4th Year: July August September
3rd year: Family Pediatrics Medicine( 1) Med(2)
Med(3)
Surgery(1)
Surg(2) Surg(3) Psychiatry Ob/Gyn
Index
FAQs
Other Interesting People: GabeL
Jenny
Kissaknee Lucas Yolanda
August 30,
2004
The Parents:
Went home on my day
off to hang out with the parents a little before they leave for
Saw Hero with my pop yesterday afternoon. Actually would have been very interesting if
he could hear more than half of what anyone says to him. He did share that it was a moving story for
him, as a person forced to flee his country and displaced by civil war. Also my parents shared some Chinese folklore
with me over dinner… pretty neat stories.
Hero was a pretty
good flick. Pretty fun fight scenes and
use of color. I didn’t like the
translation much… even though I don’t understand Chinese, I know
enough about the culture and language to get a sense of how much meaning is
preserved/lost in subtitling… and
although the subtitles flowed well enough, they had a significant feel of
emptiness to me…
What was most
striking to me was the contrast between Eastern and Western conceptions of
self-sacrifice. There’s a profound
passivity or… what’s the word I’m trying to think of…
uh, kind of yielding… that occurs in Eastern self-sacrifice. While Western self-sacrifice values action and
struggle… There’s also a
very un-Western concept of utilitarianism that is present in the film. As a Christian, when you apply this thought to
the Christ story (nothing really new), it’s got a much more of an Eastern
philosophical flavor than Western… Cool
Hand Luke draws this out pretty well, I think. Maybe this also explains why so many Asians
are passive-aggressive… oy.
Rotation Update:
Things are going
smoothly so far. The patients I’ve
had haven’t been too complex or sick, so it’s been relatively
simply work... and I’ve been able to handle everything for the most part…
starting my 5 night shifts tonight. Kind
of excited – since nights have the lowest coverage levels, I’ll
have a pretty high level of independence…
Just need to try to take a nap sometime before I start at 1100pm.
Favorite Attending:
Went out for drinks
with my attending, and the residents and med students after swing shift Saturday
night. The attending bought everyone
drinks. Definitely my favorite doc now.
Freedom Fighter:
Hey MH, I met my temporary
housemate’s wife.
August 27, 2004
Apodyopsis:
Leisure activity of
the day.
First Shift:
Had my first shift
yesterday. Only half a shift really
since we were excused for med student lectures in the afternoon. Went pretty smoothly – my patients were
very straight forward and I discharged both before I went to lecture. My patient presentations aren’t the
most concise still – hopefully just getting the jitters out. I’m on swing shift today.
I have a terrible
time with getting attending physician names right the first time. I’ve referred to “Mallon” as “Bellon.” Yesterday, I read “
August 25, 2004
Having a good time so
far – hung out with MH and her teacher buddies some (although they gave
me a collective dirty look when I told them I’m living in
My place is
okay. Only drawback is that it’s
kind of dusty (but, MH’s heavy-duty vacuum
saved me) and I don’t have a phone line – which means that I have
to check my email at work or at the handful of free wi-fi
coffee shops I’m starting to check out.
So, my blogging will be kind of sporadic over
the next 4-5 weeks.
What else… oh yeah,
the weather is awesome. I love Bay Area
weather – warm days, cool/cold nights.
The
Kind of
stressed/worried about my first real shift tomorrow. Just shadowed nurses yesterday <yawn>,
and had 6 hours of lecture today.
Anyhow, I’m going to be functioning on the intern level… for
real this time. Kind of did that at MCO,
but the patients were usually not very sick at all… plus, the sickest
patients were seen by the docs immediately.
At LA County, always had my resident seeing my patient concurrently, so
they always covered my lapses… but this time, they told us flat out that
we’re working at the same level of responsibility as the interns. I’m going to be working one-on-one with
the attendings now instead of via the resident
chain… really really
different from LA County… have to get used to it. Feel like I’m as prepared as I’m
going to be though… was just getting the hang of working on my own at MCO
by the end of that month… and LA county was really a wake-up call about
how thorough and thoughtful I really need to be with these county
patients…
Well. We shall see.
Oh yeah. Time with the folks was uneventful as
usual. Actually not going to see my
family much at all – the parents are headed to
August 21, 2004
18
eight-hour shifts w/5 straight nights + conference/lectures.
Days off
fit in with England’s
World Cup prelim matches in Sept.
Now just need to get my Anglophile cousin to skip her frosh classes at
USC/LAC Residency Program
Impressions:
From my
impressions on my sub-I month there……
Pros – High level of independence
and responsibility. Tons of procedures
and critical care experience. EM
Residents run traumas. EM docs have
admitting privileges. Residents are
super-sharp and skilled. Great
faculty. Good ancillary staff. Everyone seems to get along.
Cons – LA County Hospital
is… not so nice – old, inefficient, and very overcrowded. Low attending coverage. Residents seem very tired by their senior
year.
August 20, 2004
Be Careful:
I went to Coffee
Society in
Oops.
…not even close to the “(½ x age) +
7 years” rule...
Oy. I must be a lot
more Asian-deprived than I thought if my age-guesses are off by that
much… ugg… I think I need a date soon, before I totally
lose it.
August 19, 2004
Torrey Pines:
Had a great time at
the
Dumb Accident:
So, I missed getting
smashed this morning by about 20 feet.
There I am, a bit north of
I was thinking of jumping
out and being super-exEMT/med
student, but after the CHP officer checked out the dude in the corolla and
seemed pretty calm, I decided against it… not much I can do with my
stethoscope, a roll of tape, some 2x2 gauze pads, trauma shears, and penlight… unless he needed CPR or was bleeding
profusely, there wasn’t anything that I could have done that the CHP
wouldn’t be able to handle by himself.
Plus, like I said, the lady in the Suburban and her passengers were
doing quite well.
Well, THANK GOD I wasn’t
one car position ahead of where I was.
That might have been a lovely way to end my medical career
prematurely. Plus, on a minor note, if I
survived the impact, and was able to crawl out of my car, I think I might have
abandoned all Christian principle and witness to rip into that lady.
Home:
I’m home until
Sunday when I head up to my sublet in
August 18, 2004
Tan:
I’m finally tan
again… sort of… have a wicked tank-top tan after getting burned at
Dog Beach – my dog from college was soooooo
needy! She wanted so much attention, I
ended up staying out a lot longer than I intended without anti-sun-slop. Ouch.
Now, every turn in bed hurts… ugg.
Weird dreams:
Had a bunch of weird
dreams last night… couple I can’t remember about death or
something… not me, but other people dying… actually I do remember
one image of this woman at LAC who got the end of her foot amputated in a car
accident… pretty intense dream for whatever reason – woke me up and
got me breathing pretty hard… then, followed up by one of my ex-gf still
being a beeyotch… but this time on some TV interview…
I don’t think I
ever mentioned on here that I don’t hate that girl anymore. It’s been a while, but I actually heard
third-hand of some sad events that caused me to pity her to the extent that
almost all of that bitterness kind of just went away. I was actually driven to pray for her for the
first time since the breakup. Pretty
impressive change, actually. So, on my
list, she’s gone from the most despised person on the planet to about the
same level as the dirtbags I see in the ER…
worthy of pity and some baseline dignity, but not respect.
These several days
have been great. Monday, I slept in,
went to
I think, while I was
here, I was supposed to contact the Emergency Med program at UCSD to arrange to
shadow a resident for half a shift and meet the program director or something…
oh well. =) The beach calls.
Did I mention that
the UCSD campus is gorgeous? Maybe less
so with the slow, progressive chopping down of trees, but even all the new
buildings (weird that my college is now under the shadows of behemoth
engineering buildings) fit the character of the campus pretty well… Man, so much nostalgia walking around that
place…
August 14, 2004
Glowing review:
My housemate got an
impossibly glowing review by her attending and residents… During her exit
interview, her attending offered to
write her a letter of rec before she could even
ask. Apparently her supervising senior
resident and fellow made remarks such as, “the best sub-internship med
student I’ve had for the entire past year,” and “great analytical
skills,” and so forth… Her
impression was that if she wanted it, they’d give her a residency spot
without hesitation.
In contrast, my
resident’s concluding remarks were, “Hey dude. It’s been good working with you. I can’t say anything bad about you.” Uh.
Okay. Thanks?
I should get an
Honors grade though – scored high enough on the quiz on Friday…
well, depends on MCO ultimately… I don’t underestimate how they can
screw up my grades…
I also met up with
Dr. M this morning who’s gonna write me a letter
of rec. Went through my application
materials (which was still missing stuff from MCO even though I asked them to
fax over stuff 2 weeks ago. Thanks for
the help, guys.) and had some encouraging stuff to say… made me feel
pretty decent about my chances at USC at least… which is something… Also got the chance to ask him some questions
about the program and let him know some of the stuff I appreciated about the
program too.
New Building:
The new
It’s too bad
they just can’t renovate the old building. Built in 1933 (my original guess of the 1950s
was wrong), it has the classic ‘American Empire’ look. Lots of concrete, straight lines, and towers
capped with those characteristic arches.
Neat look in an otherwise architecturally uninteresting city.
Headed down to
But first, heading to
Cock and the Bull English pub in Santa Monica with my anglophile buddy to watch
the Manchester U vs Chelsea match on the English
Premier League’s opening weekend… at 800am!!! Means I need to head out of here with all my
stuff packed by 700am so I can pick her up by 730am… ugg. That’s a benefit of living in the
eastern time zone… besides being able to sleep in until a decent time on
the weekend, you can also watch European soccer matches at a proper drinking
hour…
August 9, 2004
Is Dead Silence a Good Thing?:
I got an
email Friday morning that my case presentation was going to be today at
300pm. Plenty of time… if I
wasn’t working all
weekend! So I threw something together
Friday afternoon and this morning… spent like $25 at Kinko’s
printing stuff out and making copies… So, here I am, with my boring topic
(CT scans in appendicitis)… last
to go after one hour and two other presentations… and I get almost total
silence… not unexpected from the med students – pretty dry stuff
and sitting there for 1 hour+ gets pretty rough… but, I got only like 1-2
questions by the attending vs the several dozen
during the first talk. I dunno. Feel kind of
cheated… for that stressful rush job and $25, I figured I’d get
something more out of it…
Sad:
I changed
the diaper of a 44 year-old guy on Saturday.
One of the most pitiful things I’ve seen – a young guy who
had totally crippled his liver and himself by drinking and drugs… I
couldn’t not change his sheets
and diaper seeing him pissing on himself.
God that’s sad.
Description of Palos Verdes by Dr. M:
“Filthy
rich vasculo-paths overlooking the ocean.”
Almost Done:
Hard to
imagine. But, I’ve only got one
more shift left. It went really
fast. Dunno
what to think of it. Weird – I
don’t feel like I actually learned all that much. Mostly reinforcing/reminding stuff, getting
used to the ER-mindset, and getting a little more independent with each
shift. Feel like I spent most of my time
trying to figure out the logistics and how to work all the different pieces of
equipment. Part of me feels like I
should have been reading more on my own… but, even stuff I read
didn’t seem to fill the in the gaps that I had… I dunno. Well, gotta cram for the quiz end of this week. Then, will have a week off to study up and
try to really prep for
Litmus Test/Red Flags:
This came
up during some recent conversations – how to evaluate potential
significant others.... Examples of some
I’ve heard…
Litmus Test
= how comfortable a person is with silence.
Litmus Test
= how a person treats service staff.
Red Flag =
girls with more than 2 problems at any particular time.
Red Flag =
girls with more new credit cards than books read in the same time period.
Red Flag =
med student. Ha ha
August 5, 2004
Best Birthday Gift:
After work I had to
head to Wild Oats Market to pick up dinner and toilet paper (who knew my
housemates would live without tp for 2 days?). Dumping my nasty scrubs, I just threw on some
shorts and the t-shirt on the top of the pile… which happened to be the
‘Tofu Ninja’ shirt from this year’s Tofufest. Kind of fit in wearing that at Wild
Oats. Got a ‘hey man, I like your
shirt’ from some guy working in the deli.
Got a ‘I really like your shirt.
It’s cute. Where did you
get it?’ from the cute cashier… nice… The Tofu Ninja wins.
24-Hour Shift:
I’m crazy. I worked/had lecture from 700am Tuesday to
700am Wednesday. I actually kind of had to pick up the night shift because
it was my last reasonable chance to work with the attending who’s going
to write me a letter of rec… turned out I only
did two patient presentations to him for a total of about 2 minutes of
talking… otherwise just hung around trying to stay awake and interested
during a couple impromptu teaching sessions for the residents… Actually was a fairly benign shift. Was the quietest shift I had since I’ve
been here. The last four hours were
inconceivable – were just sitting on labs and admissions for all our patients…
and no traumas for all that time… my attending was even able to take a 3
hour nap on the couch in the ER library.
Nice.
Aftermath:
At the end of the
shift, he told me that he wanted to meet up with me this morning at 700am to go
through my application!!! Not cool. I wasn’t expecting to meet with him
until next week… so I had one half-awake, half-day to prep for a virtual
interview… So, got my three hours
of sleep. Grabed
lunch at the LAC cafeteria. Had to go to
a lecture until 200pm. Headed to JS’s place in
I woke up late this
morning, rushed to work to make my meeting in time, even less awake than I
expected to be. Not good. Fortune was on my side – Dr. M was too
tired after his night shift to go through things with me in detail, so he just
took a brief look at my CV… And,
good god… he liked
it… He actually sounded pleasantly
surprised with the content. He said that
I was ‘in good shape’… whew… that’s
encouraging… We’re going to reschedule for next week.
Ugg. I’m
tired. 36 of 60 hours at LA County. I’m going to sleep.
August 2, 2004
Good Day:
Slept
in… got my first Asian haircut in over 6 months… had a great
Mexican torta in Santa Monica… hung out with a
couple friends for the entire afternoon.
Not the quiet day of studying I was planning…
Crunch Time:
This may be
my last week to really try to impress – I’ve only got five more
shifts left. Hopefully, by now,
I’ve got the system down, and can concentrate on managing my
patients. Ugg. Feel pretty inadequate. Actually, kind of worried that I’ve
spent too much time with friends instead of concentrating on the
rotation… I dunno. Well, we’ll see.
July 31, 2004
Post-Night
Shift:
Woke up by the cleaning lady
today… kicked out of my room so she could vacuum, change the sheets, etc etc… maybe a good thing, ‘cause after my alarm
went off, waking me up after 2 hours of sleep, I was just laying in bed, pretty
much ready to sleep until dinner and then, really really
screw up my sleep cycle… did take a nap on the patio, so I’m
feeling decent right now.
Last night was good. Started off kind of not very good. Had the chance to do the FAST ultrasound exam
on a trauma that rolled in… started to do it, but wasn’t getting
really good shots of the hepato-renal pouch, so it
got taken over pretty quick by a resident… but, things went a bit better
after that. Got a positive Obturator sign on a rule-out appendicitis case that was
confirmed by the 1st year surgical intern (all those
‘classic’ physical findings seem pretty rare to me). Didn’t have too many patients to manage,
but they went fairly smoothly. Got to
try a LP, but it was really difficult, and my resident even took something like
15+ minutes to do it. Got in a thoracentesis at the end of the shift. Drew off 2 liters of fluid out of a
woman’s lungs. A little nerve-wracking
though. The thoracentesis
needle was pretty large (16-gauge? 14?) and it was taking quite a bit of
pressure to puncture the skin… so I was pushing… and, it
wasn’t budging… then… POP!...
It slipped in a good 2 inches before I stopped myself and fluid started pouring
out. Good god, I thought I might have
punctured part of her lung by accident… luckily, all was well. Whew.
I think I should start putting a
check mark on the sleeve of my scrubs every time I chop off a trauma
patient’s pants. Or little shapes
of scissors/trauma shears. Kind of like
my own kill signs. By my count, I would
have almost qualified to be an ace after just last night.
While cutting off pants on a trauma:
Nurse 1: “Aw, you need a
bigger one (trauma shears).”
Me:
“Um, that’s not a very nice thing to say…”
Nurse 1: <laughs>
Nurse 2: “What?”
Nurse 1: “ha ha, I
said he needs a bigger one.”
Me:
“Well, it’s not the size, but how you use it, right?”
Nurse 2: “Who believes that?”
Home:
CA has been really nice. REALLY nice.
Friends. Food. Weather.