End of another school week

I can´t say it enough times how fast time is going, now the end of the 11th week of school. That only means that the exams are getting closer and that I will be back in Iceland soon. Im really looking forward to returning home for the summer.

This summer is going to be an interesting one, I have arranged for Ob & Gyn practice this summer. So that is basically my first time in the hospital and I dont know what to expect really. But im real excited about it to say the least and it is going to be quite the challenge. At some moments I feel like I know a lot about medicine but other times I feel like an idiot that doesnt know anything at all. I think that this feeling is shared among other collegues, since medicine is a big field and the level of specialization in each is just getting more intense.

Speaking of intensity, one of the things I enjoy the most about preparing for exams, is when you take one subject and really sink yourself into it without interupption. Then at one point all the pieces start comming together and you start enjoying so much. I had this experience with pharmacology yesterday it all started to make sense....

This weekend is pretty much going to be studying Microbiology, well maybe a short nite out tonite and football on sunday. That all depends on how the studying goes ;)

róbert mar

Hungarian Beauty

Yes, it is time again for me to reflect on yet another aspect of this beloved country. This time I want to shed light on the female population. In my 3 years here I have seen quite the number of women that is at school, on the street and at the bars.

But I tell you with the rising sun and higher temperatures these girls just seem to get hot all over. You start asking yourself "where did that come from ?".

To explain myself and this phenomenon; it seems that the hungarian bodies are a force to be reckoned with. So genetically the girls here are thin with small arms, which is quite a feminine look. Luckily for us guys the western wave has not reached this part of the world where young girls are getting fatter and fatter the more west you go. Here we still enjoy the slimness of the east.

But where are these girls in winter ???

I belive that these thin finesse bodies are hidden under an old thick winter coat with a oversized home knitted scarf all over the place. I must comment that the fashion here is not what I am used to in my parts of the world and frankly fashion is not up to par. That does not include everyone but for the most part yeah... The reasoning for this lack of fashion, since hungary is a lot closer to Paris or Milan than Iceland, I can only think of two reasonable things 1) local taste or 2) economics.

With their bodied covered all that is exposed is the face, which I cant say is bad, but just very far from what I grew up seeing. The girls I grew up with considering beuatiful had high cheekbones, blonde hair and blue eyes. But it definetly not safe to conclude that I am unpleased with the situation, because beauty is to be found here too, just a different flavor.

If I had to choose one thing and one thing only for the female population here would be to learn another language, preferably english but just any other that you can speak. I could care less about a 30 page essay without a single grammatical error just hold up a conversation.


róbert mar

comments welcome from all, hungarians alike

Evil Machines

My computer is continueing a steady decline to hell. I dont know what to do next. I reformatted the beast a couple of weeks ago and that did nothing... I had decided then that was the last procedure I was willing to do for this thing.

Now it just keeps giving me more hell every day... Grrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhh !!!

But on a positive note there is a new member to the O.C. household. I have to say that this one has to be the cutest on of us here :)

Elma got a miniature pincher, which basically is a mini me of doberman breed. Like I said the cutest thing I have seen for a while. Now we have this four leggerd K-9 running arond the house at lightning pace only about 4cm of the ground.

I will be putting in pics a.s.a.p but at the moment my computer is not providing this service


róbert mar

Sweet Budapest

I just returned from Budapest, which I have to say is one great city, filling my duty as a citizen of Iceland. Jói, Glussi, Anna Bryndís and I went to vote today. There are elections in Iceland in one month but since I will be here taking my exams it had to be done today.

But what I really want to talk about is budapest... everytime I go there I like it more and more. It is now my mission to make sure that I study there in the future.

Today was an exceptional day 24°C sunny skies, got a haircut @ Hajas Fodrasz, mouth watering lunch at Tom George my favorite restaurant. What else can a man ask for...

Pictures from this trip are comming in shortly, jói was the man with the camera today..

róbert mar

My reflection on Cardiac Surgery

It has now been almost a week since I was a 2nd assistant in a Triple Bypass Surgery. As some can imagine I was in awe for the following days and decided to wait a few days before writing about it but here goes....

First, the feeling of holding a human heart that is beating 80 beats per minute in your hand while you search for the coronary arteries is one that can not be explained in words. I entered the operating theatre at 9 o´clock, the head surgeon had already started a littel before that. Entering surgery is quite the ritual where scrubbing, gowning, taking the gloves always gives me that special feeling much like the reminder that what you are doing is something special and there is no room for mistake. Maybe that is just the feeling you should have in a cardiac surgery which has to be considered a high risk surgery.

This was the first time I had been in the theatre with this team and I was an unknown face. So in the beginning every movement I made I was led by the scrub nurse grabing my hands and leading me to my spot every time. Once I was able get comfortable and show that I knew my way around the room is started to get more leadway and more involved in the operation.

I did not expect to be doing any thing but observing, initial reason I was there to beging with was to see how the graft preparation was done. Before I knew it I had all fingers wrapped around the ventricles reflecting it cranially while the head surgeon mapped out the coronaries and spotted the location of the bypasses.

Canules were entered to the right atrium and ascending aorta, then the heart was stopped. This amazing muscular structure that beats 70 times per minute, has its own pace maker and pumps 4-5 Liters per minute was now just lying there in the chest cavity like a deflated balloon.

Another one of those moments where I had to pinch myself to make sure this was really happening. It sure was the heart/lung machine had taken over. The first assistant had entered by that time and they begun to connect the grafts. I before 3 weeks ago believed this to be impossible, but I stood there and watched as they performed the vascular surgery. I with my young eyes could even see clearly the stiches being made. It didn´t hurt that the previous week I myself had performed a small bowel anastamosis using a very similar technique.

I skipped my classes this day because I was not going anywhere until this operation was done with. My curiosity and extreme level of alertness made this the most educational and eventful day of this semester. 4 hours later I tore of the latex gloves and walked out into the rain feeling like a million dollars.

Truly an amazing experience and I feel that I am one gargantuan step closer to being a doctor.

2nd assistant,
róbert mar

More Gum Ball visuals

here are more pics from friday nite.. a nite to remember...

GUM BALL :::: SUCCESS

Yes it is safe to say that Gum Ball 2006 was an all around success and everyone who joined this adventure had lots of fun. I have looked at my pictures over and over again laughing my ass of each time, seeing something different and recalling another hilarious events.

I would like all participants to comment below on how far they made it. I amazingly made it all the way to El T and down to EGO. I dont recall seeing too many gum ballers there...

I will let the pictures tell the rest































And thank everyone for comming out making this first annual gum ball a true success...


róbert mar

p.s. I have lot more pics but this damn blogg is not having it at this time... more pics comming later

Another first tomorrow

My medical studies have provide me with a lot of opportunities. So in the past years I have been doing a lot of first´s, some more spectacular than others.

Some examples are disecting a human body, fresh autopsy, acting like a doctor in hospital and many other things along this line.

Tomorrow I will be a 2nd assistant in a double bypass surgery, yes that is a serious high risk surgery. We are talking about a human heart that is actually stopped while its operated on. Let me make things clear is that im not going to do anything important here. I will not have anyones life in my hands.

My role is to assist with the Great Saphenous graft prepartion (vein from the leg) that is then going to be used for the bypass in the heart. I am really excited about this opportunity.

I was able to smother my way into this spot today in Surgery class, which was at the cardiac surgery center. The surgeons had not seen such enthusiasm from a foreign student in many years and ended up giving me the go ahead on this...

I will be sure to report back on this first time experience..

r.mar

2 Days til Gum Ball 2006

Yes, my and my friends are hosting the first ever Debrecen Gum Ball 2006. For those who have no idea I will fill you in. Debrecen is a small city wiht one tram which runs throuhg the middle of the city.

Our plan is to start at one end (Nagy Állomas) and drink at selected bars all the way to the other end (El Tornado). So this includes 16 bars from start to finish. It all starts at 18:30 and goal is to reach the last station at 12:30...

The feed back has been real positive but variable. Some are afraid that they are not going to make it and others claim its going to be a walk in the park. Those who claim this to be easy will be able to continue their drinking at EGO @ Bunny Party...

Its gonna be a long friday....

Anyone have Cowboy hat that I can borrow ???

róbert mar

Friday Nite @ EGO

That is another friday night under my belt. seemed to have ended up at EGO yet again practicing my drinking. Not a bad time I tell ya´

Ill let the pictures speak...


















that is all I have to say about that...

róbert mar

Quenching my thirst for knowledge

I have hit another nerd period in my studies, which is really good since this last weekend turned into a drunkfest. Took me till now to fully recover from those events. Not going to get into the details of that here and now.

I was in Surgery class today, which I think might be my field of medicine, where we went to watch 3 cardiac surgeries. That is a bypass and valve exchange and both. There are viewing windows above 3 operating theaters where you can follow the procedure. That was not the biggest factor for me, you could not see that much from above. But the catch here is that there were two cardiac surgeons at hand available for questioning.

And boy did I have some questions for them, I had been wondering for a while how this was actually done. I seem to be very quick to figure out these practical things, propably my speciality, but I was able to get down to the details of it all.

When it came down to it cardiac surgery had been over rated in my mind. The surgeon did mention it needed some practice but then again everything needs some practice. Now that I know the details of the technique I dont think its that bad at all as in the complexity I had expected. Or the actual procedure is lengthy but no big hurdles really. Well lets face it you are taking a human heart and stopping it for up to 3 hours while operating on in, that cant be taken lightly, but its just like any other procedue just with more steps.

I was thrilled to get these things straight, because there were some things I had not been able to figure out by myself. One of them being how they were able to sew a vein (bypass) onto the coronary artery, once explained I was like "duh !!!". Catch here is that it is half stiched together with a continous stich seperately then just pulled together and finishing touches put on it. After some hours its to grown together, that is if there are no complications.

Marvelous science I tell ya...

róbert mar

Some Visuals from Black & White

here are some pics from last wednesday @ lovarda and the black and white party at EGO

The weekend party continued a Mólnars place on saturday nite, then on to Genius and Joy.


















Today was a full program with a 2 hour football session on the artificial glass. The weather was great and the boys were having a good time. This will be the regular thing from now on. I must note that I played horrible today, dont know what the hell was wrong with me. Or that is not entirely true, I had been drinking the whole weekend and not kicked a football since the last tournament back in september...

Its really funny how old athletes, like myself, alwasy forget that they are not in top playing form anymore but the expectations are still sky high. I think I will definetly improve some playing every sunday and more importantly just enjoy being back on the field.

Black & White Party

Last nite was an eventful one, there are parties all over the place these days, included Bakelit, EGO and Genius. One great event was the reunions of the founding fathers of the DYC for the first time since September last year. Hanging out with the boys always gets me in a good mood. This gathering was hosted at Bakelit, nice little warm up for the party.

Then it was EGO for the black and white party hosted by Bita. Which must be called a success, the place was almost packed with kids from school. Have not seen this size of a crowd for a long time and the drinking and dancing was going on.

At some point I headed over to Genius for the Ladies Nite party which was not bad either. But suddenly the lights came on and the place was closing, was not ready to go home one bit. Made an attempt to get back into EGO but it was shutting down.

I look up only to see the tram comming my way, which means it was a little bit late. Get on and get my ass home to bed. Only to spend the night with my new football, woke up in the morning with it in my arms, pretty funny thing. Also I was burning up with the sun hitting my windows.

So there was only one thing to do, go to thermal and soak up some rays. That was incredibly nice. Then home to watch football and take a long good power nap to charge up for tonites party and upcomming events... Not often that I take 2 days in a row but its going to happen tonite.

The lovely guest who now has a residence at the Foxe´s place will have to be interrogated about last nites events, rumor has it that there was some urination insidence in front of Route 66 around noon today.. detail later

No pictures yet, my computer is still not behaving as it should. damn machines


róbert mar

Black & White Party

Last nite was an eventful one, there are parties all over the place these days, included Bakelit, EGO and Genius. One great event was the reunions of the founding fathers of the DYC for the first time since September last year. Hanging out with the boys always gets me in a good mood. This gathering was hosted at Bakelit, nice little warm up for the party.

Then it was EGO for the black and white party hosted by Bita. Which must be called a success, the place was almost packed with kids from school. Have not seen this size of a crowd for a long time and the drinking and dancing was going on.

At some point I headed over to Genius for the Ladies Nite party which was not bad either. But suddenly the lights came on and the place was closing, was not ready to go home one bit. Made an attempt to get back into EGO but it was shutting down.

I look up only to see the tram comming my way, which means it was a little bit late. Get on and get my ass home to bed. Only to spend the night with my new football, woke up in the morning with it in my arms, pretty funny thing. Also I was burning up with the sun hitting my windows.

So there was only one thing to do, go to thermal and soak up some rays. That was incredibly nice. Then home to watch football and take a long good power nap to charge up for tonites party and upcomming events... Not often that I take 2 days in a row but its going to happen tonite.

The lovely guest who now has a residence at the Foxe´s place will have to be interrogated about last nites events, rumor has it that there was some urination insidence in front of Route 66 around noon today.. detail later

No pictures yet, my computer is still not behaving as it should. damn machines


róbert mar