Monday, September 21, 2009
Oh yeah, some of you probably want to know what happens at the end of this year. I've applied for emergency medicine programs. Many of them. All over the country, pretty much all 4 corners. It's really a waiting game at this point. Perhaps I'll see some of you when I go for interviews (keep your fingers crossed). More news as event warrant.
I still haven't taken pictures of my new place yet. A thousand pardons.
After a week of lectures, some of which were great, I started in the hospital. My first rotation is surgery, and the first 2 weeks were with a colorectal team. Interesting medicine, and interesting doctors. One an older, revered Professor of surgery, who has a very old-fashioned, and enormously educational teaching style. He really believes that teaching is as big a part of his job as practicing medicine. The other man has only been in Cork a couple of years, but is also a great teacher, and his patients love him. For the next 2 weeks (one past, one coming up) I'm in Mallow, apparently the ancestral homeland of Tip O'Neill. Things are a little quieter up there, so I'm getting to admit patients, take bloods, ECGs, etc. It's great, and reminds me that I learn much better from doing than reading or watching. Though it feels all too familiar from other times when I've been stationed out of the city, I'll include some pictures here for your enjoyment or what have you.
The top one is the view from the res. Pastoral, no? The other three are my room. It's en suite and everything. Not to shabby. Its only draw back is the view:
Not that it's an ugly hospital, but I generally don't like to live in sight of my work. Here's a picture of the hospital from the front:
One evening I took a walk into town looking for a cyber cafe. Though we have internet access, email is blocked.
The top picture is this old building with a forest inside. I thought it was cool the way the trees were coming out the roof, door and windows. The next is a restaurant I passed on my walk. Perhaps Kentucky has a meaning I'm unaware of? The last is just some pretty berries I saw. I didn't eat any of those, though I did stop to munch some blackberries growing beside the road.
That's enough for one evening. Thanks for stopping by.
After a week of lectures, some of which were great, I started in the hospital. My first rotation is surgery, and the first 2 weeks were with a colorectal team. Interesting medicine, and interesting doctors. One an older, revered Professor of surgery, who has a very old-fashioned, and enormously educational teaching style. He really believes that teaching is as big a part of his job as practicing medicine. The other man has only been in Cork a couple of years, but is also a great teacher, and his patients love him. For the next 2 weeks (one past, one coming up) I'm in Mallow, apparently the ancestral homeland of Tip O'Neill. Things are a little quieter up there, so I'm getting to admit patients, take bloods, ECGs, etc. It's great, and reminds me that I learn much better from doing than reading or watching. Though it feels all too familiar from other times when I've been stationed out of the city, I'll include some pictures here for your enjoyment or what have you.
The top one is the view from the res. Pastoral, no? The other three are my room. It's en suite and everything. Not to shabby. Its only draw back is the view:
Not that it's an ugly hospital, but I generally don't like to live in sight of my work. Here's a picture of the hospital from the front:
One evening I took a walk into town looking for a cyber cafe. Though we have internet access, email is blocked.
The top picture is this old building with a forest inside. I thought it was cool the way the trees were coming out the roof, door and windows. The next is a restaurant I passed on my walk. Perhaps Kentucky has a meaning I'm unaware of? The last is just some pretty berries I saw. I didn't eat any of those, though I did stop to munch some blackberries growing beside the road.
That's enough for one evening. Thanks for stopping by.
Well, here we are again. I'm a little later than usual with a summer update, but things have been busy since I got home in late May. To start with, I went to a reunion at Macalester with the Traditions, the men's a capella group I was in there. It was a blast. Josh and I stayed in a dorm room together, surrounded by other Traditions and reunionites.
It felt a lot like being in college again. It even smelled the same. Though now this dorm has an elevator, which would have made getting to and from storage in the attic a lot easier. Oh well. There was much frivolity, usually involving singing, liquor, or in true Trads fashion, the combination of the two.
It also proved to be a great time to catch up with many of my other friends who were in town for their 10th reunion. Hold on to your hats/seats, but my 10th is coming up. It's unlikely that I'll get to attend, but it's amazing to think about. By that time I will have lived in Cork for as long as I lived in Boston. And who knows what's next?!
That weekend was also host to a local street fair, Grand Old Day or something like that (it happens on Grand Ave.) I got to eat cheese curds, talk with an old friend, and see my friend Casey perform in his hip hop role, rather than as a goofy a capella singer. An excellent weekend all around.
The day after I returned from there I started at Baystate Hospital for my month-long elective in emergency medicine. If I was a better person I would have done more writing as I went through that experience, but I'm not, so I didn't. It was a great month though. From the staff at the parking lot through to the Chief of the department, everyone was friendly, helpful, and seemed happy to be doing what they were doing. It was eye opening, considering how cranky the nurses and porters tend to be in the Boston area. I got to examine and take histories from patients, help form treatment plans, learn (and utilize) new suturing skills, spend time in the sim lab, have tutorials, drink bad coffee, and spend an evening with some paramedics. I loved it. So many patients, so much pathology. My first shift epitomized what I love about emergency medicine. As I walked in, there was a patient crashing after a crack binge, someone who had had a stroke, and a child having an asthma attack. There are few, if any, situations outside of an emergency department where all of those people present at once.
A couple of patients stick in my mind. One was a 100 year old man from Kerry. He didn't seem at all surprised or interested that I greeted him in Irish, but his children were delighted. He was fine. 100 years old and didn't need a single pill. Another woman came in with benign positional vertigo, which anyone who has had it will tell you is far from benign. Anyway, in the course of investigating her illness we ran some bloods and it turned out she had a million platelets. The normal number would be somewhere between 150-400. I never did find out what that was all about.
As soon as that month ended, I was straight into studying for the USMLE Step 2, a continuation of the licensing exam I took last summer. Lots of studying. I did much better this year than last, which is a relief. The scores are an important part of my application for residency, especially coming from a school abroad. One of the exams (it was a 2-parter) brought me to Philadelphia where I got to catch up with some more old friends.
It wasn't all work, though. I had 2 wonderful weekends in Maine with Kate, and lots of visits in between, since it turns out Middle St. is closer to her job than her own apartment. She was also able to join us on the Cape for a few days which was excellent.
All in all it was an excellent summer. The work was rewarding, and my time with Kate and my family was marvelous. Or "grand, like" in the local vernacular. This brings us to the start of the school year, which we're all expecting to be my last. But that's for a different post.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
It felt a lot like being in college again. It even smelled the same. Though now this dorm has an elevator, which would have made getting to and from storage in the attic a lot easier. Oh well. There was much frivolity, usually involving singing, liquor, or in true Trads fashion, the combination of the two.
It also proved to be a great time to catch up with many of my other friends who were in town for their 10th reunion. Hold on to your hats/seats, but my 10th is coming up. It's unlikely that I'll get to attend, but it's amazing to think about. By that time I will have lived in Cork for as long as I lived in Boston. And who knows what's next?!
That weekend was also host to a local street fair, Grand Old Day or something like that (it happens on Grand Ave.) I got to eat cheese curds, talk with an old friend, and see my friend Casey perform in his hip hop role, rather than as a goofy a capella singer. An excellent weekend all around.
The day after I returned from there I started at Baystate Hospital for my month-long elective in emergency medicine. If I was a better person I would have done more writing as I went through that experience, but I'm not, so I didn't. It was a great month though. From the staff at the parking lot through to the Chief of the department, everyone was friendly, helpful, and seemed happy to be doing what they were doing. It was eye opening, considering how cranky the nurses and porters tend to be in the Boston area. I got to examine and take histories from patients, help form treatment plans, learn (and utilize) new suturing skills, spend time in the sim lab, have tutorials, drink bad coffee, and spend an evening with some paramedics. I loved it. So many patients, so much pathology. My first shift epitomized what I love about emergency medicine. As I walked in, there was a patient crashing after a crack binge, someone who had had a stroke, and a child having an asthma attack. There are few, if any, situations outside of an emergency department where all of those people present at once.
A couple of patients stick in my mind. One was a 100 year old man from Kerry. He didn't seem at all surprised or interested that I greeted him in Irish, but his children were delighted. He was fine. 100 years old and didn't need a single pill. Another woman came in with benign positional vertigo, which anyone who has had it will tell you is far from benign. Anyway, in the course of investigating her illness we ran some bloods and it turned out she had a million platelets. The normal number would be somewhere between 150-400. I never did find out what that was all about.
As soon as that month ended, I was straight into studying for the USMLE Step 2, a continuation of the licensing exam I took last summer. Lots of studying. I did much better this year than last, which is a relief. The scores are an important part of my application for residency, especially coming from a school abroad. One of the exams (it was a 2-parter) brought me to Philadelphia where I got to catch up with some more old friends.
It wasn't all work, though. I had 2 wonderful weekends in Maine with Kate, and lots of visits in between, since it turns out Middle St. is closer to her job than her own apartment. She was also able to join us on the Cape for a few days which was excellent.
All in all it was an excellent summer. The work was rewarding, and my time with Kate and my family was marvelous. Or "grand, like" in the local vernacular. This brings us to the start of the school year, which we're all expecting to be my last. But that's for a different post.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
