Follow the yellow brick road...

The title for this week is all about staying on track and persevering through the tough stuff. You've got to enjoy the bumps on the way otherwise you don't learn from them and all they become are bumps.

running through the park

river along the park

The week started out beautiful with the temps in the upper 80's and for all of you out west with the humidity it was almost too much. After a pretty light day in the OR I decided that I was going to enjoy the outdoors and go for a run. Not being able to run as much as I would like to I figure 2-3 miles would be enough. I found a park close to where I am staying and just followed the path not knowing where I was going. About 2.5 miles in I decided that it wasn't worth it to turn around so I just kept going, it turned out to be a good run and what started out as a 2-3 mile run ended up being closer to 5 miles total.

Ex-fix- charcot reconstruction

same

Patients having a good time

The week was filled with many complex cases which get me excited. I always try to scrub in with Dr. Derner because he brings in all the big cases for the residents. The other students find him intimidating and don't like scrubbing in with him which is fine with me because I seem to learn something every time I'm with him. Dr. Derner being known for his dirty humor, I actually snuck in a "thats what she said" this week without any repercussions.

Not many funny stories this week, this big lesson here is that you have to keep going. It's only the end of the second week and I've been working hard. This is definitely a good surgical program and all the residents know their stuff. Gonna be back in the lazy AZ next week which I am definitely looking forward to with all this weather that I have been experiencing. Anyways til next week, keep working hard.

Peace,
J

Where the wilds things are....

Do you remember that book about the kid who goes to sleep and has all those crazy monsters in his dream? That along with an incident this week gave me the idea for the topic of my blog this week.

The week started off very early on Monday morning and since I wasn't used to the time difference it was like waking up in the middle of the night for me. I guess this is what it will be like during first year of residency on some of the rotations. I made it to the hospital on time and found where we were suppose to meet in the morning. This is a very unique program in that all of the residents are very autonomous in their work and they don't have someone looking over their shoulder which is very nice. All the guys were cool and are all willing to teach and answer any question that you might have. There are two other students with me this month, one from Chicago and one from Ohio, pretty cool dudes. This is a very heavy surgical program and the residents work with over 60 attendings in the area that bring in cases every week that the residents are suppose to help with. This approach as an extern gives us the opportunity to scrub in and assist on a lot of different cases for the week. This is nice as a student cuz the days go by quickly when you are in surgery all day. After this week I probably scrubbed in on a dozen or so cases and will continue to do that for the rest of the month. 

Now that I have given a background of what I am doing with my weeks here in VA, you are probably wondering how my story ties into my theme for the week. On friday I was told to go to a surgery center across the street from the hospital and that it would be quicker to walk there as oppose to getting my car. As I am walking there, you have to walk through the woods so you don't have to walk all the way around, a deer jumps out from behind a tree and is only 5 feet from me and staring me straight in the eye. Not expecting this, it startled me and I just stared right back. It eventually ran off and I made it to the surgery center where the attending allowed me to do a hammertoe procedure.

can u see the deer?

The moral to the story is that you can't be caught off guard and things happen when you least expect it.

I learned this a few times in the OR this week that you have to be prepared to handle things when you aren't expecting them to happen.

Peace,

J

Never Leave home without it...

April 3, 2011
This is my first official blog as I have been pleaded by someone to start one so that they may be able to follow my travels. After a long day of flying yesterday I finally landed in Fairfax, Virginia to do an externship at INOVA hospital. In the mean time Lindsey was headed to Pittsburgh, PA to extern at UPMC for the month. This place is completely different from AZ with trees down every street and a high temperature of 45.

View from my window

I am staying with a couple that rent out a room in their little townhouse/condominium. Their names are Erin and Kevin. They seem like a nice couple and are used to having students visit them monthly. All of the houses in Virginia are either very large victorian houses or they are smaller conjoined townhouses and condos. When I ended up showing up at their doorstep Erin seemed a bit surprised as we have been playing email tag the past two days as I told her the wrong date that I would be arriving so she was expecting me on April 1 and I showed up on April 2. Bad April Fools Joke I guess. Anyways I have a small little room and a shared bathroom with the couple for the month. Im not complaining because the hospital paid for my accommodations. I said I wouldn't complain but I didn't say that I wouldn't make fun of it. My first stab at the place is that every night when I go to sleep there are Barbie doll's watching over my head.

Barbies

The couple had a nice welcome note for me on the dresser when I got here and as I am reading it there is a bathroom section and it says that I have to supply my own toilet paper. This is understandable but in the mean time before I make it to the store I had to borrow a few squares from them. Should I lay a few squares back in return? I don't know the proper protocol in toilet paper ownership....Since I am new to this whole blogging thing, I am going to leave a word of advice at the end of my posts and the message today is, Never leave home with out it....you never know when someone is going to hold toilet paper ownership rights over your head and you don't want to be caught unprepared.

The Note

Peace,

J