January
1.31.01
I had this 71
year old patient today, who was just sitting around waiting for
his surgery. Speaks only Spanish, but I somehow manage to talk to
him with my 20 word Spanish vocab. I go in to check on him and he seems
fine. He`s very neat and tidy about his bed and he waves hi when
you wave to him. But then I see that he`s unscrewed his IV line
and neatly wrapped it around the IV pole. I ask him who took apart
his line. He says, "I do". I go, "Oh no, Mr. *****
you can`t do that.". And he tells me, "Yah, I go to
Puerto Rico". Hoo boy, and I thought I got loopy on 4
hours of sleep.
1.29.00
Rants and raves: yeah, i b*tch a lot. It`s my prerogative since I`m a med student. Especially since it`s my 4th year. I will b*tch about anything that eats into my freetime (naptime). Right now, that`s my geriatrics rotation. Just started today. OMG, it`s up in northern Bronx. I have to travel one hour on the nasty @ss NYC subway to get there. Don`t get me wrong, I love it for short travels, but with one hour, I swear the smell sticks to you. Then I spend the day doing absolutely nothing useful. Don`t ask, trust me, it`s a waste of 8 hours. Sigh...long story short, it`s gonna be a long month. I think I`m about due for a cold...
1.28.00
Watched the Superbowl today with a couple of friends. Got exciting in the middle then quickly became boring. Commercials were okay, mediocre at best. Then, the good stuff - SURVIVOR 2!!! Haha, I`m not ashamed to admit, this is GREAT television! Sure, its sets are fake as hell, and host Jeff Probst has a steel rod permanently implanted up his @ss. But still, ya gotta love that they hate each other already. Saw Debb being picked off from a mile away. She was bossy, annoying, and more importantly, had the wrong strategy. You don`t wanna be strong and tough in the beginning. You wanna be liked. And Debb, honey, you were NOT likable. I thought Kimmi`s masturbation joke (I *think* it was a joke...) was hilarious. Debb just has no sense of humor. Besides, don't you think it's kind of hypocritical to criticize someone's morals when you're dating your stepson? Well, buh bye Debb! On the way out, don`t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya. Can`t wait until they`re hungry, tired, and their patience for each other starts to wear thin. They should start to get REALLY nasty then. Haha...
1.27.00
Okay, so I've finally gotten FrontPage up and running. In the words of Jerry Seinfeld - "That, my friend, is trouble...". As if I don't spend enough time on here already. The worst part is it's going to eat into my naptime. Now that I actually have time to sleep, I SHOULD. OTOH, maybe it'll make me get out to the bank and deposit my loan check...
...hahaahhhahhahaha!!! Yeah, right...hahah...I kill myself sometimes...
1.25.00
Note to other med students: cover your infant patients` weewees
when doing a physical exam...
Okay, so the zit story actually seemed pretty popular so I figure
I`d tell another story of when I was working in the pediatric ER
at Kings County Hospital a few months back. This woman comes in
with her 5 month old grandson. He was getting over some small
respiratory infection and she just wanted to make sure he was
okay. I was checking the baby over to make sure he was okay, which
means taking off all his clothes. He is not enjoying the exam and expresses
his displeasure with a bloodcurdling shriek.
It`s funny, you hear enough people screaming and after awhile your
mind just filters it out.
So I`m pressing on his abdomen and leaning over him to check his other side when suddenly the vision in my right eye goes fuzzy. It feels warm too. I suddenly realize that the baby is peeing on my face and stagger backwards. As I did this, my mouth must`ve been gaping open because...yup, I got a mouthful. As I`m standing there with one eye shut, I can see a two foot fountain of urine coming out of this little 20 pound bundle of joy. His shrieking had the effect of propelling the urine with a little more...um...oomph, than usual. The grandmother meanwhile, is chuckling, and saying, "Oh my! Oh my!". I`m gagging and spitting onto the floor and 3 nurses run in to see what the commotion is about. When they see me dripping in urine, they laughed so hard they cried. One of them ran to get a bottle of Betadine. For those of you who don`t know what it is, it`s an iodine solution used to sterilize things. Another thing about iodine - it stains clothes - permanently. So naturally, she thinks she`s helping somehow, she opens it up and starts pouring this big ole bottle all over me.
So I`m standing there wet from urine and iodine, feeling a little pathetic, and suddenly I burst out laughing right along with the nurses. The attending doc thought we were nuts. Sound strange, but things like that are why I`m going into emergency medicine. Good thing they don't make us wear shirts and ties in the ER.
1.24.00
Wow, okay, so I must say that I`ve had two awesome interviews in two days. Yesterday I interviewed at Mt. Sinai for Emergency Medicine. Today, I interviewed at St. Vincent`s Hospital for a preliminary year. For some programs I`m applying to, I have to do a preliminary year of internal medicine before I go on to do their EM program. Mt. Sinai is such a program. Both interview days went extremely, EXTREMELY well and I was very happy with both programs and would LOVE to be at St. Vincents next year and Mt. Sinai for the next 3 afterwards.
1.19.00
(Warning: the following entry may induce nausea...you have been
warned! :))
The Zit Remedy That Clearasil Never Discusses
So I`m finishing up my week of ENT rotation and everything`s going
fine, except I`ve got this zit right under my left nostril. Now
normally, I`d just slap a little benzoyl peroxide on it and wait a
week for it to go away. I wash my face religiously and I don`t get
them very frequently so I don`t really care. However, #1,
this thing`s grown into a mini abscess which means topical meds
aren`t going to do much, #2, it`s starting to hurt so much I can`t
even blow my nose, #3, I`ve got residency interviews next week and
while I`m not stressing about them, I`d prefer not to walk in with
a tumor under my nose, #4, it was one of those unpoppable deep in
the skin ones. So like any other dork of a med student, I decide
to perform a little mini I&D (incision and drainage) on
myself.
I whip out my collection of surplus medical supplies, and pull out
a 23 gauge butterfly needle that I think will do nicely. It`s a
standard needle that is used a lot for blood draws. I then attach
a 3 ml syringe to the end, wipe off the zit with an alcohol swab
(well, at least I`ve learned sterile technique in med school), and
slowly insert the needle into the base of the zit. Pus starts
flowing and then...OWWWWW!!! GODAAAAAAMN that hurt! I
managed to suction off a tiny amount of pus and blood but decided
the syringe isn`t doing much. So I take it off and proceed to make
5 (!!!) more entry points into the enemy ranks.
I`m bleeding very nicely at this point and tears are pouring down
my face. Perhaps I should`ve put a little anesthesia on first.
Hmm, mental note to self... I stick a piece of gauze on there
which soaks quite nicely. One hour later, VOILA!, not even a hint
of the zit. Just a few needlemarks which will disappear within the
next 48 hours. No more pain, no scarring and I can go to my
interviews not worrying about having to blow my nose. Thoroughly
disgusted yet? :) Wait till you hear some of my ER and psych
stories...
1.15.00
I was working out at Chelsea Piers today and had TWO celebrity sightings. One was Kim Raver of "Third Watch", and the other was the guy who plays Steve (Miranda`s boyfriend on "Sex and the City"). I`ve only lived in NYC for 7 months, but I still can`t over how many celebrities I`ve seen since I`ve been here. Small world, real small.
1.14.00
So I have this burning question - WTF is up with all the names with AZN in it?!! Is being a member of an Asian website not enough self affirmation?