doctors didn’t have time to take on admissions because they were busy in the clinic. However, bigger hospitals had to make room for more acute care patients. Clinic volumes were down so they didn’t really even need me in the office. The mid-levels had nearly empty schedules while they packed my 2.5 hours full.

So, moving forward, I will be solely in the hospital seeing patients and trying to keep our swing bed census around 10 patients. I’ll work in the clinic if many providers are out. However, I won’t have a clinic schedule per se.

Holidays in the Hospital

With the mid-levels out of the office for the holidays, my colleague and I were actually pretty busy in the office on Wednesday and Thursday morning. After the clinic closed Thursday at noon, I headed over to the hospital to see my 9 patients. A couple of patients were discharged home in time for the holidays.

I opened up my gifts on Christmas Eve while FaceTiming with my family. I’m pretty used to working over the Christmas holiday, but I’ve never had a Christmas where I wasn’t physically around my family. Thank goodness for FaceTime because it honestly didn’t feel lonely despite being alone.

Christmas day, I was back in the hospital seeing patients while wearing a light-up necklace my mother sent me. I’m all for bringing a little joy to patients stuck in the hospital for a holiday. My colleague invited me to have lunch with his family. The food was delicious and it was nice getting to know his wife and daughters. It was only the second time since moving here almost three months ago that I have socialized with anyone outside of the hospital setting. My colleague does wood work and made me this bowel from some local wood! I love gifts with a purpose and memory attached to them.

Hopes & Dreams

With a new year only a couple days away, I think most people become sentimental and plan for the future. I am no exception to that. Pre-pandemic, my years were filled with travel, concerts, adventures and so much fun. I’ve made a few videos over the years reflecting back on the previous year with travel videos and pictures.

Despite the global pandemic that changed so much and forced us all to slow down in our private lives, I was still able to do a few things. Pre-covid in the US, I was able to attend my Aunt’s birthday in Germany and sang a set for all her guests.

At my Aunt’s Birthday bash just before Covid hit in March.

I returned to the States to immediately start working in Flu clinics and on the COVID floor as one of the first residents to do so in our hospital. COVID changed how we celebrated our graduation from residency but we made the best of it. The late summer allowed for a brief window where I was able to visit family in Germany and take my little sister on a trip to Italy for a few days. I returned from there to move across the country to South Dakota to start my life as an attending physician.

Photoshoot with one of my best friends in Hamburg in March

Working in healthcare and at times being over-worked in healthcare, I am still very grateful for the fact that I am out here every day helping patients and have a job to go to. I have so much respect for people to go around. To the people who have been working from home for the majority of this year. The utmost respect for the (mainly) mothers that have been keeping a household running, childcare managed and continue to work through it all the best they can. I have so much respect for the teachers who are working crazy overtime to try to continue to educate our future generations. Respect is also due to all the frontline and essential workers. My gratitude goes out to all the people who have been physically distancing, wearing masks, washing their hands, making personal sacrifices, and just being respectful of other people’s wellbeing.

Italy with my younger sister in September

2021

A change on the calendar from one year to the next doesn’t automatically solve all of the problems faced in 2020. Actually, it does nothing of the sort. But it feels like a new beginning. There is so much potential for this specified timeframe of a year to be better than the previous 365 days. Many things indicate positive change: the vaccine rollout, a new administration, and continued knowledge/experience gathered about the challenges we face. On a personal level, I will hopefully be able to safely celebrate a few weddings in 2021. Our family is expanding in size in multiple ways. Although I don’t think we will get quite back to the lives we would like to fully in 2021, I do believe we will be making big strides in the right direction.

At one of my best friend’s sister’s very, very intimate wedding in May.

I hope everyone has a safe New Years and continues to be safe, conscientious and loving.

mfg

Locum, Mother Nature, Travel

Exploring Pahá Sápa

November 29, 2020 No Comments

I know I am not alone in having spent the last week much differently than I thought I would. Here’s to hoping everyone stayed safe over the Thanksgiving Holiday. I know it was hard not doing the big family gathering. My family did not get together from various states to celebrate together and that sucked. But it was the right thing to do. As I try to make the best out of every situation, instead of a party of 10+ people, I spent the holiday with one very good friend of mine.

But first, I had to work Monday and Tuesday. I was on call both days… my 4th and 5th days in a row.

Svikki MD

As my hospital census keeps growing, I needed to restructure my schedule. It was no longer feasible for me to have an open clinic schedule from 8:30AM-5:00PM and manage a hospital census of 6+ patients… at least not without spending every waking minute in the hospital. A reason I chose locum work was to avoid that very scenario.

Going forward, my mornings will be spent working as a hospitalist and my afternoons will be spent in the clinic. This will allow me to completely focus on the hospitalized patients and I’ll be able to round with the nurses and ancillary services. I look forward to seeing how this works. Depending on needs in either the in- or outpatient worlds, I’ll adjust accordingly.

Pahá Sápa

Pahá Sápa is Lakota for “Hills that are Black” aka the Black Hills.

The Black Hills National Forest is located in the western part of South Dakota and extends into Wyoming. The area is considered sacred land by many Native Americans.

For a bit of orientation, here is a closer view of the Black Hills with some key locations marked:

Deadwood

My friend and I set out on our adventure Wednesday. The first stop was naturally Deadwood! As I still don’t trust most people to follow hygiene recommendations, we didn’t go into any restaurants or casinos in Deadwood. We did walk the historic main street. We also found a fun wood carved chair to sit in and be the biggest tourists.

Custer

I rented us a remote cabin near Custer for 4 days. We arrived in the dark but we could feel we were in the beautiful middle of nowhere. The cabin was GORGEOUS! My favorite part was definitely the fire place in the living room. Our hosts had a pecan pie waiting for us. It was much bigger than it needed to be for two people but I wanted a cabin that actually looked like a cabin (lots of wood), was remote enough to escape artificial lights to view the stars, and had a fire place. This place checked off all the boxes.

Crazy Horse Memorial

Our Thanksgiving day was jam-packed. Our first stop was Crazy Horse Memorial. I had stopped by many years ago while on a two day trip to the area with a friend, but we didn’t really experience all there is to see at the location.

The story of the memorial is fascinating. Once it’s finished (not likely in my lifetime), it will depict Crazy Horse, an Oglala Lakota warrior, on his horse pointing to his tribal lands. A Lakota elder named Henry Standing Bear commissioned Korczak Ziolkowski to sculpt the memorial. He wanted his people to have a memorial of one of their heroes.

Korczak devoted the rest of his life to the memorial. His wife Ruth joined him and their 10 children all pitched in too. Korczak turned government funding down twice because he did not trust the government and feared they would overturn the memorial’s plans. After Korczak died at the age of 74, his wife Ruth took over as CEO. She made the decision that Crazy Horse’s face should be completed first instead of the horse’s face as Korczak had planned. She felt this would increase tourists visiting and thus increased income to fund the project. Ruth died in 2014 and her daughter Monique became CEO. She works with three of her siblings and three of the Ziolkowski grandsons.

The Memorial and so much more!

The grounds also house the Indian Museum of North America, the sculptor’s studio, a restaurant, a gift shop, the Native American Educational & Cultural Center, and The Indian University of North America.

It is a great place to learn more about some of our Native American brothers and sisters and appreciate all the beautiful art they create.

Mt. Rushmore

Four white males carved into the face of a mountain in one of the most sacred places for some Native Americans,… surely not without controversy. My friend and I stopped by the monument to take a picture and were then invited to hear a 30-min lecture about the controversies surrounding the monument.

The concept of a memorial at Mt. Rushmore originated from Doane Robinson, a South Dakota historian, who thought carving figures into a mountain would attract tourists to South Dakota. Originally, South Dakota figures like Buffalo Bill Cody, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and Red Cloud, a legendary Lakota leader were considered. Robinson commissioned Gutzon Borglum to sculpt the memorial. Borglum wanted to memorialize “the founding, expansion, preservation and unification of the United States.” Thus, he picked Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt.

Rose Arnold Powell and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote to Borglum and advocated that Susan B. Anthony is included in the memorial. Borglum cited lack of rock and lack of funds as the reasons why this was not possible. His main rationale, however, was that it didn’t fit his artistic vision… (eye roll).

Besides the obvious lack of representation in the figures carved, the mere fact that it was carved into the mountain in Native American sacred land makes it plenty controversial in my mind. Nonetheless, we visited and were able to learn about these various aspects and have a discussion about a monument that clearly isn’t going anywhere and does have a story to tell. It also fulfilled its intended purpose of increasing tourism to South Dakota.

Custer State Park

After viewing monuments, we wanted to view some wildlife. We drove the Wildlife Loop through the park and the name did not mislead. I even had a friendly stand off with a Bison. Since I didn’t intend to have my rental car damaged, I backed up slowly and we eventually parted ways peacefully.

The friendliest creatures were definitely the formerly domesticated but now wild donkeys. They enjoy a good ear rub and are not shy to pop their heads in and say hi!

Thanksgiving Dinner for Two

After all of that, we managed to cook for three hours to prepare a delicious vegan Thanksgiving dinner with a little (a lot) of help from Purple Carrot.

Friday – a day of rest

Since Thursday was so jam-packed, we decided to enjoy the cabin and surrounding land and just stay there for the day. We explored the quartz and mica on the hills and wandered through the forest. I collected pine cones and cut-down pine tree branches. Hopefully, I’ll be able to make wreaths out of both of those things.

Badlands National Park

Before having to leave me, my friend and I set out to see the Badlands. The landscape is pretty wild and seems like the perfect filming location for a Star Wars movie. We drove Badlands Loop Road (Highway 240) and stopped at various viewing points to see bison, big-horned sheep, and the silly prairie dogs.

I was sad to see my friend leave. Since I’ve been in South Dakota, I have had no physical contact with people beyond professional contact at work. I also haven’t spent time outside of work with anyone because of the pandemic. My friend got tested before coming to see me. We are both really cautious about the virus so I waged the risks and benefits and came to the conclusion that it would be relatively safe for us to spend several days together. Facetime gets close but it definitely doesn’t replace the feeling of a hug.

One thing I love: Looking at the stars on a clear night in a remote place.

One thing I ate: the delicious vegan Thanksgiving dinner pictured above. I’ll talk about purple carrot in more depth sometime. For those who don’t know about it, its a vegan meal kit delivery service and a life saver for me!

One thing I’m grateful for: my friend for coming to see me and my family for having made the decision to cancel this year’s gathering. Everyone’s safety and health will always come first. That didn’t make it any easier that it didn’t take place, but sacrifices must be made. I’m grateful for all the people who worked this holiday. I’ve missed many holidays myself due to work and will likely miss many in the future. I hope people who aren’t accustomed to missing holidays but did the right thing and missed out this year, can find some comfort in knowing they were not alone in doing so.

mfg

Locum, Travel

Covid numbers skyrocketing? Namaste away from people.

November 16, 2020 No Comments

Namaste and Happy Diwali to all my friends who celebrated the holiday yesterday! Diwali is the festival of lights and one of the biggest holidays of the year in India. India and its culture have become a big part of my life over the last several years. I want to share my connection and admiration of the culture. But first, let’s talk about what’s happening in South Dakota.

Svikki MD

The first half of the week was filled with plenty of patients with COVID symptoms. Here are some not so great stats… {in a pandemic, you don’t want to be the one with the highest numbers. You try to be more like scoring in golf.}

Forbes listed South Dakota as one of the ten riskiest states to visit right now.
South Dakota is reporting 154.5 new cases per 100,000 people on a weekly basis. {any state with more than 25 new cases per 100,000 is considered at a tipping point….we are way past that}
The 58.8% positivity rate is the highest in the country.

Needless to say, I was happy to receive a call Wednesday morning asking if I’d be interested in attending a 2.5 day course in Rapid City.

Stabilize and transport,…stat!

The course was Comprehensive Advanced Life Support (CALS). As a healthcare worker, you have to take a lot of life support classes depending on what department you work in: Basic Life Support, Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Advanced Trauma Life Support, Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics, Neonatal Resuscitation Program… to name a few. CALS is a program designed for health care providers in rural emergency care settings. It covers the relevant portions of the above-listed courses to review with doctors, mid-levels, nurses, and EMS workers that work in rural places that don’t have all the fancy stuff the bigger places have. Your objective is to stabilize, treat life-threatening issues, and transport them out to a higher level of care.

Although I technically had the highest degree in my group (2 nurse practitioners, 2 registered nurses, and 1 EMS worker), I was definitely the least experienced and trained when it came to rural emergency care. While they ran down the list of medications needed for rapid intubation of a patient or knew how to place a pelvic binder like it was no big deal, I had a lot of catching up to do. Since I received the call Wednesday morning and the first portion of class was that evening, I didn’t exactly have time to prepare.

I learned A LOT in those 2.5 days. My favorite part was definitely learning how to place a chest tube and perform a cricothyrotomy. Although the hours were very long and the travel back and forth to Rapid City was a bit much, it was so totally worth my time. I wasn’t able to just get a hotel in Rapid because I still had to stop by the hospital daily to see my acute care patients. The whole experience was a nice break from Covid clinic. We followed very strict physical distancing guidelines and wore mask and face shield at all times. With a 58.8% positivity rate,… I trust no one.

Namaste India

Let’s take a COVID break.

India has always intrigued me with its culture, its food, its clothing, and its language. I always wanted to visit but it always seemed so foreign, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to navigate it. Lucky for me, while living in Miami, a friend of mine asked me to dinner one night. One of the attendees of this dinner was a business guy in town for a few days.

We got to chatting about all sorts of things. He is from India and I told him about my fascination with the country and my desire to visit one day. I was given the gracious offer to reach out to him when I decided to go visit and he would help me organize it. He is extremely busy with businesses all over the world, so I figured it was just a friendly gesture but that he wouldn’t possibly find the time to help me when it came time. I was very wrong in my assumption.

India, here I come!

Before starting residency, I took all the money I earned in Miami and traveled the world. I reached out to my new friend with my plans of visiting India. He asked me for a time frame, a budget, and an approximate area of the country I would like to visit. This information was forwarded to his travel agency of choice and they created an entire 3-week itinerary for me! I didn’t have to plan a thing. From the moment I landed until the moment I left, I was in great hands and was showed so much. It was some of the best weeks of my life.

My travels took me mainly through Rajasthan, the land of the kings. I started in Mumbai. One of the first things I insisted on doing was going shopping for Indian clothing. I wanted to show the people of India how much I appreciated being there and wanted to be a part of the local life.

Unsuccessfully trying to blend in

Shopping in India is quite fun. You get served chai, get to look through an abundance of fabric, and try on the most beautiful garments. After having chosen a few, my tour guide and I were off to explore the city. We were often stopped by locals to take pictures with me. A tall blonde sort of sticks out in the crowd.

I was fortunate to have a tour guide in every city I went to. This gave me such a great opportunity to learn so much about every place we visited. My guide in Udaipur invited me to his house for a meal. I met his sister who ended up doing Mehndi on my hands. Her daughter was a firecracker and kept us all entertained. The mother and I still text each other sometimes with updates. I met so many great people along the way.

Crafts & Food

We stopped at so many absolutely beautiful temples. Many of which fed me delicious meals. The craftsmanship of these temples is mind-blowing and straight-up incomprehensible. I also witness craftmanship firsthand watching artisans make miniature art, block print fabric, and cutting jewels. And I didn’t just witness,… I bought a lot of things.

Being a vegetarian at the time (I try to be mostly vegan now), I can say that India has been the easiest place for me to travel in when it comes to food. Easier even than the USA. And the food is so fresh and so delicious!

I could talk about my India trip for days but I still have a really important connection to India to share. For more pics and info, check out my Instagram page. You’ll find plenty about India, you just have to scroll down the feed a bit.

My friend Lakshmi at the elephant sanctuary in Jaipur

Residency Girl Gang

One of my best friends is Indian. During our first year of residency, we were a trio with one of our other close friends, also from India. These ladies took me in and immersed me even more into the Indian culture. I finally learned how to understand dishes on an Indian restaurant menu. They introduced me to flavors I hadn’t previously known. I learned how to cook some basic dishes. We frequently grabbed Indian food from the local Indian restaurant, watched Bollywood movies, and escaped from residency life.

Dressing up was a favorite pastime of ours

Indian weddings may be the best parties ever

One of my friends got married in India during residency. Unfortunately for me, it was during a month I was unable to take off of work. Otherwise, I would’ve flown out to be there. Lucky for me, she decided to have the reception many months later in Philadelphia. My best friend and I rehearsed for a month to be able to perform at the reception. We cleared the lecture room after hours, projected YouTube videos over the beamer and worked on creating our routine.

Prior to the reception, I went home with the bride to Toronto. Her family was welcoming and loving. We shopped for jewelry for my reception outfit. Needless to say, they also fed me really delicious food.

The reception was so fun! My feet hurt so bad and I don’t think I’ve ever danced so much. Our performance was well received.

Diwali

My first year of residency, one of the seniors had a Diwali celebration at her house. We all put on our finest outfits, ate delicious food and danced.

In my second year of residency, I attended the Diwali celebration at a nearby temple. I tried my best to keep up with the prayer by following along in the pamphlet. The only time I could catch up was when I recognized the word yoga. Again, I was fed really yummy food.

I’m not sure I did anything for Diwali my last year of residency. I have a feeling my roommate went home to celebrate during that time and I was on call.

This year, I lived vicariously through my friends and their posts and stories of celebrating. I’m hoping the world is a safer place next year and I can join the celebrations again.

An Indian wedding in a pandemic

My dream is still to attend a full-on Indian wedding. I’m talking about all five days of celebration! I thought I would have the chance when I was invited to my best friend’s sister’s wedding this year. But then, you know, Corona. Lucky for me, I made the cut as one of the 13 people who attended. I even embroidered a mask to match my new saree my best friend had brought me back from India.

The wedding festivities were condensed into a weekend with everyone present for everything (not usually the case). I left immediately after work and made it to the home 7.5 hours later for the Sangeet. We danced and sang with relatives via video conference from India. The weekend was lovely and the wedding beautifully intimate. I felt so honored to be a part of it. The mother of the bride gifted me with a gorgeous Indian dress before my departure. I can’t wait for the next occasion to wear it!

Excited for what the future holds

So like with so many things during the age of Covid, it’ll be a while before I attend another Indian celebration. I can’t wait for it to be possible again though. I look forward to the dancing, the singing, the outfits, the food, the family and friends. Most of my Indian friends are married, so currently I only have a few more opportunities to attend an Indian wedding (until their children get married that is). However, I look forward to participating in the many other celebrations this beautiful country celebrates with its many different religions, cultures, and languages. In the meantime, I’ll keep working on my Duolingo Hindi nightly.

mfg

Travel

The Legends of Deadwood

October 25, 2020 No Comments

In 1876, the Wild West town of Deadwood was born when prospectors came across a gulch full of dead trees and a creek full of gold.
– deadwood.com

I’ll be the first to admit that I had never heard of Deadwood before being presented with the job option. Now it seems like Deadwood pops up all over the place! HBO has a show called Deadwood with 3 seasons. Deadwood the movie was released last year. On an episode of The Good Place, the judge proclaims, “Shawn, I don’t have time for this. I just started Deadwood finally and I need my daily dose of Timothy Olyphant!”.

Timothy Olyphant portrays Seth Bullock, Deadwood’s first sheriff. The show also features legends such as Calamity Jane and Al Schwearengen. Sure, I had heard the name Calamity Jane, but beyond associating it with western movies, I had no idea who this was.

Adam’s Museum

After seeing my patient’s in the hospital this morning, I headed over to Adam’s Museum to learn a bit more about the history of this town. Pioneer businessman W.E. Adams founded the Adams Museum in 1930. Its purpose is to preserve and display the history of the Black Hills.

Americana

The section called Americana is chuck full with a plethora of objects from around the United States and spanning several decades. There were old uniforms, rifles, walking canes, a gas mask from WWI, an Edison light bulb, and so much more. This section also included this interesting wall decoration:

It is made of human hair! Apparently this was a very fashionable thing to do for ladies back in the day, something their European counterparts had been making. Here is a close up:

Living the Legends

Another section was all about the legends that make up Deadwood’s wild history. The gold rush brought in a lot of people with hopes of finding gold and having a better life. It also brought in a lot of gambling (still one of the main features in this town), prostitution, and drama. The legend wall tells the tales of Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Deadwood Dick, Dora Dufran, Poker Alice, and more. A recurring theme I noticed about these legendary people however was that their actual lives didn’t quite live up to the legends. A sign hanging in the room explains it well:

Potato Creek Johnny

John E. Perrett was 63 years old in 1929 when he arrived in Deadwood. The gold rush had been over for 50 years. The mining industry was high-tech and corporate at this point. Nonetheless, he is a famous figure in Deadwood’s history thanks to two important factors: his gold nugget and Deadwood’s tourist industry. Perrett found a 7.346 troy ounce gold nugget in Potato Creek. W.E. Adams bought the nugget from him in 1934 and Potato Creek Johnny was included in Deadwood’s new plan to attract tourists. Here’s a look at that nugget:

The museum had many other sections including information about the Black Hills, some displays with Lakota artifacts, a dinosaur skeleton, and random things like an albino deer and a two-headed calf. It truly was an eclectic mix. It gave me a good introduction to the history of the city though.

Deadwood has a few more historical museums I’d like to check out including Days of ’76 Museum, Historic Adam’s House, Homestake Adams Research and Cultural Center, and The Brothel Deadwood. I’m sure I’ll have more stories to share from the days of the wild, wild west.

mfg

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