the quilt

Scrubs Episode 2: My First Month

Hola todos,

Well, I have emerged from a month of q4 overnight call on VA wards. What has this first month brought? My attendings, co-intern, and senior resident were great. I felt like I had a lot of autonomy but enough back-up , too. My third day, though, my senior and attending weren't in the hospital, and my first patient that I had admitted died of sepsis. I had to pronounce the patient, call the coroner, call the organ donation office so they could prepare the patient's eyes for potenital corneal transplant, and talk to the family all by myself, including asking for an autopsy. The family had flown in from all over the country. They thanked me for all my help, which was kind of humbling...I really was THE doctor in that situation! Other highlights/lowlights of this month: putting in a central line (internal jugular) using ultrasound guidance; pushing IV metoprolol and diltiazem on the floor because my patient was in rapid atrial fibrillation with blood pressure in the 80s; and handing down a new diagnosis of AIDS to one of my patients. I worked over 80 hours every week that month; one week I put in over a 100 hours...so much for work hour restrictions.

I still feel that I have had a more balanced life so far than during much of undergrad and medical school. This past week I went to a Colorado Rockies game with a group of my co-interns. Yesterday, Lauren, another intern, and I drove 3 1/2 hours to the Great Sand Dunes National Park down towards New Mexico, by the Sangre de Cristo Mountatins (see above). It was amazing...if you turned your back to the mountains, it looked as if you had been transported to Egypt! We climbed the High Dune, which was 800 feet tall. People brought sleds and snowboards on the dunes, too! They also had "dune chairs" for disabled people, which were wheelchairs modified with thick wheels that could more easily traverse the sand. Then we waded around in a sandy creek right in front of the dunes...

Lauren exposed me to an Asian thing today. We went to Lollicups, which has these slushy drinks with tapioca balls on the bottom. Sounds disgusting, but I got a passion fruit slushy, and it was delicious. We went to WALL-E today, too. I'm telling you, I think the secret is making the most of your days off. My first vacation week is this coming week, and I am so excited. Talk to you guys later!

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Reflections of Three Decades

So -- this old man turns 30 on Monday. That is so old, but as I bid my 20s farewell, I wanted to take a little stock of things and reflect a bit. Bear with me as I recount the last three decades.

First decade (ages 0 to 10)

• I remember I liked dirt.
• I liked pickles.
• I enjoyed the transformers and baseball cards.
• I think baseball cards were my first real dive into financial markets and stocks. As a player did better or worst, his cards got more valuable. So the challenge was to know which players would be stars before they became stars. I still feel bad to this day, but I probably swindled my friends out of hundreds of dollars in cards via our trading. But they should have done their research and figured out that Conseco was a junkie and Griffey Junior was going to have a phenomenal career.
• As much as I liked dirt, it did not taste good.
• My best friend, the Atari 2600. Awesome.
• Dude, multiplication tables are lame.
• I had sweet high-tops.
• What is a comb?
• You can never wear too much Neon.
• Saturday morning cartoons are the best TV shows ever!
  

Second decade part 1 (ages 11-17)

• Who are these girl creatures? Have they been here this whole time? Why won’t any of them talk to me?
• My best friend was a flannel tied around my waste and Pearl Jam was my God.
• I am clearly not going to be much of an athlete.
• I dig music.
• I want to be Zac Morris
  
• Why aren’t the girls talking to me yet?
• A powder clue Camaro Berlinetta was the coolest car ever.
• I wish I could gain weight and build some muscle – do not enjoy being a twig.
• I like people watching. Maybe I could have a career that involves getting inside the heads of people and trying to influence their decisions regarding discretionary income at a large not-for-profit corporation. Naaaah – I want to be a radio DJ or studio producer in a music studio.
• MTV is the best TV ever!

Second decade part 2 (ages 17-22).

• See, I was never much for math, so I consider my second decade ending after college, because I became a new person.
• I met a new friend at college – a pirate fellow named Captain Morgan
• Girls are talking to me. Unfortunately, none of them seem sane.
• If you get together with 300 friends and wear head to toe red polyester in front of 86,000 people and make a giant letter N, people will cheer very loudly.
• Dude, living away from home rocks. It’s like camp, only longer.
• I have this college thing licked, but classes are going too fast. Is there anyway I can stretch this out a few more years.
• I lived with an Alaskan, a Kansan, farm boys, Chicago guys, engineers, musicians, architects, business wannabes and has some of the best times ever when 8 of us lived together
• By the time I graduate from college, every building at UNL will be connected to this magic Internet thing.
• ESPN is the best TV ever!
• My landlord is a bitch
• Woo hoo. I got a degree.

Third decade (22-29)

• This Ashley gal seems OK. If she can put up with me, this may work out.
• Who is this FICA asshole and why does he get 11% of my money every month?
• Holy crap. I just signed a loan for over $100K to buy a house.
• Mmmmm – opportunities to be had in the Asian markets!
• I love my job and my boss is a fantastic mentor.
• Wedding showers are the shit. Guy shave to do nothing, and the ladies go and do something for a few hours and she comes home with all this stuff you registered for.
• My boss is now allegedly a crook being investigated by the attorney general
• I wish I could lose weight and build some muscle.
• Hmm, I still dig music. What other instruments do I want to play?
• Ok friends. Bye – as you all leave and go your separate ways.
• I had no idea I would attend 7,000 weddings in my 20s. Glad that’s over.
• I think I’m turning into Bob Vila.
• HGTV and the history channel (and CNN during the election) is the best TV ever.
• Eh, what the hell – I’m bored, so let’s go get another degree.
• Who needs a comb.

Wow. What an interesting evolution. I’m still not sure I am an adult yet. But I’ve come to grips with my own mortality and the heart problems in my family and have been doing a lot about it. On my 30th birthday (unless I really pig out on the 4th) I’ll be roughly the same weight as I was my freshman year of college and my running/biking stamina is the best it has been since I played outside all day as a kid.

I’m generally the same guy as I was when I was 18, only a lot more worldly. A sane girl finally talked to me. I concluded that there is a God, and I know that I’m not him. The rest I’m still trying to ponder.

I generally enjoy the road I took to 30, and the bumps and bruises made me who I am. Ash and I were happy and lucky (and ahead of our time) to live well below our means and save – which means the current economic mess isn’t really impacting us a whole lot like it is some of our friends who bought too much house or figured they could roll up debt forever.

I wonder what entering my fourth decade will bring? Likely children, possibly an opportunity to relocate or change careers, mastery of the guitar and Playstation 5 when it comes out, an iPhone, the country’s first libertarian president in 2016? Hair restoration surgery?

I’m not sure – but I can’t wait to find out.

Health food? I don't think so.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I’m making an effort to eat healthier. I’ve been very frustrated to discover that most low-fat or fat-free foods replace high-fructose corn syrup with something even more evil – artificial sweeteners. I have a huge aversion to sucralose, Splenda, NutraSweet, and the like. Not only do they taste terrible, but chemical sugar should not be considered a healthy alternative, even if it does contain fewer calories.

A few weeks ago, I found a terrific sale on Quaker Simply Harvest oatmeal packets. I tried the vanilla-almond variety and it was simply fantastic – filling, low-cal, high-fiber and tasty to boot! When I ran out, I had a dilemma: spend $4.29 for a 12-pack of oatmeal, which is ridiculous, or find a cheaper alternative. I went with the latter option. I picked up a variety pack Quaker Weight Control oatmeal, pleased that I’d found a similar product for less. Big mistake. On Saturday morning, I was stoked about drinking a cup of coffee and eating some banana nut muffin oatmeal. The first bite tasted cloyingly sweet, but I figured that I’d chosen the bad flavor in the box, so I finished the bowl. Then I looked at the package: Every variety contains a generous helping of sucralose.

Wonderful. I should’ve spent the extra $1.50 on the Simply Harvest, because I’ll probably never eat this weight-control stuff again. I expect to thoroughly inspect yogurt labels for offending sweeteners, but oatmeal? That one threw me for a loop.

Has anyone else run into this problem? It seems that most people aren’t bothered by artificial sweeteners, but my gag reflex kicks in whenever I get near the stuff.

I think I’ll stick with my Grandma Shirley’s advice: Eat the real stuff, just less of it.