Saturday, July 11, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Went canoeing on the Ipswitch River today. It was pretty great. My arms are starting to feel like they are going to fall off. Tomorrow is probably not going to be so great. Fortunately, there's not really much of a physical exam when doing psych.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Rotations over. Back in Boston. It feels good.
Living at the student house in Springfield was like sleeping at a hotel room. For six weeks. It was weird. Still, I did end up liking my Ob/Gyn rotation.
Laptop situation is decent. I tried using the HP recovery partition of the drive to restore the computer to factory new condition. So format and reinstall Vista. Unfortunately, it stalls at 66% every time. When I try to start the computer after that, it says something like "could not find winload.exe".
So basically, I had to download the Windows 7 release candidate and use that to install a working OS. It's basically almost like Vista and it's free until next year.
I kind of like it. It seems to work faster and also use less RAM. Though I am comparing it to Vista with at least a year of "software drag" on it. That probably makes it slow. This is a new install with only the specific programs that I need installed on it. No uninstalled stuff. No repeatedly updated or uninstalled/reinstalled programs. Etc.
Some of the HP specific hardward on my laptop isn't working. Like the cool IR media remote. Still I don't actually use it that often. It's just cool though.
So laptop situation is decent. I have an OS for a while and some of the less important hardware is not functioning yet. But I have a computer that works.
Living at the student house in Springfield was like sleeping at a hotel room. For six weeks. It was weird. Still, I did end up liking my Ob/Gyn rotation.
Laptop situation is decent. I tried using the HP recovery partition of the drive to restore the computer to factory new condition. So format and reinstall Vista. Unfortunately, it stalls at 66% every time. When I try to start the computer after that, it says something like "could not find winload.exe".
So basically, I had to download the Windows 7 release candidate and use that to install a working OS. It's basically almost like Vista and it's free until next year.
I kind of like it. It seems to work faster and also use less RAM. Though I am comparing it to Vista with at least a year of "software drag" on it. That probably makes it slow. This is a new install with only the specific programs that I need installed on it. No uninstalled stuff. No repeatedly updated or uninstalled/reinstalled programs. Etc.
Some of the HP specific hardward on my laptop isn't working. Like the cool IR media remote. Still I don't actually use it that often. It's just cool though.
So laptop situation is decent. I have an OS for a while and some of the less important hardware is not functioning yet. But I have a computer that works.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
So, about a year and a half ago, I convinced my parents to buy me a laptop. At the time, I had a 5 year old desktop that seemed to be on it's last legs. Additionally, since Tufts has several affiliated hospitals that are not in Boston, it would be nice to have a computer that I could bring.
Well, schedules for third year came out and I only had one non-Boston rotation. The very last rotation of the year...which is now. So, I'm out in Springfield, MA to do Ob/Gyn at Baystate Medical Center. I've been coming home every weekend.
Last weekend, I was home...and my laptop just stopped running. It's been happening occasionally. I just need to restart it. However, I try to restart and it does not work. Apparently, it is not recognizing my hard drive according to the default diagnostic softwares. This is incredibly horrible since I had not backed up my files since the beginning of 2009. In fact, I had planned to backup and defrag the drive that weekend. It was early Sat morning and I was practically just about to get to it.
Unfortunately, it won't let me try safe mode, but I get some kind of HP brand backup and recovery software. I try doing a backup (which took hours and didn't work)...but it was clearly accessing my hard drive. But then I had to return to Springfield.
So on the very rotation that it made a big difference if I had a laptop or desktop, my laptop fails...and I have no laptop. Somehow my desktop that had died but I kept around anyway...it works. That's how I'm posting this. But the laptop still doesn't work. I did manage to use one of those internal hard drive to external drive encasings and backup all of the data I've been worrying about for a week. But now I have to go back to Springfield for a week.
Well, schedules for third year came out and I only had one non-Boston rotation. The very last rotation of the year...which is now. So, I'm out in Springfield, MA to do Ob/Gyn at Baystate Medical Center. I've been coming home every weekend.
Last weekend, I was home...and my laptop just stopped running. It's been happening occasionally. I just need to restart it. However, I try to restart and it does not work. Apparently, it is not recognizing my hard drive according to the default diagnostic softwares. This is incredibly horrible since I had not backed up my files since the beginning of 2009. In fact, I had planned to backup and defrag the drive that weekend. It was early Sat morning and I was practically just about to get to it.
Unfortunately, it won't let me try safe mode, but I get some kind of HP brand backup and recovery software. I try doing a backup (which took hours and didn't work)...but it was clearly accessing my hard drive. But then I had to return to Springfield.
So on the very rotation that it made a big difference if I had a laptop or desktop, my laptop fails...and I have no laptop. Somehow my desktop that had died but I kept around anyway...it works. That's how I'm posting this. But the laptop still doesn't work. I did manage to use one of those internal hard drive to external drive encasings and backup all of the data I've been worrying about for a week. But now I have to go back to Springfield for a week.
Friday, May 29, 2009
This comic is like The Game. I just lost The Game. So did you.
In other news, today really sucks. I'm finishing the first week (of two) on Labor and Delivery. One week of days followed by one week of nights. Unfortunately, the transition is handled by giving us both the day and the night shifts together on the last day of days. That's right now for me. Doing a 24 would be fine if I was doing stuff or was able to sleep.
Can't do the latter since I want to adjust my sleep schedule. I have to start now or I won't be adjusted by Sunday, when I start 5 days in a row of nights. And there's nothing to do because there are only 2 patients on the "low risk" team (which they assign the med student to). One of them doesn't want to have a medical student around.
I know it's only 11pm or so, but normally I'd be asleep by now so I can wake up early enough to be at the hospital on time. That's why I'm reading comics and doing stupid stuff. I'm too tired to actually read and learn. I'm sure the postpartum and postop (c-section) patients I'm going to round on in about 6 hours will appreciate how incoherent I will be by then.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
So, this year we catered the banquet ourselves. Kelly put out the call to see who wanted to help a few weeks back. I said I'd want to help and particularly with desserts. But the plan was to get cheesecake and chocolate cake from Costco. So I thought I probably wouldn't necessarily need to make dessert or at most one probably. Then I heard nothing until the day before the banquet. I get an email asking if I still wanted to make desserts. Of course.
I looked through my recipes and went a bit crazy. Even though I only had one day, I came up with the plan of making brownies, shortbread cookies, samoas bars, pecan pie bars, and tiramisu. I even wanted to make the shortbread cookies shaped like the Star of Life. I have yet to find cookie cutters in the shape of the Star of Life. I really thought I could do it though (like with a circle cookie cutter and then cut 6 triangles out of it). I said I went a bit crazy, right?
Immediately tossed out making tiramisu while picking up supplies. First started the shortbread cookie batter. It did not come together like it usually does. It felt more like frosting than dough and was very hard to bag and chill. I thought it could be okay after chilling though.
Next, I started on three recipes that I now realize I found while reading The Kitchn. I have a kind of a love-hate relationship with this food blog. Some of the posts are utterly horrible filler (like tips even a beginner should know already by common sense or poorly researched, ie. wikipedia'ed, introductions to spices or ingredients). Other stuff is good. These three recipes were that good stuff:
Samoas Bars
Mascarpone Brownies
Graham Cracker Chewy Bars
The last ones are what I called Pecan Pie Bars. It's really a more accurate name. I could tell even from just reading it that they would taste like pecan pie. And they do. The samoas bars recipe worked like a charm and came out tasting pretty much like the Girl Scout cookie that inspired them. The brownie recipe is neither too cakey or too fudgy.
Then it tried to roll out the shortbread cookies. Way to sticky. So I never really even got to fail at shaping them. This is a very reliable recipe. I can't really figure out why it failed. Would have been cool though. I guess I have another year to look for a Star of Life shaped cookie cutter now.
Kind of a good thing, since I barely had time to cut and plate the other three desserts before getting to Banquet. I was a bit late anyway.
Here is my one and only picture.
I started to realize that my crazy plan was a little too ambitious. I would have loved to document the making-of though. I had multiple batters going. The entire table covered with ingredients and tools (a messy but photogenic mise-en-place). Things going in an out of the oven for various stages of baking. Anyway, that's why the only photo I have is after people started taking it.
For future reference, I should probably top out at 3 desserts in one day. If I had, I would have had plenty of time and been able to do a much better finishing and plating job. I mean, I had to use parchment paper lined baking sheets. And the samoas bars' chocolate drizzle is pretty "bad" AKA downright horrendous (that's because the bag I had the chocolate in exploded at the seam) (and that was probably because I was squeezing too hard since I was rushed). And also, leave time to take pictures (and also to shower, which I did before I started, but would have liked to do again prior to the Banquet itself).
Still, in the end, I think my desserts worked out great. Oh yeah, I'm going to toot my own horn. They were damn tasty. Probably because of all the butter I used (which means I really should have been the one to win the Most Likely to Give Mark a Heart Attack award).
I looked through my recipes and went a bit crazy. Even though I only had one day, I came up with the plan of making brownies, shortbread cookies, samoas bars, pecan pie bars, and tiramisu. I even wanted to make the shortbread cookies shaped like the Star of Life. I have yet to find cookie cutters in the shape of the Star of Life. I really thought I could do it though (like with a circle cookie cutter and then cut 6 triangles out of it). I said I went a bit crazy, right?
Immediately tossed out making tiramisu while picking up supplies. First started the shortbread cookie batter. It did not come together like it usually does. It felt more like frosting than dough and was very hard to bag and chill. I thought it could be okay after chilling though.
Next, I started on three recipes that I now realize I found while reading The Kitchn. I have a kind of a love-hate relationship with this food blog. Some of the posts are utterly horrible filler (like tips even a beginner should know already by common sense or poorly researched, ie. wikipedia'ed, introductions to spices or ingredients). Other stuff is good. These three recipes were that good stuff:
Samoas Bars
Mascarpone Brownies
Graham Cracker Chewy Bars
The last ones are what I called Pecan Pie Bars. It's really a more accurate name. I could tell even from just reading it that they would taste like pecan pie. And they do. The samoas bars recipe worked like a charm and came out tasting pretty much like the Girl Scout cookie that inspired them. The brownie recipe is neither too cakey or too fudgy.
Then it tried to roll out the shortbread cookies. Way to sticky. So I never really even got to fail at shaping them. This is a very reliable recipe. I can't really figure out why it failed. Would have been cool though. I guess I have another year to look for a Star of Life shaped cookie cutter now.
Kind of a good thing, since I barely had time to cut and plate the other three desserts before getting to Banquet. I was a bit late anyway.
Here is my one and only picture.
I started to realize that my crazy plan was a little too ambitious. I would have loved to document the making-of though. I had multiple batters going. The entire table covered with ingredients and tools (a messy but photogenic mise-en-place). Things going in an out of the oven for various stages of baking. Anyway, that's why the only photo I have is after people started taking it.
For future reference, I should probably top out at 3 desserts in one day. If I had, I would have had plenty of time and been able to do a much better finishing and plating job. I mean, I had to use parchment paper lined baking sheets. And the samoas bars' chocolate drizzle is pretty "bad" AKA downright horrendous (that's because the bag I had the chocolate in exploded at the seam) (and that was probably because I was squeezing too hard since I was rushed). And also, leave time to take pictures (and also to shower, which I did before I started, but would have liked to do again prior to the Banquet itself).
Still, in the end, I think my desserts worked out great. Oh yeah, I'm going to toot my own horn. They were damn tasty. Probably because of all the butter I used (which means I really should have been the one to win the Most Likely to Give Mark a Heart Attack award).
Saturday, May 16, 2009
MIT EMS Banquet last night. Petersen gave me the "King Wu" award. Well, that just makes me think of Ash from Army of Darkness.
Hail to the King, Baby!
PS Shop smart, shop S-Mart!
Hail to the King, Baby!
PS Shop smart, shop S-Mart!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
It's been a long time since I posted a new Minesweeper high score.
Since the Vista version keeps track of win-loss, I have not necessarily played as much for time but rather to get it right. As in, no reckless disregard knowing that I could just start another one. Which makes me pause to think and slows my times. Been winning about 20% of the time playing Expert with no flags. Could probably be a bit higher if I was even more careful. But not by much given that Expert games almost always result in a guess among a set tiles where the last mine is equally likely to be...sometimes even multiple sets. If I was playing for just for time, that win percentage would maybe be 5% or less.
Still, about a month ago I did get an 85 to tie my high score. I also got my Beginner score down to 3. My intermediate best is 25 and hasn't moved for years since I never play intermediate (or beginner generally). Anyway, getting closer to combined score under 100 (I'm at 112 now).
In other news, yup, I just posted about Minesweeper. Yes, Minesweeper.
Since the Vista version keeps track of win-loss, I have not necessarily played as much for time but rather to get it right. As in, no reckless disregard knowing that I could just start another one. Which makes me pause to think and slows my times. Been winning about 20% of the time playing Expert with no flags. Could probably be a bit higher if I was even more careful. But not by much given that Expert games almost always result in a guess among a set tiles where the last mine is equally likely to be...sometimes even multiple sets. If I was playing for just for time, that win percentage would maybe be 5% or less.
Still, about a month ago I did get an 85 to tie my high score. I also got my Beginner score down to 3. My intermediate best is 25 and hasn't moved for years since I never play intermediate (or beginner generally). Anyway, getting closer to combined score under 100 (I'm at 112 now).
In other news, yup, I just posted about Minesweeper. Yes, Minesweeper.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Tomorrow is the end of my pediatrics rotation. Just had the "real" test today. Still have to take the shelf test tomorrow because it's required for all medical students. But it doesn't generally factor into my grade unless I don't just pass or I am on the borderline between grades and happen to get 2 standard deviations above average.
Written test for real today. I think I did fine. It's also not necessarily a large part of our grade. Still, now that I'm thinking back, I missed some things. It's hard to think and write up everything with some of the really broad questions they had. It was things like: "4 year old with fever and cough of 1 week. What is your differential and what labs/tests/imagery would you want and why and how would you treat?"
Seriously? I'd like to get more of a history and maybe do a physical before I go into the gigantically large differential for cough and fever.
Anyway, I <3 guts. Plush organs. Cute. It could be good toys for children's hospitals. What kid doesn't want a plush version of their defective organ. Am I right? Just kidding. Still, it's a toy and medically related. These are kind of like those organ figurines I found a few months ago. Who knew people liked organs as toys so much? I mean...medical people who want to buy these things can't be that big of a market right?
Written test for real today. I think I did fine. It's also not necessarily a large part of our grade. Still, now that I'm thinking back, I missed some things. It's hard to think and write up everything with some of the really broad questions they had. It was things like: "4 year old with fever and cough of 1 week. What is your differential and what labs/tests/imagery would you want and why and how would you treat?"
Seriously? I'd like to get more of a history and maybe do a physical before I go into the gigantically large differential for cough and fever.
Anyway, I <3 guts. Plush organs. Cute. It could be good toys for children's hospitals. What kid doesn't want a plush version of their defective organ. Am I right? Just kidding. Still, it's a toy and medically related. These are kind of like those organ figurines I found a few months ago. Who knew people liked organs as toys so much? I mean...medical people who want to buy these things can't be that big of a market right?
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
OMG Swine Flu!
I think this is my first real experience with medical hysteria. You know, when the news gets a hold of some story and people get all panicy. I mean, it hasn't been that bad, but people are making all kinds of misinformed conjectures and decisions.
I think it hasn't been that bad in the US that people are being that crazy yet. A lot of concerned people. But most seem to at least feel a little bashful coming in because they think they have swine flu. Especially if they don't really have the symptoms and just "feel sick". Seriously, "oh no, it's flu that was previously reservoired in pigs." Now that it gained human infectivity, does that instantly make it a threat? It doesn't seem to be all that different from the kinds of flu we already get (many of which are also reservoired in other animals). And people can die from it. But when these "exotic" diseases kill someone, it's like OMG FREAKOUT TIME. Avian flu has been pretty deadly to birds, but if it does cross over to humans, it might not have the same pathogenicity. It might, so that's why people have been scared of it. But because of that, the US has a big stockpile of flu meds and that has probably blunted the problems with swine flu.
Sure, due prudence like that is good. Panicing is bad. Like MIT's administration including the medical department and other health/safety type groups have been a bit overreacting. They've tossed on all kinds of extra procedures to the ambulance. Random lame stuff like we have to call and tell them about every patient so they will have something concrete to reassure other people about ("Someone in my dorm was taken by ambulance, do I have swine flu now?"). Yes, being able to reassure is good, but they really can't give out the specifics of that person's care or condition anyway because of HIPAA, so why do they need it? Just do the reassuring. Additionally, they are all freaking out because our service never fit tested people for N95 masks. First of all, the masks we use fit something like 99.5% plus of people. So statistically, 0-1 people on our service could need a small or large rather than regular size. But not only that, flu transmission is droplet-borne. That means regular masks work. You don't need to go up to N95 masks for this.
Speaking of the ambulance, apparently we won the Karl Taylor Compton award for service to the community this year. It's apparently the most prestigious award given at the annual MIT Awards Convocation. I think we've won it before. And we would probably win it every year if we applied for the awards every year. Honestly, no other student group comes close to doing what we do. Not to be all arrogant, but we not only provide excellent medical care to the community, but also we save MIT a bunch of money and more importantly provide some amazing training for medical and life skills and also some real leadership opportunities to the members of our service.
I think this is my first real experience with medical hysteria. You know, when the news gets a hold of some story and people get all panicy. I mean, it hasn't been that bad, but people are making all kinds of misinformed conjectures and decisions.
I think it hasn't been that bad in the US that people are being that crazy yet. A lot of concerned people. But most seem to at least feel a little bashful coming in because they think they have swine flu. Especially if they don't really have the symptoms and just "feel sick". Seriously, "oh no, it's flu that was previously reservoired in pigs." Now that it gained human infectivity, does that instantly make it a threat? It doesn't seem to be all that different from the kinds of flu we already get (many of which are also reservoired in other animals). And people can die from it. But when these "exotic" diseases kill someone, it's like OMG FREAKOUT TIME. Avian flu has been pretty deadly to birds, but if it does cross over to humans, it might not have the same pathogenicity. It might, so that's why people have been scared of it. But because of that, the US has a big stockpile of flu meds and that has probably blunted the problems with swine flu.
Sure, due prudence like that is good. Panicing is bad. Like MIT's administration including the medical department and other health/safety type groups have been a bit overreacting. They've tossed on all kinds of extra procedures to the ambulance. Random lame stuff like we have to call and tell them about every patient so they will have something concrete to reassure other people about ("Someone in my dorm was taken by ambulance, do I have swine flu now?"). Yes, being able to reassure is good, but they really can't give out the specifics of that person's care or condition anyway because of HIPAA, so why do they need it? Just do the reassuring. Additionally, they are all freaking out because our service never fit tested people for N95 masks. First of all, the masks we use fit something like 99.5% plus of people. So statistically, 0-1 people on our service could need a small or large rather than regular size. But not only that, flu transmission is droplet-borne. That means regular masks work. You don't need to go up to N95 masks for this.
Speaking of the ambulance, apparently we won the Karl Taylor Compton award for service to the community this year. It's apparently the most prestigious award given at the annual MIT Awards Convocation. I think we've won it before. And we would probably win it every year if we applied for the awards every year. Honestly, no other student group comes close to doing what we do. Not to be all arrogant, but we not only provide excellent medical care to the community, but also we save MIT a bunch of money and more importantly provide some amazing training for medical and life skills and also some real leadership opportunities to the members of our service.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Earlier this week, I got an email with a link an MIT athletics announcement about cutting 8 sports programs. It was pretty infuriating. Now, it's been reported in the NY Times.
I don't particularly care if we maintain 41 teams or not. Sure with 41 we "tie" Harvard for most varsity sports programs. But seriously...Harvard is Division I. We are Division III for most sports. It's a technical tie, but not a real tie. So, I don't have a problem with cutting some programs due to budget restrictions. My problem is with the programs they decided to cut.
The one that stands out the most is Pistol. MIT has one of the top ranked Pistol teams in the country. It's one of the few sports we are actually very competitive in. Seriously, we beat military schools in this sport. Why in the world would the idiots at DAPER think it would be a good choice to cut? Probably for the same reason they wouldn't let me pass out of badminton PE (ie. they are hugely idiotic). Editor's Note: the idiots are hugely idiotic...I see what you did there. Ha..ha.....ha....*slow clap*
I think they should cut the football program. Football programs are expensive. And we play Division III and are not particularly good at that even. I mean, I've been forced to watch the games since I happened to have taken the shift at the same time and the ambulance is required to be there. A few years ago, I watched a match where they were down 20-0 in the first 5 minutes or so. Got called away to emergencies a few times, each time I got back, the score was worse. Ended up being like 57-7 or some equally ridiculous, even with the other team sending in their D squad or whatever. Additionally, no one watches or cares about MIT football other than the football players (and I suspect some of them don't even really care). When I was a frosh, my window looked out over the sports fields. I could see some games with say 10 people that were not requied to be there in the bleachers. All opposing team fans. When more opposing team fans make it to the game, it's time to quit. When there is more support staff there than people watching, it's time to quit.
Really, eliminating football could probably have saved just as much and we'd only be down to 40 sports. It should have been a no brainer. It costs a lot and brings in really no school pride at all. People laugh when I tell them that MIT has a football team. They don't laugh when I say that our Pistol team outmatches military schools. Maybe I'm biased since I've been forced to watch the most horrible football games ever, but I think my opinion is valid since I was say 5% of the audience sometimes.
I don't particularly care if we maintain 41 teams or not. Sure with 41 we "tie" Harvard for most varsity sports programs. But seriously...Harvard is Division I. We are Division III for most sports. It's a technical tie, but not a real tie. So, I don't have a problem with cutting some programs due to budget restrictions. My problem is with the programs they decided to cut.
The one that stands out the most is Pistol. MIT has one of the top ranked Pistol teams in the country. It's one of the few sports we are actually very competitive in. Seriously, we beat military schools in this sport. Why in the world would the idiots at DAPER think it would be a good choice to cut? Probably for the same reason they wouldn't let me pass out of badminton PE (ie. they are hugely idiotic). Editor's Note: the idiots are hugely idiotic...I see what you did there. Ha..ha.....ha....*slow clap*
I think they should cut the football program. Football programs are expensive. And we play Division III and are not particularly good at that even. I mean, I've been forced to watch the games since I happened to have taken the shift at the same time and the ambulance is required to be there. A few years ago, I watched a match where they were down 20-0 in the first 5 minutes or so. Got called away to emergencies a few times, each time I got back, the score was worse. Ended up being like 57-7 or some equally ridiculous, even with the other team sending in their D squad or whatever. Additionally, no one watches or cares about MIT football other than the football players (and I suspect some of them don't even really care). When I was a frosh, my window looked out over the sports fields. I could see some games with say 10 people that were not requied to be there in the bleachers. All opposing team fans. When more opposing team fans make it to the game, it's time to quit. When there is more support staff there than people watching, it's time to quit.
Really, eliminating football could probably have saved just as much and we'd only be down to 40 sports. It should have been a no brainer. It costs a lot and brings in really no school pride at all. People laugh when I tell them that MIT has a football team. They don't laugh when I say that our Pistol team outmatches military schools. Maybe I'm biased since I've been forced to watch the most horrible football games ever, but I think my opinion is valid since I was say 5% of the audience sometimes.
Monday, April 20, 2009
The Marathon is today. But instead of working first aid like I usually do, I'm sitting in the hospital.
I know I should probably be more excited to be working in a hospital than doing first aid, but seriously, it's mighty boring here right now.
I'm on my pediatric subspecialty week. Doing GI clinic today. It's 2:30 and I've seen a total of zero patients. Kind of unfortunate since this is my one single day of direct exposure to pediatric GI. Possibly ever.
So, I'm just sitting here in a random conference room using a really slow computer to check my email repeatedly, despite no new messages.
I know I should probably be more excited to be working in a hospital than doing first aid, but seriously, it's mighty boring here right now.
I'm on my pediatric subspecialty week. Doing GI clinic today. It's 2:30 and I've seen a total of zero patients. Kind of unfortunate since this is my one single day of direct exposure to pediatric GI. Possibly ever.
So, I'm just sitting here in a random conference room using a really slow computer to check my email repeatedly, despite no new messages.
Monday, April 13, 2009
This shirt is so fricking awesome. This one is almost as cool.
Also, I just realized that since I'm at Floating Hospital for Children, that I'm on a Boat. Med school version below.
By the way, being on call all day yesterday wasn't all bad. I did get to do a few procedures. Something they warned us we might not get to do since it's hard to be poking kids with needles more than once (ie. after the med student fails). Good thing I totally didn't eff up at all. Cause I rock. Yeah, I said it.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Being on call today was brutal. For pediatrics, we are only on call on the weekend once during inpatient and once during outpatient.
Today was my inpatient weekend call. Last weekend, the med student on was only there a bit past noon before they got sent home for there being nothing to do. Not the case to day. There was a huge amount of admission yesterday night. So a lot of the overnight work spilled over to us. That also makes our rounds take longer. More work, less time to take care of them. I also did an admission and watched an echo.
Basically moving the entire day. I didn't have time to eat. I didn't even have time to pee. Internship is going to be scary.
Today was my inpatient weekend call. Last weekend, the med student on was only there a bit past noon before they got sent home for there being nothing to do. Not the case to day. There was a huge amount of admission yesterday night. So a lot of the overnight work spilled over to us. That also makes our rounds take longer. More work, less time to take care of them. I also did an admission and watched an echo.
Basically moving the entire day. I didn't have time to eat. I didn't even have time to pee. Internship is going to be scary.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Bleh. Last two weeks on pediatrics have been more busy than I was expecting. It's kind of an adjustment from being on one rotation for 3 months.
It's only 3 weeks of inpatient and 3 weeks of outpatient. I'm doing inpatient first. And only just now do I feel like I have an okay handle on the routine...and I have a week left.
In other news, this Earth Hour thing happened. Kind of lame. I doubt it actually save much energy. It's really a feel good gesture. But it did make for some pretty cool photographs.
In other other news, I put some photo galleries. Of the SAEM conference, my surgery rotation, and MassCPR. MassCPR again. Not much new this year. Didn't get as good of attendance as in previous years. My theory is that it was free to undergrads and grads (via funding from the Undergrad Association and the Graduate Student Council). People signed up since there were limited spots even if they weren't for sure going. Just to keep their options open. And then a percentage didn't show. Last year the UA made it free for undergrads and we had the good luck of decent attendance. Really don't know why we risked it again. Wasn't my call.
It's only 3 weeks of inpatient and 3 weeks of outpatient. I'm doing inpatient first. And only just now do I feel like I have an okay handle on the routine...and I have a week left.
In other news, this Earth Hour thing happened. Kind of lame. I doubt it actually save much energy. It's really a feel good gesture. But it did make for some pretty cool photographs.
In other other news, I put some photo galleries. Of the SAEM conference, my surgery rotation, and MassCPR. MassCPR again. Not much new this year. Didn't get as good of attendance as in previous years. My theory is that it was free to undergrads and grads (via funding from the Undergrad Association and the Graduate Student Council). People signed up since there were limited spots even if they weren't for sure going. Just to keep their options open. And then a percentage didn't show. Last year the UA made it free for undergrads and we had the good luck of decent attendance. Really don't know why we risked it again. Wasn't my call.
