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.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Saturday, May 09, 2009
I realize it's been a while since I've written, and between exams coming up and the busy June I've got lined up I don't know when I'll write again. I may as well put my early mornings to good use.
I spent the last month on the psychiatric inpatient ward, which also included some time in the outpatient department. Because of limited resources, the people who arrange to get themselves admitted in the unit are really quite ill. Schizophrenia that's not responding to treatment, bi-polar disorder that becomes destabilized... I'd say 80% of the inpatients I saw fit into one of those two categories. It was an interesting month, to say the least. Besides learning about the pharmaceutical options of treatment, which are mainstays here but a relatively small part of the job, I also got a peek into the multidisciplinary approach they take here to mental health. Again, only with the sickest of the sick. The MDT meeting I went to consisted of a few psychiatrists (one consultant, 2 trainees) a couple of community nurses, a social worker, an art therapist, and maybe a couple of others. They talked about all of their cases, and made sure that living arrangements, medications, home visits, and social/activity lives were all maximized.
Now that that's over I'm headed into 3 weeks of exams. 2 next week, 3 the following week, then one more right before I come home. I land in Boston on the 1st, and then head out to a Trads reunion in St. Paul for the weekend, before I start my month in the Baystate emergency department. Hopefully I won't see any of you there!
Not much of an update, I understand. Such is life.
I spent the last month on the psychiatric inpatient ward, which also included some time in the outpatient department. Because of limited resources, the people who arrange to get themselves admitted in the unit are really quite ill. Schizophrenia that's not responding to treatment, bi-polar disorder that becomes destabilized... I'd say 80% of the inpatients I saw fit into one of those two categories. It was an interesting month, to say the least. Besides learning about the pharmaceutical options of treatment, which are mainstays here but a relatively small part of the job, I also got a peek into the multidisciplinary approach they take here to mental health. Again, only with the sickest of the sick. The MDT meeting I went to consisted of a few psychiatrists (one consultant, 2 trainees) a couple of community nurses, a social worker, an art therapist, and maybe a couple of others. They talked about all of their cases, and made sure that living arrangements, medications, home visits, and social/activity lives were all maximized.
Now that that's over I'm headed into 3 weeks of exams. 2 next week, 3 the following week, then one more right before I come home. I land in Boston on the 1st, and then head out to a Trads reunion in St. Paul for the weekend, before I start my month in the Baystate emergency department. Hopefully I won't see any of you there!
Not much of an update, I understand. Such is life.
Friday, April 03, 2009
What may be difficult to discern is that there is a heron of some sort (Great Blue?) standing there. This shot was taken in the middle of town, maybe 100 yards from the fast food joint people go to at the end of a night of drinking. One of the benefits to having two rivers run through a city!
If anyone was curious as to the cause of the economic troubles currently affecting Ireland, I would propose that having signs like this probably isn't helping.
I recently took some pictures of my walk to choir rehearsal. It's about as convenient as using sugar packets to bake a cake, but it's a lovely walk. I thought it would make more sense (read: easier for me) to just upload them to my picasa web album, for which there is a link on the right. Look for the album called Sunday's Well. Enjoy!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
A little something different... I have to write a "letter of intent" to the director of education in the Baystate emergency department as part of my application to do an elective there. I'm not totally sure what should be included in one of those, but here's what I've got. What do you think?
I first became truly aware of emergency medicine as a summer camp counsellor in rural Vermont. With so many children running around in the woods for so many hours each day, accidents were bound to happen. Coincidently I was around several of the worst ones, and felt horrible that I didn’t have any skills to deal with it. A friend steered me towards a wilderness emergency medical technician class, and it was exactly what I was looking for. It gave me a way to approach “the sick and injured”, as the text book says, and consequently how to take each emergency in stride.
From there I went on to use my skills in the more formal setting of an emergency ambulance service. In that environment I was introduced to the breadth of patient population, variety of medical, surgical, and social complaints that occur in a day, as well as the odd mixture of intense excitement and dreary routine that emergency medicine offers.
Several years later, I find myself in a position to advance my medical knowledge and practice, and am exhilarated by the chance to get to sample and learn so many different aspects of medicine as allowed by program in the fourth year of training here. I find it easy to get excited about each new subject -- cardiology, nephrology, neurology, ophthalmology, urology. But how could I possibly choose between them? There isn’t a single body part that is without wonder, a single organ system that doesn’t awe and intrigue me with its intricacies. Of course these thoughts take me to emergency medicine. What better place to be to see a wide variety of pathologies than an emergency department? The variety combined with the fact that so much of emergency medicine is based on problem solving is extremely appealing.
Though I sometimes wonder if I would miss the ongoing relationship that is found in a primary care setting or with other chronic conditions, I also have cause to remember all of the unusual relationships formed between emergency staff and the repeat customers to the emergency department. Perhaps they aren’t the archetypal physician-patient relationships of old, but they are just as important to the people in them. I also learned how to create rapport quickly with my patients in the ambulance, and I think that is a skill that will be quite useful to me in a career in emergency medicine.
It is hard for me to see too far past my immediate future; I have so much to learn in the remaining year and a half of school, and many years of education after graduation. Emergency medicine offers a lot of choices that suit me in that regard as well. I would like to get involved with prehospital care again, and I would like to expand that interest into disaster medicine. Though most specialties can be useful at a mass casualty incident, the aspect of emergency medicine that is making organization out of potential chaos is attractive to me.
I also believe I have a lot to offer Baystate. Since I grew up in Amherst I have the desire to care for the community that Baystate serves. My time at the Caring Health Center has introduced me to a part of the local population I was unaware of, and now have a good idea at some of the struggles the underserved population of western Massachusetts faces. My undergraduate degree was in Russian Studies, which I believe leaves me especially able to communicate with a large portion of the immigrant population of the Springfield area. My time as an EMT working in a busy city has shown that I can handle, and even thrive in the hectic atmosphere that can be emergency medicine, and my other life experiences have taught me both how to be a good team member as well as how to lead.
I look forward to the opportunity to work and learn at Baystate. I think we have a lot to offer each other. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.
I first became truly aware of emergency medicine as a summer camp counsellor in rural Vermont. With so many children running around in the woods for so many hours each day, accidents were bound to happen. Coincidently I was around several of the worst ones, and felt horrible that I didn’t have any skills to deal with it. A friend steered me towards a wilderness emergency medical technician class, and it was exactly what I was looking for. It gave me a way to approach “the sick and injured”, as the text book says, and consequently how to take each emergency in stride.
From there I went on to use my skills in the more formal setting of an emergency ambulance service. In that environment I was introduced to the breadth of patient population, variety of medical, surgical, and social complaints that occur in a day, as well as the odd mixture of intense excitement and dreary routine that emergency medicine offers.
Several years later, I find myself in a position to advance my medical knowledge and practice, and am exhilarated by the chance to get to sample and learn so many different aspects of medicine as allowed by program in the fourth year of training here. I find it easy to get excited about each new subject -- cardiology, nephrology, neurology, ophthalmology, urology. But how could I possibly choose between them? There isn’t a single body part that is without wonder, a single organ system that doesn’t awe and intrigue me with its intricacies. Of course these thoughts take me to emergency medicine. What better place to be to see a wide variety of pathologies than an emergency department? The variety combined with the fact that so much of emergency medicine is based on problem solving is extremely appealing.
Though I sometimes wonder if I would miss the ongoing relationship that is found in a primary care setting or with other chronic conditions, I also have cause to remember all of the unusual relationships formed between emergency staff and the repeat customers to the emergency department. Perhaps they aren’t the archetypal physician-patient relationships of old, but they are just as important to the people in them. I also learned how to create rapport quickly with my patients in the ambulance, and I think that is a skill that will be quite useful to me in a career in emergency medicine.
It is hard for me to see too far past my immediate future; I have so much to learn in the remaining year and a half of school, and many years of education after graduation. Emergency medicine offers a lot of choices that suit me in that regard as well. I would like to get involved with prehospital care again, and I would like to expand that interest into disaster medicine. Though most specialties can be useful at a mass casualty incident, the aspect of emergency medicine that is making organization out of potential chaos is attractive to me.
I also believe I have a lot to offer Baystate. Since I grew up in Amherst I have the desire to care for the community that Baystate serves. My time at the Caring Health Center has introduced me to a part of the local population I was unaware of, and now have a good idea at some of the struggles the underserved population of western Massachusetts faces. My undergraduate degree was in Russian Studies, which I believe leaves me especially able to communicate with a large portion of the immigrant population of the Springfield area. My time as an EMT working in a busy city has shown that I can handle, and even thrive in the hectic atmosphere that can be emergency medicine, and my other life experiences have taught me both how to be a good team member as well as how to lead.
I look forward to the opportunity to work and learn at Baystate. I think we have a lot to offer each other. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.
Wowsers. Zounds. Gadzooks. It's been an exciting couple of weeks in the maternity hospital. A particular highlight was when I stayed until 2 in the morning with one of the SpRs while he was on call. In the course of the day I saw 3 forceps deliveries (including the rarely seen beast of a Kielland forceps assisted turn without an episiotomy), 2 ERPCs, and 4 c-sections. Two of those I scrubbed in on simply to stand closer to the action, but for the second 2 I was actually the obstetrician's assistant.
I was struck by a number of things that night:
C-sections smell funny. It is likely that all abdominal surgeries smell funny, but so many of the ones I have seen have been laparoscopic so they weren't as fragrant.
The first cry of a baby as it gets pulled out of the uterus is amazing.
I imagine c-sections might feel anti-climactic to the parents. After 10 months (where did this 9 month figure come from anyway?) of pregnancy, 10 minutes later they're holding their baby (shoot, only two forms of the word 'there'). I realize there are a lot of good reasons for having a c-section, but in my inexperienced mind labor is an important part of the entire process.
Those of you who are parents might be familiar with all this, but it has been exciting to experience for the first time.
I've also been to many clinics, both obstetrical and gynaecological, and so have seen consultations with woman with uterine and ovarian cancer, prolapsed wombs (a better sounding word than uteruses), amennorrhea, and other problems. The doctors are all wonderful, both to their patients and to their students. Encouraging us to stay late and get involved, and making sure we're getting exposed to as many different aspects of the specialty as possible. It's been a real treat not to feel like an after-thought.
Ciao.
I was struck by a number of things that night:
C-sections smell funny. It is likely that all abdominal surgeries smell funny, but so many of the ones I have seen have been laparoscopic so they weren't as fragrant.
The first cry of a baby as it gets pulled out of the uterus is amazing.
I imagine c-sections might feel anti-climactic to the parents. After 10 months (where did this 9 month figure come from anyway?) of pregnancy, 10 minutes later they're holding their baby (shoot, only two forms of the word 'there'). I realize there are a lot of good reasons for having a c-section, but in my inexperienced mind labor is an important part of the entire process.
Those of you who are parents might be familiar with all this, but it has been exciting to experience for the first time.
I've also been to many clinics, both obstetrical and gynaecological, and so have seen consultations with woman with uterine and ovarian cancer, prolapsed wombs (a better sounding word than uteruses), amennorrhea, and other problems. The doctors are all wonderful, both to their patients and to their students. Encouraging us to stay late and get involved, and making sure we're getting exposed to as many different aspects of the specialty as possible. It's been a real treat not to feel like an after-thought.
Ciao.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
A few odds and ends (a great Dylan song, BTW) from the last couple of weeks. First of all I should say that my mood is the best it's been in probably years. Not sure what all that's about, but I have a few ideas. I don't necessarily care, either!
On the way back to Ireland after a wonderful vacation I had two exciting sitings. The first was Cornel West, who was on the plane from Logan to Newark. A tight, ill-fitting suit and an enormous afro made for a hard-to-miss event. I realized I don't know a think about his writing/thinking, so if any of you know something of his worth reading (and also accessible) let me know. The other was a ring necked pheasant along the side of the road in Shannon. Gorgeous. I had just gotten off a red-eye, so it's possible I was hallucinating, but probably not.
My time in Limerick was fine. I was staying with an obsessive compulsive, ultra Catholic woman and her husband, who were both slightly racist, and generally afraid of unfamiliar things. Very much enjoyed reading, watching, and talking about sad/scary things going on in the world, particularly medically related ones. The ENT was OK. They were all very nice, but not yet used to having students around. A lot of the job is looking in people's ears and clearing wax out, or telling parents that it's been a bad winter for ear infections, and no actually, your son or daughter does NOT need grommets thank you very much. I got to scrub in for one surgery so that I could stand closer and see more, but even then they're operating on such small areas that it's hard to see much. My last patient before I left early (to make it to a choir rehearsal) was a lady in the ICU who had bleeding varices. For some reason the blood that continued to ooze after she was fixed congealed in her oesophagus instead of going into her stomach, so she had a huge clot gumming up the works. Two different gastroenterologists had already tried their hands at solving the problem, to little avail (is that an acceptable phrase?) so the ENT consultant tried (his equipment was slightly different, which may have accounted for his success) and was able to vacuum out the rest of the clot.
I'm excited about choir for the moment. Some Tchaikovski, Schubert, Vittoria. Beautiful stuff.
Bedtime for Bonzo
On the way back to Ireland after a wonderful vacation I had two exciting sitings. The first was Cornel West, who was on the plane from Logan to Newark. A tight, ill-fitting suit and an enormous afro made for a hard-to-miss event. I realized I don't know a think about his writing/thinking, so if any of you know something of his worth reading (and also accessible) let me know. The other was a ring necked pheasant along the side of the road in Shannon. Gorgeous. I had just gotten off a red-eye, so it's possible I was hallucinating, but probably not.
My time in Limerick was fine. I was staying with an obsessive compulsive, ultra Catholic woman and her husband, who were both slightly racist, and generally afraid of unfamiliar things. Very much enjoyed reading, watching, and talking about sad/scary things going on in the world, particularly medically related ones. The ENT was OK. They were all very nice, but not yet used to having students around. A lot of the job is looking in people's ears and clearing wax out, or telling parents that it's been a bad winter for ear infections, and no actually, your son or daughter does NOT need grommets thank you very much. I got to scrub in for one surgery so that I could stand closer and see more, but even then they're operating on such small areas that it's hard to see much. My last patient before I left early (to make it to a choir rehearsal) was a lady in the ICU who had bleeding varices. For some reason the blood that continued to ooze after she was fixed congealed in her oesophagus instead of going into her stomach, so she had a huge clot gumming up the works. Two different gastroenterologists had already tried their hands at solving the problem, to little avail (is that an acceptable phrase?) so the ENT consultant tried (his equipment was slightly different, which may have accounted for his success) and was able to vacuum out the rest of the clot.
I'm excited about choir for the moment. Some Tchaikovski, Schubert, Vittoria. Beautiful stuff.
Bedtime for Bonzo
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Now it's time to catch up a little bit.... Where we last left off I think I had just had a really interesting couple of weeks with neurology. The two weeks previous to that was spent with a nephrology (kidney) team, and it was fantastic. The doctor in charge is notorious in the hospital, as are his two brothers who are also doctors in CUH, each one taller than the next. The nephrologist is the most wacky, however. Imagine Groucho Marx as a brilliant doctor, and you're in the right ballpark. I learned a ton. We got regular little teaching sessions about medications or dialysis or other conditions, and rounds with the team were very informative because there were a lot of patients so it was easy to learn by repetition.
Your plumbing, on the left, and your kitchen's plumbing on the right. Are the shapes a coincidence? Well, yes. This part of the blog was inspired by coming home to make dinner one night only to find the sink plugged with rice. Similar to the problem kidneys can have with contrast media.
What I think is so fantastic, though, and may have already mentioned, is that it really made me feel like I was a medical student, and helped me to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was treated as someone who needed to learn medicine for the purpose of being a doctor, not as a student who needed to be kept busy. My mood continues to be elevated, even more so after a restorative couple of weeks at home.
I don't expect to write too much about the next month. I'm spending two weeks in ENT (or otorhinolaryngology if you want to give your tongue and spellcheck a little practice) in Limerick. The teaching is pretty good, but I'm just not that interested. We spend most of our time in outpatients, clearing a lot of wax from people's ears. That whole thing about never putting anything in your ear smaller than your elbow is true, by the way. Cotton buds really foul things up. I'm staying with a kind woman who appears to be afraid of everything under the sun. God, MRSA, dirt, water getting on the floor of the bathroom. The place is right across from the hospital, though, which is convenient. There's a couple of pubs, restaurants, and a Tesco nearby, so even though we're on the edge of town it's convenient enough. After this is done, I'll be spending a week with vascular surgeons and a week with urologists, both at the Mercy Hospital in Cork. That trifecta has earned this month the moniker "the tubes rotation."
Hello, I must be going.
Your plumbing, on the left, and your kitchen's plumbing on the right. Are the shapes a coincidence? Well, yes. This part of the blog was inspired by coming home to make dinner one night only to find the sink plugged with rice. Similar to the problem kidneys can have with contrast media.
What I think is so fantastic, though, and may have already mentioned, is that it really made me feel like I was a medical student, and helped me to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was treated as someone who needed to learn medicine for the purpose of being a doctor, not as a student who needed to be kept busy. My mood continues to be elevated, even more so after a restorative couple of weeks at home.
I don't expect to write too much about the next month. I'm spending two weeks in ENT (or otorhinolaryngology if you want to give your tongue and spellcheck a little practice) in Limerick. The teaching is pretty good, but I'm just not that interested. We spend most of our time in outpatients, clearing a lot of wax from people's ears. That whole thing about never putting anything in your ear smaller than your elbow is true, by the way. Cotton buds really foul things up. I'm staying with a kind woman who appears to be afraid of everything under the sun. God, MRSA, dirt, water getting on the floor of the bathroom. The place is right across from the hospital, though, which is convenient. There's a couple of pubs, restaurants, and a Tesco nearby, so even though we're on the edge of town it's convenient enough. After this is done, I'll be spending a week with vascular surgeons and a week with urologists, both at the Mercy Hospital in Cork. That trifecta has earned this month the moniker "the tubes rotation."
Hello, I must be going.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
