"When I was 11 or 12 years old, I remember my mom always said, 'Put a tuque on, you'll catch a cold,'" Theodore said. "I just wanted to make sure she's not going to say anything when I go back home, so I put a tuque on." 

57,000+ watched the Montreal Canadiens beat the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL's first outdoor game.


"True love is hard to find.  Sometimes you think you have true love, and then you catch the early flight home from San Diego and a couple of nude people jump out of your bathroom blindfolded like a goddamn magic show, ready to double-team your girlfriend..."
-- Old School

So, my last week at Riverside was a bit less difficult than I expected... the notorious attending was a pretty intimidating guy, but seemed to be in a pretty decent mood all week... a really good teacher... pretty fast during rounds.  My night on call was uninteresting... actually was a bit of a waste of time -- was up all night, but my intern wouldn't let me do anything.  Nice guy, but when it got busy, he just wanted to do everything so things would go faster.  I did get jacked on Saturday.  Of our 6 person team, only 3 of us had to come in saturday morning... and was got slammed... something like 26-30 patients to see between the 3 of us... started around 630am and didn't get done with rounds until after 100pm... Once again I was foiled from potential fun -- by that time I got done it was too late, and I was too tired, to find a good bar to watch the OSU-UM game.  Ended up just going to TC's place and watching it there while nearly falling asleep on his couch.

So I did get to hang out with TC and his gf for the first time since he came back to toledo last spring to move his stuff to columbus.  they're pretty funny... if you can imagine 3 hours of discontinuous conversation and random comments... that's what it felt like talking with them...  Well, glad to see that he's doing well after transferring.

Brush with Minor Stardom:  Watch for an older (50s?), sky-boarding cardiologist in a Mountain Dew commercial this january.  I worked with him this past month.

Close Call with Stalker-ism:  Was going to go out on a limb of a limb and ask out a nurse at Riverside that I worked with a bit this past week, even though I think I talked with her for about a total of 1-2 minutes and never really formerly introduced myself.  She was one of a 2 or 3 that didn't have fatty diamond rings on their fingers... I'm pretty impressed with myself that I was planning on doing something so ridiculous.  I actually dropped by the ward after I was done with work to see if I could find her, but she either was off work or was busy, so I missed her... was considering dropping by again a bit later just to double check since I was living at the hospital, but decided that that would be a bit uncomfortably close to being a stalker, so I figured I'd just do it later if she worked anytime the rest of the week -- she didn't.  Oh well.

End of the month conclusions:
1)  Cardiology is super-cool.  Cardiology is super-hard to get into.  I'm not wasting 3 years of my life doing an internal medicine residency and busting my butt to risk getting stuck as a dime-a-dozen hospitalist... well, that is, unless it turns out I end up liking hospitalist practice... hmmm... maybe ICU, though.
2)  I do like the continuity aspect that I saw in cardiology.  I mean, I definitely don't need to follow people over their entire lifetimes, but just doing admissions in the ER, it seemed like kind of a bum deal just to run a bunch of tests to rule out life threatening conditions, only to ship them up to a floor as fast as possible... I mean, it was really cool to see patients get better over a period of a couple weeks, although just sitting/standing around and thinking all day seems a bit dull.  hmmm... don't know.  Maybe I'd like ICU where I can do, at least, very minor procedures like central lines and swan-gatz caths... but, then I don't know that I'd really enjoy keeping train-wrecks alive that I think should be allowed to die... which there were a number of in the CCU.
3)  Food in Columbus is great.  I had my "I-wish-I-was-still-in-CA" spree with Baja Fresh, Cluck U, and this Wild Oats grocery that's like Whole Foods.  Got some Grater's ice cream packed in dry ice and a styrofoam box for my drive back to toledo.  Had some good Korean food with TC and his gf.  Went to a fancy seafood restaurant for a drug-rep lunch (best seafood since last time I was back in CA).  went to a bunch of different local delis and coffee shops... nice change from toledo where it's all chain restaurants and no one has any culinary imagination.
 

November 15, 2003

Ohio State beats Purdue on a missed field-goal in OT.  Man, why couldn't my dad and bro have gone to a college that didn't lose like every important game in the last 5 years?  Sad thing is I expected Purdue to lose and still watched the whole game.  Damn family loyalty.  I guess the rest of us didn't really help -- UCSD, Santa Clara U, and Pacific Lutheran... ha ha.  oh well.

So this coming week will be potentially hellish.  First we're getting an infamous (not in-famous like in the Three Amigos) attending who's supposed to be a pretty big a**hole.  He's been known to have interrupted morning rounds to sit the entire team down to explain in excruciating detail how to present a patient and wash your hands.  Plus, since I'm a masochist, I'm voluntarily taking call tomorrow evening... so that, plus, saturday morning rounds puts this coming work week at a minimum of around 62 hours.  Well, hopefully, we'll get out of morning rounds saturday early enough to catch the Ohio St.-UM game at a bar around columbus somewhere... that should be pretty wild.

I have to say that a lot of the nurses at Riverside are HOT.  problem is that they've ALL got fat diamonds on their ring fingers... plus, not like I've actually had time to chat with any of them considering how freakin' busy cardiology has been... so sad.  Even so, I can't complain too much -- it's always a plus to have decent eye candy around.

The only good thing about the weather dropping below freezing is that I can start drinking hot chocolate and my fancy Fortnum & Mason breakfast tea again...

Book Review: Coraline, Neil Gaiman
First time I've read a children's book in years, but it was really good.  It was entertaining and overall a pretty freaky story.  I thought Gaiman captured the thought process of a child and put you into the main character's point of view pretty well.  It made up for Neuromancer quite nicely.

Movie Review: Matrix Revolutions
It was hilarious!  Ah man, it was so bad, I was cracking jokes and laughing the whole time!  The best part was the kid running around with his "shopping cart"... ha ha!
 

November 8, 2003

"The toilets here are GINORMOUS!"
--Buddy Elf

I don't know what it is about Will Ferrell... I mean, it's not like his routine has changed much since SNL, but man, he makes me laugh every single time... Old School was pretty damn funny too.

Cardiology has been great.  Lotta good teachers in my attendings and interns...  All the residents and interns are something else -- man, hanging out in the residents' lounge is something else -- like being in a frat house... ha ha.  I'd share some of the recent conversations, but they're a bit too scandalous to put up on a public website... Cardiology itself is pretty cool stuff.  Great mix of medical and surgical management.  Lot of cutting-edge research and therapy.  Really really smart people.  I'm actually considering it a bit... but, it's a looooong road... 7 years for invasive cardiology... and it's a fairly rough lifestyle... compared to the 3-4 years for EM and its really nice lifestyle... oy...

Columbus is really cool.  It makes me realized everything that I miss about being near a large university... just all the arts, culture, food, and just great places to hang out... all these great places for dates too -- like a Grater's ice cream factory.  darn me for not having a gf right now.  =(

It's crazy, I can't believe I've basically got a 3-day weekend.  Since I had to come back for my lame family medicine test (I think I passed) on friday, my resident was kind enough to not expect me to drive back down to round this morning... After working six days last week, only having enough time to stay in toledo one night last week, and getting slammed most of this week, it's weird to have nothing urgent to do until monday... crazy, it's only saturday.

I did put up this insulating plastic stuff around my windows today... um yeah, it's been dropping into the 20's at night.  Yay.  Even though it's too cold for my taste, I have to admit that days like today are pretty awesome (you saw it if you watched the Ohio St-Mich St game)... clear blue skies, autumn leaves, crisp air... it can be really beautiful sometimes...

Book Review: Neuromancer
Kind of disappointed.  The story really didn't grab me like American Gods did.  Actually, it was pretty confusing... I still don't really understand what happened.  I was pretty impressed at how incredibly developed Gibson's cyperpunk vision was... the language, culture, and images are pretty impressive and I can see how his series of cyperpunk novels really established the genre... I think I would have enjoyed it more if I was in high school, if that makes any sense.

Deep thought of the day:  Introspection
Does anyone else have these lucid moments of introspection?  For whatever reason this past week, I realized with a clarity and remorse that I'd never felt before that I was a really hard person to live with my last year at UCSD.  I realized that I'd been a real asshole to my roommates a lot of times... you'd think it would have taken me less than 4 years to realize this... Well, so I actually emailed my ex-roommate from that year and apologized... it appears that he appreciated it... even after all these years.
 

November 2, 2003

I couldn't find a picture of him on the Riverside website, but anyways... my resident on the cardiology service looks like a certain actor of teen-flick fame....

..... Freddie Prinze Jr....
 

So, I haven't updated my deal in a while b/c I've been pretty busy with stuff... with the weekend commute to and from columbus, my normal med school workweek (6 days a week, 50-60 hrs), and needing to study... uh, yeah, don't be surprised if my website updates slow down considerably... at least until I'm back in Toledo.

oh yeah, retaking my Family Med exam (the one I failed earlier) this coming Friday, so send me positive vibes.  thanks.

My bad to all my friends in SD.  I didn't realize until KW told me straight away that the fires actually hit Mira Mesa... and even part of the Miramar air station.  oops.  I figured the fires were all out those dry, tree-y areas east of SD.  like Julian.  Well, glad you guys are still alive.

Dates: 10/27/03 to 11/21/03

Current Rotation:  Cardiology.  Riverside Methodist Hospital, Columbus OH.
Best thing about this rotation:  I'm in a real city, in a real hospital.  obviously, that implies the opposite about _____ and ___.
Worst thing about this rotation:  living out of a suitcase again
Current Attending MD: Mid-Ohio Cardiologists Group
Funniest thing about my attending:  Last week was a pretty funny guy, but he always made fun of me -- never the interns.
How I know I'm in med school:  So I was studying at the Starbucks on High St. next to OSU this past friday wondering why it was so dead... then, as I was walking back to my car, passing throngs of OSU kids in costumes heading to keggers, the lightbulb went on... Joan of Arcadia was on TV... ha ha

Biggest gripe:  Clinical Grading Method
So, as you may have guessed, our clinical grades are based on evaluations by our attendings + residents, and this standardized test (eg SHELF exam, mini-boards, etc).  Anyways.  It blows.  Unless you're an absolutely socially incompetent and have the laziest ass on the planet, the limiting factor is always the test score....  Once again, I did pretty crappy on my exam.  Found out I can't do better than a Pass (=C) on Pediatrics.  This really blows.  Essentially, my clinical performance means absolutely nothing... putting in extra time and work at the hospital is a DETRIMENT to my personal and career educational goals.  What sucks is that's exactly what I've been doing... during Peds, I went in a couple times on the weekends to work at the ER... and altered my schedule to have a more difficult rotation... while my roommate had his ass glued to the couch studying all the time, I was *working*... apparently, he made the better choice.  I've also been doing more difficult rotations (eg Detroit and Columbus) under the premise that I wanted to get a better education... again, also a poor choice.  As this has taught me, according to my school, I should take the easiest possible tract so I can spend as much time as possible with my nose buried in a book.  So, the MCO administration may counter my rant here by saying that any good evaluations I get from my clinical rotation will make it onto my dean's letter that's sent out to residency programs.... but THAT WON'T MATTER IF MY GRADES SUCK.
Best thing to happen to me recently:  hair cut.

Next meaningful leisure activity:  I think I get to watch the new matrix movie next weekend... oh yeah, Elf with Will Farrell is coming soon too.
Current Bible study topic: Romans 14
Current books I'm reading:  Neuromancer, Coraline (Gaiman)
Deepest thought recently:  I better stop getting bad news, like crappy exam scores.  Every time I do, I go gorge on really unhealthy food.  So, not only will I be a crappy med student, but a fat, crappy med student.