Yesterday I pulled a tube out of somebody's neck while they hummed and today I am talking soybeans with a bulemic. Last week I was investigating a potential case of measles vs dengue fever. This is the normal scutwork of my job. I realize how bizarre that is, really.

delivering babies is awesome.  I've been seeing about one vaginal delivery a night, and I helped in two C-sections last night.  I <3 surgery.  I <3 babies.  It's really rewarding to be with new parents when they deliver a child.  This OB/Gyn rotation is pretty awesome.

It's also a lesson in the exclusivity of specialists, for better and worse.  We ( Read more... )

I'm about to start my OB/Gyn rotation at OHSU in two weeks; although we are given the option of following a midwife for a day, midwives and homebirths are not really included in our curriculum.  Frankly, being entrenched in Western Medicine for so long has had me convinced that homebirths are scary, unpredictable affairs.  Most of the MD's I've ( Read more... )

I really like John Day.  I'm there for a rural rotation, my very first clinical clerkship in which I not only get to interview patients and do physical exam but seriously try to figure out what they have and recommend care.  It's pretty neat.  But the reason I like John Day is the people.  People wave as I drive by.  Everybody is supportive, "you ( Read more... )

...from silentclarity's journal.  But I think it's neat so I get to post it, too:

Are you right-brained or left-brained or bi-brained?
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I am decidedly right-brained.  So much so that I couldn't make her switch.  Although if I look at her feet, I get to switch to left-brained, which is what I SHOULD be, based on my career choice and how I think I ( Read more... )

1. Podiatrist ( Read more... )

I know I said I would keep my med school updates short. But this is the first one for my second year. I have to be long-winded, explanatory, and boring for old time's sake. Forgive me, and I'll get back to short updates next time, pwomise.

I've been back at school for two weeks now. My first test has come and gone. My second test looms in a week ( Read more... )

This Wednesday at our noontime seminar, a nutritionist presented us with data that eating 1/16th bar of chocolate a day lowers BP by about 2 points (each value).

Add this to data that drinking wine, especially red wine, is good for cardiovascular disease and stroke.

And, one particular study I remember from a nutrition class last year: half an ( Read more... )

As part of our "Death and Dying" segment of my PCM course, we were sent out to visit nursing homes, with hospice and skilled care.  I visited mine today.  The visit was interesting, and less dreary than I thought.  The GEM of my visit, however, I found before I even entered the front door: on the driveway from Multnomah Blvd, the nursing facility ( Read more... )