You can make up your own mind about which 4 letter K-word that is after you read my entry.
Today I had microlab and we were doing some Grams Stains. I'll quickly sum up what Gram Stains are.
Gram positive basteria: look purple
Gram negative bacteria: look pink
I was making my gram negative slide and everything was going swell. I followed the procedure and life was grand. Then I tried to find the bacteria under the microscope and I was having a hard time focusing on the bacteria. They weren't that colorful and it was hard to get a crisp image of them. My professor told me that they weren't looking right and I should make them again. But he wasn't able to tell me where I went wrong.
OK, fine. I just made another and let the Safarnin sit a little longer. I went through the process again just to realize that I forgot to heat fixate. That basically means that all of my bacteria were in the dye tray after I washed them off the slide 4 different times. Little annoying, whatever. I went and made a third one. They looked exactly the same and the TA and professor still had no idea what was going on. Uggggh.
I do it a fourth time and no dice. The professor then looks at them under a different microscope and what a surprise, they looked perfect. There was no reason to have done it four times. He was just being a jerk and not letting the non-perfect slide.
I moved on to doing a Gram positive. The TA took a look at it and told me that my bacteria weren't distributed well enough. Are you serious?!??!?!?!?!? Well I'm sorry if there mothers didn't teach them how to be more evenly distributed.
By this point I had had it. I declared that I was going home, which wasn't that outrageous since the lab period had been over for ten minutes. (Note: I only got half of my work done, whereas many other were on the verge of being done.) So I'm going to pick up my dye tray which is overly full from having to repeat making a slide 4 times. Guess what happened. Actually, no. I'll just tell you the end result. My shoes and brand new jeans that were amazzzzzing now have crystal blue dye, safaranin, Gram iodine and decolorizer all over them. Yeah, that's never going to come out.
Everyone was on alert not to go anywhere near me. My professor thought it would be a good idea to make small talk by saying, "Hey Dr. Wannabe, wasn't it funny how all those slides you made were fine and just looked lighter under your microscope."
::people running for cover:: ::crickets::
"Yeah, it was really funny."
I don't think I need to tell you that I said that in the most sarcastic asshole voice ever. I was actually quite impressed that I had the balls to speak to a professor that way.
Microbiogy hasn't officially become my least favorite class of the semester.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
How could I abandon such a weak and defenseless blog?!
I feel terrible that I haven't been updating my blog. Just lately I haven't felt like I've had a ton to say on the whole theme of my blog. Plus my workload is crazy and tonight was the first real night I've gotten to take "off." I say off in quotes because I actually have some microlab stuff I have to write up before I go to bed.
This is actually is a coincidently good time to post since today all the Juniors and Seniors who are applying to med school had to meet together with the chair of the pre-health committee. It wasn't all that informative since I've been OCD about the whole applying thing this spring semester freshman year. The number one thing the chairman wanted to get across to us is that it's uber uber important to get our applications in ASAP. Fortunately, I don't think that's something that I'm going to have to worry about. Horray OCD!
During the meeting I was having one of my typical anxiety-from-applying-induced-panic-attacks. Except this one was different. Yes, my heart was still pounding away a million miles an hour. And yes, I never thought I was getting full breathes in. But it was still different. While my body was freaking out about the whole thing my brain was like, "Oh, whatever. I'm so done with this whole getting worked up about applying BS." I think this might be the beginning of me calming down. Horrah! Really the only thing I'm worried about is the committee interview where they rank how highly they recommend you for med school. But I'm fairly sure that I'll have full blown panic attacks once the MCATs roll around though.
Speaking of MCATs
I recently registered for my Kaplan MCAT review course. That only put me back $1300... According to the chairman today the MCATs are the single most important part of a med school application, which is the same thing that one of the dean's at my top choice med school said. So really I'm banking on doing really well on that test. God knows that my 3.0 sci-GPA and 3.2 cum GPA aren't going to catch any eyes. Well, they might. Just in a bad way. If only one could get into med school by good looks alone...
Wait, what the hell am I talking about? I want to improve my chances.
My shadowing has been really interesting thus far. Still waiting for the elusive intubation though. I was thinking about maybe posting the journal entries that I have to write for my internship. I'm fairly confident that I'm allowed to post those as long as it's Patient #1, #2 and so on. I mean God. You don't even know who I am.
I'll post those later on. That way I don't make this post hideously long.
This is actually is a coincidently good time to post since today all the Juniors and Seniors who are applying to med school had to meet together with the chair of the pre-health committee. It wasn't all that informative since I've been OCD about the whole applying thing this spring semester freshman year. The number one thing the chairman wanted to get across to us is that it's uber uber important to get our applications in ASAP. Fortunately, I don't think that's something that I'm going to have to worry about. Horray OCD!
During the meeting I was having one of my typical anxiety-from-applying-induced-panic-attacks. Except this one was different. Yes, my heart was still pounding away a million miles an hour. And yes, I never thought I was getting full breathes in. But it was still different. While my body was freaking out about the whole thing my brain was like, "Oh, whatever. I'm so done with this whole getting worked up about applying BS." I think this might be the beginning of me calming down. Horrah! Really the only thing I'm worried about is the committee interview where they rank how highly they recommend you for med school. But I'm fairly sure that I'll have full blown panic attacks once the MCATs roll around though.
Speaking of MCATs
I recently registered for my Kaplan MCAT review course. That only put me back $1300... According to the chairman today the MCATs are the single most important part of a med school application, which is the same thing that one of the dean's at my top choice med school said. So really I'm banking on doing really well on that test. God knows that my 3.0 sci-GPA and 3.2 cum GPA aren't going to catch any eyes. Well, they might. Just in a bad way. If only one could get into med school by good looks alone...
Wait, what the hell am I talking about? I want to improve my chances.
My shadowing has been really interesting thus far. Still waiting for the elusive intubation though. I was thinking about maybe posting the journal entries that I have to write for my internship. I'm fairly confident that I'm allowed to post those as long as it's Patient #1, #2 and so on. I mean God. You don't even know who I am.
I'll post those later on. That way I don't make this post hideously long.
Friday, September 01, 2006
I Feel Like the Biggest Asshole in the World
I had my first day of Microbiology Lab today. Walking into class not really knowing anyone in the lab I didn't have someone scout out as a lab partner. People started entering the room and taking their seats. Some people knew each other but mostly people didn't know the others. Class started and "Phil" walked in a couple minutes late. Phil had been in a couple of my classes in the past and walking in late was a usual occurrence. But the teacher would never say anything because there is obviously something mentally wrong with him. If I had to guess I would say that it's some form of autism, but I really can't really put my finger on it.
Long story short....
The professor moves him to the station next to me, which makes him my lab partner. Throughout the lab he's having a very difficult time learning how to use the microscope. Now I know that a microscope can be tricky to learn how to adjust and see clearly using both eyes, but Phil was having a hard time with everything about it. When trying to adjust the height of it he took the headpiece off and couldn't get it back on by himself. The professor had to stop he lecture to help show him how to put it on. Trying to use the oil emersion lens was another story within itself. And it’s not like he hasn’t had plenty of experience with a microscope before, because it’s used a lot in Gen Bio. Following the step-by-step directions that we were being given seems to be the main weakness, which I believe is a sign of autism.
Saying all of this makes me feel like a huge jerk. But I'm not even trying to be mean. I'm just saying what happened. And I feel even worse that I'm worried about being his partner. I know that he had to get through Gen Bio and Gen Chem to get to this point, which is no easy task, but I still have my reservations. I’m afraid that I’m going to have to do all the work and explain everything to him. I've never been good around the mentally challenged although my experience is limited. I feel like the only way I can communicate with them sometimes is by talking down to them and I hate belittling people like that. I don’t even mean talking down to them in the “I’m better than you” sense as much as how a mother talks down to her child about the dangers of touching a hot stove.
Maybe I’m making a big deal about nothing. Only time will tell. In the mean time does anyone have any advice? I’m fairly sure I’ve lost any continuous audience I had but it’s worth a shot.
Long story short....
The professor moves him to the station next to me, which makes him my lab partner. Throughout the lab he's having a very difficult time learning how to use the microscope. Now I know that a microscope can be tricky to learn how to adjust and see clearly using both eyes, but Phil was having a hard time with everything about it. When trying to adjust the height of it he took the headpiece off and couldn't get it back on by himself. The professor had to stop he lecture to help show him how to put it on. Trying to use the oil emersion lens was another story within itself. And it’s not like he hasn’t had plenty of experience with a microscope before, because it’s used a lot in Gen Bio. Following the step-by-step directions that we were being given seems to be the main weakness, which I believe is a sign of autism.
Saying all of this makes me feel like a huge jerk. But I'm not even trying to be mean. I'm just saying what happened. And I feel even worse that I'm worried about being his partner. I know that he had to get through Gen Bio and Gen Chem to get to this point, which is no easy task, but I still have my reservations. I’m afraid that I’m going to have to do all the work and explain everything to him. I've never been good around the mentally challenged although my experience is limited. I feel like the only way I can communicate with them sometimes is by talking down to them and I hate belittling people like that. I don’t even mean talking down to them in the “I’m better than you” sense as much as how a mother talks down to her child about the dangers of touching a hot stove.
Maybe I’m making a big deal about nothing. Only time will tell. In the mean time does anyone have any advice? I’m fairly sure I’ve lost any continuous audience I had but it’s worth a shot.
Friday, August 25, 2006
I'm Back In More Ways Than One.
I moved back to school a couple of days ago and it feels so good to be back. Home was getting a little (read as: very) boring.
Remember my post a little ways back about how my school is messing with my emotions? Well nothing has changed.
Good thing: The triple has been broken down once and for all.
Bad thing: The awesome change that the registrar made to my music class has kind of been changed back. It's still at the great time, but it's back with the bad teacher. Oh well. What you going to do.
The townhouse I'm living in is really, really nice and my housemates are doing a kick ass job of getting it decorated. The common room is looking hotttt. My room is much more spacious than I was anticipating. There seemed to be some momentary hysteria about a certain someone putting their mini-fridge in the kitchen, but I took care of the problem.
The only bad thing about the house is the fact that my room is an icebox. I keep setting the thermostat to 68, which I consider I fairly normal temperature. It somehow seems to always get back down to below 60. Interesting. And since my room is on the first floor... Well you get the picture. I wonder how hot it really gets on the second floor. The air vent in my room is currently duct tape shut, but that's not keeping me from considering putting on a second pair of pants.
In other news I setup my hospital orientation session. I'm extremely excited and can't wait for the internship to start. I don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but my internship is in the ER at the hospital across the street from my school. Waaaaaaay coooooooooooool. Hopefully the rest of the registering process will continue smoothly. Up until this point it has been an extreme pain to get everything started, but the woman who normally sets everything up is on vacation. Hopefully forever.
Oh, neato. My housemates all went to eat and didn't ask me, again. Cool deal.
It's been a little weird living here since I'm the only one who doesn't already know everyone else. My roommate is teammates with these guys but he's not moving in until Sunday. I should probably stop being such a loner in my room, but whenever I'm around them I have absolutely nothing to say since I don't really know them. Whatever, this happened last year and I ended making some pretty good friends. One of them is even planning on living with me next semester. I'll just have to turn on the charm and try to lower my sarcasm ray. I will break into the cross-country team's inner circle!
Time to take a nice hotttt shower and then put my under armor on.
Later.
Remember my post a little ways back about how my school is messing with my emotions? Well nothing has changed.
Good thing: The triple has been broken down once and for all.
Bad thing: The awesome change that the registrar made to my music class has kind of been changed back. It's still at the great time, but it's back with the bad teacher. Oh well. What you going to do.
The townhouse I'm living in is really, really nice and my housemates are doing a kick ass job of getting it decorated. The common room is looking hotttt. My room is much more spacious than I was anticipating. There seemed to be some momentary hysteria about a certain someone putting their mini-fridge in the kitchen, but I took care of the problem.
The only bad thing about the house is the fact that my room is an icebox. I keep setting the thermostat to 68, which I consider I fairly normal temperature. It somehow seems to always get back down to below 60. Interesting. And since my room is on the first floor... Well you get the picture. I wonder how hot it really gets on the second floor. The air vent in my room is currently duct tape shut, but that's not keeping me from considering putting on a second pair of pants.
In other news I setup my hospital orientation session. I'm extremely excited and can't wait for the internship to start. I don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but my internship is in the ER at the hospital across the street from my school. Waaaaaaay coooooooooooool. Hopefully the rest of the registering process will continue smoothly. Up until this point it has been an extreme pain to get everything started, but the woman who normally sets everything up is on vacation. Hopefully forever.
Oh, neato. My housemates all went to eat and didn't ask me, again. Cool deal.
It's been a little weird living here since I'm the only one who doesn't already know everyone else. My roommate is teammates with these guys but he's not moving in until Sunday. I should probably stop being such a loner in my room, but whenever I'm around them I have absolutely nothing to say since I don't really know them. Whatever, this happened last year and I ended making some pretty good friends. One of them is even planning on living with me next semester. I'll just have to turn on the charm and try to lower my sarcasm ray. I will break into the cross-country team's inner circle!
Time to take a nice hotttt shower and then put my under armor on.
Later.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Oh, Burrrrrrrrned
Today I read a blog that talked about how Americans don't believe in evolution and how it's really pathetic. (It is) Then I was going through the comments and someone said that it's depressing how the country is becoming a bunch of morons. He went on to compare these people to those who don't believe in Global Warming.
I don't believe in the popular theory of global warming. Thus, he thinks I'm a moron too. I probably lost this person's respect and that upsets me. Oh, well.
On other note I've created my schedule for the upcoming TV season. I shall now share it with all of you.
Sunday: The Amazing Race @ 8PM (Premiers 9/14)
The 4400 @ 9PM (Season Finale 8/27?)
Monday: Prison Break 8PM (8/21)
24 9PM (January)
Tuesday: House, M.D. 8PM (9/5) - funny story. I have my MCAT review class then.
Nip/Tuck 10PM (9/5)
Thursday: Survivor 8PM (?)
CSI: AND Grey's Anatomy 9PM (9/21) - anyone else having this problem. oh yeah, it's also during a class.
ER 10PM (9/21)
Any suggestions for more shows? Not like I really need anymore.
I don't believe in the popular theory of global warming. Thus, he thinks I'm a moron too. I probably lost this person's respect and that upsets me. Oh, well.
On other note I've created my schedule for the upcoming TV season. I shall now share it with all of you.
Sunday: The Amazing Race @ 8PM (Premiers 9/14)
The 4400 @ 9PM (Season Finale 8/27?)
Monday: Prison Break 8PM (8/21)
24 9PM (January)
Tuesday: House, M.D. 8PM (9/5) - funny story. I have my MCAT review class then.
Nip/Tuck 10PM (9/5)
Thursday: Survivor 8PM (?)
CSI: AND Grey's Anatomy 9PM (9/21) - anyone else having this problem. oh yeah, it's also during a class.
ER 10PM (9/21)
Any suggestions for more shows? Not like I really need anymore.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Signs of True Success
I like to check the number of hits I get, where referrals come from, etc., and I think it's fair to say that most bloggers get their greatest sense of accomplishment when they receive hits from being results in a Google search.
The first Google referral I ever got was from the Google Blog search engine. I didn't really get all that excited about it because the search was for "Podiatrist."
Lame.
The second time around was more recent and this time from an legit Google search. It was for "subtitle Dr. Gregory House." A little cooler since it was from the Google search, but the criteria was lame and I was on the second page of results.
But ladies and gentlemen I have received my first #1 Google Search Result!
The three glorious "words" which helped me accomplish this:
666, satan, house
I would like to give a big shout out to the Satanist who made this possible!
Rock On!
The first Google referral I ever got was from the Google Blog search engine. I didn't really get all that excited about it because the search was for "Podiatrist."
Lame.
The second time around was more recent and this time from an legit Google search. It was for "subtitle Dr. Gregory House." A little cooler since it was from the Google search, but the criteria was lame and I was on the second page of results.
But ladies and gentlemen I have received my first #1 Google Search Result!
The three glorious "words" which helped me accomplish this:
666, satan, house
I would like to give a big shout out to the Satanist who made this possible!
Rock On!
Friday, August 04, 2006
Messing With Emotions
My college has been messing with my emotions big time lately.
First, I was very giddy because the registrar processed my summer physics class very quickly. Last year it took them over 2 months after the semester started to get my calc class process. But this year I wanted to have these extra credits so that I was higher on the priority list for parking. I had little hope that the class would be processed before the parking registration, but they did!!! I now have a thimble’s worth of faith in the registrar.
Status: Happy with school!
Remember not too far back I posted about how happy I was that my triple got broken down back into double that it's suppose to be. Well, since I don't trust housing for a second I've still been checking my housing assignment on a regular basis. Guess what? THEY PUT A NEW PERSON IN MY ROOM!!! Not only did they re-buildup my room, but it's with a transfer student who's going to be a sophomore. Transfer students aren't even guaranteed housing so why do they have to go back on the promise they made to me?!? (Sidenote: I looked up the kid on facebook and he actually doesn't look like that bad of a guy. Don't confuse this anger towards housing as hostility towards the kid.)
Status: Pissed off with school
Background info: I was signed up for a Music in Film class which was on Thursday nights. I later realized that I somehow signed up for the class with the really bad professor. I don't know how that happened. Must have been momentary insanity or something. I was then going to switch out of that class into a Human Nutrition class, which was schedule for the same time.
The other day I was looking up the schedule for the MCAT Kaplan class I'm going to take this year. I then realized that it met on Tuesday and Thursday nights and I wasn't going to be able to take Human Nutrition. (sadface) So today I was looking online for a class to take in place of it. I knew that there wasn't any class that I was going to be interested in because as we all know I have OCD with scheduling classes, and already knew about every class offered this semester. After giving up in finding a class that would fulfill a requirement and interest me I took a look at my current schedule. LE GASP! MY MUSIC CLASS HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED TO A DOEABLE TIME! I was very confused by this because I've never heard of the registrar just switch the day and time of a class. So I checked out the class info to make sure everything else was the same, but there was another major change... I'M NOW SIGNED UP WITH THE GOOD PROFESSOR!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAY
Status: Very, very happy with the registrar. I'm sure that they pissed other people off when they did this though.
I still have the issue of how I'm going to watch CSI and Grey's Anatomy this semester. (Conflicts with the Kaplan course sometimes) First off, I don't know how I'm going to choose between my two loves. CSI was the first show that I ever got really addicted to and can be blamed as the cause of my TV addiction. Grey's Anatomy on the hand has become my new favorite show. I don't know how I'll decide what to watch live. Actually, I'm lying. I know that I'm going to watch Grey's Anatomy. Lately I've been getting a little tired of CSI, but I'll still manage to watch the new episodes every week.
Now I just have to figure out how I'll tape Grey's Anatomy on the night I have class. I don't really trust my roommate to tape it because he's pretty retarded when it comes to recording things. I could just trust my friend Steph to tape the show for me since she's going to be missing it too. But I never trust other people to do things for me. TiVo was always an idea in my head. And I reeeeally reeeeally want TiVo, but I don't think it's going to work with my school's internet network. (PS – the TiVo website sucks at answering my questions)
So I did a little research online. Non-Tivo DVRs are really expensive. Our cable provider doesn't offer a FauxVo service. Then I stumbled across a program that acts exactly like TiVo except on your computer. Then I found the piece of hardware that connects your TV cable to your computer. It was probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Combining my precious Mac with TV, genius. Again, it was a little pricey, but much more affordable than a DVR and with many, many more features. I'm currently bidding for the program in question on eBay and so far I'm the only bidder! (If any of you go behind my back and bid on this I will kill you faster than saying, "HOUSING SUCKS!")
Note: I’m really sorry that I don’t blog about more medically centered topics. I wish I could but I just don’t have that much medicine in my life yet. There should be a post soon about the specialty I’ve decided to focus on. And then soon after that we’ll have comments about how I don’t know what specialty I want at this stage of the game.
First, I was very giddy because the registrar processed my summer physics class very quickly. Last year it took them over 2 months after the semester started to get my calc class process. But this year I wanted to have these extra credits so that I was higher on the priority list for parking. I had little hope that the class would be processed before the parking registration, but they did!!! I now have a thimble’s worth of faith in the registrar.
Status: Happy with school!
Remember not too far back I posted about how happy I was that my triple got broken down back into double that it's suppose to be. Well, since I don't trust housing for a second I've still been checking my housing assignment on a regular basis. Guess what? THEY PUT A NEW PERSON IN MY ROOM!!! Not only did they re-buildup my room, but it's with a transfer student who's going to be a sophomore. Transfer students aren't even guaranteed housing so why do they have to go back on the promise they made to me?!? (Sidenote: I looked up the kid on facebook and he actually doesn't look like that bad of a guy. Don't confuse this anger towards housing as hostility towards the kid.)
Status: Pissed off with school
Background info: I was signed up for a Music in Film class which was on Thursday nights. I later realized that I somehow signed up for the class with the really bad professor. I don't know how that happened. Must have been momentary insanity or something. I was then going to switch out of that class into a Human Nutrition class, which was schedule for the same time.
The other day I was looking up the schedule for the MCAT Kaplan class I'm going to take this year. I then realized that it met on Tuesday and Thursday nights and I wasn't going to be able to take Human Nutrition. (sadface) So today I was looking online for a class to take in place of it. I knew that there wasn't any class that I was going to be interested in because as we all know I have OCD with scheduling classes, and already knew about every class offered this semester. After giving up in finding a class that would fulfill a requirement and interest me I took a look at my current schedule. LE GASP! MY MUSIC CLASS HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED TO A DOEABLE TIME! I was very confused by this because I've never heard of the registrar just switch the day and time of a class. So I checked out the class info to make sure everything else was the same, but there was another major change... I'M NOW SIGNED UP WITH THE GOOD PROFESSOR!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAY
Status: Very, very happy with the registrar. I'm sure that they pissed other people off when they did this though.
I still have the issue of how I'm going to watch CSI and Grey's Anatomy this semester. (Conflicts with the Kaplan course sometimes) First off, I don't know how I'm going to choose between my two loves. CSI was the first show that I ever got really addicted to and can be blamed as the cause of my TV addiction. Grey's Anatomy on the hand has become my new favorite show. I don't know how I'll decide what to watch live. Actually, I'm lying. I know that I'm going to watch Grey's Anatomy. Lately I've been getting a little tired of CSI, but I'll still manage to watch the new episodes every week.
Now I just have to figure out how I'll tape Grey's Anatomy on the night I have class. I don't really trust my roommate to tape it because he's pretty retarded when it comes to recording things. I could just trust my friend Steph to tape the show for me since she's going to be missing it too. But I never trust other people to do things for me. TiVo was always an idea in my head. And I reeeeally reeeeally want TiVo, but I don't think it's going to work with my school's internet network. (PS – the TiVo website sucks at answering my questions)
So I did a little research online. Non-Tivo DVRs are really expensive. Our cable provider doesn't offer a FauxVo service. Then I stumbled across a program that acts exactly like TiVo except on your computer. Then I found the piece of hardware that connects your TV cable to your computer. It was probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Combining my precious Mac with TV, genius. Again, it was a little pricey, but much more affordable than a DVR and with many, many more features. I'm currently bidding for the program in question on eBay and so far I'm the only bidder! (If any of you go behind my back and bid on this I will kill you faster than saying, "HOUSING SUCKS!")
Note: I’m really sorry that I don’t blog about more medically centered topics. I wish I could but I just don’t have that much medicine in my life yet. There should be a post soon about the specialty I’ve decided to focus on. And then soon after that we’ll have comments about how I don’t know what specialty I want at this stage of the game.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Genius
I'm a great fan of evolutionary logic-based thinking.
Doctor Mama wrote I great post about why the world is becoming fat. I've been preaching the same exact thing ever since I took Gen BioII and I'm glad to see that I'm right. (or that someone at least agrees with me)
I have to give props though. She does a much better job explaining it than I do.
Doctor Mama wrote I great post about why the world is becoming fat. I've been preaching the same exact thing ever since I took Gen BioII and I'm glad to see that I'm right. (or that someone at least agrees with me)
I have to give props though. She does a much better job explaining it than I do.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Encounters
During the summer I work at a community park, which consists of a tennis center, platform tennis courts and mini-golf. Today, I was fortunate to get to open at 7AM. Normally I close and I prefer this since I'm a night person, but I owed someone a favor.
Around 11AM I saw some people walking over to the picnic tables with food and after a while it clicked that we had a birthday party this morning. Okay, whatever, not a big deal. A birthday party doesn't really involve me doing anything extra. I moved to the mini-golf hut and prepared to be bombarded by 5 year olds looking to play some mini-golf. I then see a car driving through the park towards the mini-golf hut, which is a little unusual since cars don't drive through the park. As the person got out of the car I immediately recognized the person as a patient I had recently met while shadowing. The party ended up being for his son.
Later on in the day he came up to ask for a club and ball for his son and I definitely thought he gave me a look like "hmmm... I feel like I've seen you somewhere," or "oh, this is the guy at the doctor's office. I wonder if he remembers me?" But regardless, there was a look. In my head I questioned whether to say hi and explain where he knew me from, but there was always the chance that there was no look at all and I was just being weird like usual. That time I let it go and didn't say anything.
I then talked with my co-worker about how I knew him but didn't know if he recognized me. I mean I don't think I even said anything in his presence during his doctor visit. She, like always, said that it would be weird if I said something and that it would probably go against some patient confidentiality thing. I told her she was nuts and it wasn't like I was announcing to the world what he went to the doctor for; which, by the way, was absolutely nothing embarrassing. Although, I did learn some supplementary private information about him, but I wasn't going around saying, "Hey! You're the guy who (insert private matter here)!" I ended up deciding that if I saw him again I would say hi.
He ended up being the one that came to pay for the party. Once again, I thought I saw a look like he knew me from somewhere. So, I said, "Are you wondering where you know me from?" His answer was kind of a vague yes/no thing, like as soon as a mentioned it he realized he knew me. Then I just told him that I was the student interning with the podiatrist. He immediately remembered me and we had a little chat, which didn't include anything about his health.
Afterwards, like usual, I felt like a moron for saying anything. But if he did recognize me and I didn't say anything then I didn't want to be that guy who can't remember a recent patient's face.
Question for the readers:
What would you have done in that situation?
Once again I make a big deal about nothing.
Around 11AM I saw some people walking over to the picnic tables with food and after a while it clicked that we had a birthday party this morning. Okay, whatever, not a big deal. A birthday party doesn't really involve me doing anything extra. I moved to the mini-golf hut and prepared to be bombarded by 5 year olds looking to play some mini-golf. I then see a car driving through the park towards the mini-golf hut, which is a little unusual since cars don't drive through the park. As the person got out of the car I immediately recognized the person as a patient I had recently met while shadowing. The party ended up being for his son.
Later on in the day he came up to ask for a club and ball for his son and I definitely thought he gave me a look like "hmmm... I feel like I've seen you somewhere," or "oh, this is the guy at the doctor's office. I wonder if he remembers me?" But regardless, there was a look. In my head I questioned whether to say hi and explain where he knew me from, but there was always the chance that there was no look at all and I was just being weird like usual. That time I let it go and didn't say anything.
I then talked with my co-worker about how I knew him but didn't know if he recognized me. I mean I don't think I even said anything in his presence during his doctor visit. She, like always, said that it would be weird if I said something and that it would probably go against some patient confidentiality thing. I told her she was nuts and it wasn't like I was announcing to the world what he went to the doctor for; which, by the way, was absolutely nothing embarrassing. Although, I did learn some supplementary private information about him, but I wasn't going around saying, "Hey! You're the guy who (insert private matter here)!" I ended up deciding that if I saw him again I would say hi.
He ended up being the one that came to pay for the party. Once again, I thought I saw a look like he knew me from somewhere. So, I said, "Are you wondering where you know me from?" His answer was kind of a vague yes/no thing, like as soon as a mentioned it he realized he knew me. Then I just told him that I was the student interning with the podiatrist. He immediately remembered me and we had a little chat, which didn't include anything about his health.
Afterwards, like usual, I felt like a moron for saying anything. But if he did recognize me and I didn't say anything then I didn't want to be that guy who can't remember a recent patient's face.
Question for the readers:
What would you have done in that situation?
Once again I make a big deal about nothing.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
An Announcement:
I feel I should take this time to make something clear to everyone.
I am perfectly aware that TV doctor world is NOTHING like real doctor world. I've shadowed a few medical professionals in different areas. (Although they were all private practices) And I can honestly say that I think I have a good idea of what the real medical world looks like.
When I read the blog post that Intelinurse left (http://www.mylifemypace.com/2006/07/24/so-why-do-you-want-to-be-a-doctor-part-2/) I must say that I was quite humiliated. This is definitely how my entire blog comes off and I really want to do something to fix it. I don't think I want to do anything like changing the name of the blog, because it seems that I may have started to become popular. (5 post! 4 from people I don't know!) So instead, I think we're going to see a change in the subtitle and “About” section of the blog.
It also seems that people are quite worried that I really will/want to turn into House. Fear not. I'm way to big of a tool to ever become such a jerk. But I'm not gonna lie. In person I can be extremely opinionated and almost stubborn about my views, but that has never stopped me from doing whatever people ask of me. :-/ I’ll try to give you all a nice image of what my real personality is like, in terms of TV characters, of course.
Opinionated like Gregory House
Passionate like John Carter
Tool bag like Mark Green
Pussy like George (God, please don't set me up with any weird fat chicks.)
I'll finish this post with an excerpt from a letter of recommendation about me: (Read as: shameless pat on the back)
"Dr. Wannabe is inquisitive and witty ... When he accompanied me into patient visits he was professional, friendly, and most importantly compassionate. Dr. Wannabe has a wonderful bed-side manner which is naturally soothing and put patients right at ease."
- Super nice P.A. who I shadowed
Let me once again assure you that my reasons for going into medicine are for real. When I first went into college I was undeclared between pscyh and bio, and chose bio because is was really what I loved. I then decided at the end of freshman year that I would bite the bullet and become premed, which I use to think of being impossible. So, I changed my major from Biology to Biomedical Sciences and I have since basically committed my life to achieving my goal of becoming a great doctor in a TBD field that I love. (Leaning towards ER. Post some good ER doc blogs! I only know about Dr. Couz whom I adore. drcouz.blogspot.com)
I am perfectly aware that TV doctor world is NOTHING like real doctor world. I've shadowed a few medical professionals in different areas. (Although they were all private practices) And I can honestly say that I think I have a good idea of what the real medical world looks like.
When I read the blog post that Intelinurse left (http://www.mylifemypace.com/2006/07/24/so-why-do-you-want-to-be-a-doctor-part-2/) I must say that I was quite humiliated. This is definitely how my entire blog comes off and I really want to do something to fix it. I don't think I want to do anything like changing the name of the blog, because it seems that I may have started to become popular. (5 post! 4 from people I don't know!) So instead, I think we're going to see a change in the subtitle and “About” section of the blog.
It also seems that people are quite worried that I really will/want to turn into House. Fear not. I'm way to big of a tool to ever become such a jerk. But I'm not gonna lie. In person I can be extremely opinionated and almost stubborn about my views, but that has never stopped me from doing whatever people ask of me. :-/ I’ll try to give you all a nice image of what my real personality is like, in terms of TV characters, of course.
Opinionated like Gregory House
Passionate like John Carter
Tool bag like Mark Green
Pussy like George (God, please don't set me up with any weird fat chicks.)
I'll finish this post with an excerpt from a letter of recommendation about me: (Read as: shameless pat on the back)
"Dr. Wannabe is inquisitive and witty ... When he accompanied me into patient visits he was professional, friendly, and most importantly compassionate. Dr. Wannabe has a wonderful bed-side manner which is naturally soothing and put patients right at ease."
- Super nice P.A. who I shadowed
Let me once again assure you that my reasons for going into medicine are for real. When I first went into college I was undeclared between pscyh and bio, and chose bio because is was really what I loved. I then decided at the end of freshman year that I would bite the bullet and become premed, which I use to think of being impossible. So, I changed my major from Biology to Biomedical Sciences and I have since basically committed my life to achieving my goal of becoming a great doctor in a TBD field that I love. (Leaning towards ER. Post some good ER doc blogs! I only know about Dr. Couz whom I adore. drcouz.blogspot.com)
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Name Change?
I was watching my beloved ER Theatre last night, which is nothing more than two episodes of ER being shown back to back. Dr. Mark Green was still alive in these episodes and like usual was being a tool for everyone, losing hair and having relationship problems. Whenever I call myself a tool my friends say I'm just being a good friend. I still think I'm being a tool and they probably think so too. Regardless, I'm watching this episode and I'm starting to think, "Hmmmm, who does Dr. Green remind me of?"
Then it dawns on me. I am Dr. Green, minus the medical degree.
This was a very sad realization for me because I wanted to be the cool Dr. Gregory House, but instead I'm going to be the-nice-guy-who-finishes-last-Dr. Mark Green. I could definitely see myself in Dr. Green's shoes. "Hey Dr. Wannabe, can you do a rectal examination for me?" "Umm, I was just about to go home, but yeah I guess I could..." That's how it's going to go down and now I'm going to cry a little. And I'm probably going to be in the same hair situation as him when I'm his age. Whatever. At some point Natural Selection decided that having hair did not give a bigger edge in life. (This is what I'm going to tell myself and if you try to burst my bubble I will hunt you down.) I suppose the relationship side of life won't be that bad in the long run. Sure I'll go through a messy divorce with my first wife, but that's after lots of hot sex in hospital closets. And then in the end I'll end up marrying a tall, English red head. COUNT IT! And I will then soon after die of a brain tumor... Son of a bitch!
There is also a strong similarity between me and Dr. John Carter. Both are going into medicine because we love it even though we could easily get better paying jobs through family connections. (I'm don't have it to quite the same extent, but I'm sure it's there if it ever got to that point.) That's pretty much where it ends though. I don't plan on having an addiction to pain killers, and I'll be damned if I ever go to Africa to help people. I also don't think I'm going to have women swooning over me either because I look like Dr. Green. I wouldn't be that surprised if I had to help a family member kick a heroin addiction though. (Kidding. Well, half kidding)
After reading all of this I've come to the conclusion that I watch too much ER. Actually, I watch too much TV in general. What can I say? TV is my hobby/passion/heroin.
I'm sure in the future I'll go through what characters I could see myself becoming from Grey's Anatomy. (hint: none of them because I'm never going to have sex in a closet. Oh wait, George made a girl while having sex. We’ve found our winner!)
Then it dawns on me. I am Dr. Green, minus the medical degree.
This was a very sad realization for me because I wanted to be the cool Dr. Gregory House, but instead I'm going to be the-nice-guy-who-finishes-last-Dr. Mark Green. I could definitely see myself in Dr. Green's shoes. "Hey Dr. Wannabe, can you do a rectal examination for me?" "Umm, I was just about to go home, but yeah I guess I could..." That's how it's going to go down and now I'm going to cry a little. And I'm probably going to be in the same hair situation as him when I'm his age. Whatever. At some point Natural Selection decided that having hair did not give a bigger edge in life. (This is what I'm going to tell myself and if you try to burst my bubble I will hunt you down.) I suppose the relationship side of life won't be that bad in the long run. Sure I'll go through a messy divorce with my first wife, but that's after lots of hot sex in hospital closets. And then in the end I'll end up marrying a tall, English red head. COUNT IT! And I will then soon after die of a brain tumor... Son of a bitch!
There is also a strong similarity between me and Dr. John Carter. Both are going into medicine because we love it even though we could easily get better paying jobs through family connections. (I'm don't have it to quite the same extent, but I'm sure it's there if it ever got to that point.) That's pretty much where it ends though. I don't plan on having an addiction to pain killers, and I'll be damned if I ever go to Africa to help people. I also don't think I'm going to have women swooning over me either because I look like Dr. Green. I wouldn't be that surprised if I had to help a family member kick a heroin addiction though. (Kidding. Well, half kidding)
After reading all of this I've come to the conclusion that I watch too much ER. Actually, I watch too much TV in general. What can I say? TV is my hobby/passion/heroin.
I'm sure in the future I'll go through what characters I could see myself becoming from Grey's Anatomy. (hint: none of them because I'm never going to have sex in a closet. Oh wait, George made a girl while having sex. We’ve found our winner!)
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Let the Summer Begin
It's official. I dropped Physics. That's drop, not withdrawal, which means that med schools will never know about this class. Unless, one of you out there decide to tell them about my struggle with this class. But you guys are my pals. Except the damn frenchman. ::glares::
I don't know what I'm going to do with all of my free time. Probably do a lot of sleeping. Mmm, sleeeeep.
I'm also going to look around to do some more shadowing, hopefully a DO in a primary care field. I want to see what all the complaing is about. Unfortunaly the DO who I have might sights aimed for I've heard is not a social butterfly. Not like he's a mean guy or something, he's just not much of a talker. I'll just have to work my charm, again.
In other news, I also found out that my dorm room was broken down from a triple to a double. Let me explain.
April, 2006: Room Selection Day
My roommate and I were on line to select our room for next year. Ahead of us were a group of guys from the cross country team. They told us that they were going to choose to live in the same housing area that we were going to choose (8 person townhouse) and told us they would have an extra room to live in, if we so choose. Since my roommate is teammates with them and we know they're good guys we decided to live with them. The only problem was that the room that was left was a "build up." A build up is a room where they put one extra person into it temporary and then move the person out of it into another dorm when rooms open up. This year though housing once again had too many people requesting housing so the chances of an extra room opening up was looking slim. The guy who was suppose to room with us looked like the complete opposite of me and my roommate. Basically he looked like a big partying/working out/don't give a shit about school guido. And I'm an expert in facebook judging so it must have been true. All summer I've been checking our housing assignments online and today he was finally taken out of our room! Can I get an AMEN?!
I don't know what I'm going to do with all of my free time. Probably do a lot of sleeping. Mmm, sleeeeep.
I'm also going to look around to do some more shadowing, hopefully a DO in a primary care field. I want to see what all the complaing is about. Unfortunaly the DO who I have might sights aimed for I've heard is not a social butterfly. Not like he's a mean guy or something, he's just not much of a talker. I'll just have to work my charm, again.
In other news, I also found out that my dorm room was broken down from a triple to a double. Let me explain.
April, 2006: Room Selection Day
My roommate and I were on line to select our room for next year. Ahead of us were a group of guys from the cross country team. They told us that they were going to choose to live in the same housing area that we were going to choose (8 person townhouse) and told us they would have an extra room to live in, if we so choose. Since my roommate is teammates with them and we know they're good guys we decided to live with them. The only problem was that the room that was left was a "build up." A build up is a room where they put one extra person into it temporary and then move the person out of it into another dorm when rooms open up. This year though housing once again had too many people requesting housing so the chances of an extra room opening up was looking slim. The guy who was suppose to room with us looked like the complete opposite of me and my roommate. Basically he looked like a big partying/working out/don't give a shit about school guido. And I'm an expert in facebook judging so it must have been true. All summer I've been checking our housing assignments online and today he was finally taken out of our room! Can I get an AMEN?!
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Let's Try to Be Creative
I just saw a preview for this movie called The Prestige staring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. Who else is in this movie you may ask. Scarlett Johansson and Michael Caine
So what's my beef? Well... Christian Bale and Michael Caine were just in Batman Begins as Batman and Alfred, respectivly. And Hugh Jackman and Scarlett Johansson star together in the new Woody Allen movie, Scoop. A little odd I thought.
P.S. - It looked like a good movie. As of now I'm putting my money on it.
So what's my beef? Well... Christian Bale and Michael Caine were just in Batman Begins as Batman and Alfred, respectivly. And Hugh Jackman and Scarlett Johansson star together in the new Woody Allen movie, Scoop. A little odd I thought.
P.S. - It looked like a good movie. As of now I'm putting my money on it.
Monday, July 17, 2006
n00b
I'm such a moron.
Last spring the hospital that I'm doing my internship at told me how I'm going to need an up to date physical and general medical clearnance to do my internship. So I went home to get a physcial done before the school year ended, but I never got their exact list of requirements. I told my doctor my situation and he prescribed me a list of bloodwork to get done that would allow me to work in a hospital.
Fast-forword to the lab bill of $1200!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm sitting here now thinking about the lab work that I had done and say to myself "WHAT THE FUCK? WASN'T I IMMUNIZED AGAINST ALL THOSE THINGS?!?!? So I check the list that I now have and realize that my physical with the dates of my immunizations covers everything....
I DIDN'T NEED ANY OF THAT BLOOD WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is my doctor an idiot? Why did he prescribe all that stuff. God I was so stupid back then. If that happened now I would have been all over that shit. Oh the stuff you learn with basic life experience.
Last spring the hospital that I'm doing my internship at told me how I'm going to need an up to date physical and general medical clearnance to do my internship. So I went home to get a physcial done before the school year ended, but I never got their exact list of requirements. I told my doctor my situation and he prescribed me a list of bloodwork to get done that would allow me to work in a hospital.
Fast-forword to the lab bill of $1200!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm sitting here now thinking about the lab work that I had done and say to myself "WHAT THE FUCK? WASN'T I IMMUNIZED AGAINST ALL THOSE THINGS?!?!? So I check the list that I now have and realize that my physical with the dates of my immunizations covers everything....
I DIDN'T NEED ANY OF THAT BLOOD WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is my doctor an idiot? Why did he prescribe all that stuff. God I was so stupid back then. If that happened now I would have been all over that shit. Oh the stuff you learn with basic life experience.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
I'm Sorry
The class and work combination has taken over my life once again. I don't have time to do anything. Well, except for watching 6 hours of The 4400 tonight when I get gome from work. (11.45ish PM)
PS - Physics sucks more hardcore than ever. Today he started teaching us stuff that wasn't even close to being mentioned in the text book.
PS - Physics sucks more hardcore than ever. Today he started teaching us stuff that wasn't even close to being mentioned in the text book.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
This is me bitching about stuff
Before the summer started my friends had asked me if we could go up to Vermont to go golfing and partake in other festivities. Since I knew that my schedule was going to be mad busy I never really gave this much thought cause I wasn't keen to the idea of only going for a weekend. Plus I don't golf so I didn't know what I would do with myself up there.
Last week we talked about it more and people showed interest in going and the idea started to grow on me. I idea of trying out mountain biking specifically caught my interest. So I went about getting permission from the parentals and calling family to make sure that the house wasn't going to be in use this weekend. After doing this planning I start asking the guys about traveling arrangements and stuff like that. Now I don't know why I'm so surprised about what happened after that, but people started backing out.
One person specifically had been really pushing that idea of going up for a weekend. This same person backed out and said it wasn't worth going up for just a weekend. Funny... When I said it wasn't worth going up for a weekend people though I was being a killjoy. But when others say it's not worth it it's completely rational thinking. Oh, and there just happens to be a high school graduation party that weekend, and we all know what are at high school graduation parties. High School Graduate Girls!!!! His aunt even told him not to bother staying for the party but why give up the chance at not getting ass from the same girls again this summer?!
Another friend just refused to give an answer one way or the other when he had absolutely nothing better to do that weekend. There was one who wouldn't ask for time off from his job but it's only his second week working there so I won't bust on him.
I've basically given up on the idea of going up and it will be close to impossible to get me to want to go up again before ski season. Sucks for them.
I'm trying to find other things to do with my weekend since I don't really want anything to do with my friends right now. I asked my NJ friends from school if anything was going down, but he claimed that nothing was happening and that he had work. Last time I checked that's the answer he's had for every time I've wanted to come visit, and every one of those weekends he got shit faced. But when certain other people go to visit there is a huge celebration, which no one bothers to tell me about.
This is basically the story of my life. I go to great lengths to set up trips and good times but things never work out because people are jerks. Then when other people decide to do stuff I'm never thought of. Nice guys finish last? You're dead right.
Last week we talked about it more and people showed interest in going and the idea started to grow on me. I idea of trying out mountain biking specifically caught my interest. So I went about getting permission from the parentals and calling family to make sure that the house wasn't going to be in use this weekend. After doing this planning I start asking the guys about traveling arrangements and stuff like that. Now I don't know why I'm so surprised about what happened after that, but people started backing out.
One person specifically had been really pushing that idea of going up for a weekend. This same person backed out and said it wasn't worth going up for just a weekend. Funny... When I said it wasn't worth going up for a weekend people though I was being a killjoy. But when others say it's not worth it it's completely rational thinking. Oh, and there just happens to be a high school graduation party that weekend, and we all know what are at high school graduation parties. High School Graduate Girls!!!! His aunt even told him not to bother staying for the party but why give up the chance at not getting ass from the same girls again this summer?!
Another friend just refused to give an answer one way or the other when he had absolutely nothing better to do that weekend. There was one who wouldn't ask for time off from his job but it's only his second week working there so I won't bust on him.
I've basically given up on the idea of going up and it will be close to impossible to get me to want to go up again before ski season. Sucks for them.
I'm trying to find other things to do with my weekend since I don't really want anything to do with my friends right now. I asked my NJ friends from school if anything was going down, but he claimed that nothing was happening and that he had work. Last time I checked that's the answer he's had for every time I've wanted to come visit, and every one of those weekends he got shit faced. But when certain other people go to visit there is a huge celebration, which no one bothers to tell me about.
This is basically the story of my life. I go to great lengths to set up trips and good times but things never work out because people are jerks. Then when other people decide to do stuff I'm never thought of. Nice guys finish last? You're dead right.
Monday, July 03, 2006
w00t!
I PASSED PHYSICS!!!!!!!!!!!!
I got a C+ in the class and it's the most excited I've been in a long time. I realize that this is the opposite direction that I want to be going with my GPA, but it's dooooooooooone. Kind of...
Unfortunately, I've decided that I'm going against the plan that I typed out for ya'll and I'm going ahead with taking Physics for Science Majors II. I figure if I get the same prof then I will know what I'm going into. If I don't get the same prof then how could it be any worse. (Oh boy, I can't wait to see how fate gives me the finger on this one.) If I get physics completely out of the way this summer it would just make my life sooooo much easier. I get a week off before the class starts. My friend and I are hoping to go to Vermont this weekend. They want to golf and I want to go mountain biking. Hopefully things will work out.
In sadder news I'm starting to think that maybe Primary Care isn't what I want to go into. I'm afraid that insurance problems would suck the joy out of medicine. Errrrrr... I don't want to let the system beat me before I get started. Could I be a PCP but see patients as a specialist also? I'm just going to put these specific thoughts in the back of my head right now cause they're not going to change whether I apply to medschool or not.
I got a C+ in the class and it's the most excited I've been in a long time. I realize that this is the opposite direction that I want to be going with my GPA, but it's dooooooooooone. Kind of...
Unfortunately, I've decided that I'm going against the plan that I typed out for ya'll and I'm going ahead with taking Physics for Science Majors II. I figure if I get the same prof then I will know what I'm going into. If I don't get the same prof then how could it be any worse. (Oh boy, I can't wait to see how fate gives me the finger on this one.) If I get physics completely out of the way this summer it would just make my life sooooo much easier. I get a week off before the class starts. My friend and I are hoping to go to Vermont this weekend. They want to golf and I want to go mountain biking. Hopefully things will work out.
In sadder news I'm starting to think that maybe Primary Care isn't what I want to go into. I'm afraid that insurance problems would suck the joy out of medicine. Errrrrr... I don't want to let the system beat me before I get started. Could I be a PCP but see patients as a specialist also? I'm just going to put these specific thoughts in the back of my head right now cause they're not going to change whether I apply to medschool or not.
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Attempts at Disillusioning
Today, I was shadowing Podiatrist and everything went pretty well. I'm very comfortable around him and I'm becoming almost useful. After working with him a couple of times I've realized that the money that he makes is very important to him. At least I assume that because of how much he complains about insurance companies paying less and less for what he does. Okay, that's fine. He's feeling underappreciated and isn't getting out of his job what he thought he would be. Whatever, those are his priorities and things aren't going perfectly.
Deep down I wonder how bad could it really be when you're driving a Mercedes, taking your 10 and 7 year old to Disney/Universal Studios for the 18th time, (No exaggerating. That's the number he told me.) and going out to lunch with your wife to Cheesecake Factory where he predicts to spend about $100 dollars. And those trips to Florida he told me use to cost him about $3600 and now cost in total about $4000. All I know is that if I was living that kind of lifestyle I would be extremely happy with where I was. Now I'm not trying to deny that money is important to me because let's be honest we work for a reason. But the reason I'm choosing medicine is because it's the area that I can enjoy the most while still making a living.
The last patient of the day comes in with her husband who happens to be a Family Medicine physician. FM gives me a weird look and then asks if I was a resident. (I was beyond honored) I then told him that I was pre-med and the first thing he tells me is, "Don't do it." At first I gave a smile cause often doctors will say that kiddingly. But it didn't stop there. Podatrist and FM start venting to each other about stupid patients, liability and insurance companies. (By this point in the day if I hear one more thing about insurance companies I'm going to hit someone.) FM then gives me a scenario that he's currently in and asks how I would handle it. I give my naive premedical student answer that the best you can do is tell your patient all their options and how serious the situation is. He then goes on about how that's how it should be, but isn't what reality is. Now I'm perfectly aware of this and know that you need to watch your back more than that, but I can't honestly make a real decision without some experience under my belt. So after he says, "Don't do it," for about the 5th time I ask him if he's actually serious, because I get the sense that he's not just kidding around anymore. He gave me a straightforward yes, but gives the routine “But if the money’s not important/If it’s what you really like…” support. Podiatrist has told me from day one that if I do end up in medicine I should only consider plastic surgery, cosmetic dentistry and ER because those are the ones that don't have to deal with insurance companies. ER is the only one of those I would ever consider, but as of now I can’t see it being my number one choice.
AHHHHHH!!!! What is the deal with these jerkoffs. I don't want to be an asshole and just say to them, "I'm not in it for the money," because then it'll sound like I think they're shallow. I really don't think that of them. I just think that they probably should have chosen a better profession to make big bucks. Next time I see Podiatrist I'm going to man up and ask him how he chose his profession. I'm also going to ask Ortho. what he thinks about his career. I'm going to try not to give up Podiatrist, but I have a feeling that everyone knows how he feels about his job.
I'd also like to get it out there that I realize like I sound way too idealistic about the medical profession. I claim to be immune to the aggravation of "the system," but I know that I will become a little jaded by it all. I expect and accept this. But I still believe that as long as I go into something that I like then that will get me through life. Oh yeah, and I also am not going to be complaining if I make the physician average of $150,000.
Deep down I wonder how bad could it really be when you're driving a Mercedes, taking your 10 and 7 year old to Disney/Universal Studios for the 18th time, (No exaggerating. That's the number he told me.) and going out to lunch with your wife to Cheesecake Factory where he predicts to spend about $100 dollars. And those trips to Florida he told me use to cost him about $3600 and now cost in total about $4000. All I know is that if I was living that kind of lifestyle I would be extremely happy with where I was. Now I'm not trying to deny that money is important to me because let's be honest we work for a reason. But the reason I'm choosing medicine is because it's the area that I can enjoy the most while still making a living.
The last patient of the day comes in with her husband who happens to be a Family Medicine physician. FM gives me a weird look and then asks if I was a resident. (I was beyond honored) I then told him that I was pre-med and the first thing he tells me is, "Don't do it." At first I gave a smile cause often doctors will say that kiddingly. But it didn't stop there. Podatrist and FM start venting to each other about stupid patients, liability and insurance companies. (By this point in the day if I hear one more thing about insurance companies I'm going to hit someone.) FM then gives me a scenario that he's currently in and asks how I would handle it. I give my naive premedical student answer that the best you can do is tell your patient all their options and how serious the situation is. He then goes on about how that's how it should be, but isn't what reality is. Now I'm perfectly aware of this and know that you need to watch your back more than that, but I can't honestly make a real decision without some experience under my belt. So after he says, "Don't do it," for about the 5th time I ask him if he's actually serious, because I get the sense that he's not just kidding around anymore. He gave me a straightforward yes, but gives the routine “But if the money’s not important/If it’s what you really like…” support. Podiatrist has told me from day one that if I do end up in medicine I should only consider plastic surgery, cosmetic dentistry and ER because those are the ones that don't have to deal with insurance companies. ER is the only one of those I would ever consider, but as of now I can’t see it being my number one choice.
AHHHHHH!!!! What is the deal with these jerkoffs. I don't want to be an asshole and just say to them, "I'm not in it for the money," because then it'll sound like I think they're shallow. I really don't think that of them. I just think that they probably should have chosen a better profession to make big bucks. Next time I see Podiatrist I'm going to man up and ask him how he chose his profession. I'm also going to ask Ortho. what he thinks about his career. I'm going to try not to give up Podiatrist, but I have a feeling that everyone knows how he feels about his job.
I'd also like to get it out there that I realize like I sound way too idealistic about the medical profession. I claim to be immune to the aggravation of "the system," but I know that I will become a little jaded by it all. I expect and accept this. But I still believe that as long as I go into something that I like then that will get me through life. Oh yeah, and I also am not going to be complaining if I make the physician average of $150,000.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
I Hate Physics, But MD Doesn't Hate Me.
So, I'm in my last week of Physics for Science Majors 1. I still think I'm going to fail, thus leaving me with some very tough choices in the near future. I really wish that I had known that this school had tight connections to the Columbia School of Engineering and that the class is targeted for pre-engineers. So here are the potential scenerios:
In other news...
I was telling my friend (whose mom is the office manager at the doctor's office where I'm shadowing) about how I didn't think the doctor liked being shadowed since he didn't make any real conversation. He just laughed at me. I was a little confused and he explained that the doctor isn't much of a talker the first time he meets people. NICE! (no sarcasm) I'm so glad that it's him and not me. I'm just going to have to break out the old charm. I've always had a knack for getting non-talkers to become comfortable and break out into conversation. Not that I think he's uncomfortable. I just seem to be good at getting the ball moving with the mutes.
Today in Physics the professor decided that he was going to give us his sales speech. He was talking about how the school has close connections with Columbia University's School of Engineering and how being a physics major is great. He told us all of this after finding out that the majority of the class was premed. He explained that as a physics major one could still apply to medical school and if it didn't work out engineering could always be a safety net.
Engineering....
a safety net....
You've got to be fucking kidding me. I'd rather drown.
He continued to talk about the program they have where as long as the student has a 3.0 they would be accepted to Columbia's School of Engineering and would graduate with a B.A, in Physics and a B.S. in a wide range of engineering fields. He also told us that he thought everyone of us was extrememly bright and could guarentee us scholarships should we choose to change schools and majors. (I guess 31/60, 41/60 and 20/70 on physics test qualifies me as bright.) No offense, but he was telling this to the people at Duke, Cornell and Boston College. Hell even my school is tons better than this place.
- If I don't get credit for the class then I'm certainly not taking Physics 2 this summer. It's not that I wouldn't be allowed; I just don't know why I would do that so myself. That then leaves me with a couple of options of when to take physics.
- I take it in place of one of my classes this fall and spring w/ Orgo(year long) and Micro(fall)/Genetics(spring). This would then allow me to take the MCATs in the spring and continue with the tradtional medschool application process. But it may be too heavy of a course load. Plus the Physics prof. at my school is a diiiiiiick.
- I take Physics in place of Micro and Genetics and then leave my senior fall with Vertebrate Physiology, Developmental Biology and Micro, and my senior spring with Comparative Anatomy, Genetics and Human Nutrition and/or Clinical Microscopy.
- I take Physics at a different school next summer, which would leave me with that year off after college.
- I take Physics my senior year with the other classes listed above and then end up taking the MCATs senior spring and leave myself with a year without school.
- If I get at least a C that means I get credit for the course, but I don't think I want to push my luck next summer session. I would then take Physics 2 at my school with Orgo and Genetics. I definitly think I could handle that. I've heard that genetics isn't that bad. This would also allow me to apply according to plan.
- If I get a B- or higher in the class then I would take Physics 2 this summer. I mean if I can get a B- then I guess grades don't mean shit in this class. Plus this would allow me to continue with my ideal schedule of classes.
In other news...
I was telling my friend (whose mom is the office manager at the doctor's office where I'm shadowing) about how I didn't think the doctor liked being shadowed since he didn't make any real conversation. He just laughed at me. I was a little confused and he explained that the doctor isn't much of a talker the first time he meets people. NICE! (no sarcasm) I'm so glad that it's him and not me. I'm just going to have to break out the old charm. I've always had a knack for getting non-talkers to become comfortable and break out into conversation. Not that I think he's uncomfortable. I just seem to be good at getting the ball moving with the mutes.
Today in Physics the professor decided that he was going to give us his sales speech. He was talking about how the school has close connections with Columbia University's School of Engineering and how being a physics major is great. He told us all of this after finding out that the majority of the class was premed. He explained that as a physics major one could still apply to medical school and if it didn't work out engineering could always be a safety net.
Engineering....
a safety net....
You've got to be fucking kidding me. I'd rather drown.
He continued to talk about the program they have where as long as the student has a 3.0 they would be accepted to Columbia's School of Engineering and would graduate with a B.A, in Physics and a B.S. in a wide range of engineering fields. He also told us that he thought everyone of us was extrememly bright and could guarentee us scholarships should we choose to change schools and majors. (I guess 31/60, 41/60 and 20/70 on physics test qualifies me as bright.) No offense, but he was telling this to the people at Duke, Cornell and Boston College. Hell even my school is tons better than this place.
Monday, June 26, 2006
Horrah for Shadowing!
It's amazing that after only about 8 hours of shadowing I feel like I've already seen such a wide variety of patients. I've seen people that have dropped 45 lbs. weights on their feet and breaking every metatarsal. (And not having it looked at for over 24 hours) I've had a little old lady come in with these ridiculous clear plastic shoes that she want turned into customized orthopedic shoes. I've had someone cry once they heard that their shoulder was probably going to need surgery to fix and that is would only be 80% better at best. Then there was the very odd hippie couple that had a million and one questions about a broken heel surgery and then decided they wanted a second opinion. There was the single mom with the baby who had a "bent" wrist but didn't have the insurance to pay. (They were taken care of free of charge.) Oh I love shadowing so much. Too bad that I don't think the doctor feels the same way about someone extra being in his way. Oh well, this is what I have to do and I'm not taking prisoners.
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