Monthly Archives: October 2005

Things on my mind at this moment

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60 days until my birthday. (check out www.jillcook.com for daily updates :-))

3 residency interview invitations: UCSF, Oakland Children’s (in the greater SanFran area), and Denver Children’s.  I’m trying to get one long SanFran trip scheduled so I can do 4 interviews there all in 1 week.  It’ll be an interesting week, being "on" all the time.. but much nicer than making 3 or 4 trips out there separately.

I love my job.  Okay, it’s not technically my job yet, since really I’m still paying for the privilige of working crazy hours in the hospital… but I’m going to love my job.  And that’s nice to know.  I’m also going to complain about it a lot, because it seems that that’s what residents do and I will get sucked in just as easily as everyone else seems to be… BUT, knowing that, I will try to keep the complaining to a minimum and remember all the great things that make me love my job. Here’s a few from this week:
Little kid smiles
When babies just look at you, all nice and content
The suggestion, from a 10-year-old patient, that I could be "a princess" for Halloween, "or a DEAD princess!!!" with a white dress covered in blood and half of a tiara
Being called "doctor"

Halloween – what to do for Halloween?  I want to have a little get together… a party… a soiree… an affair, a celebration, a fete, gala, occasion, function, bash – however you want to refer to it, I want to have people and food and decorations and maybe scary movies, or semi-scary movies anyway.

Randomness

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Drum set at Costco

         
It’s a Billiken, the St Louis University mascot.  What’s a Billiken?  Good question.  🙂

         
A.J.’s birthday dinner at the Outback Steakhouse (do-dah-dah-dah-do-do-do).
Building architechtural materpieces with coasters is one of his favorite "waiting for food" activities.

ERAS and me

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ERAS is the Electronic Residency Application Service and it is something I have become quite familiar with over the past few months as I’ve been preparing my residency application.  See, I fill out one central application with all my experiences, my awards, all that stuff… then I put in my Personal Statement and I list the people who will be writing letters for me.  Then I pick the programs I want to apply to and the system will automatically make all my documents available at each of the programs.  Well anyways – I have been slaving over this application and it has been a monkey on my back for a while – but finally today after one last proofread I finally clicked "Submit" (and of course entered my credit card number) and now it’s all over.

All. Over.

And all I can do is wait for the interview invitations to roll on in.

Alpha Omega Alpha

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Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) is the only national honor medical society in the world.  Its raison d’etre can be expressed in a phrase: to recognize and perpetuate excellence in the medical profession.  As stated in the society’s constitution, "Alpha Omega Alpha is organized for educational purposes exclusively and not for profit, and its aims shall be the promotion of scholarship and research in medical schools, the encouragement of a high standard of character and conduct among medical students and graduates, and the recognition of high attainment in medical science, practice, and related fields."

Election to AOA is a distinction that accompanies a physician throughout his or her career.  Especially for the younger physician, the society provides a forum for the exchange of ideas as well as a source of valuable contacts.  Members can be elected as students, house officers, alumni, or faculty of an affiliated institution, or by virtue of distinguished achievement in any field related to medicine, on an honorary basis.  Students are elected into membership based on scholastic achievement, personal integrity, ability to work well with their peers, and promise for significant contributions to the medical profession.  No more than 15% of each class can be chosen for membership.

I just got word yesterday that I am part of that "no more than 15%" of my class.  Apparently this is a big deal to residency programs and is looked upon very favorably.  🙂

Still Alive :-)

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In case anyone was wondering… I am still alive and kicking.

I have been back in St. Louis now for about a week and a half and I have been nonstop busy the whole time.  I started my sub-I (sub-internship: a way to test the waters and let me see what things will be like when I am a doctor next year, and I get evaluated to make sure I am up to par) and it is going fantastically well.  Though it started out kind of crappy with a disorienting first day (new people to meet, given a patient load right away without good instructions, I was also on call…) but it just got better from there and I am all settled in now and loving it.  I am on call again right now, I’m on call Q4 (which means every fourth night) but sometimes it feels like I haven’t had a break for a long time.  I really like the independent feeling of working as a sub-I, and it will be even better next year when I don’t have to get anyone to co-sign my orders. 🙂

I have been seeing kids with asthma, diarrhea, pneumonia, cellulitis, acid reflux, diabetes, cat scratch disease (we think), osteomyelitis… lots of different things.  All very interesting, all things I am trying to read more about so I can better understand the management end of things.  Last year I spent so much time learning about the conditions, what causes them, how to diagnose them… but I didn’t learn a whole lot about how to treat thing so that’s what this year is for.

Outside the hospital things are good too.  I saw "Serenity" and totally loved it – though I was disappointed by the small turnout at the theatre.  Too bad that people are missing out on a great movie (and that they missed out on a great tv show when it was on).  I don’t have any brilliant solutions or suggestions.  I just wanted to say I loved it, it was full of Joss Whedon, which was fantastic.  You could totally tell that this was his movie from the characters to the plot to the witty dialogue and subtle treasures included in every scene.  Joss is brilliant and I want more of him.  I am not so sure about this new Wonderwoman thing he’s got going on – I fear he will be a collaborator and not the driving force so his stuff may get lost in the crowd. But I will see it – I will support Joss – and hopefully he will continue creating great entertainment.

I also saw "The Corpse Bride" – because it was at the Moolah and I like going to that theatre. 🙂  If anyone visits out here, you will definitely see a movie there – no matter what’s showing, you just have to go.  It’s worth the experience.

Hmm, guess it’s back to work.  I have to call some primary care doctors and let them know their patients are in the hospital, and go dictate a few "clinical summaries" for kids I discharged over the past few days… and maybe go watch an upper endoscopy if there’s time.  Hopefully I can find some time this weekend to get some more pictures up on here.  I’ve taken a lot over the past week since I’ve been back, but they’re all on my computer at home so no love right now.