Vesica

Finished up our two week break so today was back to rotations. I find myself now beginning the “internal medicine” portion of my acute care block. I am looking forward to this opportunity as I feel very good at the “first five minutes” of management given my ED background – the working up of an…

Away for a bit due to a conference. First time sleeping in an airport. I think an experience that could have been made much better with the right preparations (i.e. a pillow and blanket). A long walk at LAX to the international terminal sets you up with a number of very safe and comfortable places…

The recent weekend saw a string of demonstrations across the country called the “No Kings” protests. I was not in attendance but was later reading the local Reddit forum when I saw a number of surprising posts from demonstrators thanking local law enforcement for how they conducted themselves at the protests. There was apparently no…

Father’s day today. A chance to play some casual golf games. It had me thinking about motor memory – or that ability of humans to perform complex physical tasks quickly, efficiently, and with minimal conscious effort after repeated practice. This is presumably rooted someplace deep in survival and reproductive success. It reminded me of someone’s…

All quiet on the western front. A peaceful weekend before a final week of pediatrics. The days are long but the weeks sure are short.

A quick blog about a quick day. Completed my OSCEs today for my obstetrics, gynecology, and pediatrics block. They’re always tough and they’re always quick and you kind of just blank it out like a car crash. A little celebration with friends afterwards and its time to call it a day.

No fun quotes or thoughts today. Tomorrow is a series of standardized patient assessments.

A certain subset of babies will have their blood sugars checked repeatedly after delivery — some for the next 12 hours after delivery and others for the next 24 hours after delivery. The difference lies in the reasoning behind the monitoring. Large for gestational age infants or those born to mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus…

Our first consultation to another specialty for a baby today. The history and culture of consultation in medicine is interesting. In ancient civilizations, physicians served as generalists. We do know from ancient Egyptian papyri, however, that specialty physicians existed even in ancient times (particularly for royalty or academic centers). As hospitals expanded in the 18th…

Some thoughts today in the newborn nursery. Feeding the poor is a characteristic of sainthood. Asking why someone is poor or challenging the systems that keep them that way is communism in the mind of the American. A great example of dialectical materialism. It does not take working in medicine long to realize our choices…