No Shave November?

Buenas all...it's been some time since my last post and I know you all are a little curious as to what I've been doing with myself for the past few weeks. Well the answer is...lots! I'm currently laying flat on my back on my first class seat back to NC for Thanksgiving. The trip is a surprise for my parents, and hopefully I'll get in just in time for my dad's birthday dinner.

After my trip to Figueres/Cadaques/Girona, I knew it was time to buckle down. I spent about 4-5 hours in the library studying for my GMAT each day...couple that with my research at the hospital and you'll understand if I've been slow to respond to emails or return phone calls. I took the GMAT this past Friday and while I always feel I can do better, I'm pretty happy with my score and it places me in a competitive standing for the schools I'm applying to. Now on to finishing essays...

Research has been going unexpectedly well. I've been working on a Toxicology Study surrounding an overdose patient which ended up costing over 175,000 Euros and requiring 3 months of treatment in the hospital. Initially, our goal was to sum the costs associated with just emergency care, as we wanted to show alternative methods of treatment. From here, I decided to look at opportunity costs, a very “American” concept of economics as I was told. Essentially, I wanted to show the board what the hospital could have done had they not had this treatment. This includes looking at financial numbers for the average cost of patient's with the same DRG code and their average length of stay (LOS). I want to show two alternatives...the losses the hospital could have avoided in treatment (they were not reimbursed for the full cost of this patient, thus losing money...) and the number of other patients that they could have treated. I presented initial results to the Director of Toxicology at the hospital, who happens to be the top Toxicologist in Spain, and he loved the idea of opportunity cost. I'm surprised why it's not used more, especially with Socialized medicine. There is a limited amount of resources (money) and someone has to choose who is treated and when. This particular patient, who was on their third suicide attempt, cost a lot. The patient also received a liver transplant in 2 days, whereas most patients wait months on the list (sidenote, in Spain, everyone defaults to an organ donor unless they specify otherwise, even tourists..). I would hate to be the person that is in the position to prioritize care amongst the population, but I can't help to question whether the resources were best spent. How many hip surgeries could we have performed for grandmas across Spain? How many breast cancer treatments could we have provided to women? I don't know exactly where my research will go, but I hope it makes people think about alternatives. That said, I will be presenting my work in January at the National Conference on Toxicology, and soon thereafter be published in Spain's Journal of Medicine. Pretty exciting stuff (nerd alert)

I feel like I'm also settling in pretty well to life in Barça. My pace has slowed down a bit and I take more time to breathe in the experiences. More and more I feel like a local. Many people will approach me and ask me directions in Spanish, and when I reply I don't sound completely retarded! I'm keeping up with my rock climbing and soccer-ing as well. Jose just spent 500euro on new gear and we have an excursion planned when I get back from the states.

And finally, after my exam last Friday, I sat down and made a list of places I must visit/see before I leave Spain. I will measure the success of my year abroad with the number of stamps I add to my passport. Here goes:

Zaragoza, Spain – December 10-12

Rome – December 16-19

Andorra – mid-January

London/Brighton/Oxford – late January

Sevilla, Cordoba, and Granada – early February

Lisbon, Portugal, Madrid, and Marrakesh, Morocco – late February/early March

Canary Islands – mid-March

Geneva, and the Swiss Alps – late March

Mallorca/Ibiza - April/May

Prague, Czech Republic - April/May

Berlin, Germany - April/May

Cagliari, Sardegna - May

Athens, Greece

Amsterdam - May/June

Dublin, Ireland

Istanbul, Turkey – June

Nairobi, Kenya – June

Armenia/Georgia – July

Seoul, South Korea – July

Auckland, New Zealand – July

HOME - July

If any of you readers are interested in joining, let me know. Pretty pumped for the rest of my time here! Talk sooooon(er)

Ps, I haven't shaved since April...