Hi friends! Long time no blog talk!
I have really been avoiding the blog because November blew up into a crazy month of studying, traveling, working, and not doing much else.
So where did we last leave off?
After a week on plastics I took off for Las Vegas for the American Academy of Ophthalmology conference.
I feel really privileged that I was able to go to the conference, because most of my first year ophtho friends around the country didn’t get to go! Mayo kindly allows us to attend the conference as first years so I was super excited. Thousands of ophthalmologists from around the world gathered in Vegas for a weekend of sharing clinical experience, research, new technological advances, and new ideas of the business of ophthalmology.
I arrived early Friday morning and checked into the Cosmopolitan. I was just in Vegas in March for Kelly’s bachelorette party, so I was eager to compare hotels and the work vs. party experience in Vegas.
My hotel was GORGEOUS. The room was gigantic with a large terrace, sleeping area, living room with a desk and couch, and a huge bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub and walk in shower. Hallelujah! I couldn’t wait to just relax and enjoy a few days to myself without my pager or patients to see. I had big goals to workout, get some studying done, sleep a lot, and learn from the sessions at the conference I was planning to attend.
The conference didn’t really start until Saturday, and not much was going on on Friday, so I took full advantage of a free-day. I started by relaxing in my room for a bit, but then I got hungry. I wanted to pick up a few snacks for the weekend, so I did a quick search of the strip to find a local grocery store.
As luck would have it, there was a Whole Foods 3 miles away, so I decided to jog there as a little workout, pick up dinner and lots of snacks, and then walk back.
That was an excellent idea. I bought all kinds of yummy things to take back to my hotel room. After my 3 mile jog there and 3 mile walk back, I felt like I had a decent workout for the day, so I took a long bubble bath and cuddled up in the hotel robe.
I ate a huge dinner, studied a little, and even watched a movie. It was GLORIOUS.
I know some people might not consider a jog to the grocery store, bubble bath, dinner in a hotel room, and going to bed at 8:30 typical for Las Vegas, but it was EXACTLY what I wanted to do and it felt so so good 🙂
Saturday I woke up bright and early for the conference. I signed up to attend the cornea sub-specialty day with my co-resident Nitika.
We spent most of the morning learning about HSV Keratitis, Zoster, Bacterial Keratitis, Dry eye, and more. The whole session was super high-yield and I took tons of notes.
Later on Saturday, we parted ways and got ready for dinner. Mike, our third co-resident wanted steak for dinner, so we decided to check out Gordon Ramsey’s steak restaurant.
I started the meal with a $17 glass of wine- holy moly I cant afford Vegas!
We all split a salad, which was almost the best part of the meal.
Nitika and I both got the beef wellington for dinner, which is one of Gordon Ramsey’s signature dish. I’ve seen him make it on Master Chef and it looked delicious so I had to try it!
It was good, but the steak was a little on the rare side for me (which is how it’s supposed to be served I’m sure) and I prefer my steak more medium-well. Oh well. I’m just not classy enough for beef wellington 😉
On Sunday, I attended a fluorescein angiography class, which was SO helpful. I learned a ton about the imaging technique and how to read my own FAs in the future.
Sunday afternoon I left for the airport and landed back in Minnesota late Sunday night- just in time to go to bed and get up early for work on Monday.
My first trip to AAO was a success and I can’t wait to return next year- hopefully with some research to present!
QUESTIONS:
Have you gone on business or work trips? How about educational conferences? Would you have gone out partying or stayed in after a bubble bath like me?
I love the idea of staying in…. looks so comfy. Although I did go partying when I went to a conference. The conference schedule itself included something called Gala dinner which had free food and free drinks…
Nice!
My dad is an ophthalmologist (in Maryland) and he was at the conference, too!
No way!!!! Is he a general ophthalmologist or does he specialize in something?
He is a general ophthalmologist in the community! Are you planning to specialize? I’m a peds resident planning to go for cards 🙂
Sounds like this was an amazing opportunity, and I am glad you were allowed to document it on your blog. That hotel is luxurious, and I would love to stay in something similar next time I am in Vegas. I have a feeling you’d have to pry me from that tub though.
I didn’t want to get out of the tub!!
Hi Andrea! That wild night in sounds so appealing to me lol. To answer your questions at the end of the post, I’m an SLP and attended the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) conference last year while I was still in grad school. It was amazing and so inspiring being around so many professionals in the same field! A bunch of my classmates went too, so we did end up partying one night, but we didn’t over-do it of course 🙂
That sounds so fun!!!!