Allergy/Immunology: First Day

Yesterday afternoon I drove 4 hrs down to Houston to spend my month here for my A/I rotation. I found a room on craigslist; a PhD student owns several condos with her husband and sublets individual rooms to traveling nurses and visiting medical students for short-term leases. She was very nice and helpful, even riding along in my car to show me where the bus stops and grocery stores were. The room I'm paying for consists of a spacious desk, full-sized bed, walk-in closet, TV, internet access, and my own bathroom (yes, I got the master bedroom!), and my housemate is a traveling nurse who's currently on vacation so I haven't met her yet. She also supposedly works nights, so our schedules will be opposite of each other (which I think works out pretty well). As long as the bathroom is in my room, I can stay in my room all day except when working and cooking, since the kitchen area is shared. So far so good.

This morning I took the bus to the TMC and was amazed by how big it was; it's been 4 years since I saw it last, after all. When I arrived, I went to the registrars office and was sent several blocks away to get my health records approved. Then I had to return to the registrar only to go on another long trip around the building to get my badge made and pay my student fees. Only then did I get a letter with my elective (Immunology) and contact person. So I called the doctor whose name was on the paper, and he said, "So, you're doing rheumatology at the VA?" Umm...that was NOT what I signed up for and told him so, and he gave me the name of the allergy-immunologist working at Baylor, Dr. O. I called her and explained the situation, and she was very nice and told me to meet her at the clinics at Ben Taub. There I met two other residents along with Dr. O, and we saw a few patients together. Some had allergy skin tests done so I got to see wheal size and how people determine what they're allergic to. We also got to see an inpatient who was allergic to PCN and needed a ceftriaxone challenge to see if that could be given to him safely. Noon conference was pretty much a huge lecture on immunology basis, some which I remembered, most which I've forgotten. Afterwards I went to Dr. O's office and we discussed the schedule for this week and what I should get out of this rotation. I got a huge pile of notes (and even a sample test) to study in my spare time, as well as a journal that will be discussed tomorrow at journal club. Later Dr. O accompanied down to the registrar's office to tell the coordinator that she'll be my grading attending since the information on the BCM website is extremely outdated. At any rate I'm glad things have worked out well. I like Dr. O and the fellows seem like nice people. This rotation should be a good one =)