What's Popeye gonna do if Bluto is about to beat him up and steal Olive Oyl from him????
Ok, I shouldn't joke around... I know people are dying from E. Coli 0157:H7... I wonder how they know it's spinach specifically...
Friday, September 15, 2006
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Maha Kumbhabishekam
I was glancing at the Houston Chronicle's home page and noticed that there are pictures from a religious ceremony occuring at my old temple, the Sri Meenaskhi Temple, in Houston. I was really excited to see the pictures and thought I would share the article with everyone that reads my blog. Here are a couple of pictures, and there are more at this link to the article:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/4173436.html
Friday, September 08, 2006
Top 10 things I tell myself when I'm on call to make myself feel better
I'm on call tonight. This month I'm not q4 because we have a night float system, which makes SUCH a difference even though my day hours are way longer, I still get to sleep in my own bed almost every night this month! Still, call nights aren't fun, and I realize this as I switch my gaze from the computer screen to the glaring night lights that shine through the call room window... alas, how I ache to witness the moon's beauty that's hidden from my view. Um, yeah, so, I present with you the following list.:
1. Yeah, so it's not like I had any other plans for tonight... so why not be on call?
2. Writing out H&P's is perfect for my really cool new pen's debut.
3. I get to watch cable TV while in the call room. This is GREAT cuz I don't get cable at home.
4. I don't have to deal with the Atlanta heat all the time since I get to stay inside the air-conditioned hospital.
5. The on-call rooms have really comfortable matresses that are excellent for back problems such as scoliosis, which I feel like I've developed simply from bending over to review patient charts. I love how residency is therapeutic for the iatrogenic diseases it causes. Was that redundant?
6. You get free food from the hospital meal tickets... It sure beats cooking...
7. I can print out random shit in the call room since they have a really nice laser printer. Has your boarding pass for your next flight ever looked that good from your home printer?
8. It's 30 straight hours of learning as opposed to only 10 when I'm not on call.
9. I may have a hot, romantic, midnight encounter with an extremely good looking individual who happens to be working the same night as me. We'll bond over patients transfered from the ICU while muching away at graham crackers and saltines stolen from the nurses station. Our eyes will meet as we munch away and small crumbs slowly gather on our scrubs and at our clog covered feet.
and last but not least...
10. Randomized control trials have been done that show that interrupted REM sleep increases the speed of neuronal impulses diffusely throughout the cerebral cortex, which therefore increases your IQ, making you more attractive to the opposite sex.
1. Yeah, so it's not like I had any other plans for tonight... so why not be on call?
2. Writing out H&P's is perfect for my really cool new pen's debut.
3. I get to watch cable TV while in the call room. This is GREAT cuz I don't get cable at home.
4. I don't have to deal with the Atlanta heat all the time since I get to stay inside the air-conditioned hospital.
5. The on-call rooms have really comfortable matresses that are excellent for back problems such as scoliosis, which I feel like I've developed simply from bending over to review patient charts. I love how residency is therapeutic for the iatrogenic diseases it causes. Was that redundant?
6. You get free food from the hospital meal tickets... It sure beats cooking...
7. I can print out random shit in the call room since they have a really nice laser printer. Has your boarding pass for your next flight ever looked that good from your home printer?
8. It's 30 straight hours of learning as opposed to only 10 when I'm not on call.
9. I may have a hot, romantic, midnight encounter with an extremely good looking individual who happens to be working the same night as me. We'll bond over patients transfered from the ICU while muching away at graham crackers and saltines stolen from the nurses station. Our eyes will meet as we munch away and small crumbs slowly gather on our scrubs and at our clog covered feet.
and last but not least...
10. Randomized control trials have been done that show that interrupted REM sleep increases the speed of neuronal impulses diffusely throughout the cerebral cortex, which therefore increases your IQ, making you more attractive to the opposite sex.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Mindfulness
Yesterday, I was at continuity clinic in the afternoon. Clinic can be really fun... it's a break from the hustle and bustle of the wards and I can slow down and get to know patients that I'll be following for the next couple of years. The change of pace is quite welcoming :)
I haven't had my continuity clinic as much as my fellow interns because of scheduling reasons, so I'm still getting used to how it works and really just how to be a general pediatrician. I'm also slowly getting used to the nurses who work there. Yesterday, things were slow for me... many of my patients were no-shows, and so I was helping out my co-interns see their patients.
I was waiting around in the conference room when I heard one of the nurses say, "Ok, we'll have to call the Spanish interpreter..." I got up and offered to see the patient since I can do decently well with my Spanish. The nurses were appreciative and it felt good to help out even in this small way that wasn't a big deal to me.
After I saw the patient (a cute lil 3 week old), I started shooting the shit with the nurses... It was the first time in 2+ months of residency that I made an effort to hang out and get to know the nurses. They were so much fun... and I being my goofy self, which was fun. I could tell that they were excited that I was revealing my non-official self to them. Then two things happened. One of the nurses motioned to me, "Hey Dr. Rao, come here for a sec..." I walked over to where she was standing. "You know Dr. Rao, I have to confess." I was worried when she said this. Starting a story in this manner is NEVER good. "When I first saw you, I thought to myself, 'Man, this resident looks really mean.'"
I burst out laughing when she said this and the other nurses joined in with me. I would say I know myself pretty well and I really try hard and make eye contact with even strangers I pass by in the hall and smile and say hi. And when I'm being myself, I usually have a goofy grin planted on my face. How could this nurse think I looked mean? It dawned on me that thus far while working, I probably have looked super serious, focused and haven't paid attention to much other than trying to get my work done and trying to look like I knew what I was doing. It is definitely quite possible that I had been mean and inconsiderate of the nurses I was working with.
This particular nurse who originally thought was I mean was chuckling when she told me this, as if to say that she now realized how crazy this original thought was. We all had a good laugh.
The second interesting/nice moment that happened was that before I left, one of the nurses, Faye, approached me and said, "Dr. Rao, great job today!" And then she gave me a great big hug. "You helped us out a lot!" I was grateful for the genuine hug and human touch, knowing that I really hadn't done a whole lot other than make the effort to get to know the nurses.
I think I'll always remember this, even though it's such a small moment in the grand scheme of things. It just reminds me to be mindful of those around me, and even though residency is tough to say the very least and I'm slowly getting used to having chronic feelings of inadequacy (I feel like I'm getting my butt kicked at times now that I'm on the general wards and running around without a clue as to what's going on), there are others around me who are trying to work with me in helping care for the patients.
I haven't had my continuity clinic as much as my fellow interns because of scheduling reasons, so I'm still getting used to how it works and really just how to be a general pediatrician. I'm also slowly getting used to the nurses who work there. Yesterday, things were slow for me... many of my patients were no-shows, and so I was helping out my co-interns see their patients.
I was waiting around in the conference room when I heard one of the nurses say, "Ok, we'll have to call the Spanish interpreter..." I got up and offered to see the patient since I can do decently well with my Spanish. The nurses were appreciative and it felt good to help out even in this small way that wasn't a big deal to me.
After I saw the patient (a cute lil 3 week old), I started shooting the shit with the nurses... It was the first time in 2+ months of residency that I made an effort to hang out and get to know the nurses. They were so much fun... and I being my goofy self, which was fun. I could tell that they were excited that I was revealing my non-official self to them. Then two things happened. One of the nurses motioned to me, "Hey Dr. Rao, come here for a sec..." I walked over to where she was standing. "You know Dr. Rao, I have to confess." I was worried when she said this. Starting a story in this manner is NEVER good. "When I first saw you, I thought to myself, 'Man, this resident looks really mean.'"
I burst out laughing when she said this and the other nurses joined in with me. I would say I know myself pretty well and I really try hard and make eye contact with even strangers I pass by in the hall and smile and say hi. And when I'm being myself, I usually have a goofy grin planted on my face. How could this nurse think I looked mean? It dawned on me that thus far while working, I probably have looked super serious, focused and haven't paid attention to much other than trying to get my work done and trying to look like I knew what I was doing. It is definitely quite possible that I had been mean and inconsiderate of the nurses I was working with.
This particular nurse who originally thought was I mean was chuckling when she told me this, as if to say that she now realized how crazy this original thought was. We all had a good laugh.
The second interesting/nice moment that happened was that before I left, one of the nurses, Faye, approached me and said, "Dr. Rao, great job today!" And then she gave me a great big hug. "You helped us out a lot!" I was grateful for the genuine hug and human touch, knowing that I really hadn't done a whole lot other than make the effort to get to know the nurses.
I think I'll always remember this, even though it's such a small moment in the grand scheme of things. It just reminds me to be mindful of those around me, and even though residency is tough to say the very least and I'm slowly getting used to having chronic feelings of inadequacy (I feel like I'm getting my butt kicked at times now that I'm on the general wards and running around without a clue as to what's going on), there are others around me who are trying to work with me in helping care for the patients.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Farewell, Andre Agassi
Andre Agassi has been a huge reason why I've loved watching tennis all of my life. I love his style, his passion for the game, his famous backhand returns, and his famous comeback from 2 sets down wins. I loved him when I saw him lose to Andrei Medvedev at the New Haven Volvo Tournament when I was fifteen - he had the long hair, earrings and hideous outfits. I believe that he threw his racket along the sidelines twice during that game, and cracked jokes during Medvedev's faults. I watched him as he won Wimbledon way back when. I watched him when he played Sampras during Sampras's last US O
pen... Agassi lost during that class match in 2001. Watching tennis will not be the same without him. Thanks, Agassi, for all the great memories and for the passion and personality and class that you brought to the game. I'll definitely miss you!
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Random thoughts after watching Crash
I just finished watching the movie Crash. I haven't seen it before and decided to get it off of my Netflix. I cannot believe how good that movie was. I haven't cried and laughed during a movie like I did during Crash in a long time... maybe never have. I mean there were some parts I was crying like a baby... when the locksmith's daughter gets shot, when the police officer rescues the black woman he molested just the day prior, when the mother recognizes her son in the morgue, and when Ludacris lets the immigrants free in Chinatown.
I think the word "love" was uttered twice in the movie... when the director tells his wife that he loves her and when Sandra Bullock's character tells her husband that she loves him. And there were a 1000 more moments when you could feel love between characters, but the words were not uttered, like when Sandra Bullock is hugging her maid. I'm not sure what that really means, but I'm pretty sure it's reflective of the world that we live in... in the movie there's so much hatred, either conscious or subconscious that comes out in various forms, and there's love too, even if it's not expressed verbally.
Somehow it's so painful to utter these beautiful words, "I love you," probably because it makes you very vulnerable. Someone told me once that when you love somone, you make yourself vulnerable to getting hurt by that person because of that attachment. Yes, I think that's true in a sense, but there's no way I would want to stop loving or caring for people. And in the movie, every single character cannot help but love, no matter how awful their situation is. There's the love between the Persian store owner and his daughter... and eventually he realizes that the Hispanic locksmith has that same love for his own daughter, a love that he almost physically destroyed with his gun.
Every character in the movie has love for someone, and has compassion no matter what their outward actions reveal, and I think that this is true about real human life. Unfortunately, the flip side is true in this movie, which is what I think made this movie even better and even sadder. Ryan Phillipe's character... he was so pure and almost innocent as a young police officer, wanting to do the right thing. You knew in the beginning that he was going to come crashing down, and that's exactly what he did. He gave a ride to a black hitchhiker, who, I might add was probably one of the most adorable, fun, and likeable characters in the movie, and the fear of his fellow brethren eventually came out in that fatal car ride.
I felt that this movie was a commentary on how our actions are motivated by fear. How much is this really true? I don't know... Is it fear that motivates us to make certain friends, to end certain relationships, to choose our careers? What would the world be like if we made choices based on love? Ok, that's a very vague question.... I'm not even sure if I understand what I just wrote. Anyways, I'm allowed... it's my blog!!!
Regardless, we all have our own stories to tell, stories about love and hate. And about getting hurt and hurting people even though we didn't really mean to. Ok, I'm being vague again.... sorry.
I watched this movie alone and definitely wish I had seen it with someone, maybe even a special someone. Someone who could hold me and tell me that at least he was not going to be a source of fear and confusion. But the next best thing for me is to write about it, even though I'm pretty sure that right now my thoughts are incredibly disorganized, but whatever.
This movie reminds me of all the different kinds of people I happen to see in the hospital, and how it's by chance that they have a medical problem that I'm supposed to help them with, and therefore, we meet. And they all have their own stories, and it's my job to get their story from hearing them speak, and from doing a physical exam so I can help them the best I can. (Funny how we as physicians have to listen to the patient's story, but also listen to the patient's body during the exam)
It makes me glad that I'm in the medical field, and that I'm able to train in a place like Emory in Atlanta so I can get to know the stories of people from all different kinds of situations in life. Like the little boy in the hospital with abdominal pain whose father calls his mother a whore in front of him. Like the 9 month old baby whose mother was a prostitute for awhile, and the mother now has a boyfriend who think the baby is too fat and that she could feel him 1/2 as often. Or like that father I wrote about in a previous blog who named his son "Fifty." Or the 18 year old mother whose baby has meningitis... she has two other children at home. And so many more stories... So many stories, and somehow, I, as a pediatrician, am woven into their lives. I guess when I think about it this way, how it's by chance that I'm the one providing care for my patients, I feel motivated to work harder as a physician so that at least I can make that small portion of their lives a little bit better instead of crashing into them.
I think the word "love" was uttered twice in the movie... when the director tells his wife that he loves her and when Sandra Bullock's character tells her husband that she loves him. And there were a 1000 more moments when you could feel love between characters, but the words were not uttered, like when Sandra Bullock is hugging her maid. I'm not sure what that really means, but I'm pretty sure it's reflective of the world that we live in... in the movie there's so much hatred, either conscious or subconscious that comes out in various forms, and there's love too, even if it's not expressed verbally.
Somehow it's so painful to utter these beautiful words, "I love you," probably because it makes you very vulnerable. Someone told me once that when you love somone, you make yourself vulnerable to getting hurt by that person because of that attachment. Yes, I think that's true in a sense, but there's no way I would want to stop loving or caring for people. And in the movie, every single character cannot help but love, no matter how awful their situation is. There's the love between the Persian store owner and his daughter... and eventually he realizes that the Hispanic locksmith has that same love for his own daughter, a love that he almost physically destroyed with his gun.
Every character in the movie has love for someone, and has compassion no matter what their outward actions reveal, and I think that this is true about real human life. Unfortunately, the flip side is true in this movie, which is what I think made this movie even better and even sadder. Ryan Phillipe's character... he was so pure and almost innocent as a young police officer, wanting to do the right thing. You knew in the beginning that he was going to come crashing down, and that's exactly what he did. He gave a ride to a black hitchhiker, who, I might add was probably one of the most adorable, fun, and likeable characters in the movie, and the fear of his fellow brethren eventually came out in that fatal car ride.
I felt that this movie was a commentary on how our actions are motivated by fear. How much is this really true? I don't know... Is it fear that motivates us to make certain friends, to end certain relationships, to choose our careers? What would the world be like if we made choices based on love? Ok, that's a very vague question.... I'm not even sure if I understand what I just wrote. Anyways, I'm allowed... it's my blog!!!
Regardless, we all have our own stories to tell, stories about love and hate. And about getting hurt and hurting people even though we didn't really mean to. Ok, I'm being vague again.... sorry.
I watched this movie alone and definitely wish I had seen it with someone, maybe even a special someone. Someone who could hold me and tell me that at least he was not going to be a source of fear and confusion. But the next best thing for me is to write about it, even though I'm pretty sure that right now my thoughts are incredibly disorganized, but whatever.
This movie reminds me of all the different kinds of people I happen to see in the hospital, and how it's by chance that they have a medical problem that I'm supposed to help them with, and therefore, we meet. And they all have their own stories, and it's my job to get their story from hearing them speak, and from doing a physical exam so I can help them the best I can. (Funny how we as physicians have to listen to the patient's story, but also listen to the patient's body during the exam)
It makes me glad that I'm in the medical field, and that I'm able to train in a place like Emory in Atlanta so I can get to know the stories of people from all different kinds of situations in life. Like the little boy in the hospital with abdominal pain whose father calls his mother a whore in front of him. Like the 9 month old baby whose mother was a prostitute for awhile, and the mother now has a boyfriend who think the baby is too fat and that she could feel him 1/2 as often. Or like that father I wrote about in a previous blog who named his son "Fifty." Or the 18 year old mother whose baby has meningitis... she has two other children at home. And so many more stories... So many stories, and somehow, I, as a pediatrician, am woven into their lives. I guess when I think about it this way, how it's by chance that I'm the one providing care for my patients, I feel motivated to work harder as a physician so that at least I can make that small portion of their lives a little bit better instead of crashing into them.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)