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December 30, 2004

 

More Home:

Ah. I get pretty bored after a week of not-talking with my dad and shopping with my mom. My brother dropped by after dinner then somehow got my dad started talking about living trusts/wills… good grief, I felt like going to sleep.

 

Getting a little restless with moving around so much—ready to hit San Diego and stay in one spot for more than a week straight. Maybe I’m just restless with med school and ready to move on already. I do miss all the great Asian food around here.

 

English Women:

Someone told me that the female:male ratio in England is 4:1. Sounds like an ideal environment for a bachelor, but I dunno about English women. I think, with a few notable exceptions, English women are generally not the most attractive lot. In fact, when they get piss-drunk, and the sophisticated English accent basically turns into garbage, they can be straight away disgusting. I may be over-generalizing, but the one time I went to Ministry of Sound, I wasn’t very impressed. The Scottish women, on the other hand…….

 

Random Thought:

Has anyone else realized that if you go to a stadium-seating movie theatre, you can see the tops of everyone’s heads? Isn’t that funny? I mean, what are people generally self-conscious about? Stuff that other people can see, that they can’t, right? Eg gum on the buttocks, kick me notes on backs, facial deformities, and… tops of heads! So, when you’re sitting high in a movie theatre and can see dozens and dozens of people’s tops of their heads below you, when else do you wield so much social power? When can you hold such a mass of people under such a huge collective vulnerability?

 

It’s also like cloud-watching—you can pick out different shapes and animals out of people’s hair. Heehee

 

… and, finally, Happy New Year!

 

 

December 26, 2004

 

“So anyway, I spent three days at home, immersed in the chaos of domestic life, happy as a puppy—romping with the little ones, bestowing affection indiscriminately, following my wife from room to room.”

 

“As I was sitting there drinking my beer and savoring my plush surroundings, some guy came in with a plastic collecting container from which the original label had been roughly scratched, and asked me for a donation for handicapped children.

‘Which handicapped children?’ I asked.

‘Ones in wheelchairs like.’

‘I mean which organization do you represent?’

‘It’s, er, the, er, Handicapped Children’s Organization like.’

‘Well, as long as it’s totally legitimate,’ I said and gave him 20p. And that is what I like so much about Liverpool. The factories may be gone, there may be no work, the city may be pathetically dependent on soccer for its sense of destiny, but the Liverpudlians still have character and initiative, and they don’t bother you with preposterous ambitions to win the bid for the next Olympics.”

 

“I made a cup of coffee and, while the kettle boiled, changed into dry clothes, then sat on the edge of the bed with a coffee and a rich tea biscuit, and watched a Welsh-language soap opera called Pobel Y Cwm on television, which I enjoyed very much. . . . It was an odd experience watching people who existed in a recognizably British milieu—they drank tea and wore Marks & Spencer cardigans—but talked in Martian. Occasionally, I was interested to note, they dropped in English words—‘hi ya,’ ‘right then,’ ‘OK’—presumably because a Welsh equivalent didn’t exist, and in one memorable encounter a character said something like ‘Wlch ylch aargh ybsy cwm dirty weekend, look you,’ which I just loved. How sweetly endearing of the Welsh not to have their own term for an illicit bonk between Friday and Monday.”

Bill Bryson, Notes from a Small Island

 

Home:

Typical holiday at home. Lots of sleeping, eating, and reading. Being my mum’s personal escort on her walks and shopping excursions. Catching up with friends. Did I mention that I love the Bay Area?

 

I’ve just realized that last night was the third consecutive night I’ve slept in the same bed—first time in about three weeks that I’ve broken the two-night mark.

 

I’m still thinking about my rank list a lot. My most recent obsessive thought has been giving up on Highland and put GW #1… especially since GW has a lot more going for it than Highland—the health care policy resources, international travel, DMAT experience, and I fit in with the residents a bit better…  ugg… oh yeah, I’ve also had successive dreams of getting GW on Match Day and finding a flat in Dupont Circle for $500/month. Ha ha

 

I miss my dog too. Even though in her middle-age, her personality disorders are now set for life, she’s still cute. And going for a run is easier since she pulls me along a lot. Can’t wait for San Diego, although not just for my dog… I suppose “my” is a bit exaggerated since I neither took care or her nor disciplined her in any significant way… but I did kind of share my living space with that dog in that condo for one whole year.  Ha ha  Oh yes.  I did also free her as a 6-week old from getting herself hung up in a box spring (long story) for a couple hours, so I do have some legitimate personal stake in her well-being.

 

Reflection on Father Figures:

Since I’ve been home, I’ve realized that my conception of a father is fully deficient.  I have this serious picture gap between early adolescence and adulthood.  Partially due to my personal recoil against my father in high school, and now since he’s deaf (it’s hard to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t ask questions or acknowledge statements, let alone actually understand what you’re saying), my personal experience lacks any sort of conception (positive or negative) of what being a father is to any offspring older than, say, 10 years old. Kind of strange.

 

Reflection on Family Life:

Oddly enough, I realized just a few years ago, that I started actively, but subconsciously, taking mental notes about positive things in families or parents that I’ve interacted with. Like classical music or jazz during dinner. Banking used paper napkins against the kitchen cabinet, over a door, into the trash as an after-meal family ritual. Making fun of the only daughter in mixed company. Having each kid at a certain age choose, plant, and care for a tree. Having each family member pick out a new Christmas ornament every year. Little things, but I think each can add to the ceremony of family life.

 

Reflection on Asian Culture and Dementia:

I think the combination of passive-aggressiveness, patriarchy, and fatalism leads to some ridiculous neuroses.

 

Christmas Loot:

As usual, I get to eat a lot of my mum’s loot of candy. Club Monaco full-zip, hoody.  Money.  2 sets of beer glasses.

 

 

December 23, 2004

 

“Above all, I like to drink in the [Oxford] pubs, where you can sit with a book and not be looked on as a social miscreant; where you can be among laughing, lively young people and lose yourself in reveries of what it was like when you, too, had energy and a flat stomach and thought of sex as something more than a welcome chance to lie down for a while.”

 

“’Come far?’ asked the girl at the desk as I filled in the registration card. The first rule of walking is, of course, to lie through your teeth.

‘Brockenhurst,’ I said, impulsively naming a town thirty miles to the east.

‘Goodness that’s a long way!’

I sniffed in a frankly manful way. ‘Yeah, well, I’ve got a good map.’

‘And where are you off to tomorrow?’

‘Cardiff.’

‘Gosh! On foot?’

‘Never go any other way.’ I hoisted my pack, picked up my room key, and gave her a man-of-the-world wink that would, I fancy, have made her swoon had I been but twenty years younger and considerably better looking, and not had a large dab of cowshit on the end of my nose.”

Bill Bryson, Notes from a Small Island

 

Safe:

Looks like I just dodged the snow in the Midwest.  My trek home was pretty long… my original flight got canceled, so they bumped me to flight 3 hours later… that plus the weather delays made my trip 5-6 hours longer than planned.  Only tremendously irritating thing was some fob lady sitting behind me who was kicking my seat the whole time from Houston to SJ.  Otherwise, I was quite happy to just chill and read – finished Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson, got through much of the Bill Bryson book, picked out the interesting articles in the Dec Annals of EM, and browsed through my Let’s Go guide to France.  Oh yeah, there also was some weird incident involving confused seat numbers… so there was an elderly couple taking two seats on the wrong side of the aisle, and this 30-something year-old dude (politely enough) made them move to the other side.  I understand that there’s comfort in order, but still… the left side of the plane really isn’t all that much different from the right.  I should have politely told him to sit his a** down in one of the empty seats next to me and be a gentleman.

 

Headache:

Trying to figure out my program rank list… I’ve now created several different spreadsheets trying to sort out all the craziness in my head… I think I just need to give it all a rest for all of vacation – then I might have some fresh, and not so befuddled, thinking on the matter.

 

Not a Headache:

I love California.  It was beautiful today – clear blue skies + the Santa Cruz mountains in the background, sunny, temps in the 60s.  I went running in the AM and then later went for a walk with my mum… gorgeous weather.

 

Merry Christmas:

Hope all of you have a safe, enjoyable, and restful holiday.

 

 

December 20, 2004

 

Cincinnati:

Oh boy.  This was a tough one – I needed down a reflective vanilla milkshake right when I got back into Toledo.  There’s no question in my mind that this is one of the top programs in the country.  I can’t find any flaws in the clinical training – in fact, it’s probably the most well-rounded and well-conceived clinical training of all the programs I’ve been to.  Lots of autonomy, early responsibility for an ED module, lots of helicopter flights and scene calls, tons of procedures, and tons of supervision/teaching experience.  It’s got both toxicology and health policy research resources.  And, as the first EM program in the country, I have no doubt that I can get a job ANYWHERE after finishing.  The graduating class’ job placements are VERY impressive.  Ugg.  Only bad parts of the program are that it’s a very tough schedule (close to, if not a bit tougher than, LA County) and I don’t know if I can live in Cincinnati for four years… oy.  This will be tough to figure out where to rank the program… it’s just SO STRONG!  It’s definitely several steps ahead of the next best program on my list… aie.  The residents were cool, too – strong personalities, but not the edginess of some other programs I’ve been to and very laid-back for how busy they are.  But… Cincinnati… sigh…

 

Ugg.  Definitely need a lot of time staring at the ocean……..

 

 

December 18, 2004

 

“At the far end of the room, there moved a pretty young nurse of clear and radiant goodness, caring for these helpless wrecks with boundless reserves of energy and compassion—guiding them to a chair, brightening their day with chatter, wiping dribble from their chins—and I thought, This is just the sort of person I need.”

 

“There is something awfully exhilarating about riding on the top of a double-decker. You can see into upstairs windows and peer down on the tops of people’s heads at bus stops (and when they come up the stairs a moment later, you can look at them with a knowing look that says, ‘I’ve just seen the top of your head’) and there’s the frisson of excitement that comes with careering round a corner or roundabout on the brink of catastrophe.”

Bill Bryson, Notes from a Small Island

 

Step 2:

Score = 221.  Mean = 218.  SD = 23.

Good enough.  Basically got the same score as my Step 1.  They have this nice little graphic breaking down performance by subject matter.  Heehee.  I got one OFF THE CHART!!!… on the Lower Performance end… heehee

 

“I’m getting better”:

I slept for like 12 hours yesterday at the hotel and during my flights.  Also got in a lot of reading.  Slept in my own bed for the first time in about two weeks, too.  Bad thing is my barber Mohammed kind of went crazy on my hair today… really short on the sides/back and then not quite the right symmetry on top… err… well, I suppose I’ll survive my interview on Monday… and hopefully get it cleaned up when in the bay area next week.

 

 

December 16, 2004

 

Hopkins:

Solid program.  First place where the program director talked about the philosophy/mission of the residency, which is a big, big plus to me.  Shows me that there’s real direction and specific goals that they want to fulfill.  I also like how they are really pushing to produce leaders in EM and active residents… these residents were definitely the most admin/research active that I’ve met.  The public health and international resources are huge.   Very impressive.  They drive down the street to do shock-trauma and trauma anesthesia and UMD.  I was worried about the respect of the EM dept in general and problems with admissions, etc.  It doesn’t seem as bad as I had heard.  In fact, a number of the kinks like surg/EM roles during traumas are being worked out right now.  And during our tour, the critical care and peds attendings took time out to talk to us for a couple minutes – shows that there’s good relationships there.

 

Overall, I like programs that are real ‘movers’… seems like Henry Ford, Yale, GW, and Hopkins are very intent in making waves in EM.  I really like their emphasis on academics.  Hahnemann and Detroit Receiving are very strong in academics, too.

 

I’m mentally exhausted.  It was very difficult today.  I hope I can make it through my Cincinnati interview okay.

 

I think what doesn’t help my decreasing enthusiasm is that it’s getting really hard to differentiate these programs…  with a few exceptions, I’m coming out liking all of these programs, so it feels more and more futile trying to flesh out the dirt on places… it seems like all I’m basing my decisions on are the vibe I get from the residents, which city I’ll have the most fun in, and what programs have the coolest perks.

 

I’m going to need a lot of time at the beach doing some real soul-searching in January…

 

 

December 15, 2004

 

I Have a Potty-Mouth:

Uh, I guess my entry from yesterday caused a bit of a stir from LA to Oakland… sorry!   =)  I think I just empathize with this guy a lot….

 

A Little Less Tired:

Slept for 12 hours today.  It felt GREAT.  First slept 10 hours (couldn’t even keep myself awake for sportscenter) and then woke up, checked my email, and then went back to sleep for another 2 hours.  Woke up around 100pm, showered, ate, and then headed to the Hopkins ED to check it out.  Had some really tasty tofu soup at a Korean place with GL and his gf… ah man, if I end up in Baltimore, I think I’m going to live there… and with an asian haircut place down the street, I think I’ll be totally set for three years.  =)

 

Overall, I think I’ve hit the proverbial wall with interviews… I think it was at GW yesterday – at lunch after the interviews, I just couldn’t think of anything to talk about with the residents there… I just wanted to eat my food and go home.  At Hopkins today, I was nearly saying inappropriate things while there and I’m definitely not feeling too enthusiastic right now about smiling and laughing a lot for several hours tomorrow.  I need a break to recharge.  Cincy on Monday will be tough – 3 hour drive… at least they put me up in a hotel and I get dinner the night before.

 

The weekend will be nice.  Can get a much-needed haircut and chill in my apt for a couple nights… I think it’s snowing in Toledo.

 

Speaking of… one thing about these interviews is that when I go to a lot of places, they purposefully try to promote (ie defend) the area… eg “Do you know much about _____?  It’s actually a great area… blah blah blah.”  I don’t know if it’s funny or sad that, for me, they don’t need to say anything except the name of the non-Toledo city and I’m sold.  =)

 

The other quirk about Emergency Medicine interviews is that sometimes they’ll try to sell how bad the area is…  eg “Did you know that Camden is now the most dangerous city in America?  We do trauma rotations there.”…  or…  “Yeah, the area around ____ hospital is really bad.  I heard somewhere that it has the highest rate of HIV in the county.”

 

 

December 14, 2004

 

“There are certain idiosyncratic notions that you quietly come to accept when you live for a long time in Britain.  One is that British summers used to be longer and sunnier.  Another is that the England soccer team shouldn’t have any trouble with Norway.  A third is the idea that Britain is a big place.  This last is easily the most intractable.”

Bill Bryson, Notes From a Small Island

 

GW:

GREAT program.  Can’t think of many things I don’t like.  Perhaps only that the EDs don’t get quite as high a level of indigent patients as the environment I imagined myself in.  Maybe, not as much trauma as I kind of hope for.  Otherwise, those are small concessions to going to GW and being in DC.  Overall, a well-respected program with solid standing in the university.  One of a small handful of places that I can get really into health policy research and disaster medicine.  Also may be able to get involved with the school of public health too.  I like the module system at GW.  Residents seem happy and confident enough.  DC is FUN.  And, TONS AND TONS of perks!!!!  Free tuition for me and my make-believe spouse.  International transport trips senior year.  Although the pay is kind of low for the cost of living, get tons of book and conference allowance.  Man, I like it a lot.  I think it’ll probably be #2 or #3.  It’ll be a tough match – they only have 8 spots a year.

 

Stupid Women:

God it’s sad.  Met a guy whose gf of 4 years dumped him at the drop of a hat, and really f***ed him.  He pretty much arranged his program interviews and all his 4^th year rotations around this seemingly stable girl, only for her to jump into bed with some random dude.  So not only is his personal life ruined, but his interview schedule and entire 4^th year is f***ed up.  He’s hurting pretty good – so I bought him a beer to help him b**** about stuff… sadly, I know what’s he’s going through, and it really really sucks… totally preoccupied with some ungrateful b**** who threw away a really solid relationship for who knows what.  Sucks to be trying to get into interviews with all that s*** going on.  He hasn’t hit the hate-phase yet… it’s going to be ugly after what that b**** put him through.

 

I really don’t get some of these stupid women.  This is just too common to be just coincidence... there’s some pattern here.  I think I’ve decided that some people want an emotional high ALL THE TIME.  So even if their current relationship is solid, after the honeymoon period wanes, this imagined, unconscious deficiency leads them to jump ship at the first hint of feeling that emotional euphoria again with someone else.  So lame.

 

Again, as much of a b**** my ex-gf is, I have to hand it to her, putting me through that god-awful pain is a useful experience in interviews and helping people going through the same thing.

 

Free Dinner:

The hotel lost my car keys, so delayed me from heading back up to Baltimore for several hours… so, the manager offered me a free dinner while I was waiting… I took him up on it – good $50+ dinner.  Probably was a good thing I was forced to hang out in town longer just ‘cause I was pretty buzzed from the two beers I had – they were pretty strong… must have been around 7-8%.  Free dinner, probably not in a condition to drive, and in no rush – so not a bad deal.  =)

 

Tired:

Getting really really tired.  Dinner with LY last night was pretty tough… both were tired… kind of rough, slow conversation.  And, during lunch, just had no energy to make conversation… thank goodness I can crash tonight and just chill for a day before Hopkins…  good thing I’m not going to Jefferson on Friday either… it would have been rough pulling myself through that…  doubly good that I just have Cincy before winter break, then I can chill for a couple weeks before my last 3 interviews in Jan.

 

 

December 13, 2004

 

Hahnemann:

Great program.  Solid, national reputation.  Philadelphia seems like a really great place to live – reasonable cost of living in a fun city, compact enough that it’s not overwhelming.  And, if I need to escape into the suburbs, it’s a pretty short commute (under ½ hour) into the city.  After my interview, I went to watch some live jazz at Zanzibar Blue.  It was really cool… nice way to relax…  I think I’m going to rank Hahnemann pretty high.

 

Flirting:

I had a really good week.  =)  I haven’t flirted this much with multiple, smart, attractive, sweet girls in a really really long time.  It was nice…. REALLY nice…

 

Baltimore:

Stayed and pestered GL all weekend.  Good times.  But, speaking of pests, we had to buy some fly-paper traps for his apt.  Kind of disappointed – after 24 hours, didn’t get any… I don’t get it… intuitively, it shouldn’t be that hard for flies to just land on the darn thing and get stuck, but I guess not…

 

DC:

So I’m sitting in my suite (no hot tub this time, though) across from the GW hospital… chilling with the cable TV on… I wish I could take some of this furniture with me.  =)  Drove into DC for the first time ever – even though this is like my 8^th time here, I’ve always just taken the Metro in… this could be a great place to live – REALLY expensive, but man… it’ll be FUN.  After being in Philly and sitting on the Metro today, I really like these walkable cities…  I hate commuting by car, and it’s nice to have everything accessible in the same area.

 

 

December 9, 2004

 

Yale is Fun:

About four of us went out for dinner + drinks after our interviews… we really needed it – the day was 800-500!  one of the chiefs and a 3^rd year (?) joined us later… it was really fun… I drank the most since my near-DUI as the designated driver on the Bay Bridge… well, a lot for me… 2 Sam Adams, 1 Stella Artois, and 2 Bailey’s over 4 hours… ah… enough to get my tongue pretty loose… and to get me to say some ridiculous things… oh well.  Thankfully, probably won’t see these people again.  =)

 

Armenians are hot.  I sweat I that I’ve never met an unattractive Armenian girl.

 

I really liked Yale a lot.  Program has a lot of positives, a few negatives, a lot of improvements in the near future, pretty young and dynamic faculty.  The applicants and residents were certainly the most diverse group I’ve interviewed with… usually, I can find some common theme, but these guys were all over the place… literally, a handful from Europe and Canada… met a resident from Hawaii who happened to know this Hawaiian guy from UCSD and his dad.  The university town definitely felt comfortable.  Having that name would be nice (I’m an academic elitist at heart), although in the Emergency Medicine world, it’s a pretty young and unproven program.

 

Philadelphia:

Met up with JC and his wife here.  Passed up on a resident get-together to hang out with them.  They were really great hosts.  Got the down-low on philly programs and the local ethnic + church scene.  Ate at a local philly cheesesteak place – SO GOOD.  Although the cheese whiz thing, as traditional as it’s supposed to be, didn’t fly with me.  And then went to get the fanciest Boba I’ve ever had… had it served in a tall ¼ pint (?) glass, actually…  it was really nice, actually, to hang out with JC + mrs. JC… just to help me to be a little more comfortable and oriented with Philadelphia…

 

Interview Activity:

Got new interviews at Maryland (awesome!) and Loma Linda (ambivalent at this point – just don’t know that much about the program, not crazy about the Inland Empire), to be scheduled in January.  Cancelled Jacobi and Jefferson.  After all that deliberation over the Bronx, just never found a compelling reason to keep it with so many things against it…

 

 

December 7, 2004

 

“I’ve got a gal… in Kalamazoo…”

Some big-band era tune

 

“I don’t know if we’re like the oldest program in Michigan or longest running or whatever… we’re just old.”

Chief Resident at Henry Ford

 

Yale Pre-Interview:

Nice dinner.  Pretty nice residents.  Some very attractive and sweet applicants… ah well… gives me hope that there are more single, emotionally-stable, smart, and attractive girls out there…

 

Henry Ford:

So my diarrhea problem during stressful interviews was actually useful… during one of my interviews, I was asked what my most embarrassing moment during medical school was… not hard to answer.  =)

 

Actually, have had to talk about my last relationship a lot – get the question about how I ended up in Toledo and about the most difficult time during medical school a lot.  So, I guess if I end up at a top-flight residency, I could say something good came out of that mess…

 

Henry Ford pretty much lived up to my expectations – strong training, academics, progressive-thinking program… the free NY strip dinner the night before helped, too.  Heehee.  Of the four Detroit programs I interviewed at, I think my personality probably fits Henry Ford the best… kind of an intangible vibe from residents that I’m trying to gauge.  The Receiving guys were definitely more like LA County – a bit rough, some edgy personalities, a little quirky.  At Sinai-Grace, they were a bit more down to earth, easy-going, had the county hospital ‘badge of honor’ thing going.  At St. John’s, it was more yuppie, real friendly, laid-back… and I don’t know how to describe them better than kind of ‘pretty.’  Henry Ford was kind of like Highland – less of an overt and more understated air of confidence.

 

All four are solid programs.  A bit sad that St. John’s is the least helpful of the four for preparing me for academics/fellowship… I think I’d be really comfortable and happy there… and I like to think that I’m pretty, too.  =)  Hard to figure out how much weight I should put onto these impressions – I mean, there are a few programs, where I clearly do not fit in (easy one to read inbetween the lines)… but I could see myself at any of these four… just with slight differences…

 

One weird… funny… maybe just sad… thing about Henry Ford is that their intern class (15 residents) is completely MALE… not a woman among them.  Totally random, but the match worked out that way.  Ha ha  The intern class has been getting ribbed for it… One of the program directors told them that all their top applicants last year were women, but they ended up with them instead.  Ha ha

 

 

December 5, 2004

 

Pit Stop:

Making at pit stop at home in Toledo (laundry, ironing, and packing) before I head back up to Detroit this afternoon for my Henry Ford interview tomorrow.  Then, on Tuesday I head out to the East Coast for my two-week tour… I’m busy almost every weekday… oy… and, to think I’ve got to drive down to Cincinnati the day after I get back from the east coast!!!  Aie!  Dios mio!

 

Kalamazoo:

They put us up in the suites on the top floor of the Radisson!!! It was awesome!!! I had a kitchen, a living room, a bedroom, TWO TVs, and a HOT TUB!!!  Man, I just soaked in that thing for like ½ hour… I can’t ever remember feeling that relaxed… with the jets going, it was like a ½ hour long massage… it was GREAT…  I hung out with a buddy a little before the pre-interview mingling shin-dig (OPEN BAR)… there was some GREAT eye-candy interviewing there… too bad, they were all married…  my buddy had previewed me about this one girl, and he was spot on…  Best-looking applicants I’ve met so far…

 

The town was okay.  Western Mich Univ probably saves it… my buddy had been there a day before and had roamed around… sed the undergrads were hot… the college-town itself is okay… a bit cooler than Bowling Green…  I actually had a decent meal of fish & chips and a McEwan’s Scotch Ale at an English pub there… it was pretty decent… better than anything in Toledo, by far…

 

So, I was actually feeling okay about Kalamazoo as a backup… until the tour… this sounds ridiculous, but the tour was so infuriatingly mindless, and our resident guides so oblivious to our interests, I was thinking of not even ranking the program…  good god, the tour should have taken less than an hour, ended up taking over 2 hours… okay.  Maybe the ICU is worth seeing… maybe… but, they took us to see the f***ing cafeterias!  Give me a f***ing break.  A cafeteria is a f***ing cafeteria… and not only one cafeteria… no, we had to see BOTH… good grief.  I really don’t think your fancy cafeteria… oh, sorry… your TWO fancy cafeterias are going to change my decision about whether or not I like the program.  We get the idea, it’s a fancy hospital.  Great.  Oh yeah, and then we wandered around for what felt like ½ hour just to see a call room.  Uh.  Hello?  We’re going into Emergency Medicine… I think you’ve heard that it’s where we don’t sleep?  I’m sure we can survive the two-three months of call a year even if it’s in a closet.  And, it took ME reminding them that a couple of the girls had planes to catch before they cut the tour SHORT…  good lord… it would have gone on another hour, I’m sure of it… oh yeah, but they had to fit in walking through that second cafeteria before we headed back… because it was sooooo important…

 

It wasn’t just the tour.  It was how these two residents acted.  I’ll give you an anecdote.  I like Canadian-broadcasted hockey vs the American telecasts for one reason – they have confidence… not just that, but it’s an understated confidence… they don’t need to glam up the sport or make the extra effort to make things more interesting, because they know… they know that hockey is the s***… and whether you believe or not, they know it…. They don’t have to prove anything.  But, it’s not arrogance either because they don’t talk down to their audience… good lord, Don Cherry is teaching kids how to avoid taking penalties while checking HARD.  In contrast, the American broadcasts have an air of artificiality to me… a discomfort with silence because they’re not sure that the sport, by itself, is good enough…

 

Anyhow, I felt the same way about these residents and the tour.  There was an unnecessary excess and repetitiveness to what they had to say about the program.  They talked about really standard procedures and technologies in their ED as if they weren’t already the standard.  It was as if they were talking to total novices about the ED.  I tried repeatedly to get someone to talk about disadvantages to the program… no one would say anything… My impression is that it’s more due to lack of insight rather than truth.

 

All of the programs in Detroit were not this way… they knew their programs were the s***, but were perfectly comfortable talking about the demerits and frustrations of their programs in addition to the merits…

 

 

December 1, 2004

 

EUROPE!

Got my ticket today.  =)  I’m headed over March 28-April 28.  Whoohoo!!!  Anyone want to meet me there?

 

More Rejections:

Bellevue today… so probably no NYC for me.

 

 

November 30, 2004

 

Interviews:

Just got back from a 2-day trip in Detroit – Sinai-Grace and St. John’s. 

Sinai-Grace – totally what I imagined going into Emergency Medicine = poor, indigent population and tons of trauma.  It’s actually only 10-15 minutes from a pretty neat area of Detroit to live in.  Biggest drawback is that it’s really tough – workload is close to LA County’s.

St. John’s – interesting area, they get a lot of trauma and indigent patients, but it’s also adjacent to one of the wealthiest suburbs of Detroit… it’s a point they like to highlight about the program.  Also, a ton of perks – it’s a very well-off hospital system, fanciest hospital (and hottest nurses and residents) I’ve been in yet.  Also, cushiest program I’ve seen yet.  Problem is the academic opportunities may be weak… some really good potential mentors there, but not sure it’s good enough for what I need to get into a fellowship after residency.  Oh yeah, during my interview with the program director, we talked about how American beer sucks, how cool Scotland is, and how some stupid SUV driver almost killed him on his motorcycle once.  =)

 

I’ll say, for both of these places, I got a great vibe from the residents.  A bunch of the Sinai-Grace residents were meeting with students at a bar tonight – actually bummed I couldn’t go because they were TOO funny.  Unlike all of the other programs I’ve been at so far, I felt the most at home at these programs… Kind of hard to go on a gut feeling, but it’s a palpable difference…  Highland felt pretty good too.

 

Here’s something interesting.  So I was in one of my interviews at Sinai-Grace… I happened to glance down towards the desk and I saw scribbled at the bottom of a face sheet for my application packet, “top candidate.”  I S*** YOU NOT!  I about fell out of the chair… err… I was pretty distracted the last 10 minutes of the interview… not exactly comfortable with being thought of in high esteem…  Sinai-Grace doesn’t have the rep yet, but it’s a solid, county-type program… pretty surprised.

 

Something I can’t figure out is that there’s been a lot of bad-mouthing of Detroit Receiving this week.  Some of it makes sense, but I can’t believe that the program has slipped as much as some people seem to say… have to ask some people about that…

 

Side note, also got rejections from UPenn and UCSF-Fresno today.  Not surprised about the first… the second is a bit of a relief that I don’t have to make a decision about Fresno.