In which I develop a preliminary theory............

Woke up with throat still sore despite the USDA Certified Organic Peruvian Tea Gripal. I managed to doll myself up (see photo for backup outfit recommended by Ann Dayton), though, for my first Seminaria Laminas (glass microscope slide unknown case conference for the residents) at 9 AM and my Big Grand Rounds (in the Hospital Auditorio!) at 11 AM. The residents were very impressive at the slide conference but I suspect that my answers had been leaked to them by their senior staff (as I have been known to do for the residents at the U of M.... you know.....keeps the place from looking shabby....). Lots of folks showed up in the Auditorio for my Grand Rounds, possibly because really great sandwiches and lots of Inca Cola provided. I don't think that most of them understood a damned word of it (por que YO NO HABLO ESPANOL!). Mercifully the Chief of Staff, Dr. Juan Navarro seemed to understand all of it really well and gave an impressive sounding recap in Spanish at the end (impressive sounding even though YO NO COMPRENDO ESPANOL!). He asked me some very good questions and I had to confess to him and the whole audience my Preliminary Theory. My Preliminary Theory being that Peru has un pie (one foot) in this century and the otro pie (other foot) in another century (I was a little vague about what century that might be). I didn't bring up that these guys are actually treating leukemias and lymphomas with cytotoxic chemotherapy and doing bone marrow transplants in a country that doesn't even have a blood banking system and in a hospital that doesn't even have a computerized laboratory information system (when they send a tube of blood to the laboratory on a patient, even a bone marrow transplant patient, they have to wait to get a printed paper report on the patient's chart to know the results of any lab tests). I have been told that they are expecting me to make recommendations. If any of you friends, family or colleagues out there have suggestions I will be more than willing to pass them on.

Well, gotta go rest up! Tonight I get to attend a big meeting where a famous Oncologist from Lisle in the South of France is going to give a lecture on Multiple Myeloma (I tried to beg off but couldn't make myself understood because YO NO HABLO ESPANOL!). I think that I slept through this same guy's lecture when he gave it in mangled English at the American Society of Hematology meeting in New Orleans and now I get to sleep through it in French in Lima, Peru. Quelque chose a te dire?!? Buena suerte to us all and hasta manana. (Oh, and, if you're asking, yes, I made it to the gym after work...).