One down...two to go

I just got done with one interview for an internship/residency slot just outside of Cleveland and I'm camped out at a Panera south of Clevelend in a town called Masillon, just two exits off where the NFL hall of fame is located. It was suprisingly a very relaxing interview, but getting to the place was a whole different story. My goal was to leave yesterday and cut out of surgery around noon, unfortunately that ended up not being until 4:30 before I could take off. The time wasn't too bad, because from Grand Blanc it's only 3 and a half hours to Clevelend. But with my luck and traveling, something always has to go wrong. 45 minutes out of town and I get stuck on a two-lane freeway, moving a whole 100ft in over an hour. There was no where to pull off, and everyone around had no clue as to what was going on except they were all just pissed. I called up Jeremy, my old roomate who's also out in MI, and he passed on the news that a semi had overturned on that freeway spilling gravel everywhere. After 2 hrs and the tow-truck came as well as the clean up crew, I was finally on my way. Total time: 6hrs to destination. Horrendous.

Bastard Driver

When I finally got into town and checked into the good ole Comfort Inn, I couldn't stop laughing at the room that i got. The room had a king sized bed, a small couch, and really old appliances everywhere, but the kicker is how it was arranged. I have never seen anything like this, but from the bathroom you could walk through the tiny bath tub (or "jacuzzi") through a octagonal window into the living room. It's hard to explain, so below are some pictures (maybe someday I'll get a condo like this....what a great idea):

The Octagonal window can be accessed either from the bathroom or the living room (basically, I brushed my teeth in the bathroom--> rolled into the shower to bathe myself--> rolled myself out the other window onto the couch to dry myself off--> and then rolled over the nightstand onto the bed never once touching the floor)

This tub was made for midgets

Midgets with style, but midgets nonetheless

I felt like I should've put on some disco music, got into my bath robe, broken out some champagne and invited hookers over for a shin-digg...I dunno, maybe that's just me.

So for the whole interview process, I arrived there at 7:00 for the morning fracture conference (presentations were done by the students and the attendings discussed some x-rays from the past week), we ate some breakfast, got a tour of the hospital and then had our interviews. We got interviewed by the program director who was an orthopedic surgeon and the medical education department head at the same time and then after we had to decipher a case presentation that the chief resident presented. The case wasn't too difficult, and my thought process was correct, but I still managed to screw up part of the analysis...but I think he got a good sense of how I think, which was basically the purpose of the case.

There were three other students that interviewed today; they are doing a large first round of interviews of 30+ students, and then narrowing it down to 8 for the second round which they will then axe the rest down to the two available spots. An aside random note...I asked one of the other students about what he did inbetween college and medical school because he told me that he had taken 7 yrs "off." Oh...nothing big...just a little MLB baseball...well sorta, he was drafted by the Yankees in the 3rd round in 1995 and played a lot of minor league ball for several years, not quite sure if he ever played much in the majors. Anyways, I got bored and looked him up...here's the only baseball card I could find of him:


So now I'm waiting to check into my "apartment" they gave me for the night for my interview tommorrow morning. After that, depending on what time it gets done tommorrow, I might go check out the Hall of Fame and then drive back to the Detroit area. I have one interview around those parts Saturday morning, and after I should be completely burned out of interviewing....so the next logical step is...to drink. If it finishes early, I'm going to head down to Ann Arbor to watch the Michigan vs. Iowa game, Debbie is from Iowa and I had promised her a few months back that I would go down there to try to get tickets with her. Hopefully I won't get beat up in the process at "the Big House" since she'll be wearing all Iowa gear and rooting for her team. On Sunday the goal is to go down to Comerica and try to scalp tickets...although I might have to sell my kidney for one. If we can't get tickets, we're just going to go watch the game at a nearby bar. I got one week left in MI, and then back to KC for the weekend, where I"ll be watching the Chiefs and Seahawks with Shader, Kenny and his dad.

Sports and the Humor in names

I love the weekend...nothing like sitting in front of the TV and watching football and some baseball. I've been toggling around channels to watch the Iowa and Georgia upset. Now I'm tuning in to the Tigers and A's game, hoping, yes I'm actually hoping for them to lose. Don't get me wrong, I want them to make it to the World Series, but if they lose tonight, they'll be playing at Comerica tommorrow afternoon, which will give me time to venture to downtown Detroit. I would've tried to go to the game today, but I'm on call for any cases that might come up in the hospital today. Sure I don't do much in the cases, but when you're trying to impress people in the program, you have to sacrifice your weekends (at least that's what I've been told by some residents, so I guess I won't try to look like the slacker). I already went in this morning for a hip fracture that was relatively easy to fix. It was broken near the neck of the femur (an intertrochanteric fracture), so to fix it we simply placed a rod down the shaft of the femur (called a gamma nail) and put a screw across the femoral neck to the femoral head to compact the fracture site. All in all, the procedure takes about 20-30minutes. Here is a picture of what the final outcome looks like:

Illustrative view of the gamma nail

Radiograph of the Gamma nail implanted

For the rest of the day I'll be stuck in front of the tube, and doing some preparation for my interviews next week, creating a presentation on ankle fractures, as well as some studying for cases next week. Thank god, there are games on all day.

As for the title of my blog...I was checking the score to the Arkansas game and noticed that they were destroying Southeast Missouri State. Since they were dominating so much, the backup quarterback to Mitch Mustain was in for a few plays, and his name is Casey Dick. Too bad that he wasn't playing when they were up against USC earlier this year...cause then it would be Dick vs. Booty. Get it...ha...get it...funny...i know. The other good matchup I remember was when the Yankees earlier this year were playing against the Blue Jays and it was Wang vs. Bush. Damn...just hilarious...there are your random thoughts for the day...out do that $#!t.

One more thing...do all asians look alike?

Forgot to ask a question...one of the residents last month said that I look like BD Wong; the guy that plays a psychiatrist on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and I a preacher on Oz.
See for yourself, I see no resemblance:

Good lord it is cold....

I've decided it's about time to do a quick update of what I've been up to. Since my last blog at the end of August, I started my chain of orthopedic surgery rotations. Last month I finished off in Kansas City; which I really enjoyed my time there and would be happy if I got chosen to stay there for the next few years. I interviewed on the last week that I was there, and could say that I was pleased with how it went. It was a little wierd packing up what little I owned, and start driving to Michigan. But alas, now I am currently in Grand Blanc, MI (20 minutes NW of Detroit), and I have been here for two weeks. The hospital that I am at is very nice, the first day that I walked into the hospital I thought I was at a large hotel; there is nice grand piano that greets you as you enter the foyer. It is a relatively new hospital and houses 350+ beds. It also has two seperate surgery floors, the top surgery level is the orthopedic and cardiovascular surgery floor, and the floor below it is for the general surgeons.

This is a picture of the hospital that I took off their website, I will try and take some pictures of it on my camera soon, so you can get a better idea of how nice it looks on the inside

Overall, the program here is excellent, especially with didactics. It is associated with Michigan State, and they are pretty involved with many of the other programs across the state. Similar to the Kansas City program, they take 3 new residents a year, which makes it a little stressful in applying to these places. The only real downside I've figured out so far, is the weather. It just started snowing today, and it's cold as b@lls in the middle of October.

In other school related news, I went to Philly in the middle of September to take my physical exam boards, which was definitely a waste of money. We had to fly all the way out there, spend $1000 to interview 12 "patients." Hopefully I passed; it was definitely one of those tests where you leave feeling one way or the other: either I did really well, or I completely bombed it. Although, the weekend itself was definitely nice to hang around Philly and see some of the sites with some friends.

These two weeks here in MI, have been busy with getting used to the hospital, studying for my written board exams that I took yesterday, and preparing for interview season. Aside from the KC interview, I have two near Clevelend, OH next week (Thu and Fri), one in Morena Valley, CA in the beginning of November, one in Tulsa, OK while I'm there and one in Stratford, NJ at the end of November.

No big plans for this weekend, but to work on some homework and presentations; I might also take some call for the weekend and volunteer to scrub some surgeries. I was going to try and go to the Tigers game, since they'll be playing on Fri/Sat/Sunday (possibly), but I think I'm going to save my money and try to hit up the World Series instead next week.

Next stop in two weeks is to Tulsa, OK for a month and then back to KC. I'm going to stop on my way down to Tulsa in KC, to try and catch the KC and Seahawks game with Shader and some of his friends.

Sorry for the random brain dump of things, I'll try and update my blogs more often, but make them shorter...so that's the plan for now...I'll try not to slack off.