The certainty of things in life

ER Resident: Only 3 things in life are certain: death, taxes, and NO OMM!

2 for Tuesday! The hypochondriac and the 1 minute diagnosis

Patient comes in today with a history of GI bleed and as I am going through her H&P, she asks me various questions about her condition but as I was ready to finish up the H&P, this is what she asks me:

Patient: Now I've heard that people can get allergic reactions to the flu shot if they're allergic to eggs, is that true?
Me: Yes, there is a possibility.  Generally if people are allergic to eggs we may suggest that they don't receive the flu shot.
Patient: So I just received the flu shot and I have a question.  The morning before I received the flu shot I was eating eggs and it didn't taste good to me.  Will I have a bad reaction?
Me: :|

Attending was telling us about an email he received which has a daily (weekly?) case which challenges the physician to diagnose within a minute.

Attending: I got this email today with a "diagnose within a minute" case.  I was reading it and it started with, "30 year old woman cannot swallow meat".  I thought to myself, "Nope, diagnosis over!"

getting pimped on Journey songs

Attending: So what bands do you listen to?
Me: I like Journey
Attending: Journey?  A little before your time, isn't it?  Well what songs do you like?
Me: Well, definitely "Don't Stop Believin'"
Attending: Yeah, well other than that.
Me: "Separate Ways"
Attending: ... What's the rest of the song called?
Me: ???
Attending: "Separate ways...(Worlds...Apart)"
Me: :/

after 3 years...

Well, turns out med school is actually busier than I thought and now that I'm wrapping it up, time to add in some good stories.  I have now decided to compile some of the more interesting interactions with attendings/residents/patients that I have encountered throughout my time in the clinical settings.  Enjoy today's 2 for 1!

[Female patient is presenting with back pain]
Attending: So do you know what you're going to ask this patient first?
Me: ???
[Attending takes the computer mouse and hovers the cursor over the first sentence of the HPI which reads: "Pt is a dancer"]
Attending: Now do you know what you're going to ask?

[Patient is an inmate and the attending is finally able to raise the head of a powered table after 5 minutes of manually trying]
Attending: OH! it's an ELECTRIC chair!
Patient/inmate: (Nervous chuckle)

Nevermind

I'd like to completely recant what I ranted about yesterday, because I fully intend on naming my kid Optimus Prime. If it's a girl, Optima Prime.

That is all.

Random thought

Since I have yet to start school, I'm going use this to temporarily lay out my thoughts.

For some reason I have been thinking about names - people's names in particular - and how/why people would name their kids what they're named.

Celebrities and downright outrageous names aside, there are certain names that are commonplace and yet are incredibly ridiculous when you think about it. (I'm going to apologize in advance to anyone I might offend)

First of all, guys should not be named Cody. I'd like to put it out there with how many professional, respected, or powerful people are named Cody? My girlfriend just brought up a very simple formula when it comes to naming a child: just add "Chief Justice" in front of the name. If you can have a straight face while saying Chief Justice Cody ..., by all means, name your kid Cody. Otherwise, he's just going to end up to be some kind of douchebag frat boy.

Other names that come to mind is when people use a last name for a first name. Names like Anderson, Frederickson, McKenzie, and so forth. For women, I guess the name McKenzie is not that bad, but for men whose names are a last name, doesn't it make you want to punch them?

Also, I don't like the name, Skylar. Why are people named Skylar?

Ok, I might have offended people. Maybe I'm just bored at work. (btw, today marks one year that I've been at OHSU)

Intro

I had an epiphany today that maybe I'll try to chronicle my time through medical school and hence have titled this blog "Adventures in Doctoring". I have no idea what the title really means other than the fact that it will be just my day to day experiences of what medical school is like and what my take on it is.

My goal is that once I'm done with med school that I'll have this to look back on and reflect on what's changed and what hasn't.

First thing's first: need to pack.