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Addiction Week

March 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment

I have been on the Psychiatry service for almost 3 weeks now. This week I was assigned to the Addictions unit. It has been quite the eye-opener. It has been filled with meeting people at various stages of recovery. I have sat in on Al-Anon , AA, NA, and other group meetings.

They have been filled with stories. Sad stories. Tearful stories. Stories filled with despair. And stories filled with hope and inspiration.

The biggest thing about this week is the realization that addiction is a disease that does not discriminate. There were successful professionals. There were homeless members. There were women and men. There were people like me. And that scared me. Because I realized that if I could be sitting in one of those chairs and telling one of those stories.

Filed Under: Medical School, My Life Tagged With: , , ,
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VLOG Post – Episode 1
I’m considering doing some video posts every once in a while. This was the obligatory inaugural video post. Who knows? It may be the first and only one.

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Annual Post-Graduate Convention 2011

March 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This weekend is the Annual Post-Graduate Convention (APC) here at Loma Linda University. During this weekend, alumni come back to fellowship and, if they want, sit in on lectures that count towards CME credit.

Coincidentally I was out on campus taking pictures around sunset. As I stood there taking one picture I spoke to one of the ladies heading towards the campus church where the evening’s event was taking place.

She told me that her husband graduated from Loma Linda University 50 years ago. I can’t imagine where I’ll be 50 years from now. I hope that I will still be able to trek back and see old (literally) faces.

Here are a few of the pictures I took last night.

Sonkissed

Filed Under: Medical School, My Life Tagged With: , ,
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Is Primary Care Worth it?

February 27, 2011 by 2 Comments

Thanks to twitter, I just heard of The Color of Atmosphere: One Doctor’s Journey In and Out of Medicine, a book by Dr. Maggie Kozel. As a medical student planning on going into primary care, I can’t help but wonder about my decision when hearing things like this. I haven’t read the book yet. I don’t know if I want to. Maybe I have to work up the courage to do so.

One review by another physician author reads:

Dr. Kozel captures perfectly the malaise that has struck American medicine in general and primary care in particular. The chronicle of this intelligent and committed physician—who is frustrated at every turn as she tries to find satisfaction in a profession to which she had expected to dedicate her life—is a powerful indictment of our current system of medical care. We should have done better by her.
—Beach Conger, MD, physician and author, Bag Balm and Duct Tape: Tales of a Vermont Doctor

If you’ve read the book, I’d love to hear your opinions on it.

Filed Under: Medical School, My Life, Other
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Outside Hospital
We’ve all heard about it. We’ve all read about it. Now we really find out what actually goes on at Outside Hospital.

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Well hello there, stranger.

February 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Been a while since I have posted much on here. It’s just been really busy lately. I completed the 10 week block of Internal Medicine just over a week ago. Since then I’ve started a 4 week block of Neurology. So far it is a drastic change of pace. I should be posting something here in the next week or so — at least that’s what I am hoping for.

I am also working on replying to some emails. If you have emailed me through the Contact page, I apologize for being slow the reply. I appreciate and welcome all feedback — even the negative ones. Yes, I have had some rather confrontational emails, but oh well. Such is the nature of internet anonymity, right?

Also, if you are a longtime visitor you will notice a bit of a change in the sidebar. I am not sure if it will be there very long or not. I decided to add this site to the Google Friend Connect system. I am still unfamiliar with what it does. I assume it helps you keep up to date with the blogs you follow. At this point I had relied solely on Feedburner to syndicate the blog posts for whoever is interested. But technology marches on — and I guess I will eventually follow.

Other than that, this post is just to update ya’all out there about what’s going on. If you’re interested, I have also started blogging again at The Differential. So stop on over there and say hello too!

Filed Under: Medical School, My Life Tagged With: ,
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Anosognosia & Hemineglect
Reviewing my neurology notes about strokes. This does an excellent job of showing how it affects real patients.