Mexico and New York Photos
are now up . Taken with my new Canon G6 camera. Clinics start tomorrow. Here goes nothing!
Archive for June, 2005
I Start Surgery On Monday
Any advice for the surgery clerkship? Any good books to buy? I start it on Monday; it’s my first clerkship ever. A little nervous. Advice appreciated. Thanks!
“Is There A Doctor On Board?”
This was the line I heard yesterday over the intercom 30 minutes into my flight from Minneapolis to New York, and it scared the crap out of me. I’m always freaked out that I’m going to be in a situation where I will have the most medical knowledge of anyone around, and I’ll have to use it. Luckily there were like 4 doctors on the plane; an elderly woman passed out at the back of the plane, I think from dehydration and heat (the plane was sitting on the runway for awhile, really stuffy). She was laying down in the aisle by the bathrooms.
When they made the announcement, I got this look of sheer terror on my face, hoping desperately there’d be someone else. And then my imagination started to run with it:
Me: Well, I’ve had two years of med school, but I’ve never actually
treated
anyone!
Flight Attendant: You’ve got to be kiddding! How can you be halfway done with medical school and you’ve never taken care of anyone?
Me: I don’t know, that’s how it works, you do your first two years preclinical, and then you take boards, and then…
FA: Okay, shut up already and help this lady!
Me: Okay, uh, get her some oxygen, and uh, water! And… stuff.
FA: We’re screwed.
The lady was sitting up and fine by the end of the flight; I hope she’s okay.
Links of Notice
Michael on the Heritage Foundation’s crap calculations : publishing papers with statistically non-significant results, and then telling people to “decide for themselves.” A new low, the stats community should be outraged.
DB’s Op-Ed
Medblogger Robert Centor got an Op-Ed published in USA Today . Congrats!
Comments Off on DB’s Op-Ed
Savage Love Loves Me
I guess this breaks the whole anonymity of Savage Love, but who cares. I’m excited! I got published in this week’s Savage Love !
Q. You missed an opportunity in a recent column to talk about HPV and its association with anal cancer. It’s 35 times more common in the gay male population and isn’t being screened for very well. In fact, it’s now more common in gay men than cervical cancer is in women. If anal cancer is diagnosed early, mortality rates are much lower. Please let your readers know! —STANFORD MED STUDENT
A. Now they know, SMS.
(We had the world expert on anal cancer come talk to our class about HPV. He’s featured as having the worst science job: anal wart researcher. )
Boards Blow
Boards are done. Mexico is tomorrow.
In retrospect, I can say that studying for boards was actually worthwhile, but the actualy exam was extremely lame. It was really good to force me to review everything I’ve learned over the past two years and see it from different angles, integrate it, etc. But the test I took today had too much that reflected too little on practicing medicine. If I was studying to be a research scientist, test the hell out of me on biochemical pathways and cell signalling molecules, but I’m preparing to be a doctor, to take care of patients , not molecules. I couldn’t believe some of the questions that made it through the NBME’s screening process. Hey NBME-I don’t care about specific details about HLA types that some MD/PhD has written a question about.
Whatever, I’m done, hurrah. Expect a new redesign of the site in the coming weeks, as if anyone reads this anyway.
Yes, I’m cranky. Over and out.