this was our first clinical clerkship of the year. we did a large number of blood draws each morning. i spent some good time in the emergency department, especially toward the end when i made some orthopedic resident friends who took care of all the little lacerations. every day for ten weeks, four great ladies and i got to commute one hour each way from beer sheva to ashkelon in a school provided shuttle. every day we would drive by the erez crossing into gaza (and i’d wish i could go in), and through the town of sderot which is famous for being the town in israel always hit by hamas rockets (so it is where all the american politicians go for photo opportunities if they want to be known as the israel-loving type). ashkelon is also just a few kilometers from gaza, and barzilai hospital where we were at is having a new rocket-proof wing built. i guess evacuating the emergency department every five minutes during the gaza wars was hampering some people’s style.
thankfully, i found a bro in the hospital who offered me a room in his apartment for a few weeks so i didn’t have to commute as much. later i was able to sleep in a hospital provided room. evening runs along the beach followed by swims in the mediterranean sea were excellent, and ashkelon has a few remnants of its history as a philistine and later muslim city. overall though, nowadays ashkelon isn’t really considered a desirable place to live for many. it has a lower cost of living than many other cities in israel, so there are huge numbers of immigrants, especially from the former soviet union. indeed, all the elderly patients on our ward spoke russian, usually exclusively. at times it was difficult to find a patient on the ward who even spoke hebrew. interestingly – because any jew can move to israel and receive free health care from the state, there are stories of elderly russians who don’t even really want to be in israel moving here in their old age, after being diagnosed with a chronic disease, for example. not the majority of course, but it happens.
the highlight of the clerkship occurred one day in the gastroenterology suite. as the gastroenterologist was pulling the colonoscopy probe out of the patient’s anus, we heard a loud rumble and before we knew it a projectile splattering of moist diarrhea coated everything in the room. as we and gastroenterologist wiped it out of our eyes, we shared a good laugh. medicine is fun!