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.

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.