Happy New Years

Silliness starts to happen when I have a little too much time to play with. The silliness seed was planted while watching cake competitions on the Food Network with Sara last week. This gave me the creative inspiration to bake something for the New Years party I was attending. And so the conversation in my head began, and over some coffee with Lopez the idea was born. It started out with me rambling like this:

“You know, I’d really like to bake a cake for New Years……what can I make that represents New Years….how ‘bout a party hat that said happy new years….naw……how ‘bout a champagne bottle….yeah! A champagne bottle….but you know what would be way cooler was if the champagne bottle was standing straight up….hmmmm….that would be tricky with cake”

So logistics on how it might work with cake was bounced back and forth. Then it struck me:

“I got it! A Rice Krispy treat champagne bottle! Then I could melt green chocolate and coat it, so it actually looks like a bottle!”

And so the idea was born, and there was only one person I could call who willfully participates in my retardedness.

Here is a toast to Sara over Rice Krispy Champagne:

“To good health, great friends, and more ridiculous ideas for the future”

Random Reflections

Here is the annual family Christmas photo with all the cousins. I am the eldest cousin, with the next set not following until 9 years later!

From time to time things pop into my head and I think to myself- 'I should blog about this', but usually the thought is so disjointed that it doesn't amount to more than a couple of sentences of material. So here are some of my random reflections:

- My mother telling me to think of something I want for Christmas, and when I finally do she asks me: "what do you need that for?"

- I've tried to learn new things this year that are not related to medicine. New things I've tried include knitting, painting, Spanish, texas hold'em, and curling my hair with a flat iron.

- When I visited my doc for the yearly check-up and asked how things were going I was feeling really good and happy about life. Then she reminded me about how lonely things must be, and how hard the last year must have been......weird. Then I realized whenever I go through sucky times, I really do not recollect much of the bad things. Perhaps one may call this a skewed view of reality, I like to think I have a happy selective memory (and not some sort of dissociative disorder).

- I really want to go skiing as I haven't been in years, and I feel like I finally have some time.

- I think I found new running inspiration to anything by 'The Crystal Method' with expletives.

- One thing that’s pretty cool about finally having a bathroom all to myself, is that I can put little notes or affirmations on my mirror like “I will not swallow my gum today” and such, and I don’t have to feel embarrassed about doing it, because nobody will see it except for me (I don't even like chewing gum though).

Bleeding from Below

I'm done my ED rotation, and I made it home in this somewhat perilous weather. I think my favourite part of the rotation was all the different people you get to see - it really is like a "box of chocolates" in never knowing "what you're gonna get". Some people were nasty, but it was all wiped away when you'd see a sweet 90 some year old person, who was awake, alert and oriented and only rambling a little.

It would be interesting to see from a patient's perspective what it is like visiting a teaching hospital. I know I've tried to look at certain instances from their perspective, and I honestly begin to laugh at the awkwardness of some of the interactions. For example, in the ED, for many different complaints a "Guaiac" has to be done to make sure the person is not bleeding internally. I was scutted out more than a few times to collect the sample on patients that I had not interviewed or examined myself.....so basically, I'd blindly walk into a patient's room, introduce myself as "Dana, the medical student", and state I needed to check if they were bleeding from below. How would you feel if a stranger came up to you and implied they had to put a finger in your bottom?
In observing the situation from a third person perspective, perhaps I have an evil sense of humour, but I really can't help but laugh....because it is sort of funny. Although from a more empathetic point of view I feel bad, because the person is already feeling sick and vulnerable....

Anyways, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to everyone. In another month, my blog will again be taking place in warmer, sunny weather!

Choose your own ending

I was just told by an attending he didn't see me as a Rehab doctor.......so I replied "alright, well what do I look like to you?" to which he replied "I would like to see you turn into a bitchy ER doctor".....haha, I hope that never happens.

I just finished an 8 hour ER shift, although I didn't actually leave until an hour afterwards as there was an nice abscess to I&D on an HIV patient I had been working up on my shift. Although we should technically view each patient we see as though they may have HIV, when I know a person does, it makes me a lot more consciously aware of the precautions I'm taking to protect myself.

The attending I worked with tonight teaches by letting people doing. It was nice to feel like I was actually competent instead of my useless med-student self. By giving me responsibility, and allowing me to make and rationalize my decisions made me really feel like I was contributing rather than spectator-ing to patient care.

I really would not want to be an ER doctor - sure it's exciting in that you can see so many different cases in one shift. But I like continuity of care, and I like being able to see how my patients will do in the long term. Being an ER doctor is like reading a "choose your own ending" book, without being able to read any of the endings. I'm the type of person that will peek at the book endings if I can't help myself.

Small Town Girl

This month I am rotating through the Emergency Department. In scheduling this rotation, my goal was initially to obtain more experience with some of the procedures I may encounter as an intern. I've just finished my 3rd day in the ER, and for some reason none of my patients have required any procedural interventions, nor have the modules I've been on had as much action as I'd like. I'm not necessarily wishing misfortune on people......I just want some hands on learning.

Tonight was an interesting mish-mash of patients ranging from the standard chest pain, seizures, pneumonia, hypoglycemic coma, and all the way to hypothyroid myxedema. Somehow between all of this I was able to do my laundry at the hospital. I now have the next 24 hours off before I begin a few days of night shift (10pm - 6am).

I came home yesterday evening, after a jaunt to Brooklyn, New York, for an interview. Although I really have no intentions of doing a residency in New York, being at that interview solidified my intentions. It was difficult to muster up enthusiasm during the interview as I could feel the negative energy of some of the people in the program (including the residents), to the general area around the hospital.....quite depressing in fact. I even had a first year resident say to me how lucky I was to have an interview because pretty soon Caribbean med students won't be getting them (whatever jackass, I don't know where he's getting this information from). I'm currently looking to see if I can possibly cancel another New York interview I have, just because I most definitely do not want to live there for 3 years. For me, New York city is a great place to visit, go out, and shop, but taking tune from a favourite song of mine:

"I'm just a small town girl......."

That and I like seeing grass.

OMG

Dana Seslija's Dewey Decimal Section:

539 Modern physics

Dana Seslija = 41419592901 = 414+195+929+01 = 1539


Class:
500 Science


Contains:
Math, astronomy, prehistoric life, plants and animals.



What it says about you:
You are fascinated by the world around you, and see it as a puzzle worth exploring. You try to understand how things work and how you can make them better. You might be a nerd.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

How funny is this......especially that last line.