The Limping Embryo:
Toxic Synovitis.  

This is the first episode of our podcast, published on March 3, 2020.  Dr Arreaza explains the  format of the podcast and explains toxic synovitis.  

Episode 1 has a purposefully confusing name. Dr Arreaza briefly explains toxic synovitis and we introduce our sections Espanish Por Favor, Speaking Medical and For Your Sanity. 

The sun rises over the San Joaquin Valley, California, this week the Coronavirus is all over the internet. The official name is COVID-19. As of February 27, 2020, over 80,000 people are estimated to be infected with coronavirus worldwide, with about 2,700 deaths2. It is spreading fast. There are 60 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States1. No deaths have been reported so far. The coronavirus story is developing as I talk right now. 

In the meantime, there are about 40 million people infected by Influenza A&B (yes, 40 million), which have caused about 40,000 deaths around the world (40,000). Headlines about influenza A&B are less common these days.  

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Welcome to Rio Bravo qWeek, the podcast of the Rio Bravo Family Medicine Residency Program, recorded weekly from Bakersfield, California, the land where growing is happening everywhere.

The Rio Bravo Family Medicine Residency Program trains residents and students to prevent illnesses and bring health and hope to our community. Our mission: To Seek, Teach, and Serve. 

Sponsored by Clinica Sierra Vista, Providing compassionate and affordable care to patients throughout Kern and Fresno counties since 1971.

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Hello everyone, this is our first episode of Rio Bravo qWeek Podcast, which I called “The limping embryo”. An embryo is the elemental stage of an organism which evolves into a baby and then becomes an adult. This is the first episode (the embryo) of many more episodes that will come. BUT Why is this a “LIMPING” embryo? I invite you to listen until the end to find out.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Hector Arreaza. As you can tell, I was not born in Minnesota or Oregon, and I’m reminded frequently about it when people ask me “Where are you from?”. The answer to that question is not easy, but I’ll try to keep it simple. I was born and raised in Venezuela (South America, or how some people may call it, “one of those Mexican countries”). I graduated from Medical school there, and when I was 24 years old, I served as a missionary in Salt Lake City, Utah. I went back to Venezuela for a few months and returned to the United States searching to further my education in a residency program. After spending some years as a Spanish translator, I found a residency spot in Bakersfield, California, where I completed a residency in Family medicine. I practiced primary care in a community health center for about 1 and a half years, and Dr Stewart, who is the program director of my residency program, offered me a position as faculty in the very same residency I graduated from. It has been over one year, and I am loving it.

This podcast has been created to promote teaching and learning among residents, medical students, and faculty, and whoever listens to us wherever you are in the world. I hope you can enjoy it. 

“What we know is a drop… what we do not know is an ocean.” (Isaac Newton) 

“What we know is a drop”. That little drop of knowledge that we know is becoming larger and larger over time. Medicine has experienced many advances recently, and it is complicated to keep up with all the knowledge available to us. The idea of this podcast is to provide some traces of knowledge, maybe a mini-micro-drop to complement your study during your residency.

During our podcast we will focus on 5 questions. A different guest will be invited to participate every week, and I will conduct the interview. The questions are:

Question Number 1: Who are you? (the interviewee will have about 20 se