Top 10 Movies

I was thinking about this after watching King Kong. Making a top 10 list of movies is difficult, especially for me, who doesn't own any movies and or watch movies more than once. I also have a terrible time thinking of movies off the top of my head. So here's a go, and maybe my readers can help me out...

1. Forrest Gump
2. The Matrix
3. Fight Club
4. Batman Begins
5. Schindler's List
6. Momento
7. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
8. Return of the Jedi
9. King Kong (maybe because I just watched it)
10. Gladiator

And I have to add some honorable mentions...

11. Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail
12. Airplane
13. Superman
14. Return of the King
15. Raiders of the Lost Ark
16. Vanilla Sky
17. Winged Migration
18. Independence Day
19. Amadeus
20. Shawshank Redemption

I tend to have a theme of psychological "life is not what is seems" type movies.

Happy New Year

As mentioned earlier, the Air Force assigned me to just become a General Medical Officer (GMO), which will most likely be a position as Flight Surgeon. This isn't related to surgery at all, but is more of an occupational health and primary care like job. It's not a bad job. Good hours, good patients.
So I'm withdrawing my anesthesiology applications, which will free up my interview schedule some. I'm hoping I'll get to reapply for anesthesia in the next few years, but most likely I'll finish my Air Force commitment and then reapply, which will be 4 years down the road.

Military match is done. I didn't get assigned to specialize in anesthesia. I'll be doing a civilian transitional/prelim medicine year instead.

Here a photo from my Treo 650 phone

Here's my family up at Lake Tahoe:

Interview Schedule

So for the most part, all of the invitations for interviews have been sent out. I'm still on the waiting list at a few places, so a couple more interviews could be added later. Otherwise, this is pretty much my final schedule:

UC Irvine Preliminary Medicine Year, CA, Nov 14
Harbor-UCLA Anesthesia, Nov 15
U. Southern California Anesthesia, LA, Nov 16
Loma Linda U Anesthesia, Dec 1
Kettering MC Transitional Year, Dayton, OH, Dec 5
Ohio State Anesthesia, Columbus, Dec 6
Harbor-UCLA Transitional and Prelim medicine, Dec 13
Arrowhead Transitional Year, Colton, CA, Dec 21
Virginia Mason Prelim Medicine, Seattle, Jan 2
Sacred Heart Transitional, Spokane, WA, Jan 4
Deaconness Trasitional, Spokane, WA, Jan 5
U. Nevada Prelim Medicine, Reno, Jan 9
UC Davis Anesthesia, Sacromento, CA, Jan 10
Banner Good Samaritan Transitional, Phoenix, Jan 12
U. of Arizona Anesthesia, Phoenix, Jan 13
U. New Mexico Anesthesia, Albuquerque, Jan 14
U. of Nevada Prelim Medicine, Las Vegas, Jan 16
U. of Utah Prelim Medicine, Salt Lake City, Jan 17
White Memorial Prelim Medicine, Los Angeles, Jan 19
George Washington U Anesthesia, DC, Jan 21
Cleavland Clinic Anesthesia, OH, Jan 23
UCLA-Kern Medical Center Transitional, Bakersfield, CA, Jan 25
San Joaquin Transitional, Stockton, CA, Jan 26
UCSF-Fresno Prelim Medicine, Fresno, CA, Feb 3

I'm thinking of canceling a few interviews, because this is too much, especially too many interviews for my internship year.

Air Force Match will soon be upon me!

So on Dec 14, the Air Force is going to tell me...

1st: whether they will let me do anesthesiology for a specialty. If not, my back up plan is to become a flight surgeon (a general practitioner, kind of like a family doc for pilots).

2nd: whether they will defer me to do civilian residency or become active duty in an Air Force residency.

This is what the chances are from a pretty uneducated guess.

60% chance: civilian anesthesiology residency
10% chance: Air Force anesthesiology residency
30% chance: become a Flight Surgeon

Usually people get their first choice for a specialty in the Air Force, but about 40 people want to do anesthesia, and the AF will only allow about 20 people to specialize in it, so in short, some people will be disappointed.

I'm having Thanksgiving with my grandparents and girlfriend at my great aunt and uncle's place near Sacromento. 4 proper courses of amazing food!

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Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

Ambulatory Care

I'm back in Loma Linda now, doing a rotation called ambulatory care, which is like a rotating clinic. I spend a day at a variety of clinics, such as internal medicine, dermatology, student health, AIDS, chiropracty, oriental medicine, and so on. The day with oriental medicine was sweet. Very interesting stuff. They even gave me a free appointment where I got accupunture and moxibustion (burning herbs on the skin). The accupunture on my back, feet, and arms relieved some light back pain/tension I had. The moxibustion was supposed to help my qi ("chee", hard to translate, but kind of like a life force) in general. 5 days later I still have a mark on my skin that smells good. And they told me to stop drinking cold water. Room temperature is best. This may sound like silly stuff, but there is thousands of years of experience in the stuff. I have to remind myself that just because we don't have a current scientific explanation, it doesn't mean it doesn't work, or that we won't find an explanation years later. Also, some people may avoid this medicine because they think it's of a cult or another religion. From my experience, there wasn't anything religious about it other than general recommendations for someones spirit, like living a balanced life.

More on the Heavenly Kettering Medical Center

I want to expound a little on my last post. I've heard Kettering Medical Center as being like a medical student heaven, and I've got to say, that this isn't too far from the truth.

First the facilities. I get to park in a parking garage adjacent to the hospital, so blazing sun, rain, or snow, my car and myself are protected. And then, as you walk into the hospital, you go up a grand staircase to the lobby level with marble floors and a grand piano being played by a ghost. I see my patients (only 1-3), and then go to the morning report, which usually is well run with excellent topics.

Free breakfast is in the new doctors lounge with juice, coffee, cold and hot cereal, pastries, and a most excellent "monkey cake" type food which is hard to describe except as sweet, flavorful, and fattening. This lounge has two 40 something inch plasma flat screen tv's, prepackaged snacks, a frig with a variety of beverages, 2 computers, and all with a 5 star hotel lobby appearance and decor.

Rounds start at 10, so often I get to sleep in until 7 am. My team of residents are all friendly, non-malignant, eager to teach, and never scut-work me. My attending is one of a kind: brilliant with the best bedside manner I've ever seen. She is fun, not taking rounds too seriously, making sure that the patients and myself, the medical student, get plenty of attention and teaching.

Lunch is grand rounds with free food every day. These also are well run and very informative. After rounds, which ends around 2pm on average, I do a little floor work, and almost always finish by 3pm. Sometimes I hang out in the lounge until dinner, which is also free. The Atrium Grille has the biggest, meaty, unique sandwiches ever... cajun turkey, portabello mushrooms, avacado, and the like.

If I'm on call, I'm working mostly in the ER. The ER waiting area is something else: hotel lobby appearance, full service coffee bar, computers, tvs, and a 100 or so gallon aquarium. We take call every 4th day and as a team, which makes it more fun. The residents have me work up 2 - 3 patients, and they are available to help for anything. They normally send me to bed around 11pm to 1am, and then I sleep uninterrupted until the morning in my own private call room with a window. The medical student lounge has a computer with printer, a big tv, with cable, xbox, and playstation, along with prepackaged snacks and a fridge of drinks.

That took too long to write up. Too bad this place is far from mountains, the ocean, and my immediate family, or else I'd rank this hospital #1 for my transitional/internship year... maybe I will anyways.

I've been doing my sub-internship here at Kettering, OH, for almost 2 weeks. This place has been treating me well. If only mountains were nearby.

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Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

Wow, I didn't know comment spam was such a problem. Please don't support these fools by following links left in their comments.

I can now edit my blog from my cell phone. Sweet.

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Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

Residency Applications

I am currently applying to like 70 different residency programs... it cost me lots of money for all those applications. I'm applying for anesthesiology, which requires an internship year before starting. Here are the anesthesia and internship programs I got interviews at so far and the date for each. All those flights are going to cost me even more... please let me know if you would like to submit a donation into my bank account!


Arrowhead Transitional Year, Colton, CA, date undetermined
UCLA-Kern Medical Center Transitional Year, Bakersfield, CA, date undetermined

UC Irvine Preliminary Medicine Year, CA, Nov 14
UCLA Anesthesia, Nov 15
U. Southern California Anesthesia, LA, Nov 16
U. Nevada Prelim Medicine, Reno, Jan 9
Banner Good Samaritan Transitional, Phoenix, Jan 12
U. New Mexico Anesthesia, Albuquerque, Jan 14
George Washington U Anesthesia, DC, Jan 21
Cleavland Clinic Anesthesia, OH, Jan 23
UCSF Fresno Extension Prelim Medicine, Fresno, CA, Feb 3

But all this may be fruitless. The Air Force that owns me first has to let me apply for anesthesiology. I find out from them on Dec 14 what's next. If they don't let me do anesthesia, my back up plan is to become a flight surgeon, serve my 4 years, get out of the AF, and then reapply for anesthesia.

In the beginning...

Drew created this blog.

Yeah, so now I have a blog too. I thought it would be cool for all friends and family to learn about new happenings in my life, especially since I'm going through a big transition now.