Friday afternoon: leave clinic after lunch and do tar wars. drive home.
Saturday: Free clinic and children
Sunday Morning: cough. Sunday night: 102 fever while hanging out with Frylime.
Monday morning: headache, worse cough, although feeling a bit better.
Monday Afternoon: Post doctor, also 1 decadron and 1 abx shot, 1 Rx for tamiflu and Keflex.
Monday Night: Chills, 102-103 steady, and body aches begin.
Bilateral otitis media and most likely flu on top of that. They took a swab and sent it to baptist. I should know by morning. Although those things can take a while to turn positive and I've been exposed to it over and over. Although I wash my hands compulsively at the clinic, but I just had purel when I left the elementary school. Ugh, kids.
So I guess I'm stuck at home until all this passes. I would have driven down except I passed out when I got home and woke up off and on between phone calls to promptly pass out again. Plus, I'm starting to feel like I got hit by a bus. The lady I'm staying with has a son in his 20's and his friends are always coming in and out. I don't want to expose all of them in case I have the flu (I'm becoming more convinced by the minute).
Let's hope my fever goes away by tomorrow so I can drive down and start my preceptoring again. I hate missing school. I feel like I'm pussing out by not going in. I know I should just suck it up but honestly I'd most likely be worthless. And my cough sounds of something out of the hospital during the peak of consumption.
Hope everyone else stays flu free!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Foreign Film Challenge
As a general lover of all good movies, it makes me angry that a lot of the movies in Europe are not available here in the US. In general I really like foreign films. One of my favorites that has come out recently is Pan's Labyrinth. Also, some of the new releases out of England (ok, I know this may be hokey) with Robert Pattinson haven't been featured in any of the theaters around here. Okay, surprise, surprise. We don't get much here, but still. Two of Pattinson's movies that were strictly European releases were Little Ashes and How to Be.
Granted, part of me is curious to see how Pattinson acts outside Twilight and his minor role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Although Little Ashes is a chronical of Dali's life and How to Be is a small indie film he worked on between the Twilight movies (I think). Both sound like they have a lot of potential to be excellent movies. It seems as though Netflix may have them, so I may just have to drink the kool-aid and join netflix. Meh.
Not much is new with me. I'm enjoying Ocean Springs though it was nice to come home for a weekend. The only bad thing is that I started getting this cough today and started feeling yuck. Luckily I don't have a fever (and I hope it stays that way) so as of right now I don't think I have the flu. Family medicine is still going well. I'm somewhat dreading psych but at the same time I'm getting ready to be back home.
Anyway, I hope all is going well out there in blogland. I'm enjoying all the updates by Laura. She's inspired me to try to update more. Maybe if it stops raining long enough for me to get on the beach I can get a photo post going.
Until next time.
The following links have been posted for your entertainment purposes.
http://www.howtobemovie.com/
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3621716761/
Granted, part of me is curious to see how Pattinson acts outside Twilight and his minor role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Although Little Ashes is a chronical of Dali's life and How to Be is a small indie film he worked on between the Twilight movies (I think). Both sound like they have a lot of potential to be excellent movies. It seems as though Netflix may have them, so I may just have to drink the kool-aid and join netflix. Meh.
Not much is new with me. I'm enjoying Ocean Springs though it was nice to come home for a weekend. The only bad thing is that I started getting this cough today and started feeling yuck. Luckily I don't have a fever (and I hope it stays that way) so as of right now I don't think I have the flu. Family medicine is still going well. I'm somewhat dreading psych but at the same time I'm getting ready to be back home.
Anyway, I hope all is going well out there in blogland. I'm enjoying all the updates by Laura. She's inspired me to try to update more. Maybe if it stops raining long enough for me to get on the beach I can get a photo post going.
Until next time.
The following links have been posted for your entertainment purposes.
http://www.howtobemovie.com/
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3621716761/
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
That's Frowned Upon
So my 2 weeks on the coast have been cool. Dr. Rub is cool and laid back. The rest of the docs are great as well. The only problem I have is I feel like I'm being held back a bit, but I've just started doing my thing and it seems cool with him. All in all I'm enjoying family medicine. The clinic is full of personalities and the running quote seems to be "that's frowned upon". They all crack me up. I've become a pro at flu swabs, flu injections, and HbA1C checks. Although it does slow me down to document all of it, but I understand how it's necessary for the program and blah blah.
I haven't done as much as I had wanted down here, especially since it's been channeling Seattle and raining at least once a day, if not 5-7 times. I still need to drive down the beach, get some sand between my toes, and perhaps make it out to one of the barrier islands. I'm not sure if I'll make it to the New Orleans Aquarium or the Mobile battleship, but maybe I can. I'll be home this weekend to say bye to my mom before she leaves for Italy so that takes out some possible trip time. If not, I can always come down and visit my friend and do some of the things I may just not get around to. However, I did get to eat my crab legs so I'm all set for now. hah.
Warning: if you are a fan of Obama or his health care policy, quit reading.
*start rant*
So with the little free time we get in clinic, I've been talking with my preceptor about the future of medicine. "Free" Healthcare. Let me ask you something: when has anything in this country been free? The only two things in America that are free is speech and will. I'm tired of this notion that magically we won't have insurance premiums and copays. Do you know what all the other countries do to pay for "free" healthcare? They raise taxes. THAT is how they get the money to fund healthcare. Use whatever brain cells you have bouncing around in your head, rub them together, and make the connection. Bitching about $4 a gallon gas? How about when it goes up to $8 a gallon. Oh, and angry that 40% of your paycheck goes to taxes? Try 60%. OH! BUT HEALTHCARE IS FREE!
Health care is not a right. Just like I don't have the right to walk into a store and demand free Prada. This country was built upon the notion of an open market with competition and democracy to fuel development. Whenever monopolies occured, they were quick to step in and open the market back up to prevent such things. Same for healthcare. Monopolies of insurance companies have caused the price of healthcare to skyrocket, paired along with the uninsured receiving healthcare (if you say that's what the healthcare reform will fix I'll automatically set your IQ score to 10) without paying for it, and the sue happy lawyers creating a new entity known as defensive medicine. I'd really like to see how much of a yearly hospital budget is spent ordering tests just to rule IN a disease. Also, how many times have I (and my insurance company) been billed two or three times for the exact same test? That is just the hospital trying to make up for the fact that the crackhead walked into the OR and got treatment and then walked back out without paying a dime. Medicine is a business. Plain and simple.
So, if I have all these strong opinions then where is my bright idea to fix healthcare?
1. reign in the insurance companies. Open insurance across state lines. This will drive the cost down by sole competition. If an insurance company in Alabama is better than Louisiana, then buy the Alabama insurance. Health insurance as it stands is a monopoly of 2-3 lone companies. Places like Alabama have a monopoly owned by Blue Cross and Blue shield. Open it up so the insurance companies will be fighting for YOUR business instead of the other way around
2. Stop the lawsuits. We have something called the Medical licensing board. If a patient things that a doctor was unfit to treat their loved one, the bring it before the board. Instead of suing the doctor and driving upmalpractice insurance which causes higher costs for treating a patient, take it to the board. if the doctor really is at fault for negligence then his/her license will be revoked. And that physician will never be able to treat anyone else again. But I guess money is more important than seeing that the physician never harms anyone else again. If anything, mandatory tort reform (which, for the Obama supporters that continued to read despite warning, Obama DOES NOT support. he thinks you should be sued for every penny you're worth. which sometimes is a negative vaule seeing how many physicians are still in debt from medical school). Consequently, capping or stopping lawsuits will eliminate a lot of the defensive medicine. which includes extra costs for hiring the sheer manpower needed to file and process paperwork (which will only get worse if nationalized healthcare occurs)
3. No more free rides. Sure, if someone is in a car accident then bring them into the ER. The people who come to the ER when their problems can be solved by a primary care physician should be turned away. Because the $2o0 bill you're going to rack up and then end up leaving without paying is more expensive than the $75 charge by a PCP to tell you to take some zyrtec. And this bullshit of bringing a kid to the ER at 3 am for an earache that has been present for the last 2 days (and hasn't gone to a pediatrician yet) needs to stop. Step 1: take away kid Step 2: escort parent out of the ER. This alone could drive down the costs, ER crowding, and hospitals driving up costs to cover for those they don't get reimbursed.
Ok...that doesn't cover all my ideas, but just some that i"ve been having the past few days. Basically, it's like me walking into a lawyer's office and telling them they're doing everything wrong and THIS is how it should be done. Oh, and try to tell a lawyer that they don't need to charge for their time and they'll just receive a flat salary per year then get out of that office without being punched in the face. What we have are a bunch of lawyers and politicians deciding how Medicine should be handled and executed. Ones who tell us the process of diagnosis and treatment without EVER suffering through one gross anatomy lab or a sleepless night surrounded by pharmacology flashcards. These are the people America is trusting to take care of healthcare? Not doctors, but politicians. I guess the next time you have a runny nose just call up your local state representative.
Just think, America.
*end rant*
I'm pretty pumped about the Grey's premiere tomorrow night. I'm glad that the lady I'm staying with is also a Grey's fan so I can catch the episode.
Two letters-I can't wait for our date
Laura-your updates thrill me to no end. And that pic of you as a child giving the camera the classic "go to hell look" makes me laugh.
I haven't done as much as I had wanted down here, especially since it's been channeling Seattle and raining at least once a day, if not 5-7 times. I still need to drive down the beach, get some sand between my toes, and perhaps make it out to one of the barrier islands. I'm not sure if I'll make it to the New Orleans Aquarium or the Mobile battleship, but maybe I can. I'll be home this weekend to say bye to my mom before she leaves for Italy so that takes out some possible trip time. If not, I can always come down and visit my friend and do some of the things I may just not get around to. However, I did get to eat my crab legs so I'm all set for now. hah.
Warning: if you are a fan of Obama or his health care policy, quit reading.
*start rant*
So with the little free time we get in clinic, I've been talking with my preceptor about the future of medicine. "Free" Healthcare. Let me ask you something: when has anything in this country been free? The only two things in America that are free is speech and will. I'm tired of this notion that magically we won't have insurance premiums and copays. Do you know what all the other countries do to pay for "free" healthcare? They raise taxes. THAT is how they get the money to fund healthcare. Use whatever brain cells you have bouncing around in your head, rub them together, and make the connection. Bitching about $4 a gallon gas? How about when it goes up to $8 a gallon. Oh, and angry that 40% of your paycheck goes to taxes? Try 60%. OH! BUT HEALTHCARE IS FREE!
Health care is not a right. Just like I don't have the right to walk into a store and demand free Prada. This country was built upon the notion of an open market with competition and democracy to fuel development. Whenever monopolies occured, they were quick to step in and open the market back up to prevent such things. Same for healthcare. Monopolies of insurance companies have caused the price of healthcare to skyrocket, paired along with the uninsured receiving healthcare (if you say that's what the healthcare reform will fix I'll automatically set your IQ score to 10) without paying for it, and the sue happy lawyers creating a new entity known as defensive medicine. I'd really like to see how much of a yearly hospital budget is spent ordering tests just to rule IN a disease. Also, how many times have I (and my insurance company) been billed two or three times for the exact same test? That is just the hospital trying to make up for the fact that the crackhead walked into the OR and got treatment and then walked back out without paying a dime. Medicine is a business. Plain and simple.
So, if I have all these strong opinions then where is my bright idea to fix healthcare?
1. reign in the insurance companies. Open insurance across state lines. This will drive the cost down by sole competition. If an insurance company in Alabama is better than Louisiana, then buy the Alabama insurance. Health insurance as it stands is a monopoly of 2-3 lone companies. Places like Alabama have a monopoly owned by Blue Cross and Blue shield. Open it up so the insurance companies will be fighting for YOUR business instead of the other way around
2. Stop the lawsuits. We have something called the Medical licensing board. If a patient things that a doctor was unfit to treat their loved one, the bring it before the board. Instead of suing the doctor and driving upmalpractice insurance which causes higher costs for treating a patient, take it to the board. if the doctor really is at fault for negligence then his/her license will be revoked. And that physician will never be able to treat anyone else again. But I guess money is more important than seeing that the physician never harms anyone else again. If anything, mandatory tort reform (which, for the Obama supporters that continued to read despite warning, Obama DOES NOT support. he thinks you should be sued for every penny you're worth. which sometimes is a negative vaule seeing how many physicians are still in debt from medical school). Consequently, capping or stopping lawsuits will eliminate a lot of the defensive medicine. which includes extra costs for hiring the sheer manpower needed to file and process paperwork (which will only get worse if nationalized healthcare occurs)
3. No more free rides. Sure, if someone is in a car accident then bring them into the ER. The people who come to the ER when their problems can be solved by a primary care physician should be turned away. Because the $2o0 bill you're going to rack up and then end up leaving without paying is more expensive than the $75 charge by a PCP to tell you to take some zyrtec. And this bullshit of bringing a kid to the ER at 3 am for an earache that has been present for the last 2 days (and hasn't gone to a pediatrician yet) needs to stop. Step 1: take away kid Step 2: escort parent out of the ER. This alone could drive down the costs, ER crowding, and hospitals driving up costs to cover for those they don't get reimbursed.
Ok...that doesn't cover all my ideas, but just some that i"ve been having the past few days. Basically, it's like me walking into a lawyer's office and telling them they're doing everything wrong and THIS is how it should be done. Oh, and try to tell a lawyer that they don't need to charge for their time and they'll just receive a flat salary per year then get out of that office without being punched in the face. What we have are a bunch of lawyers and politicians deciding how Medicine should be handled and executed. Ones who tell us the process of diagnosis and treatment without EVER suffering through one gross anatomy lab or a sleepless night surrounded by pharmacology flashcards. These are the people America is trusting to take care of healthcare? Not doctors, but politicians. I guess the next time you have a runny nose just call up your local state representative.
Just think, America.
*end rant*
I'm pretty pumped about the Grey's premiere tomorrow night. I'm glad that the lady I'm staying with is also a Grey's fan so I can catch the episode.
Two letters-I can't wait for our date
Laura-your updates thrill me to no end. And that pic of you as a child giving the camera the classic "go to hell look" makes me laugh.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
So I'll post more on my wonderful experience with my preceptor after a full week, but I just have to say one thing on why I already love the clinic.
they use a microscope to look at urine samples. Yes. They spin them down, put them on a real slide, and use a real microscope. Let's just say that I got really REALLY excited about this. So even if Family Medicine turns out not being my thing, I can rest assured I'll still get to use a microscope.
Hoorah!
they use a microscope to look at urine samples. Yes. They spin them down, put them on a real slide, and use a real microscope. Let's just say that I got really REALLY excited about this. So even if Family Medicine turns out not being my thing, I can rest assured I'll still get to use a microscope.
Hoorah!
Friday, September 11, 2009
On the Road Again
So, for the record, everything on my Dell has been replaced. New harddrive, new keyboard, new screen, and now new motherboard. I hate dell. I'm getting a mac the next time this thing craps out.
I'm leaving sunday for my last 4 weeks of family medicine. I'm so completely pumped. I'll be near the coast and my friend from college, I've got a list of stuff I want to do, and best of all I get to move out for a month! the only down side is that I'll have to move back in.
Family medicine has actually been really fun. I'm still trying to decide if I'm good with people or not. I think this next month will be excellent to see that. If I can do a clinic environment day in and day out. I'm excited to find out!
Well, hopefully I'll have some good stories of some of my adventures. I'm planning a trip to Ship Island, NO aquarium, and the battleship in Mobile. i'm sad to leave Baptist but excited to go somewhere different for a change.
Until next time!
I'm leaving sunday for my last 4 weeks of family medicine. I'm so completely pumped. I'll be near the coast and my friend from college, I've got a list of stuff I want to do, and best of all I get to move out for a month! the only down side is that I'll have to move back in.
Family medicine has actually been really fun. I'm still trying to decide if I'm good with people or not. I think this next month will be excellent to see that. If I can do a clinic environment day in and day out. I'm excited to find out!
Well, hopefully I'll have some good stories of some of my adventures. I'm planning a trip to Ship Island, NO aquarium, and the battleship in Mobile. i'm sad to leave Baptist but excited to go somewhere different for a change.
Until next time!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Discharge to Jesus
So, Family Med isn't bad at all! I didn't think I would hate it, but I didn't think I'd like it as much as I do. I don't even mind studying! I've been reading and taking notes without being told. It's scary! Maybe there's something to this "primary care" business. I think the best part of all is that I wake up in the mornings and don't have the urge to slit my wrists.
Although I think I still got too giddy over the atrial myxoma we had on our service.
So, Tuesday night my computer had some issues. Major issues. Motherboard died issues. So now I'm going to have to wait another 5 weeks to fix it. I didn't make it over to UMC in time to turn it into the laptop depot so they could fix it. Plus I'm going out of town for a month so I wouldn't be able to pick it up anyway. So I guess I'm going to just have to go without until I can get back to university. Luckily my father has now rigged up interwebs to his computer so that I can use the desktop. It makes me realize that I will always need a laptop. I miss watching movies in bed. So right now my laptop is hanging out in my trunk in case I can make it to UMC before 4pm.
I didn't realize that I'll be dealing with those "end of life" issues as soon as I have. There is this little old lady that I've been working with since I started. She has acute mental change and now has started falling apart. The NG tube is giving her a nose sore. She won't wake up or respond, but she will start saying "ow!" when you touch her legs or feet (DVT paired with now gangrene of the toes due to lack of blood). Her family insists that she's up and talking and laughing and it just happens that whenever anyone that's not family comes into the room she's unresponsive. I mean, the lady is in her late 90's. It's time to just let go. We've gotten hospice on board and hopefully she'll be able to have some peace.
We've actually been having several of our patients on the "discharge to Jesus" list. Meaning that they're not going to make it out of the hospital alive. It's amazing that I hardly ever saw that on Surgery, but get hit smack in the face with it on Family. I like it though, since I'm probably going to go into the geriatrics direction if I decide on a primary care like Fam med or medicine (although from the M4 it seems as if I won't get along with the personality types that are found in medicine. but we'll see).
Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Labor Day.
Although I think I still got too giddy over the atrial myxoma we had on our service.
So, Tuesday night my computer had some issues. Major issues. Motherboard died issues. So now I'm going to have to wait another 5 weeks to fix it. I didn't make it over to UMC in time to turn it into the laptop depot so they could fix it. Plus I'm going out of town for a month so I wouldn't be able to pick it up anyway. So I guess I'm going to just have to go without until I can get back to university. Luckily my father has now rigged up interwebs to his computer so that I can use the desktop. It makes me realize that I will always need a laptop. I miss watching movies in bed. So right now my laptop is hanging out in my trunk in case I can make it to UMC before 4pm.
I didn't realize that I'll be dealing with those "end of life" issues as soon as I have. There is this little old lady that I've been working with since I started. She has acute mental change and now has started falling apart. The NG tube is giving her a nose sore. She won't wake up or respond, but she will start saying "ow!" when you touch her legs or feet (DVT paired with now gangrene of the toes due to lack of blood). Her family insists that she's up and talking and laughing and it just happens that whenever anyone that's not family comes into the room she's unresponsive. I mean, the lady is in her late 90's. It's time to just let go. We've gotten hospice on board and hopefully she'll be able to have some peace.
We've actually been having several of our patients on the "discharge to Jesus" list. Meaning that they're not going to make it out of the hospital alive. It's amazing that I hardly ever saw that on Surgery, but get hit smack in the face with it on Family. I like it though, since I'm probably going to go into the geriatrics direction if I decide on a primary care like Fam med or medicine (although from the M4 it seems as if I won't get along with the personality types that are found in medicine. but we'll see).
Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Labor Day.
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