Dad-
Come on man! I am anonymous on my little blog. No one is going to know your son has a snake tattoo. I promise :)
well, maybe GW and his patriot friends. But most people won't!
love
Bob Ballzitch
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
awesome
Well 3 practicals down in two days....just a block exam for 5 classes on friday left before I can breathe...
I was taking a 5 min internet blog break to refresh and well, this post refreshed me.
http://emphysician.blogspot.com/2008/02/groove.html
Awesome. Emergency medicine with a balanced lifestyle is right up my alley. I always planned on trying to make something like this happen but it is nice to know it can happen outside my dream world at night. I mean facials bimonthly? ;) Seriously, this job is going to kick ass.
I promise, to all my readers (including all 2 of us), that I will come up with some original stuff after these exams and not just link to others' postings.
I am starting to realize that all the important issues are already being discussed at length on many a doctor blog so pardon me if I don't restart a debate on the healthcare system, drugseekers, tort reform, or EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act) anytime too soon. I will be referring though b/c there is a lot of info out there which I am just discovering and it is all really important in the context of how screwed up our healthcare system is right now.
peacy weacy
d
I was taking a 5 min internet blog break to refresh and well, this post refreshed me.
http://emphysician.blogspot.com/2008/02/groove.html
Awesome. Emergency medicine with a balanced lifestyle is right up my alley. I always planned on trying to make something like this happen but it is nice to know it can happen outside my dream world at night. I mean facials bimonthly? ;) Seriously, this job is going to kick ass.
I promise, to all my readers (including all 2 of us), that I will come up with some original stuff after these exams and not just link to others' postings.
I am starting to realize that all the important issues are already being discussed at length on many a doctor blog so pardon me if I don't restart a debate on the healthcare system, drugseekers, tort reform, or EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act) anytime too soon. I will be referring though b/c there is a lot of info out there which I am just discovering and it is all really important in the context of how screwed up our healthcare system is right now.
peacy weacy
d
Friday, February 15, 2008
Force Feeding and the Toll
Man...
I have just been force feeding information down my throat since August. Besides Christmas break, I have not really let my guard down around school and studying at all and it wears on me. The school I am attending is heavy on class time so we spend most days in class from 8-5 or 8-3pm and then it is off to the races to try and learn as much as you can before bed at 1-2am.
It is crazy how much we are required to learn and assimilate in such a short period of time. Not really my style and I can only hope that I am retaining a 1/3 of it in the long run. Don't ask me all the muscles in the pelvic diaphragm please! In college I tended to opt for the 3 classes (w/labs) at a time gig and that was sweet because, by the end, you knew everything. People taking 5 classes in college always just skimmed the surface of what they were studying...but now, it is 6+ classes AND you need to know it all. Brutal man.
The first indicator that school was taking a toll on me was my hospitalization for atypical mycoplasmic pneumonia in October, towards the end of our intensive non-hold bards Anatomy course. It all started with intensely painful occipital headaches, an inability to sleep, and night sweats. When I went to the doctor he thought I could of had a brain bleed, so I got a head CT which was negative. Eventually, I ended up in the hospital ER with extreme dehydration, fatigue, and migraines and I was diagnosed with pneumonia after a chest x-ray.
I had never been sick before and during my 6 day hospitalization I got a good lesson in how much it sucks to be sick. To be a patient. To be stuck in the arms with needles during the middle of the night. To require hits of dilaudid so my brain would not explode. To poop blood (still don't know what was going on with that). And now to deal with the financial fallout...even with insurance (bastards) my bill is likely to exceed $11,000. Ummm. yeah. I got to admit, it was a great learning experience but I don't think I would do it again.
Even now my body feels transformed by this intense routine. Reduced power. Reduced immunity to sickness. Fatigue. Well, maybe just cause it is 12 am on a Saturday morning and I am reading about Fifth Disease but you get the point.
The lack of skiing is definitely weighing on me as I have spent a majority of my life on snow 100+ days/yr and the med school lifestyle is quite the change. No more PBR and powder.
Word to my homies getting the pow. I'll catch up with you in 7. d
I have just been force feeding information down my throat since August. Besides Christmas break, I have not really let my guard down around school and studying at all and it wears on me. The school I am attending is heavy on class time so we spend most days in class from 8-5 or 8-3pm and then it is off to the races to try and learn as much as you can before bed at 1-2am.
It is crazy how much we are required to learn and assimilate in such a short period of time. Not really my style and I can only hope that I am retaining a 1/3 of it in the long run. Don't ask me all the muscles in the pelvic diaphragm please! In college I tended to opt for the 3 classes (w/labs) at a time gig and that was sweet because, by the end, you knew everything. People taking 5 classes in college always just skimmed the surface of what they were studying...but now, it is 6+ classes AND you need to know it all. Brutal man.
The first indicator that school was taking a toll on me was my hospitalization for atypical mycoplasmic pneumonia in October, towards the end of our intensive non-hold bards Anatomy course. It all started with intensely painful occipital headaches, an inability to sleep, and night sweats. When I went to the doctor he thought I could of had a brain bleed, so I got a head CT which was negative. Eventually, I ended up in the hospital ER with extreme dehydration, fatigue, and migraines and I was diagnosed with pneumonia after a chest x-ray.
I had never been sick before and during my 6 day hospitalization I got a good lesson in how much it sucks to be sick. To be a patient. To be stuck in the arms with needles during the middle of the night. To require hits of dilaudid so my brain would not explode. To poop blood (still don't know what was going on with that). And now to deal with the financial fallout...even with insurance (bastards) my bill is likely to exceed $11,000. Ummm. yeah. I got to admit, it was a great learning experience but I don't think I would do it again.
Even now my body feels transformed by this intense routine. Reduced power. Reduced immunity to sickness. Fatigue. Well, maybe just cause it is 12 am on a Saturday morning and I am reading about Fifth Disease but you get the point.
The lack of skiing is definitely weighing on me as I have spent a majority of my life on snow 100+ days/yr and the med school lifestyle is quite the change. No more PBR and powder.
Word to my homies getting the pow. I'll catch up with you in 7. d
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Happy Valentine's Day!
M.D.O.D.: Happy Valentine's Day!
Check out this case for Valentine’s Day. This is why I love medical blogs. I can only aspire for such greatness. Also, need just a little more clinical time before things like this happen...
warning: interesting case not suitable for all.
d
Check out this case for Valentine’s Day. This is why I love medical blogs. I can only aspire for such greatness. Also, need just a little more clinical time before things like this happen...
warning: interesting case not suitable for all.
d
First Death
Bit tired of studying histology so the procrastination continues....
First Death.
So, I had my first emergency room preceptorship last week and while most of it was fairly familiar after working as a medical assistant and addictions counselor for several years, one part was not. I witnessed my first death. At the above aforementioned jobs, the people DT'ing, stroking out, or having heart attacks all got lugged off to the hospital just in time. Good for them by all means, but it always left me wondering what it would be like to actually witness their passings. A little morbid I know...but, I think most medical students are a bit intrigued by death and dying. In fact, part of the problem with our healthcare system is that we (really them-can't really pull that card yet), as doctors, are focused on the treatments, procedures, and drama surrounding death while we often fail to focus on the preventative measures that could of helped these patients long before.
Anyhow...the passing. It was sad. This 65 yo woman came by local ambulance, nonemergent, with c.c. of mid-back pain accompanied by fatigue and weakness. She was pleasant, alert, and in no acute distress. She had some atrial fibrillation which she reported that she had had since a young age but the rest of her EKG looked fine. I witnessed the extremely short physical and hx taken by the ER doc and labs were ordered and the decision was made to admit her because she could not support her own weight. The doc was not too worried about her though, no major problems, just needed a tune up in the ol' hospital. We ran around attending to other patients until we took a break in the office, when all of a sudden a nurse yelled requesting a doctor. We ran in to find the patient going into ventricular failure and we were about to shock her when the hospitalist ran in behind us and announced that she was "DNR" (do not resuscitate). The doctor put down the paddles and within seconds the 10 people in the room cleared out.
I could not believe it. I was the only one left and all I wanted to do was witness the event. It was still occurring. The blood vessels in her cheeks still pounded as if her cardiac output was just fine, her eyes laid open gazing ahead, and every once in a while she would let out a gasp. After dancing around the issue/concept and working with very sick people for so long, I almost felt relieved to finally see death. The passing was marked with little care, no ritual, and with no one she knew next to her. Besides the mid-back pain (a viscero-somatic indicator of cardiac malfunction), there was little on her arrival that indicated to me, as a first year student, that this woman would be dead in 45 minutes.
First Death.
So, I had my first emergency room preceptorship last week and while most of it was fairly familiar after working as a medical assistant and addictions counselor for several years, one part was not. I witnessed my first death. At the above aforementioned jobs, the people DT'ing, stroking out, or having heart attacks all got lugged off to the hospital just in time. Good for them by all means, but it always left me wondering what it would be like to actually witness their passings. A little morbid I know...but, I think most medical students are a bit intrigued by death and dying. In fact, part of the problem with our healthcare system is that we (really them-can't really pull that card yet), as doctors, are focused on the treatments, procedures, and drama surrounding death while we often fail to focus on the preventative measures that could of helped these patients long before.
Anyhow...the passing. It was sad. This 65 yo woman came by local ambulance, nonemergent, with c.c. of mid-back pain accompanied by fatigue and weakness. She was pleasant, alert, and in no acute distress. She had some atrial fibrillation which she reported that she had had since a young age but the rest of her EKG looked fine. I witnessed the extremely short physical and hx taken by the ER doc and labs were ordered and the decision was made to admit her because she could not support her own weight. The doc was not too worried about her though, no major problems, just needed a tune up in the ol' hospital. We ran around attending to other patients until we took a break in the office, when all of a sudden a nurse yelled requesting a doctor. We ran in to find the patient going into ventricular failure and we were about to shock her when the hospitalist ran in behind us and announced that she was "DNR" (do not resuscitate). The doctor put down the paddles and within seconds the 10 people in the room cleared out.
I could not believe it. I was the only one left and all I wanted to do was witness the event. It was still occurring. The blood vessels in her cheeks still pounded as if her cardiac output was just fine, her eyes laid open gazing ahead, and every once in a while she would let out a gasp. After dancing around the issue/concept and working with very sick people for so long, I almost felt relieved to finally see death. The passing was marked with little care, no ritual, and with no one she knew next to her. Besides the mid-back pain (a viscero-somatic indicator of cardiac malfunction), there was little on her arrival that indicated to me, as a first year student, that this woman would be dead in 45 minutes.
mad dog
First piece of sharing, robbed from andrew d.'s blog...
mad dog dana d. is getting it in patagonia
http://www.climbing.com/news/hotflashes/fitzroymassiftraverse08/
so kick ass
mad dog dana d. is getting it in patagonia
http://www.climbing.com/news/hotflashes/fitzroymassiftraverse08/
so kick ass
7
7 years: The theoretical length of time before I become a physician. And it all started with a broken mirror on the very first day. no shit. Made me wonder and it definitely exacerbated my skeptism surrounding the endeavor ahead which was already at an all time high after leaving a life of working and playing in the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming to return east and commit the next 7 years to medicine.
So, why the blog? Well, this is a sort of self experiment. My feelings around starting this challenge are skeptism, embarrassment, wonder, and preemptive apologies. Firstly, I am a bit skeptical of writing here because I already spend enough time in front of the computer with my new student lifestyle. 9-5 classes not including study time- why spend more time thinking, writing, or reading? Good question, me asks. Maybe I should take all the time I could potentially invest here and put it towards being outside. I could stop this right now. I may, in fact, do just that. Hence the skeptism and the experimental status of this blog.
Secondly, I feel a bit embarrassed because, by blogging, I assume that I have something new and exciting to say...and really, I don't. At least not yet. Maybe this process will flush something out. And this thought goes right along with the apologetic feelings and wonder. Why would I write? I have never spent time writing or enjoyed reading nor am I particularly good with grammar. So...my apologies to you and myself if this falls through or wastes either of our precious time.
I often preach to my girlfriend how the internet is failing society. A) I believe it often takes away from our local community and distances us from real life encounters. I imagine bloggers everywhere holed up in their rooms, writing, and mean while, not looking their neighbor, friends, or lover in the face. I berate facebook, myspace, etc. etc. because there are so many surface relationships of no meaning or context. You sign on, throw up your favorite drinking picture (no pun intended) and wait for your long lost high school acquaintances to "friend" you. I had a friend at school tell me that people in our own class of only a 100 people had been "friending" her on the internet, but that these same people failed to say hi or look at her while walking down the hallway. Interesting. B) Who needs more complexity? People can't even handle everyday life anymore. Anxiety, depression, hopelessness... Maybe you just need to get off the damn computer and away from the TV set and go for a walk, heh? Maybe, a deep breath. C.) (no, med students, this is not another multiple choice question, I am just listing here…) c. where is the family time? Parents can't even weigh in on what is healthy for their children to watch and communicate about anymore. Google: rotten. Utube: gun. Online chat, make sure you can't look the person in the eye while you write to them. No wonder our society is only getting more violent. WARNING: I will contradict myself a 100 times on here by posting utube videos. I already know it, does not mean I agree with it though ;)
So again, why am I here on this page? Well, I want to keep in touch with friends. Vent. Share ideas. Post interesting articles and pictures. All while not getting "friended". Am I contributing to the downfall of mankind by blogging instead of bongo-ing with the hippies down the street, probably so. Wait...this town has no hippies, damn.
I doubt my posts about medical school will be much different than those of the other 1000 medical students that whine about the process, but I will try and accept that.
A random first post, but there it is.
d
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