day in the life

The Bird in Flight

Monday, June 20. 2005

day in the life

june 20. 2005. 7:02 pm. Surfing the web @ panara bread on the corner of 21st and Colley in Norfolk, VA.

Let me begin my blogging career by mentioning that Chan rocks. Not only did he just set us up w/ this most excellent system, but he is just a great dude all around. One of the most loyal and enjoyable friends I've ever had. In addition, he is the only private citizen I know who has his own personal orbiting satellite/camera (uhhhh, i hope that isn't classified info, randall???), and he let me commandeer it for a couple of hours to take this photo. I must say I was surprised to see that countries are actually labeled when you see them from space. I guess I always assumed that cartographers added the titles later. huh.

A few thoughts on ending 3rd year of Medical School. Tomorrow morning I will wake up to the 3-tone ring of my palm pilot, about 2 hours earlier than I want to wake up, jump in the shower, as usual, eat a bowl or two of meuslix, as usual, don my scrubs, clogs, white coat (more like a light gray these days), sling my stethoscope 'round my neck, and off we go. We'll round, first myself, then my resident, then her resident, then the whole team with our attending physician. There will be times when I feel like a doctor, when my attending will ask me to interpret a chest XRAY, and my entire team will stare with mouths agape in disbelief as I pick up a subtle finding (hmmmm, looks like we've got a pneumothorax here). I will stand a bit taller in that moment, tighten the rope of my scrub pants, adjust my pager, and gleam like a newly minted penny. And as all good things must come to an end, in a few minutes my senior will bid me recall the mechanism of action of some random drug, and I'll swear internally, "I have hated biochem, I am hating biochem, I will be hating biochem"... then I'll stand with my mouth agape and a blank look on my face, hoping the compassionate intern will whisper the answer from behind my interrogator. If she as also hates biochem, which I entirely expect, since she seems a sane and rational person, then I fall again into the mire of ignorance, perhaps to the delight of my smirking interrogator. This is a day in the life. And as Randall has recently reminded me, tommorrow is the last such day... the last day of our general medical education. Trippy.

Posted by Mark in Daily Life Comments: (2) Trackbacks: (0)

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

#1 - Kevin 2005-06-20 19:27 -

When do you leave for your great Che Guevara trip? If you're in town around the 28th you should come up to Northern VA for some amazing Thai food! Oh, and btw, the mechanism for that random drug was elevated cGMP causing release of Ca+ which binds to a ligand-gated ion channel which hits the marble that rolls down the ramp to hit the boot that kicks the post which releases the net that captures the mouse, which in turn selectively inhibits smooth muscle alpha-1 recepters, lowering blood pressure. Of course.

#1.1 - Anonymous 2005-06-20 20:20 -

you talking about terazosin or something? (and no, I didn't look that up, so sue me if I'm wrong)

I am soooo done with third year! ...too bad I still have to go in tomorrow and work. that's right, I'm NOT done.


Add Comment

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA