Island Med Student

Thanks to everyone for the kind words regarding my doggies’ surgeries. They are now home, and are both doing incredibly well. They’re back to pooping and peeing on schedule, and they almost have their appetites back full force. They’ll be on pain meds for the next few days, and they’re supposed to stay away from strenuous activities for a week or two.

I learned something interesting about Molly. Turns out that she is much more “normal” when she’s on pain meds. When we picked her up from the vet, she didn’t bark frantically, or try to escape from the moving car on the drive back. But I realized that she had gone a little too far towards the dark side when she ignored me as I pulled out pieces of turkey from the fridge. Normally, this is an indication for her to run towards me, try to knock me down, and pull the turkey from my hands.

Anyway, I’m glad this ordeal is almost over!

(The pics above are Scope and Molly, post surgery. Normally I wouldn’t put post-op pics of people’s genitalia on my site, but I don’t think Scope and Molly would mind.)

Share This

Micah and I just dropped our doggies, Scope and Molly off at the vet to get their “alterations.” AKA spayed and neutered. I’ve been dreading this day for so long. We should have gotten it done sooner, but money and time limitations prevented us. The surgeries happen tomorrow, and we should be able to pick them up by Friday. I can’t help but worry about them. I’m basically a nervous wreck.

When in Dominica, Scope’s “manliness” was referred to as “passion fruits,” and the name just stuck. Okay, I know this sounds very strange, but I’m going to miss them. And Molly’s surgery is a more invasive procedure, which scares me as well.

I hope they both pull through okay. I know this is a very routine procedure, but my motherly instincts have me worried, nonetheless.

Share This

Check out my post on Medscape about how my doggy doos are the cure for what ails ya.

Click Here To View the Entry

Share This

Even the most floridly psychotic patients have many important things to say. Sometimes, their words are profoundly wonderful.

Today reminded me of this fact.

To protect confidentially, I’ll change the words, but the gist is this.

Today, I sat in on a music therapy group.

After listening to the Bill Withers song, “Lovely Day,” a patient said, “that’s a biscuit song.” When asked why, the patient responded, “because it’s fluffy and has lots of layers.”

That remark is one of the millions of reasons why I really do love my job (that I pay to have).

The abbreviated lyrics are below:

When I wake up in the morning love
and the sun light hurts my eyes

And something without warning
love
bears heavy on my mind.
Then I look at you and the world’s alright with me

Just one look at you and I know it’s gonna be -

A lovely day - lovely day

When the day that lies ahead of me seems impossible to face

And someone else instead of me always seems to know the way
Then I look at you and the world’s alright with me

Just one look at you and I know it’s gonna be -

A lovely day - lovely day

When the day that lies ahead of me seems impossible to face

A lovely day - lovely day

Share This

Someone commented on my last post wondering how I could afford to commute from Baltimore to DC every day. Well, I have a surprising answer. My Del Sol is the bomb! I recently calculated the gas mileage I get with my car, and it’s up to 40 miles per gallon highway, and it averages around 34 MPG for my commute (which includes a little city driving, and sometimes stop and go traffic on the highway). My commute is about 40 miles each way, so I end up using about two gallons of gas for the entire commute. The gas at the closest station to my house has been hovering at just over $4.00 a gallon, so my commute costs me about $9.00, round trip.

Now here comes the interesting part. I once tried taking the MARC train and Metro Rail to and from work. The commute took me almost twice as long, and get this, it cost over twice as much! Now, if you buy the monthly passes, and get all the discounts you can, it costs a little less, but it’s still twice as much as driving my little Del Sol.

I know that there are other concerns in this equation, such as emissions and pollution, etc. But given the fact that it takes almost twice as long to commute by mass transit, and costs over twice as much, I really do find it difficult to go that route. I’m sorry, environment!

With gas prices soaring, and no hope in sight, many people are making drastic changes to their lifestyle in order to be able to afford things other than driving. People are finding it incredibly difficult to sell their gas-guzzling SUVs, and I recently read an article which commented on the fact that little, fuel-efficient cars like Geo Metros are now becoming “chic.” The lady in the article actually paid 4 times the Kelly’s Blue Book value for the Metro!

What does this all mean? Well, there could be a Del Sol Revolution on the horizon. Who knows, when gas prices hit $10 a gallon, maybe my Del Sol will be worth tens of thousands of dollars. Sadly, I still don’t think I could sell her. She’s just too awesome of a car to let go. In the meantime, I’m very glad that I can still afford to drive her!

Share This

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.

Share This

Oh my goodness, I have learned so much in my seven days of rotating at St. Elizabeths hospital. But, as I have mentioned already, I am suffering from amotivational syndrome right now, so I will give a very abbreviated list tonight, and try and post more often in the future.

Here is a short list of what I’ve learned so far:

1) TONS about pharmacotherapy for schizophrenia and mood disorders including indications, side effects, contraindications, etc.

2) Capgras syndrome is when you think your family has been replaced by imposters.

3) How to classify various disturbances in thought process such as circumstantiality, tangentiality, loose associations, and echolalia. I’ve seen patients with just about every one of the various disturbances.

4) How the laws of psychiatric commmittment work in DC.

5) Some nurses can be a little mean at first, but once you gain their respect, they are incredibly nice and helpful.

6) The DSM criteria for many different psychiatric disorders.

7) How Freud had his research in cocaine as a topical eye anesthetic stolen from him.

8 ) How to distinguish between the different subtypes of schizophrenia, and that paranoid schizophrenia doesn’t necessarily mean that a patient has paranoid delusions.

9) My experience as a psych tech is incredibly helpful to me on the wards.

10) The difference between bizarre and non-bizarre delusions. For example, thinking that you are being followed by the FBI is considered a non-bizarre delusion, whereas thinking that your heart was removed and replaced with Jesus Christ’s heart, giving you supernatural powers, is a bizarre delusion.

More goodies to come!

Share This

Check out my post on Medscape about my renewed passion for psych.

Click Here To View the Entry

Share This

I’m sooo tired right now. I get up early, drive for a million hours, work all day, drive a million more hours, and go to sleep. I owe all of my friends countless emails and calls. I promise to catch up. But for now…I sleep.

Share This

I finished the fourth day of my psych rotation today. I have so much to say, yet I am so pooped, that I don’t feel like writing. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me, but every day when I’ve come home this week, I feel like all the life has been sucked from my body. I don’t even have the energy to put my thoughts into coherent sentences.

I promise to post very soon about the hella fun time I’m having at St. E’s.

In the meantime, I’m pretty sure I have mono.

Share This