Island Med Student

This whole Internet ordeal is really starting to rub my pancakes. We can’t seem to get Verizon to actually provide us with a service that works. I could go in to a full blown rant right now, but I shall not. The point is that I’ve barely been able to access the Internet lately, and it’s starting to drive me insane!

Speaking of insane, I have learned so much during my psych rotation. I can’t believe I only have less than two weeks left! Here is a very abbreviated list of new stuff learned:

1) What tardive dyskinesia looks like and how to treat it (there isn’t much you can do but discontinue the offending med, give vit E, and switch to Clozaril, if possible).

2) How to choose the best antipsychotic medication for a patient (are they obese? are they pregnant? are they elderly?, etc.).

3) Believing that you’re Jesus Christ incarnate does in fact mean that you are delusional, but it isn’t necessarily an obstacle to a fairly well adjusted life.

4) Patients with borderline personality disorder are indeed difficult to treat (actually, I already knew this one, but had the point reinforced).

5) The FBI and CIA are very busy bothering many innocent folks and should stop infiltrating and destroying families (okay, so this is according to my patients).

6) Some times you have to put your neck on the line to help a patient.

7) Grandiosity is a fabulous defense.

8 ) How to diagnose and treat mood and anxiety disorders.

9) The difference between obsessive compulsive personality and the disorder.

10) One theory of anxiety disorders is that they are a result of our subconscious homicidal instincts.

11) How to differentiate between delirium and dementia.

I just posted a few pics of the Boxcar Collision show the other night. I am too tired to add captions, so you’ll have to add your own.

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I went to see my friend Vince’s band, Boxcar Collision, on Saturday night at the LoFi Social Club, right down the street. I had a lot of fun, and it was definitely an interesting experience. It was an all ages show, and there were these 14 year old boys drinking from a bottle of Jack in the back. I went over and gave them crap for it, and eventually they got kicked out. I felt very old.

Eventually some of us headed back to our apartment, and some guy that looked like Iggy Pop showed up. I’m not sure who invited him, and it was one of those, “I thought you knew him….oh, I thought you knew him!” kind of moments.

Anyway, I’ll post more soon about my rotation and other stuff, but my Internet has been crappy lately, and it’s made me unmotivated to deal with it!

Click Here to See Pics on Micah’s Flickr

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Now that I spend up to three hours a day sitting in a car, I have a lot to say about crappy drivers. I heard a story on NPR recently that DC has the most car accidents per year of any city in America. I also heard that Maryland is launching a new campaign against aggressive drivers, which includes using helicopters to spot these evil offenders.

Without exception, every time I get on the road to drive from Baltimore to DC, or DC to Baltimore, there is at least one butt head that pisses me off to the point of me fantasizing about their demise. I’m not easily pissed off, so this says a lot.

Recently, I’ve experienced people riding my bumper, laying on their horn for me driving slowly during a major thunderstorm, cutting me off and then flicking me off, and many other egregious offenses.

What’s wrong with these people??!! Why can’t we all just get along?!

I have a fantasy that one day horns will be a privilege, and not a right, just like drivers’ licenses. If you abuse your privilege, you should have your car horn removed.

I have another fantasy which involves putting a sign on the roof of my car that says, “if the green light is on, pull over the person in front of me.” I will have a big green light on my roof as well. And when one of those evil butt heads starts driving like a lunatic, I’ll turn on my sweet green light, and the helicopter above will radio down to the police on the road, and they’ll pull over those beeotches.

If all else fails, I’m going to start carrying my large black foam fist in my car, and the next time someone honks at me for obeying the traffic laws, I’m going to stick it out the window in a threatening fashion. That’ll teach those beeotches to honk at me!

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I live right above Penn Station, a large train station that is serviced by the Marc, and Amtrak. I took this photo a few nights ago.

Note the sculpture in front of the station. Wikipedia says this on the controversy surrounding it:

In 2004, the City of Baltimore, through its public arts program, commissioned noted sculptor Jonathan Borofsky to create a sculpture as the centerpiece of a re-designed plaza in front of Penn Station. His work, a 51-foot (15.5 m)-tall aluminum statue entitled “Male/Female”, has generated considerable controversy ever since. Its defenders cite the contemporary imagery and artistic expression as complementing an urban landscape, while opponents criticize what they decry as a clash with Penn Station’s Beaux-Arts architecture, detracting from its classic lines.

I can’t decide if I agree or not. It does seem strangely out of place. But sometimes, unique juxtapositions can be nice. What do you think?

“Baltimore - The Greatest City in America” photo series

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I took this photo while walking down to the harbor on the 4th. I just thought it was a coolio pic.

“Baltimore - The Greatest City in America” photo series

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For the fourth of July, Micah and I decided to go to a Baltimore Orioles game at Camden Yards. We first walked down to the harbor, and had sushi for lunch. After grabbing some beers at a close by sports bar, we headed into the stadium to find our seats.

I’ve only been to one other baseball game in my life, which means that I’ve only been in one other baseball stadium, which happens to be Yankee stadium. I thought Camden Yards was pretty nice, but our seats pretty much sucked. There was this huge overhanging ceiling thing, and we could barely hear the game. So, we decided to move to a better area, which worked out really well.

I learned an important lesson about attending a sports event. First of all, let me explain that I am not a sports fan. I simply don’t find it all that interesting. I know, many of you might find that hard to understand. Anyway, baseball is no exception. When I agreed to go to the game, it was mostly just to have something to do, and not because I enjoy watching baseball. So, while Micah watched the game, I focused on the following activities:

1) Trying to get people to do the wave. (I was fairly successful.)

2) Dancing to the interlude music. (Dancing is always fun.)

3) Learning how to drink beer. (I am NOT a beer drinker.)

4) Finding vegetarian food options. (I was not very successful.)

and most importantly….

5) Purchasing oversized objects to put on my hands. I managed to buy a huge pink foam finger, and the coolest-ever-in-the-world gigantic black foam fist, with a cup holder in the middle.

The pink finger and giant fist turned out to be just what I needed. I wore them everywhere I went, including on the way home.

As my friend Laura and I once realized, “props” are guaranteed to bring you tons of fun at any event. And this was definitely no exception!

Click Here to See the Pics

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Today’s pic was taken on Barclay Street in Baltimore, not far from my apartment. This was an incredible find. I saw one of her legs a few feet away. It reminded me of Hole’s song, Doll Parts, so I thought I’d include the lyrics here:

I am doll eyes,
Doll mouth,
Doll legs,
I am doll arms,
Big veins,
Dog bait.

Yeah they really want you,
They really want you,
They really do,
And yeah they really want you,
They really want you,
But i do too.

I want to be the girl with the most cake.
I love him so much he just turns to hate.
I fake it so real i am beyond fake.

And some day you will ache like i ache.

I am doll parts,
Bad skin,
Doll heart,
It stands for knife
For the rest of my life.

Yeah they really want you,
They really want you,
They really do,
And yeah they really want you,
They really want you,
But i do too.

I want to be the girl with the most cake.
He only loves those things
Because he loves to see them break.
I fake it so real i am beyond fake.

And some day you will ache like i ache.

“Baltimore - The Greatest City in America” photo series

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I have finished the second week of my psych rotation. I absolutely adore every aspect of the rotation, except for the commute. It’s actually very strange for me being a med student on a psych ward. I previously only knew the experience as a psych tech. You get so much less patient contact as a med student…and so much more paperwork. But I love it. I mean, I really do love it.

I am commuting from my apartment in Baltimore, MD to the St. Elizabeths Hospital in Southeast Washington, DC every day. The drive takes me anywhere from an hour on a good day to two and a half hours on a bad day. Given the heat (lately, in the 90’s), and the lack of AC in my car, it can be a hellish commute. Pretty much the only redeeming quality of the commute is listening to NPR, which I love.

I realized the other day that I am commuting from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Baltimore, MD to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Washington, DC. I am also commuting from one stadium (Oriole Park at Camden Yards), to another (RFK Stadium).

Chris Rock famously once said, “If a friend calls you on the telephone and says they’re lost on Martin Luther King Boulevard and they want to know what they should do, the best response is ‘Run!”

So funny, yet so true!

Note: I didn’t take the pic above, but rather, I stole it from Google Images. I promise to take some good pics of my commute in the future.

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Another pic stolen from Micah. This time it’s a Holga pic in color. The building with the sign on top is the Copy Cat, our home.

“Baltimore - The Greatest City in America” photo series

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Today’s pic was taken from my living room window. It’s the MARC train at Penn Station. I love everything about living above a train station EXCEPT the fact that on the weekends, they shut the train down, but leave it running so that it makes this horrible clicking sound for two days!

“Baltimore - The Greatest City in America” photo series

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