Three days ago I took a yoga class at a local school chosen from the surprisingly high number in the area. It was wonderful to take the time to sit correctly and breathe fully. Under stress, many people tend to take quick, shallow breaths, and during this hour and a half hiatus I suspended stress and breathed.
I have a curious relationship with exercise. I've been a mid-level athlete before, but I rarely have enjoyed competing. Though I have been a regular at the gym before, I don't enjoy repetitive movements, nor exercise for the sake of exercising. I don't like any sport that brings me near cars or near to where non-participants can watch me. What I enjoy, I often think of as studied movement. I enjoy those sports that allow me to study my relationship between my will, the execution of that will into my body, and various forces of physics including inertia, force vectors, and momentum. Thus I usually find myself dancing, rock climbing, practicing yoga or doing martial arts forms.
It feels good to be sore again, and to be correctly aligned. I'm sleeping better, and am slowly recuperating from a month of overwork followed by a month of one virus after another inhabiting my respiratory tract. For those in the area, let me know if you'd like to go the the next class!
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Pediatric Check-Up:Passing Disease
One big issues with having a centralized institution for the care of the sick is that there are naturally a lot of sick people there. Furthermore, they're sick with different things. In pediatrics, this translates to clinics and floors full of infectious diseases that can be passed from patient to patient, from patient to staff, and vice versa.
On a systems level, that means that everyone is generally treated with "standard precautions", which include hand-washing before and after every patient contact, and not eating in areas where we care for patients. That second part is generally why I am usually dehydrated. For unlucky hospitalized patients, there are also "contact" and "droplet" precautions. The first is for those patients who have an infectious but not respiratory illness, in general. The second is for everyone who has a cold. There's even further levels of precautions for people who might have tuberculosis or pertussis, but fortunately we don't see more than a few cases of possible pertussis patients in a month. Precautions are for everyone's safety, however they do have an emotional impact on our "chronic" patients: those children with chronic diseases who are hospitalized often, and for long periods of time. These patients are often left in the hospital by their families. The staff of the inpatient unit is often like a second family to them, but when they are placed on any protocol above standard precautions, they are usually isolated in their rooms alone other than the two to five hours that their nurse or the Child Life workers can spend with them. Spend some time listening to a three-year-old sobbing "mommy daddy gone" when you haven't the time to spend comforting her, and you'll know why hospital staff hate taking certain precautions even though we know why we have to.
On a personal level, this being my first winter in pediatrics also means that on top of my resolving lack of sleep, I've also been flat on my back with rather violent viruses, one of which has recently migrated to my eyes, giving me the all-to-gruesome "pink-eye". It's really hard to drive when your eyes are full of gunk, I've noticed. However, I am making a come-back, and next week is the three-day Intern Retreat in Taos, New Mexico. It's a rural town famous for artists (and some art), an aggressively organic lifestyle, a world-class ski resort, and yes, there really is art there. I'm looking forward to it, and my second vacation of the year starts after it!
On a systems level, that means that everyone is generally treated with "standard precautions", which include hand-washing before and after every patient contact, and not eating in areas where we care for patients. That second part is generally why I am usually dehydrated. For unlucky hospitalized patients, there are also "contact" and "droplet" precautions. The first is for those patients who have an infectious but not respiratory illness, in general. The second is for everyone who has a cold. There's even further levels of precautions for people who might have tuberculosis or pertussis, but fortunately we don't see more than a few cases of possible pertussis patients in a month. Precautions are for everyone's safety, however they do have an emotional impact on our "chronic" patients: those children with chronic diseases who are hospitalized often, and for long periods of time. These patients are often left in the hospital by their families. The staff of the inpatient unit is often like a second family to them, but when they are placed on any protocol above standard precautions, they are usually isolated in their rooms alone other than the two to five hours that their nurse or the Child Life workers can spend with them. Spend some time listening to a three-year-old sobbing "mommy daddy gone" when you haven't the time to spend comforting her, and you'll know why hospital staff hate taking certain precautions even though we know why we have to.
On a personal level, this being my first winter in pediatrics also means that on top of my resolving lack of sleep, I've also been flat on my back with rather violent viruses, one of which has recently migrated to my eyes, giving me the all-to-gruesome "pink-eye". It's really hard to drive when your eyes are full of gunk, I've noticed. However, I am making a come-back, and next week is the three-day Intern Retreat in Taos, New Mexico. It's a rural town famous for artists (and some art), an aggressively organic lifestyle, a world-class ski resort, and yes, there really is art there. I'm looking forward to it, and my second vacation of the year starts after it!
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Pediatric Check-Up: Hours
Current total hours worked: 101.5!
Current days working on this part of the job: 7 days
Current days working on this part of the job: 7 days
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Pediatric Check-Up: A Time of Advocacy
From Merriam Webster Online
Support: (1) : to promote the interests or cause of (2) : to uphold or defend as valid or right : ADVOCATE (3) : to argue or vote for
So one of my ideas for my advocacy project was to build a website for the local GLBTQ (gay, lesbian, bi, trans, queer) community. This website would function much like an information and triage desk. It would list available resources, as well as providing enough information to give people an idea of where they should look next to find real people to do things with, such as volunteer, advocate, or just plain drink with.
In speaking with some community members who are active in various organizations providing services in the area, this website is needed, but not only as a website, but as a comprehensive online community. This is interesting to me as this is a variant of what Sunny and I are trying to do with http://poeticpublishing.com and http://davinciconcept.org. While with those sites we've built a site and are trying to recruit members, in this case a group already exists but needs a virtual home. For the online communities we've already built, Sunny and I already have capacity for email, forums, and serving content. To build this one, I would probably use a wiki as well, though maybe I'd use DokuWiki instead of MediaWiki as the collaboration on content would not be the focus of this group. For emailGmail, I would also use and then for listserve management, I would try Google Groups. For community calendaring, Google Calendar, of course.
Why all the Google use? It's free, it works, it's meant for multiple users, and I don't have to host or manage it. Furthermore, the text ads are very unobtrusive, and it's a small price to pay for all the work that I don't have to do myself. Same thing with the wiki use. I'm familiar with DokuWiki and MediaWiki, and though I don't currently understand the nuts-and-bolts of installation and of upgrading these two, I have watched Sunny upgrade this site, the content of which is managed and displayed by DokuWiki.
Now, of course, this online community would not be the same as the real-life community it serves. There are plenty of people without access to the internet and computers. However, I think that the majority of the population have access to either libraries or their own computers, and that reaching out to the less technologically privileged would be a project that can be fulfilled by one of the current organizations.
In terms of this working as my advocacy project, my residency director thinks that it's a great project, and I'm looking over the CATCH grant paperwork to see if they might fund the learning curve that I'll need to undergo in order to do this properly. Let's hope that it does!
Support: (1) : to promote the interests or cause of (2) : to uphold or defend as valid or right : ADVOCATE
So one of my ideas for my advocacy project was to build a website for the local GLBTQ (gay, lesbian, bi, trans, queer) community. This website would function much like an information and triage desk. It would list available resources, as well as providing enough information to give people an idea of where they should look next to find real people to do things with, such as volunteer, advocate, or just plain drink with.
In speaking with some community members who are active in various organizations providing services in the area, this website is needed, but not only as a website, but as a comprehensive online community. This is interesting to me as this is a variant of what Sunny and I are trying to do with http://poeticpublishing.com and http://davinciconcept.org. While with those sites we've built a site and are trying to recruit members, in this case a group already exists but needs a virtual home. For the online communities we've already built, Sunny and I already have capacity for email, forums, and serving content. To build this one, I would probably use a wiki as well, though maybe I'd use DokuWiki instead of MediaWiki as the collaboration on content would not be the focus of this group. For emailGmail, I would also use and then for listserve management, I would try Google Groups. For community calendaring, Google Calendar, of course.
Why all the Google use? It's free, it works, it's meant for multiple users, and I don't have to host or manage it. Furthermore, the text ads are very unobtrusive, and it's a small price to pay for all the work that I don't have to do myself. Same thing with the wiki use. I'm familiar with DokuWiki and MediaWiki, and though I don't currently understand the nuts-and-bolts of installation and of upgrading these two, I have watched Sunny upgrade this site, the content of which is managed and displayed by DokuWiki.
Now, of course, this online community would not be the same as the real-life community it serves. There are plenty of people without access to the internet and computers. However, I think that the majority of the population have access to either libraries or their own computers, and that reaching out to the less technologically privileged would be a project that can be fulfilled by one of the current organizations.
In terms of this working as my advocacy project, my residency director thinks that it's a great project, and I'm looking over the CATCH grant paperwork to see if they might fund the learning curve that I'll need to undergo in order to do this properly. Let's hope that it does!
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
A Cat's Life: Toilet Training
Cat feces carry a risk to both pregnant women and immunosupressed people. They can transmit the pathogen Toxoplasma, of which cats are not the only carrier. Besides being infectious, cat feces and urine are just gross to deal with, so Sunny and I have been planning to train Ulysses to use the toilet for a long time.
Firstly, I looked around on amazon.com to see what was available, and then read some reviews. I found that I needed a training device, though some people have used plastic wrap, like Saran, for a trainer. Then I needed flushable litter. Though I had a device picked out on amazon, I ended up buying Doogie's Litter Kwitter at the local retail pet store so that I could return it if it didn't work. So far Ulysses is making a mess, since the training seat isn't deep enough to hold a lot of litter, and Ulysses is a big cat. Litter gets all over the bathroom floor, and sometimes there's poop too. Eew. But hopefully the mess will be offset by future freedom from sifting through kitty litter for cat poo. And no toxoplasmosis when I'm pregnant.
Firstly, I looked around on amazon.com to see what was available, and then read some reviews. I found that I needed a training device, though some people have used plastic wrap, like Saran, for a trainer. Then I needed flushable litter. Though I had a device picked out on amazon, I ended up buying Doogie's Litter Kwitter at the local retail pet store so that I could return it if it didn't work. So far Ulysses is making a mess, since the training seat isn't deep enough to hold a lot of litter, and Ulysses is a big cat. Litter gets all over the bathroom floor, and sometimes there's poop too. Eew. But hopefully the mess will be offset by future freedom from sifting through kitty litter for cat poo. And no toxoplasmosis when I'm pregnant.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Pediatric Check-Up: Sleep, Rounding, and Sign Outs
I've often been asked how much sleep I get as an intern; it's an understandable question because on certain rotations I work 30 hour shifts. What really bothers me, though, is not necessarily how much sleep I get, but when I have to get up. Generally, when I was on the inpatient service in August, I hit the floors around 7AM. However, now that it's the wintertime, I'm really facing a wake-up time of around 5:30AM and an arrival of around 6AM to get the work done in time to present patients to the team for the morning's planning session, generally known as "rounds". It sounds very, very painful to me. I used to be a night owl and still relish staying up as long as I want when I can. Furthermore, Sunny's a night owl too and likes to go to bed around 1AM. I can't do that with a 5:30 alarm bell.
What makes tonight even more interesting is that each team is switching personnel. All of the interns are coming from other rotations to pick up the current team load. Furthermore, the team I am switching to is admitting patients tonight, resulting in uncertainty of how many patients I'll need to see by 8AM tomorrow morning, which is when rounds start. I don't like it, but there's nothing I can do but try to make it in by 6AM, a feat I've never accomplished unless I was already in the hospital.
Pre-rounding, that is getting the data for rounds, is always an adrenalin-laced experience for me, and I don't really like it. For pre-rounds, I record a summary of all my patients' vitals, lab values, and general events from the 24 hours since we rounded last. This includes a bedside visit and exam. For new patients I am generally slow, hopefully due to me being thorough vs. some kind of intrinsic inefficiency.
Generally, though I know my patients and know exactly what to look for to see if they are getting worse or better. On a switch day, though, the quality of the information from the departing intern tries to fill in for that familiarity. The passage of information is called sign out, and it's a process that desperately needs some troubleshooting.
In an effort to decrease medical errors, residents across the nation have had their work hours limited to an average of 80hr/wk each month. This is similar to work hour limits in fields such as aviation (pilots) and other crucial errors. However, preliminary data suggests that the increased mental rest residents are getting is being offset by errors made by cross-cover teams due to sketchy sign out. I'm still in the process of reading up on this, and I hope that further studies continue not only to track the numbers, but to also test ways of making sign out more efficient and information-laden.
Occasionally, I am irked, as today, with the quality and thoroughness of sign out. One person just left and didn't bother to sign out to me. Another describes a 3 week hospital stay that included an ICU stay as "simple". Such things suggest to me that there is a systems issue that needs to be addressed by a policy statement to clarify things. My current personal policy is that whenever I leave a hospitalized patient for another rotation, I tend to leave a summary of their stay under my care, so that the next person doesn't have to flip through a whole book of notes to try to figure out what happened. I also intend that when I am team leader to clearly verbalize criteria I expect for this kind of major sign out, and make sure all of the team members understand what I am expecting. It might just be easier and less bossy to get the whole caboodle in writing, or find out where it is written, and just email it out.
References:
What makes tonight even more interesting is that each team is switching personnel. All of the interns are coming from other rotations to pick up the current team load. Furthermore, the team I am switching to is admitting patients tonight, resulting in uncertainty of how many patients I'll need to see by 8AM tomorrow morning, which is when rounds start. I don't like it, but there's nothing I can do but try to make it in by 6AM, a feat I've never accomplished unless I was already in the hospital.
Pre-rounding, that is getting the data for rounds, is always an adrenalin-laced experience for me, and I don't really like it. For pre-rounds, I record a summary of all my patients' vitals, lab values, and general events from the 24 hours since we rounded last. This includes a bedside visit and exam. For new patients I am generally slow, hopefully due to me being thorough vs. some kind of intrinsic inefficiency.
Generally, though I know my patients and know exactly what to look for to see if they are getting worse or better. On a switch day, though, the quality of the information from the departing intern tries to fill in for that familiarity. The passage of information is called sign out, and it's a process that desperately needs some troubleshooting.
In an effort to decrease medical errors, residents across the nation have had their work hours limited to an average of 80hr/wk each month. This is similar to work hour limits in fields such as aviation (pilots) and other crucial errors. However, preliminary data suggests that the increased mental rest residents are getting is being offset by errors made by cross-cover teams due to sketchy sign out. I'm still in the process of reading up on this, and I hope that further studies continue not only to track the numbers, but to also test ways of making sign out more efficient and information-laden.
Occasionally, I am irked, as today, with the quality and thoroughness of sign out. One person just left and didn't bother to sign out to me. Another describes a 3 week hospital stay that included an ICU stay as "simple". Such things suggest to me that there is a systems issue that needs to be addressed by a policy statement to clarify things. My current personal policy is that whenever I leave a hospitalized patient for another rotation, I tend to leave a summary of their stay under my care, so that the next person doesn't have to flip through a whole book of notes to try to figure out what happened. I also intend that when I am team leader to clearly verbalize criteria I expect for this kind of major sign out, and make sure all of the team members understand what I am expecting. It might just be easier and less bossy to get the whole caboodle in writing, or find out where it is written, and just email it out.
References:
Writers' Cafe: A Diamond Age
This Sunday to Monday night marks the transition to the last day wherein I can work on my entry for the 2006 writing marathon I started on Poetic Publishing, the online art development and publishing site that Sunny and I are developing. For my entry, currently titled "The Grotesque", I'm trying to write fiction, a new thing for me, and the piece sits nicely in the genre labeled science-fiction.
My problem, other than my inability to come up with a plot, is that though I have emplaced my story in a sci-fi world that Sunny and I have been developing on and off for over a year, the world's not done yet. Most irksome for myself as a primarily poetry writer is the fact that we haven't named most of the technology we're talking about.
In contrast, Neal Stephenson, author of Snow Crash, a book well-known in techie and hacker culture, builds worlds that are not only colorful extrapolations of now but are also well populated with contraptions that are superbly and uniquely named.
Today I read another book by this author The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. Though off to a slow start for the first hundred pages as Stephenson describes a world saturated with nanotechnology, the plot thickened eventually, and explorations into basic programing, cultural warfare, and parenting provided enough human significance to give the book a rating of 3.5 out of 5 overall.
Now, though, I feel totally screwed. My main character is a designer whose creations are given life by nanotechnology. It's going to take a while to wash the lingo and made-up tech of A Diamond Age out of my system enough to make me feel that I'm not obviously crimping someone else's style. Then again, the whole point of the marathon was to let go of the editor and just let the words flow. Furthermore, the development side of Poetic Publishing, also known as Poetic Authoring, is private and secure. So, if imitation ends up being the sincerest sort of flattery in this case, no one not of the community will have to see and laugh at it.
So here's my concise review of A Diamond Age: it's the pleasure of reading a solid writer break new ground in an interesting nanotech world mixed with the pain of being a nanotech writer trying to break into a new area without copying anyone.
My problem, other than my inability to come up with a plot, is that though I have emplaced my story in a sci-fi world that Sunny and I have been developing on and off for over a year, the world's not done yet. Most irksome for myself as a primarily poetry writer is the fact that we haven't named most of the technology we're talking about.
In contrast, Neal Stephenson, author of Snow Crash, a book well-known in techie and hacker culture, builds worlds that are not only colorful extrapolations of now but are also well populated with contraptions that are superbly and uniquely named.
Today I read another book by this author The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. Though off to a slow start for the first hundred pages as Stephenson describes a world saturated with nanotechnology, the plot thickened eventually, and explorations into basic programing, cultural warfare, and parenting provided enough human significance to give the book a rating of 3.5 out of 5 overall.
Now, though, I feel totally screwed. My main character is a designer whose creations are given life by nanotechnology. It's going to take a while to wash the lingo and made-up tech of A Diamond Age out of my system enough to make me feel that I'm not obviously crimping someone else's style. Then again, the whole point of the marathon was to let go of the editor and just let the words flow. Furthermore, the development side of Poetic Publishing, also known as Poetic Authoring, is private and secure. So, if imitation ends up being the sincerest sort of flattery in this case, no one not of the community will have to see and laugh at it.
So here's my concise review of A Diamond Age: it's the pleasure of reading a solid writer break new ground in an interesting nanotech world mixed with the pain of being a nanotech writer trying to break into a new area without copying anyone.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Pediatric Check-Up: Crazy Saturday
I get asked what my life is like fairly often, as I'm undergoing a type of training whose rigor is renowned. In J. Ruth Gendler's book, The Book of Qualities, I like how she describes how some people seek out suffering and are proud of having suffered. Some people avoid it. I sit somewhere in the continuum, but towards the avoidant side. I don't buy the idea that suffering automatically makes the sufferer noble. In my totally unresearched opinion, that's a religious tale they sold to some peasants to make them feel better about themselves. Yet, if an education or an experience is valuable enough to me, I'm willing to work to get it.
Currently, I'm an intern at the Pediatric Residency Training Program at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, which is a lot of capitalized words. What it means is that I am in my first of three years of training to be a general pediatrician. The curriculum varies somewhat from program to program, though all programs must meet criteria to be accredited, so core facets remain similar across the country. Our year is divided into 13 four-week blocks called rotations. Each block we operate within a different part of the pediatric medical world, going from inpatient (hospital) service to outpatient to emergency to critical care to different types of specialty care.
This block I'm doing is called PARC: Pediatric Advocacy, Rural and Community. It's a relatively light block in terms of hours required. Scheduled activities are half-days at the most, with the rest of the time for self-study. The goal of the block is to educate pediatric residents in the process of advocating for our patients. This is a fluid target. "Our patients" could involve a specific patient, a family group, a certain ethnic or minority group in the area, or even creating change on a national level. "Advocating" can involve helping find resources to pay for a patient's chemotherapy, or making seat belt laws physiologically make sense for children, or writing a column, or teaching children how to safely approach a dog. Pediatricians as a group tend to be active advocates, though the issues and the populations we speak for may be very diverse. This month rests us (interns) from our labors, broadens our education, grounds us back in who we are, and gives us quality time with whatever we choose.
During this month, we also cross-cover (meaning serve where we are not working full time) the hospital urgent care clinic. Whomever covers the clinic also takes phone calls from worried mothers at night. Normally Saturdays are pretty light in clinic as we are only open from 9 AM to 2 PM, and I think that most patients don't know that we're open and don't want to go to the doctor on a weekend anyway. So what's a Saturday in the life of a resident like? Today, there was a rush of patients from opening to closing, and I was taking phone calls during clinic hours as well. I bought a coffee and biscuit for breakfast at 9 AM, ate the first bite while standing up at 11:30 AM, at the last bite while standing up at 3 PM, and left at 4:30 PM while starving for some linguine. The unpredictability of patient care is why I never commit to anything during work days when the time I leave is scheduled as "when the last patient is done". Not even food, my first and foremost romantic partner on some days, is exempt from this. I estimate that the last patient left around 5PM. I'm still taking phone calls. Crazy.
Currently, I'm an intern at the Pediatric Residency Training Program at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, which is a lot of capitalized words. What it means is that I am in my first of three years of training to be a general pediatrician. The curriculum varies somewhat from program to program, though all programs must meet criteria to be accredited, so core facets remain similar across the country. Our year is divided into 13 four-week blocks called rotations. Each block we operate within a different part of the pediatric medical world, going from inpatient (hospital) service to outpatient to emergency to critical care to different types of specialty care.
This block I'm doing is called PARC: Pediatric Advocacy, Rural and Community. It's a relatively light block in terms of hours required. Scheduled activities are half-days at the most, with the rest of the time for self-study. The goal of the block is to educate pediatric residents in the process of advocating for our patients. This is a fluid target. "Our patients" could involve a specific patient, a family group, a certain ethnic or minority group in the area, or even creating change on a national level. "Advocating" can involve helping find resources to pay for a patient's chemotherapy, or making seat belt laws physiologically make sense for children, or writing a column, or teaching children how to safely approach a dog. Pediatricians as a group tend to be active advocates, though the issues and the populations we speak for may be very diverse. This month rests us (interns) from our labors, broadens our education, grounds us back in who we are, and gives us quality time with whatever we choose.
During this month, we also cross-cover (meaning serve where we are not working full time) the hospital urgent care clinic. Whomever covers the clinic also takes phone calls from worried mothers at night. Normally Saturdays are pretty light in clinic as we are only open from 9 AM to 2 PM, and I think that most patients don't know that we're open and don't want to go to the doctor on a weekend anyway. So what's a Saturday in the life of a resident like? Today, there was a rush of patients from opening to closing, and I was taking phone calls during clinic hours as well. I bought a coffee and biscuit for breakfast at 9 AM, ate the first bite while standing up at 11:30 AM, at the last bite while standing up at 3 PM, and left at 4:30 PM while starving for some linguine. The unpredictability of patient care is why I never commit to anything during work days when the time I leave is scheduled as "when the last patient is done". Not even food, my first and foremost romantic partner on some days, is exempt from this. I estimate that the last patient left around 5PM. I'm still taking phone calls. Crazy.
Friday, January 05, 2007
Skin and Bones: Car Seats
Today, Consumer Reports released a paper saying that the car seats they tested failed side-impact testing. These were rear-facing, snap in car seats. For those of you with children, you may be really mad at me because I've been having the following conversation with my patients' parents all year long:
"Do you have a car seat for your baby?"
"Yes."
"Which way does it face: the trunk or the engine?"
"The trunk."
"Perfect! Is it in the front seats or the back seats?"
"The back."
The testing did not compare rear-facing car seats versus seats facing any other direction. So I'll continue my little quiz and recommend car seats over flying babies.
"Do you have a car seat for your baby?"
"Yes."
"Which way does it face: the trunk or the engine?"
"The trunk."
"Perfect! Is it in the front seats or the back seats?"
"The back."
The testing did not compare rear-facing car seats versus seats facing any other direction. So I'll continue my little quiz and recommend car seats over flying babies.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Dictionary Day: Baraka
From the Merriam-Webster Open Dictionary Project:
baraka (noun): [ba'ra-ka] [arabic] - a state of heightened consciousness or grace achieved through religious fervor involving prayer and dancing; a blessing that can be carried and transferred from one person to another or from an object to a person (usually one who has made the hajj); the blessedness possessed by a person of character, courage, and selflessness
Muslims who have completed the fifth of the five pillars of Islam are often endowed by Allah with baraka that may transmit to those around them. —christopher j moore, book In Other Words: A Language Lover's..., 2005.
Dance! Dance is one of my favorite art forms, and one I don't hesitate to participate in. Give me tango, waltz, cha-cha; jive with me during some happy hardcore, if you can, or let's jump around to some dark progressive house music. Give me some vocals; add a little electronica, spice it up with some South Indian beats and a good soprano, and we are set!
While I am not someone with decades of experience in Modern dance or ballet, I do have a background in studying movement that comes from decades of experience in the martial arts on top of my amateur ballroom dance studies. In the realm of my own experience, dance can endow the participants with a state of exhilaration and even ecstasy, without recourse to drugs, legal or otherwise. My current theory is that the effect of fervent movement and the joy of expression is akin to the phenomenon known as "runners' high". Add strobe lights, and it's a potent experience.
Where does that leave those who join religion and dance? Religion is a private matter, and I don't engage in such activities, since I prefer to spend my energies dealing with reality and real people. Dance is a beautiful set of activities on its own, with meaning assigned by choreographers, ravers, and your own personal self. Religion and faith don't have to be part of the equation for it to be a transcendent experience full of the vigor and ecstasy of enjoying life. So, love, live, and dance!
Links:
baraka (noun): [ba'ra-ka] [arabic] - a state of heightened consciousness or grace achieved through religious fervor involving prayer and dancing; a blessing that can be carried and transferred from one person to another or from an object to a person (usually one who has made the hajj); the blessedness possessed by a person of character, courage, and selflessness
Muslims who have completed the fifth of the five pillars of Islam are often endowed by Allah with baraka that may transmit to those around them. —christopher j moore, book In Other Words: A Language Lover's..., 2005.
Dance! Dance is one of my favorite art forms, and one I don't hesitate to participate in. Give me tango, waltz, cha-cha; jive with me during some happy hardcore, if you can, or let's jump around to some dark progressive house music. Give me some vocals; add a little electronica, spice it up with some South Indian beats and a good soprano, and we are set!
While I am not someone with decades of experience in Modern dance or ballet, I do have a background in studying movement that comes from decades of experience in the martial arts on top of my amateur ballroom dance studies. In the realm of my own experience, dance can endow the participants with a state of exhilaration and even ecstasy, without recourse to drugs, legal or otherwise. My current theory is that the effect of fervent movement and the joy of expression is akin to the phenomenon known as "runners' high". Add strobe lights, and it's a potent experience.
Where does that leave those who join religion and dance? Religion is a private matter, and I don't engage in such activities, since I prefer to spend my energies dealing with reality and real people. Dance is a beautiful set of activities on its own, with meaning assigned by choreographers, ravers, and your own personal self. Religion and faith don't have to be part of the equation for it to be a transcendent experience full of the vigor and ecstasy of enjoying life. So, love, live, and dance!
Links:
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Dictionary Day: Agoraphobia
From Merrimam-Webster Online:
Agoraphobia: abnormal fear of being helpless in an embarrassing or inescapable situation that is characterized especially by the avoidance of open or public places
In psychiatry, one can have panic attacks with and without agoraphobia on top. People stop going out into public places because they fear that they might have a panic attack in public.
Personally, when I'm at a place where I can spend an extensive amount of time at home reading, studying, and writing, I notice that I also start avoiding the public. This is especially odd for me to experience as I work in an industry known for public exposure: medicine. However, I am more on the introverted side of the Myers-Briggs scale, and at times, public exposure tires me out. I thought that this would qualify me as an agoraphobe, however, as I'm not actually afraid of being helpless, it doesn't count.
Agoraphobia: abnormal fear of being helpless in an embarrassing or inescapable situation that is characterized especially by the avoidance of open or public places
In psychiatry, one can have panic attacks with and without agoraphobia on top. People stop going out into public places because they fear that they might have a panic attack in public.
Personally, when I'm at a place where I can spend an extensive amount of time at home reading, studying, and writing, I notice that I also start avoiding the public. This is especially odd for me to experience as I work in an industry known for public exposure: medicine. However, I am more on the introverted side of the Myers-Briggs scale, and at times, public exposure tires me out. I thought that this would qualify me as an agoraphobe, however, as I'm not actually afraid of being helpless, it doesn't count.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Blog: Drivel vs News
There's plenty of media devoted to how bad blogs are. Cries of "therapy writing" and "cheesy adolescent angst" or worse labels tend to make the genre less than respected. On the converse, there are those blogs which are read by hundreds of people. I personally enjoy reading design blogs, or to my favorite magazines, local or otherwise. So where does that leave this poor blog, which hasn't been posted to in literally a year?
I've decided to go for broke in an effort to keep writing. Sunny writes for posterity, but that freezes me up. It takes a lot of time and revision for me to produce something to be truly proud of. I'll put it as a secondary goal; the primary one being to natter on pleasantly with my expected audience: a) no one but myself b)friends and family that accidentally find this.
I've decided to go for broke in an effort to keep writing. Sunny writes for posterity, but that freezes me up. It takes a lot of time and revision for me to produce something to be truly proud of. I'll put it as a secondary goal; the primary one being to natter on pleasantly with my expected audience: a) no one but myself b)friends and family that accidentally find this.
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Status Report: Filling in the Past Eight Months and Next Year
Since my last post, I finished 2nd year's exams, took the boards in San Diego, and began third year. I am working on writing a piece on the specifics of my completed third year rotations. In general, though, I am doing well. I feel as if I have hit my stride and found my own style of how I want to practice medicine. I just need to develop my skills and knowledge further.
At this point in my third year of medical student, regarding the curriculum, I am finished with all of my core outpatient rotations, save surgery, and will be starting inpatient in about a month. My third year project on a problem seen in ambulatory care is coming due; for it, I've chosen to look into pediatric head injuries in sports with an eye towards doing a seminar for the Tae Kwon Do judges at home as my 4th year selective project. After I finish this, all I have to do regarding third year is survive the inpatient rotations.
Fourth year is a year of electives and choices. I am fully in charge of my schedule as 4th years get their pick of rotations and sites; I simply need to fulfill requirements. In order to graduate, there are three one-month rotations that a student has to do in Connecticut. In addition there are four months available for elective rotations. One also has to take the second part of the written licensing exam and then the clinical part before Jan 1. Finally, there are two months of a senior project called a selective. I graduate May 14, 2006.
The complication for fourth year is that residency (post-graduate training) programs in California can be very competitive to get into. If I do "audition" rotations in California, it will increase my chances of getting interviews at the programs I rotate at. However, interview season is Dec-Jan. Therefore, I would ideally audition during Oct-Nov. Thus far, my schedule is July-Sept for the three required rotations in CT so that I don't have to come back from California and Sunny. I wanted to take October to study for the boards, finish applying for residency, and take both Step 2 and Step 2 CS, the clinical skills portion of the boards series. The exam is required only for graduation, not for applying to residency. This leaves only Nov to do an audition rotation before interview season heats up. I could do one in January, but it seems rather late. Also, visiting students get last priority for slots in other schools' programs. I might not even get a chance to do a rotation in San Diego before the new year. In case you are wondering, I am very worried about next year!
Part of the stress is from the fact that I need to choose what kind of doctor I want to be before I apply to programs. I also want a humane yet educational program. Then, I want to be in a nice area of California. Most importantly, I want to be with Sunny. I am hoping that this wishlist will not be too hard to fill.
At this point in my third year of medical student, regarding the curriculum, I am finished with all of my core outpatient rotations, save surgery, and will be starting inpatient in about a month. My third year project on a problem seen in ambulatory care is coming due; for it, I've chosen to look into pediatric head injuries in sports with an eye towards doing a seminar for the Tae Kwon Do judges at home as my 4th year selective project. After I finish this, all I have to do regarding third year is survive the inpatient rotations.
Fourth year is a year of electives and choices. I am fully in charge of my schedule as 4th years get their pick of rotations and sites; I simply need to fulfill requirements. In order to graduate, there are three one-month rotations that a student has to do in Connecticut. In addition there are four months available for elective rotations. One also has to take the second part of the written licensing exam and then the clinical part before Jan 1. Finally, there are two months of a senior project called a selective. I graduate May 14, 2006.
The complication for fourth year is that residency (post-graduate training) programs in California can be very competitive to get into. If I do "audition" rotations in California, it will increase my chances of getting interviews at the programs I rotate at. However, interview season is Dec-Jan. Therefore, I would ideally audition during Oct-Nov. Thus far, my schedule is July-Sept for the three required rotations in CT so that I don't have to come back from California and Sunny. I wanted to take October to study for the boards, finish applying for residency, and take both Step 2 and Step 2 CS, the clinical skills portion of the boards series. The exam is required only for graduation, not for applying to residency. This leaves only Nov to do an audition rotation before interview season heats up. I could do one in January, but it seems rather late. Also, visiting students get last priority for slots in other schools' programs. I might not even get a chance to do a rotation in San Diego before the new year. In case you are wondering, I am very worried about next year!
Part of the stress is from the fact that I need to choose what kind of doctor I want to be before I apply to programs. I also want a humane yet educational program. Then, I want to be in a nice area of California. Most importantly, I want to be with Sunny. I am hoping that this wishlist will not be too hard to fill.
Saturday, May 22, 2004
A Picture of A 1000++++ Words
For your viewing pleasure, these are the 2/3 of the books that I will probably be selling once I finish taking the boards and don't need them anymore (I'd forgotten about the ones in the attic). In case you were wondering what the basic science years of medicine involve, take this stack and a Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine and you'll be set!
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Stress Level: High
Hello.
Currently I've been spending my days and nights at the local Borders bookstore with my eyes not glued enough to my laptop screen. I'm people watching, but when I'm not, I am studying for my last exam of the second year, aka "MOD 4", which is short for Mechanisms of Disease test # 4. Imagine taking a 5 hr final that covers ~3 semesters of physical chemistry material. The catch is that all that material was presented over 2 months, and I only started studying for this exam a few days ago.
I'm taking it early, next Friday the 28th instead of Wednesday the 2nd, not out of hubris, but because I am also studying for "the boards" which is the USMLE Step 1. I'm taking that Wednesday June 16th. It's a comprehensive exam that covers all of the material of the first two years of medical school. Now if only I could get a master's degree for finishing it.
After that I will be partying/sleeping/packing for a night, and then I will jaunt through San Diego to Reno on the 15th, stay about a week, stay a week in SD, and then start 3rd year July 6th with the receipt of a shiny little pager that will no doubt be the bane of my existence. I am expecting to visit some friends, hopefully if you all could visit me in Carson as I won't have a car?
How am I?
My most immediate sensation is itching. Yes I itch, and in more than one place, and it is probably mediated by Th1 and Th2 helper T-cells, heh. I made the mistake of leaving my combo lotion/bug repellent/sunblock in my car, and over the course of the last two days have garnered ~3 insect bites per limb, one on my face, and one on my collarbone, right where it makes that graceful curve. What a shame; of all of my bones, it is easiest to show off my collarbone without calling attention to rounder parts of me.
Other than that, I am as usual all of the following: book-hungry, food-hungry, movie-hungry, sex-hungry, and generally dehydrated. So please send me email care packages and let me know how you are doing!
Currently I've been spending my days and nights at the local Borders bookstore with my eyes not glued enough to my laptop screen. I'm people watching, but when I'm not, I am studying for my last exam of the second year, aka "MOD 4", which is short for Mechanisms of Disease test # 4. Imagine taking a 5 hr final that covers ~3 semesters of physical chemistry material. The catch is that all that material was presented over 2 months, and I only started studying for this exam a few days ago.
I'm taking it early, next Friday the 28th instead of Wednesday the 2nd, not out of hubris, but because I am also studying for "the boards" which is the USMLE Step 1. I'm taking that Wednesday June 16th. It's a comprehensive exam that covers all of the material of the first two years of medical school. Now if only I could get a master's degree for finishing it.
After that I will be partying/sleeping/packing for a night, and then I will jaunt through San Diego to Reno on the 15th, stay about a week, stay a week in SD, and then start 3rd year July 6th with the receipt of a shiny little pager that will no doubt be the bane of my existence. I am expecting to visit some friends, hopefully if you all could visit me in Carson as I won't have a car
How am I?
My most immediate sensation is itching. Yes I itch, and in more than one place, and it is probably mediated by Th1 and Th2 helper T-cells, heh. I made the mistake of leaving my combo lotion/bug repellent/sunblock in my car, and over the course of the last two days have garnered ~3 insect bites per limb, one on my face, and one on my collarbone, right where it makes that graceful curve. What a shame; of all of my bones, it is easiest to show off my collarbone without calling attention to rounder parts of me.
Other than that, I am as usual all of the following: book-hungry, food-hungry, movie-hungry, sex-hungry, and generally dehydrated. So please send me email care packages and let me know how you are doing!
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