Thinking

Babies

2011-07-25T19:20:00.000-05:00

These debt talks have only proven that we have very few politicians with the country's best interests in mind. Most are more concerned about what will be held against them in the next campaign cycle rather than how to reduce our enormous deficit. Despite what republicans say, tax rates aren't particularly high for the richest in this country and as much as they would like (and as much as their

Graduated

2011-05-20T11:05:00.000-05:00

On May 6th, 2011, I officially became a doctor. The word "overwhelming" comes to mind. For exactly 1 minute while I walked across that stage I experienced a broad range of emotion; nervousness, excitement, joy, relief, shock and fear. It was over. 4 years of nose to the grindstone hard work was over. But now I'm jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. My future program director was

The Future

2011-03-24T11:26:00.000-05:00

It's been exactly 1 week since I matched into a position in Internal Medicine at University of Illinois Hospital. In that time my fiance and I have signed a lease on a new apartment, packed up some of her place and started picking out color choices to paint the new place. Budgets have been set, elective rotations chosen, vacations planned. It's amazing what one (match) day will do to one's

Matched

2011-03-14T18:05:00.000-05:00

Today marks the beginning of a strange ritual known as match week. It's like a game show. It starts with an email telling us whether or not we've matched. Then cue the 72 hour commercial break. Who does that? Anyhow, stay tuned for where i'll be spending the next three years.

The End Is Near

2011-02-17T14:54:00.000-06:00

It's been a long time since I've written anything, though I have certainly been occupied. Interview season of my 4th year of med school is behind me and now I'm faced with the task of making a list of the top 10 places I want to spend the next three years of my life. It's hard for to believe that this blog started at the beginning, with all the confusion, excitement and worry of things to come.

The Republicans are Coming!

2010-11-05T07:14:00.000-05:00

Three days after the Republicans took the house, party leaders are already beating the war drums and the first target is health care. Boehner has made several statements that he wants to replace what passed with "common sense legislation." The only problem being that what Republicans see as "common sense" isn't very common sense to senate Democrats or the President. What upsets me about the

Same Name, Different Tune

2010-03-25T19:45:00.000-05:00

I've been a huge fan of Smashing Pumpkins as long as I've been old enough to buy CDs. My admiration began way back in middle school with the release of mellon collie and the infinite sadness and continued through to the latest release, zeitgeist, even if it was only down to two original members (albeit the two most important members of the original quartet). With the departure of Jimmy

New Beginnings

2010-03-15T20:06:00.001-05:00

For whatever reason, I find myself unable to sleep through the night before a new rotation. It's been a reoccurring theme; a trend that isn't likely to change anytime soon. It really wasn't until I got to this place in my medical training that I realized how many hurdles one has to overcome, and how overwhelming things can become. Because on that first day, it's more than applying medical

Errors in Communication

2010-01-31T14:49:00.002-06:00

Medicine has provided me with a myriad of challenges that have certainly changed the way I live my day-to-day life. At first it was subtle; the words I used, the hours I kept. Then it became more dramatic, changing the way I look at people.Medicine is all about observation. From the second they come in the door to the start of the physical examination you want to learn how a disease process

If I could do it over again...

2009-12-17T12:40:00.002-06:00

...I would want to work here.

Ob/Gyn, Picking a Specialty, Burnout, and other medically realated things.

2009-11-14T08:25:00.001-06:00

My Ob/Gyn rotation began Monday of last week with this pitting feeling in my stomach that I was headed back to a "let's get up at 4 in the morning" specialty thus robbing me of the precious free time that pathology provided. Oddly enough, I don't mind this as much as the dreaded general surgery rotation.For starters there aren't 40+ patients on our service, there's 3. Yep 3. Now when my senior

Incongruent

2009-11-06T07:40:00.000-06:00

Here's how the Fort Hood shooter profiles are summed up by two different news outlets: New York Times: "But Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the 39-year-old man accused of Thursday’s mass shooting at Fort Hood, Tex., began having second thoughts about a military career a few years ago after other soldiers harassed him for being a Muslim, he told relatives in Virginia." “His parents didn’t want him to

Groan...

2009-11-03T19:54:00.002-06:00

The City of Chicago has decided to downsize its christmas tree this year due to cost.You've got to be kidding me.I'm glad that the ubiquitous symbol of merriment and joy needs downsizing. The last thing that people need these days is a giant symbol of happiness in their lives. Hell, let's just stop celebrating the whole thing, that would save TONS of money. God forbid we save a few hundred

Pathology

2009-10-22T21:12:00.003-05:00

For the past two weeks I've been rotating through the pathology department; one of the top specialties on the "Chris is gonna be an adult someday" list. I have some preliminary observations:1) It's increasingly difficult to "shadow" a pathologist. Let's face it, they're looking in microscopes so you can't really see what they're doing most of the time. Unless they have a multi-headed scope

Life In The Busy Lane

2009-09-12T12:15:00.003-05:00

I've figured out some simple facts about how I want to spend the rest of my life thanks to my surgery clerkship here in the good ol' M3 year of school.For starters, leaving for work at 4 am, then getting home from work around 6 pm 6 days out of the week is not how I want to live life. For those who can tolerate the hours and can maintain interest, more power to you, but it's just not me. Now I

Problems with Compensation

2009-09-07T09:03:00.003-05:00

Interesting tidbits: According to Forbes, the top 30 healthcare equipment and service providers collectively make roughly 356 million dollars per year. According to US Census data, there are roughly 45 million uninsured in this country. I'm all for capitalism, but when the inequalities are so great, you have to look for how the system is being gamed because "gasp" people can take advantage of

Medical Confusion

2009-08-16T12:55:00.004-05:00

Perhaps one of the bigger problems in healthcare these days revolves around the way the US trains and pays it's physicians, as well as the sentiment that has developed among doctors about what specialties are worth the time and effort. As pointed out in this new york times article, there's a growing shortage of primary care physicians and nurse practitioners in this country. The economics of

My Two Business Cents

2009-08-15T10:47:00.001-05:00

Believe it or not, I did enter the workforce before returning to school. At the time I became increasingly frustrated with management (or the lack thereof) and wrote these points down. Going back through them I'm surprised that my anger was actually redirected into something semi-coherent. Enjoy.On managing: