Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Great Weekend in Vermont
I spent this past weekend with some friends in Vermont at an unbelievably beautiful farmhouse. The foliage was stunning, the landscape was gorgeous, the hiking was great and I'm just about running out of adjectives.
I got to try out my new D40 up there. I have added a link to my picasa page in the right column. Full set of VT photos is there.
I got to try out my new D40 up there. I have added a link to my picasa page in the right column. Full set of VT photos is there.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Ultimate
I love this game. We're actually forming a team. Granted, I can only really throw backhand, but my forehand is coming along and I hope I can one day have a decent hammer. (If it's not clear, we're talking about frisbee).
What's great about ultimate is that it's a game of sportsmanship. There are never any referees (although occasionally there are 'observers' who help mediate disputed calls) and all calls are made by the players on the field. People are generally friendly and try to get everyone involved. I see more people smiling while playing this game than I do with any other game.
Anyways, below is a picture of our team. Go Con-Fuego!!!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Embracing Nerd-dom
Wow...two posts in one day...the last one was just to get the Cape Cod pictures in (all the way back from Labor day weekend!! That's how behind I am) so I guess that didn't really count.
I've recently come to the realization that self-acceptance is a big part of growing up. This is particularly important when making life-changing decisions involving education, careers, family, etc. I also feel that if you embrace who you are now, it opens up avenues for change and makes methods for achieving future goals much easier. So what am I trying to say with all that BS? Well...
I'm a NERD. Just looking at my life and my blogs recently, I think it's clear that I'm a NERD. And that doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I am quite proud of it and completely willing to accept it. There are hundreds, probably thousands of things about me that make me a nerd, a dork, a geek, or whatever... Here's a totally random sample of ten of those things...
1. 3 out of 5 of my radio presets in my car are set to public radio stations (I'm also a member of my local NPR station).
2. I get fired up those engineering school fight songs...here's an example...
E to the X; D-Y, D-X
E to the X; D-X
Cosine, Secant, Tangent, Sine; 3.14159!
E-I, Radical, Pi; Fight 'em, Fight 'em WPI!!!!
3. I can do a few pen tricks. (I'm not as good as that video, but I know the basics...)
4. I spent a summer during high school at debate camp. It was hot...
5. I counted down the days to the turning on of the Large Hadron Collider. I also found this video absolutely AWESOME! I don't know why, but I think it's so incredibly hot that some girl is that passionate about physics (or anything for that matter) to the point where it inspires her to make herself look ridiculous...
5a. I nearly cried when they announced that the LHC was being shut down for several months due to unforeseen leaks.
6. I once had a crush on Sarah Vowell (don't ask...).
7. I find the joke, "Yo mamma's so fat that she splits neighboring carbons into two peaks on her NMR spectrum" totally funny.
8. I named my soccer team "Cremasters of the Universe" and giggle every time I say it.
9. I love music by They Might Be Giants. During middle school, I saw them live in concert at a local library!
10. I'm a five-foot-seven Indian medical student.
I've recently come to the realization that self-acceptance is a big part of growing up. This is particularly important when making life-changing decisions involving education, careers, family, etc. I also feel that if you embrace who you are now, it opens up avenues for change and makes methods for achieving future goals much easier. So what am I trying to say with all that BS? Well...
I'm a NERD. Just looking at my life and my blogs recently, I think it's clear that I'm a NERD. And that doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I am quite proud of it and completely willing to accept it. There are hundreds, probably thousands of things about me that make me a nerd, a dork, a geek, or whatever... Here's a totally random sample of ten of those things...
1. 3 out of 5 of my radio presets in my car are set to public radio stations (I'm also a member of my local NPR station).
2. I get fired up those engineering school fight songs...here's an example...
E to the X; D-Y, D-X
E to the X; D-X
Cosine, Secant, Tangent, Sine; 3.14159!
E-I, Radical, Pi; Fight 'em, Fight 'em WPI!!!!
3. I can do a few pen tricks. (I'm not as good as that video, but I know the basics...)
4. I spent a summer during high school at debate camp. It was hot...
5. I counted down the days to the turning on of the Large Hadron Collider. I also found this video absolutely AWESOME! I don't know why, but I think it's so incredibly hot that some girl is that passionate about physics (or anything for that matter) to the point where it inspires her to make herself look ridiculous...
5a. I nearly cried when they announced that the LHC was being shut down for several months due to unforeseen leaks.
6. I once had a crush on Sarah Vowell (don't ask...).
7. I find the joke, "Yo mamma's so fat that she splits neighboring carbons into two peaks on her NMR spectrum" totally funny.
8. I named my soccer team "Cremasters of the Universe" and giggle every time I say it.
9. I love music by They Might Be Giants. During middle school, I saw them live in concert at a local library!
10. I'm a five-foot-seven Indian medical student.
Cape Cod
Over Labor Day weekend, I rented a house for my friends from college who now live in New York City on Cape Cod. It was a very nice, relaxing weekend. We went biking, ate some great seafood, went to the beach where we played frisbee and football and just plain chilled out. It was a great group of people and the conversations were always interesting. I also got to show off some new found cooking prowess. We cooked some large rib-eye steaks (they were some fantastic cuts actually), seared some scallops, boiled corn and had a nice salad, along with some decent wine (I love riesling...the cheap sweet stuff moreso than the "good" dry stuff). Anyways here are some hilights of 257 pictures taken that day, but feel free to browse the rest of them...this goes for all 2 of you who actually occasionally browse this blog...
For the full set, click here.
For the full set, click here.
Monday, October 6, 2008
So what do I want to be when I grow up?
It's October now, the weather is becoming increasingly cold, and the leaves are starting to change (though the Fall rain this season was heavy so it's not as pretty as years before). Part of why I'm doing this research year is to learn about myself and really hone in on a specialty that I find interesting. I need to figure out what I enjoy most about medicine. Medicine is no longer a career path that can be chosen simply for the money, as the upcoming changes to our healthcare system (no matter who is elected) will undoubtedly continue the downward trend in physician salaries. So I thought I'd spend some time and write an initial flow of thoughts on what I want to be when I grow up, just so I have something to which to refer as I continue to make this decision. I consciously try not to post about medicine here because frankly there are PLENTY of blogs about medicine and medical school, so let's hope this is just one of a few.
Ok, first off, I'm gonna have to LOVE what I do. I know that seems pretty obvious and very elementary, but I find it surprising how many of my peers are basing their career decisions on things other than this simple fact. I understand (and will discuss in a second) that other criteria come into play here. Things like lifestyle, desire to have family, money and prestige all can play some role in this type of decision, but honestly, how do you not start with the idea that you simply must enjoy your job? Medicine is unique in that the half life of medical knowledge is five years. That means by the time a newly minted physician finishes residency, half of the knowledge he or she gained during medical school is completely obsolete. So medicine is LIFELONG education, LIFELONG schooling. There is really no 'settling down' into a routine. So I have to pick a specialty where I enjoy reading the journals, going to the national meetings, and clicking with the other personalities of that specialty.
On that note, the question is, what did I LOVE during my third year? What were my favorite rotations? That's actually easy...I absolutely LOVED surgery. I enjoyed the fast pace of surgery. I enjoyed the fact that there was very little bullshit when it came to writing surgical notes and making decisions. I liked that decisions generally resulted in action. I also loved the fact that surgery often offered an outright cure. And I simply LOVED being in the OR. There's something relaxing about it. There's music playing (even during the very complicated surgeries), there's some joking around going on, and time simply flies by (most students would disagree with me on this). I feel like the surgeon also carries a certain respect level not afforded to some other specialties. When I was on surgery and did a consult in the ED, the ED nurses and physicians made sure the patient chart and imaging studies were ready for me to look at before I got down there. After surgery, I was on medicine, and did a medical consult in the ED, and couldn't find a single person willing to help out. It just felt different, I can't even really explain it.
Another rotation I enjoyed was OB/GYN. Ultimately, OB/GYN is a surgical field. A lot of time is spent in the OR in addition to the clinic. The pace is extremely fast and the field is very diverse. The OB/GYN does primary care, specialty care, medical diagnosis, and surgical intervention. I think that's awesome. The specialty itself also tends to be a happy one. Everyone loves babies and I can't imagine helping someone bring a child into this world ever getting old and "routine." The surgeries can be big too. The C-section is the only procedure I have seen where there is 500ml bloodloss routinely.
What about pediatrics? This was my very first rotation during medical school. I actually did excellently in this rotation. It was incredibly interesting and simply a lot of fun. I never thought that I would be good with children. But I guess having lots of little cousins helps somewhat in this department. I quickly managed to learn that a screaming kid is nothing to be afraid of (in fact, it's so much easier to examine the back of their throats when their screaming their brains out then trying to get them to open their mouths when they're quiet). At first, holding a newborn was frightening, but pretty soon, I was flipping the babies onto one hand to examine the back, doing the pediatric reflexes, finding the femoral pulses, etc. I learned how to distract 9 month olds with my school ID while I looked in their ears. Oh, and I thought I would hate working with the adolescents, but it turns out I enjoyed listening to their problems and educating them about their personal health. Pediatrics was also a great 6-week parenting course. I saw examples of some phenomenal parents, and a few examples of some terrible parents. I actually now have a pretty good idea how I would parent when the time comes (one example, I would make sure there are low-height bookshelves in EVERY room of the house PACKED with all types of books. Even in the kitchen and bathrooms. That way, the kids can reach for a book at anytime and read it or have it read to them).
I didn't enjoy my medicine rotation all that much. I just felt like a glorified secretary: arraning imaging studies, coordinating consults, making sure orders got carried out, etc. However, the subspecialty of gastroenterology really interested me. I think that's because I found it a lot like surgery. There is a significant clinical component, a lot of the pathologies are the same, and they do lots of procedures as well. If I do medicine, it will be only to do gastroenterology (which means I'll have to suffer for three years before hitting the GI fellowship).
My Winamp playlist just ran out, so that's enough for today. I'll continue this later...
Ok, first off, I'm gonna have to LOVE what I do. I know that seems pretty obvious and very elementary, but I find it surprising how many of my peers are basing their career decisions on things other than this simple fact. I understand (and will discuss in a second) that other criteria come into play here. Things like lifestyle, desire to have family, money and prestige all can play some role in this type of decision, but honestly, how do you not start with the idea that you simply must enjoy your job? Medicine is unique in that the half life of medical knowledge is five years. That means by the time a newly minted physician finishes residency, half of the knowledge he or she gained during medical school is completely obsolete. So medicine is LIFELONG education, LIFELONG schooling. There is really no 'settling down' into a routine. So I have to pick a specialty where I enjoy reading the journals, going to the national meetings, and clicking with the other personalities of that specialty.
On that note, the question is, what did I LOVE during my third year? What were my favorite rotations? That's actually easy...I absolutely LOVED surgery. I enjoyed the fast pace of surgery. I enjoyed the fact that there was very little bullshit when it came to writing surgical notes and making decisions. I liked that decisions generally resulted in action. I also loved the fact that surgery often offered an outright cure. And I simply LOVED being in the OR. There's something relaxing about it. There's music playing (even during the very complicated surgeries), there's some joking around going on, and time simply flies by (most students would disagree with me on this). I feel like the surgeon also carries a certain respect level not afforded to some other specialties. When I was on surgery and did a consult in the ED, the ED nurses and physicians made sure the patient chart and imaging studies were ready for me to look at before I got down there. After surgery, I was on medicine, and did a medical consult in the ED, and couldn't find a single person willing to help out. It just felt different, I can't even really explain it.
Another rotation I enjoyed was OB/GYN. Ultimately, OB/GYN is a surgical field. A lot of time is spent in the OR in addition to the clinic. The pace is extremely fast and the field is very diverse. The OB/GYN does primary care, specialty care, medical diagnosis, and surgical intervention. I think that's awesome. The specialty itself also tends to be a happy one. Everyone loves babies and I can't imagine helping someone bring a child into this world ever getting old and "routine." The surgeries can be big too. The C-section is the only procedure I have seen where there is 500ml bloodloss routinely.
What about pediatrics? This was my very first rotation during medical school. I actually did excellently in this rotation. It was incredibly interesting and simply a lot of fun. I never thought that I would be good with children. But I guess having lots of little cousins helps somewhat in this department. I quickly managed to learn that a screaming kid is nothing to be afraid of (in fact, it's so much easier to examine the back of their throats when their screaming their brains out then trying to get them to open their mouths when they're quiet). At first, holding a newborn was frightening, but pretty soon, I was flipping the babies onto one hand to examine the back, doing the pediatric reflexes, finding the femoral pulses, etc. I learned how to distract 9 month olds with my school ID while I looked in their ears. Oh, and I thought I would hate working with the adolescents, but it turns out I enjoyed listening to their problems and educating them about their personal health. Pediatrics was also a great 6-week parenting course. I saw examples of some phenomenal parents, and a few examples of some terrible parents. I actually now have a pretty good idea how I would parent when the time comes (one example, I would make sure there are low-height bookshelves in EVERY room of the house PACKED with all types of books. Even in the kitchen and bathrooms. That way, the kids can reach for a book at anytime and read it or have it read to them).
I didn't enjoy my medicine rotation all that much. I just felt like a glorified secretary: arraning imaging studies, coordinating consults, making sure orders got carried out, etc. However, the subspecialty of gastroenterology really interested me. I think that's because I found it a lot like surgery. There is a significant clinical component, a lot of the pathologies are the same, and they do lots of procedures as well. If I do medicine, it will be only to do gastroenterology (which means I'll have to suffer for three years before hitting the GI fellowship).
My Winamp playlist just ran out, so that's enough for today. I'll continue this later...
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