Day 67: The Second Tango

Today was Day 2 for the hospital and the tango classes. I arrived at the hospital this morning at 08.30 and I waited for a short while while Dr. Mazia finished some other work before the patients arrived. Today was Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Day, two of the three patients having this condition, the third something closely similar. With each patient we worked in a different room from his consultation room, one that had an electromyogram machine. This machine using electric stimulation to record nerve conduction. While trying not to make my blog into a sort of medical journal, the machine projects a wave-form graph along with a calculated speed at which the impulse traveled along the nerve. The first patient, an elderly male, jumped around quite a lot with each impulse of the test. The second (who was complaining of pain, not insensitivity in the wrist) was an adult female who whooped an hollered with each impulse. I began to think that this machine was emitting some sort of current equivalent to 10 electric fences or something similar. The third patient, an elderly wheelchair-ridden female, hardly reacted at all. No noises, no jumping around. I presume each reaction must have something to do with each condition because the responses were so varied. Dr. Mazia offered to perform the same test on me so I could understand the patient side, and of course I eagerly accepted.

First he pulsed a small current that twitched my thumb involuntarily and was less 'shocking' than an electric fence (I thought). The second test was with an impulse sent from the elbow joint and it twitched my entire arm. It is a very strange sensation to have muscles act without me "giving" the command. I did not experience any of the pain or shock that the first two patients did, so I think that my presumption holds true.  When Dr. Mazia measured the speed of the impulse, he told me that my nerves were functioning perfectly well and that I did not have carpal tunnel syndrome. Any speed over 50m/s is considered 'normal' and my reading was 66.9m./s.. That is about 150mi./hr., now if I could only translate that, somehow, into voluntary movement, I would definitely be looking to join the track team at Davidson College. I will have to work a bit on that idea.

Dr. Mazia had to go all the way out to the airport today to declare some of the equipment that he is bringing to (and back again from) Canada for the conference, an inconvenience since the airport is terribly far from the city center. He plans to be at the institute tomorrow morning for an hour tops, I will be following a different neurology doctor. The same one who will be teaching the classes I will attend this next week.

I am thinking about asking, in the future not tomorrow, about observing in other areas in the hospital just a bit. I am definitely enjoying the situation as it is, but since I currently have a large section of my afternoon open before the tango-ing, I might be able to work something else out for after I finish my time in the neurology department for each day.

I dropped by the Spanish school today and picked up my certificate from the program. I am going to share this with you all, not to boast, but so that you can all be as surprised as I was at the amount of hours I completed there: 170 hours in "group" classes (including the groups of 1 when I was alone) and 82 hours in private lessons (including the medical Spanish). I had no idea I had spent that long there. Two months sounds like a lot less. Well, I am very happy with how that all worked out, and I could not have asked for a better way to improve my Spanish.

The tango class today was at 5.00p with two different instructors. There are quite a few instructors that teach in the studio (for lack of a more appropriate term) on different days at different times. I talked with Ceferina and she had spoken with my program coordinator about the financial part of things, so everything is in place. I have the option to take 5 group classes each week, or 1 private (equal to 3 group classes in price) and 2 group. I think I shall do the latter since I will benefit from one-on-one attention. Hmm, how interesting how that configuration is exactly the same as my academic plan. I just realized that. The class itself today was great. The two teachers were very friendly, helpful and definitely knew there stuff and I was the only foreigner (which I liked). There was no English spoken (well maybe 3 words) and so I felt much better than yesterday when things were in Spanglish. After some exercises we started working with a short little routine of about 7 or 8 steps (it is hard for me to count the steps since they are all so new to me). It was definitely a challenge, but I think I stepped up and did alright. At least I made the barman smile. Yesterday he was actually grimacing at me. How embarrassing. The phrase of the night tonight was poco a poco since I had to keep asking questions about where is the weight, what is the position of (insert body part) etc, etc. Those two instructors are there every Monday, they are dropping the Thursday spot after next week, so I think I will make an effort to be there for their classes.

There is just one more, non-activity, thing that I would like to share tonight. I intended to mention it a few days ago, but I always remembered that I wanted to include it while walking, not while writing. I frequently think about how I am going to write up the days events in my blog just after they happen, or even while the are happening. The funny thing is that I am now so accustomed to mentally translating all my thoughts, or in the best circumstances, thinking them directly in Spanish, that I forget that for the blog I can use English. This is the only time in the day that I actually use English for more than a sentence at a time. I have also caught myself translating my thoughts, however random the are, during the day. I wonder how long, when I return to the U.S., that this custom of translating will continue even though it is no longer required.

Anyways, off to bed. I get to sleep an extra half hour tomorrow morning since the other doctor does not start until 09.00. So to not spoil it by staying up later, I will head to bed now without reading any of El eternauta.

Chicken for dinner, super yummy.

Chao.