Of Pretense and Persuasions

Friday, September 29, 2006

I've decided to switch professions. Well, not really. This weekend, I've signed myself up to for a conference in New York City held by Engineers without Borders. EWB is a group which appears to go out into the middle of nowhere [underdeveloped nations] and build sanitation infrastructure, solar panels for electricity, water purification systems, hydraulic dam stuff. Its so cool. I wish I could do a project with them. In a sense, I realize too that getting people access to potable water and electricity resolves more persistent health problems and quality of life issues than basic medical care. It would be so cool to see what they are capable of and what they have done so far.

So I'm going. I figured too that I need to expand my brainspace and develop myself and my intellect as much as I can as soon as I can.

Sunday, September 24, 2006


















Berry picking extravaganza a month or more ago.
Tarka, Tejas, Maggie [with fake glasses], and Merritt.
Yummmmmmmmmmm.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Conversations in the ED:

Dr. Joe Becker: You know, I looked at my schedule this month and told my wife, "Hey, honey. I don't think I really have time for residency this month."

Tejas: So what do you do besides play doctor?

JB: I freak out if I notice myself slipping up on my Spanish or French ... so I like to do random things like read Harry Potter in French ... and I tell you, it takes me twice as long as it takes in English. You know, stuff like that takes up my time.

Tejas:
uh-huh. [Tejas promptly went to to B&N that evening and bought Harry Potter in Spanish.]


Becker is awesome. I'll tell you why. First, he's from San Francisco. He looks like your typical American white boy -- tall, blond, blue eyed, built like a quarterback. His proper place would be in a country club in Cherry Hills, sipping margaritas or doing whatever rich people do with their time. But Becker is cool because he defies such stereotypes. He took a year off in the middle of medical school at UCSF to go galavanting around the world. Lived in Guatemala. After graduation, he and his wife moved to Africa [Cameroon, Rwanda] and lived there doing HIV work for three years. Now he's back in the States finishing up residency in Emergency Medicine. I liked working with him because he [1] acknowledged my existence [which some residents don't] and [2] taught me how to place a central line.

I've noticed this trend with many ED residents -- they play doctor AND they do something else. Sometimes that "something else" is being a mom, getting a J.D., or galavanting around Nigeria. A lot of them do international work -- which ROCKS and is the major reason why I like the specialty. I worked with Dr. Jeff Lazar today -- he was Johnson and Johnson scholar who worked in Zambia for a while. He was nice and I totally loved the shift [mainly because one of my patients told me that I would a great doctor one day because I was smart and compasionate ... awwww shucks... its always a great day when that happens].




















I'm back folks. I didn't realize that people actually read this blog until I recieved several distress calls regarding the lack of posting. Ostensibly, the excuse is that I've started Surgery. The truth is that I've just been plain ass lazy. I have had loads of "free" time on my hands of late -- I'm on Emergency Medicine right now and have had a number of free blocks of time to spend at will. Mostly, I've used the time to read Lawrence's "Essentials of General Surgery" -- no excuse to not blog, clearly.

So my schedule as far as the Surgery rotation is this:

9/11/06 - 9/22/06 Emergency Medicine
9/23/06 - 10/6/06 Anesthesia
10/9/06 - 11/3/06 Trauma Surgery
11/6/06 - 11/17/06 Transplant Surgery
11/20/06 - 12/1/06 Plastic Surgery

I have my last shift of Emergency Medicine tommorow night from 4pm to 1 am. Saturday night, man. Its going to be a party.

Here on out, I'll promise to post my stories from the battlefield in a more time-sensative manner. For now, lemme splurge.

Friday, September 15, 2006

Look! Its my hairy cactus. My hairy cactus looks like it needs a haircut. He cracks me up. I bought him last weekend when Maggie and I found ourselves at Home Depot. Swami Laddoo is also shown in the picture. Hairy Cactus still needs a name. Harry seems to British and Bland for my spunky cactus.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

I've started my surgery rotation; hence the lack of time to update. I started on Emergency Medicine this week and had my first clinical shift last night from 5 pm to 11 pm. In a word, I LOVED it. I love the high intensity environment, the quick thinking, the rapid decision making, the diversity of cases you see. This place totally rocks. I saw so much: psych, trauma, oncologic emergencies, cardio.

I can totally see myself going into EM. Advantages:

1. Flexibility of schedule
2. You can travel internationally with your skills
3. Not tied to your patient population
4. You are the PCP of the indigent, for all practical purposes
5. You can't possibly be bored.
6. I'm so busy that I never find myself tired or watching the clock as on other rotations.

Disads:
1. not much preventitive care possible.

Sunday, September 03, 2006























I moved ... again. These are pictures of my new digs. I think my new place is cool. I spent all day at Lowe's yesterday acquiring lots of green tropical plants ... I wouldn't be able to survive otherwise. Foliage is critical to my survival and sense of sanity indeed. The decor is all China ... stuff I acquired while romping around the Tibetan plateau last year.