I love...

My family, my friends, snowboarding in powder, experiencing other cultures, my car and other rally cars, my truck and other sport trucks, ecosystems and trying to create them at home particularily in aquariums, lots of music (emotional, international, beat driven, chill...), Jesus, Young Life, going down with a mountain bike (not necessarily going up), Whistler, Hawaii, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, other places bordering or in the Pacific Ocean that I have yet to go to, Chipotle, Panera, kids with disabilities, kids in Africa, speeding, anesthesiology, fighter jets, foreign foods (especially tacos, sushi, pho, Ethiopian, Middle Eastern, Indian...), stout such as Guiness, hot sake, "extreme" sports, guitar, pianists, cooks, abstract landscape paintings, summers in the Northwest, surfing, discovering new music, coffee, chocolate, peppercorn steak, Dr Pepper, having a garage, my children that I sponsor, missionaries, praying with patients, my photo album screen saver, my churches (Mars Hill, Sandals, Apex), sunny and a dry 75 degrees with a slight breeze, Forest Gump, cutting edge technology, thunderstorms, Cajun food, loud trance, rock concerts, Quiksilver clothes, wood, big trees, water, Candy with a capital C...

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

I just enjoyed Christmas day with my aunt and grandparents here in Ohio. I got a big phat 80 gig iPod for Christmas from my parents (THANK YOU!). I went from no iPod for all my life, to the big kahuna. I have only converted about 20 gigs of my music to mp3s, and I'm about 1/4th of the way through, so potentially this can hold my hold collection. Amazing.

I'm in a busy month of inpatient medicine. Haven't been doing much except working, caring for my fish, watching Lost, and being involved with my church. The Air Force put me as an alternate for getting anesthesiology training, so in the next month, maybe I'll be allowed to continue with residency at Loma Linda. But I thinking most likely it won't happen. So then, I'll be moving who knows where in July.

Another Military Match

I'm going through the military match again. I'm applying for anesthesiology starting July 2007, so I would lose no time in starting residency. Results are released December 13th.
I also submited my "dream sheet", or base preference worksheet. It's my ranking of Air Force bases of where I would like to be assigned if I don't continue on with anesthesia. Top of my list were overseas assignments including Korea (the only one year assignment), Hawaii, Italy, Japan, Germany, and England. Then I ranked West Coast bases.

My sorta new car

Here's the car I bought on Ebay back in April. Overall I am satisfied with it. I absolutely love the car, but it has been high maintenance. Sounds like a girlfriend. The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII comes very heavily enhanced from the dealer, but I bought used with several additional modifications and a few I added myself. 2003 model with about 35,000 miles now.

MOD LIST
HKS 2.75" downpipe
High Flow Cat
Custom 3" cat back exhaust
Resonator
Magnaflow muffler
272 HKS Cams
Unorthodox Cam Gears
Halbro Fuel Pump
Manual Boost Controller
Blow off valve
Drop in K&N hiflow air filter
ACT Heavy Duty Clutch
XACT Prolight Flywheel
Espilier Lowering Springs
Cart Boy Short Shifter
Carbon Fiber Dash
CF Exhaust Heat Shield
Sparco Steering Wheel
Sparco Pedal Set
Super AFC II EMS
Greddy Turbo Timer
JDM Evo 7 Taillight decals
Window tint
Panasonic CD Deck
iPod adapter

I need to get it retuned.
Next will be a new set of rims and tires specifically for racing. And I probably should get an intercooler set up. And maybe some fuel injectors. Oh, a bigger turbo would be sweet...

ICU

P! Soooo, I just finished my ICU rotation. Busy, working 80 hours per week. Good learning experience. With ventilator and cardiovascular management, it will apply more for anesthesia than most of my other rotations.

Most interesting case of the month was probaby a 35 year old woman with 2 kids that came in with shortness of breath. She ended up needing intubation for acute respiratory distress syndrome. We never found the inciting factor, maybe a virus since she had a viral illness the week before. And she never recovered. She was flown to Cleavland Clinic on the ventilator to see if they could figure out what was up. Mostly likely she had an abnormal response to a usual virus. But it makes you think. What if it was a superpathogenic virus, like avian flu. We didn't take any special precautions to prevent spread. I could've died. And this young mom was suddenly taken over by a mysterious illness. There is so much we still don't know.

I've just started my new rotation doing inpatient medicine, and I'm waiting for my attending to come in so we can round on the patients. I got here too early I guess. This will be another busy month, with overnight call every fourth night. These calls make your work hours add up quick. With 2 calls in one week, there's 60 hours of work! And this call is busy. I've been averaging about 2-3 hours of sleep for each call, and I'm lucky. I consider myself a white cloud, because some of the other black cloud interns are getting hit hard. I wish they had a night float system. But it's all good. I'm enjoying this more than medical school. At least more than 3rd year of medical school. 1st and 2nd year were nice with very flexible hours. 4th year had 8 or so weeks of vacation. But being the doctor now making descisions, it's pretty exhilirating. All said, I can't wait to move on to anesthesiology!

Inpatient Medicine & Anesthesia

So I've now been on my first inpatient medicine rotation for over 2 weeks. The first week, I worked 80 hours probably, but things are letting up recently, mainly because fewer people a coming to the ER on the days I'm on call. It's quite intense, having the health of these patients in my hands. And especially for call at night, when I'm the first line for emergencies on the wards. Nothing too exciting has happened yet... I did have my first patient death, an 89 year old man. It was sudden and unexpected, likely a stroke or heart attack. It was weird because he was starting to make a turn for the better.

I gotten good news from the Air Force. They are going to allow several people (around 7 I think) to go into Anesthesia next July, and so far, there are only 10 or so applicants. Even better news is that Loma Linda's Anesthesiology Residency expanded it's residency, and they offered me one of their open spots. So if all goes well, looks like I'll be moving back to Loma Linda for 3 years starting in July.

Grandparents

A major reason I chose to come to Ohio is my grandparents, who live less than 2 hours away in Lancaster, on the other side of Columbus. Such a sweet retreat. Plus I've really picked up my golf game playing with them. We've played 4 games in a month, when before I was averaging one game a year. My driving is good, putting is ok, but my chipping is absolutely aweful.

In O Hi Ya

I matched to Kettering Medical Center's transitional year, which is a sweet program, despite being in Ohio. Not that Ohio is a bad place; the people out here are super friendly, more than the west coast for sure. I'm starting with the easiest rotation of the year, so I barely work right now, just weekday mornings. I kind of wish I had this rotation later, when it would be a nice break between a couple strenuous months, but oh well. Each rotation lasts a month, and here's my schedule:

July: EKG, Stress Tests, & Echocardiograms
August: Medicine inpatient
September: Pulmonary ICU
October: Medicine inpatient
November: Ambulatory Clinic
December: Medicine inpatient
January: Aneshesia at some west coast hospital (maybe research)
February: Emergency medicine
March: Medicine inpatient
April: Mission Elective (Asia or New Zealand)
May: Medicine inpatient
June: unchosen elective

My new apartment is awesome. I have a 2 bedroom newly refinished apartment with a garage for $545 a month. Plus it's only 2/3rd's of a mile from work, so I can ride my bike in. It's also like right next to a nice,affordable golf course and a park that has some descent hills and trails for biking.

My broken leg is mostly heeled up. I still have some arthritis after sleeping, some swelling, and I can't forcefully plantar flex, so running is really difficult. I know the physical therapy I should be doing, but, alas, I don't do it.

I haven't written in a while, because I have a lot I should put down, but I'll wait until I get some photos to talk about my new pad and car.

Research

I finished my 2 weeks of radiology with any problems. I'm now 2 weeks into working in the anesthesia department here in Loma Linda doing research. I'm mostly creating scientific posters for conferences.

I finally replaced my computer that was stolen about 6 months ago. I got the new Mac mini with the single Intel chip. Right now I have it hooked up to my friends monitor, keyboard, and mouse, but I'll hook it up to house TV once I get the right adapter. I also ordered a wireless bluetooth mouse and keyboard that I can use for my mac and also my Palm Treo 650. Once I move, I plan to purchase my first TV. Probably an LCD HDTV.

Match is one week away!

Sofa Life

For the past 2 weeks, I've been living on my sofa for an average of 23 hours each day. I was supposed to be moved out of my house, and on an away rotation in Sacramento, but with this broken ankle, things had to change. So someone had already moved into my old room, so now I live in the living room. I have to keep my foot elevated, so the whole day I'm lying on the sofa. Activities consist of on average:

9 hrs sleeping
4 hrs movies (Including Arrested Development seasons 1 and 2, starting the Lost series now.
3 hrs Ebaying, emailing, and surfing internet
2 hrs reading magazines
1 hr talking and eating with girlfriend, roomates, and family
1 hr napping
1 hr reading books
1 hr watching educational dvds (History of European Art)
1 hr daydreaming
1 hr up on my crutches doing things around the house and bathroom

Today was my first day on my Radiology rotation. I pretty much sit in my wheelchair at the hospital watching the attending and the resident talk about what they see in the computerized images. I hope they don't mind me leaving early every day. My foot and butt get very uncomfortable. I managed to stay there for 3 hours today, so maybe I can last longer tomorrow.

Broke

I broke my right ankle (a bimalleolar fracture with diplacement) while mountain biking on Tuesday this past week. My bike slid out while taking a sandy curve too fast in a canyon. My foot was so disfigured, it almost made my nauseous. My friend Jeff was with me fortunately, so he went down to call 911, and I layed around until I decided to finish riding down the hill with one leg. I almost made it to the bottom when the fire department arrived. It's a bad fracture, so sugery is required to put a plate on my fibula and a couple pins in my tibia. And my ankle is so swollen. There is barely any pain (except with any movement, especially jarring movement), but the worst thing is that I've got to keep the foot above my head all day and night to keep the swelling under control. I seems pretty nice to just lay down all day, watching TV, reading magazines, and having friends make you food, but it really sucks to not be able to do much for yourself, especially when I have some important paperwork and errands to complete right now. I also had to cancel my Big Sky Clinic rotation, and move some interviews and rotations around.

A few notes:

It's amazing how quick you start pleading to God when you're in trouble.
I don't know what the big deal is with narcotics. It wasn't anything really special.
I will be mountain biking again, and I really hope that I won't have long lasting ligamentous weakness in the ankle.

Top Cars

I've been looking at cars recently, because if I do my internship anywhere with rain or snow (anywhere outside of Southern California) I'll be getting a new car. My truck here is 2 wheel drive with no limited slip differential and high performance tires, so it does pretty poorly in anything slick. Here's a list of cars I'm looking at in no particular order.


1. 2007 Ford Explorer Sport Trac
2. Mazda 6 Mazdaspeed
3. Subaru WRX or STi
4. Mitsubishi Evolution IX or VIII
5. Audi A3
6. Toyota Tacoma 4WD (Access or Double Cab)
7. Infinity G35 Sedan AWD used
8. Toyota 4runner 4WD used
9. Audi A4 used
10. BMW 325 xi used
11. Subaru Legacy GT
12. Nissan Xterra
13. Toyota FJ Cruiser

So you can see, I want either something 4wd with real offroad capabilities or something AWD and fast. Plus it's got to look sweet.