Possibilities

This morning I volunteered at a flu clinic targeting Albany's refugee community, families from Bhutan and Nepal, Thailand, Iraq, and Africa, among others. The clinic came about a joint effort between Koinonia Primary Care, Albany's Refugee Health Round Table, and SUNY's School of Public Health. Koinonia is a family medicine clinic and federally qualified community health center serving the Arbor Hill community; most of their patients are African American and religious Christians, although they are open to all and serve some refugees as well. For this event, there was a specific drive to reach a different community, including Muslim families.

Accordingly, the student groups who volunteered for the flu clinic came from three campus clubs: Care from the Start, where students see patients at Koinonia; IMANA, which runs clinics at a mosque; and AMCRI, which works with the refugee families directly. We learned to fill syringes with vaccine and give shots, while downstairs, interpreters welcomed families and explained paperwork. Dr. Bob of Koinonia supervised but once we got running, we ran entirely independently, even training the next group on our own.

So what if we had a student-run clinic every Saturday, built out of the three clubs whose efforts currently run in parallel? Imagine the possibilities...

Then I came home to a quick lunch of cold sesame noodles, all components made ahead of time and just in need of assembly. A lunch produced through cultural exchange:

I am reblogging* this recipe from here, which was adapted from Fuchsia Dunlop's cookbook Land of Plenty, which translates Chinese recipes for American home cooks. Think of it as a recipe that has traveled a long way to your computer screen.

(*I used the condiments that I happened to have at home, and thinly sliced cucumbers instead of the other veggies.)

Model patients

Last year, my grandmother, who was 83 and dying of everything, was my model patient for each theme. In the order of molecular biology, musculoskeletal, nervous system, cardiovascular, respiratory and renal, endocrine systems, and microbiology, she had or had had a melanoma, osteoporosis; hypertension, atrial fibrillation and blood clots; emphysema, renal failure requiring dialysis, hypothyroidism, and C dif. The hypothyroidism she actually did not acquire until the month we began the theme. It was not, as one might expect, that she made me feel sad about each disease as we learned about it; rather, I had to check my enthusiasm when finding connections between her experience and my daily lectures. She was kind enough to humor my enthusiasm without taking offense. She was also one of the few people who cared about me enough to listen to me ramble about med school on my cell phone while walking home from class.

She died over the summer; I was away, it was time, we were prepared. For those reasons and others I felt sad but not distraught.

Today, as I began to study a heap of pharmacology flashcards, drugs for COPD came up time and again, and each time I thought of my grandmother, and whether she had ever taken them, and what side effects she had (and what drug interactions!).

My grandmother's favorite peanut butter cookies:

• 1 cup natural peanut butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together peanut butter and sugar, then egg, then baking soda. Roll into 1" balls and place 1" apart on a baking sheet. Flatten each with a fork in a cross-hatch pattern. Bake for about 10 minutes, until crispy.

She liked these so much that she was the only person I've known to look disappointed when I arrived once with a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies.