I have been having all
by fiona
I have been having all these visions lately of my sister and brother and I all opening a practice together. Garlich, Garlich, and Garlich Clinic. My sister Joanne is studying pscychology and is planning on a career in counseling, and my brother Michael is planning on being a physical therapist. We could all go in on a joint practice, and it would be like "Total Care - Health Care for the Whole Human", cause we would be able attack the idea of health maintance from many sides - emotional care, physical treatment, and recovery. I think I might be high on mate, because I honestly just spent about 10 minutes infront of the bathroom mirror, going through an television interview about the exciting new All Garlich Family Clinic - probably an amusing fluff piece on the evening news. Free advertising. Yes, I was actually speaking outloud. Good thing mike is deeply engaged in rescuing hostages on the computer.
But I was planning what our waiting room would be like, with cool thought-provoking magazines like Colors and Giant Robot, a little health library, and photos on the walls of me and michael and joanne as kids. The patients might get a kick out of that. And we would have carefully-selected art on the walls - none of that soothing, mass-produced, bland pastel water color shit that you normally get. Then we could all hang out and do our charting in a common room, and then we would all go out for beer and maybe stop by and visit Nana, who would be so proud of having her successful grandkids on the evening news. Then I would most likely have to go back to the clinic to finish up, where I would stay til 11 pm taking pages from various important people. That part kind of sucks, but the rest would be awesome. Maybe I should tell those guys about the plan. They should probably start saving money to pay for our malpractice insurance. If we're going to compete with the HMO's, we're gonna need a lot of capital. Too bad there are no rich uncles in the family. Most of my relatives in the US are all either teachers or farmers or both - not exactly what you would call "big money."
Yikes. I really think i had a lot of mate. (FYI yerba mate is a southamerican dry leaf "tea" that is drunken out of a gourd. It contains a stereoisomer of caffeine called mateine, which provides many of the stimulant properties of caffeine, without a lot of the negative effects. My theory is that it binds slightly differently to adenosine receptors at the neural synapses. It is good. I drink it when i need to stay up late studying. Like tonight.)
Yipee! I have been studying all day! The fact that it hasn't been that bad is a little worrisome.
I have learned more in the past month than I ever could have imagined. It is incredible. I now know words like "superior posterior pancreaticoduodenal artery." That's a real thing and I know where it is!! I was showing off my new vocabulary at Scott's birthday party last night. I'm not sure if all the people i said it to were really impressed, or just really weirded out and uncomfortable. I have to watch that.
Updates:
- 2 of my plants are dying. I dont really know why. I am trying to resucitate them by putting them next to my little herbs, which are sprouting quite nicely.
- Now have a connection at Trilogy (the one independent video store in NW). This cool guy named Toussant (houngh houngh houngh... i have a french name, but not a french accent) is a friend of one of my med school peeps - and hooked us up with free dvd rentals! Score!
- My "friend" Erica, who you may remember was the only person i knew going into OHSU, now barely talks to me even though we are lab partners, because she has become conjoined to her new bestest best friend Lani. They seriously can't even go to the bathroom without eachother, much less help with the dissection. Im just pretending to be bitter - i'm really just pretty amused by the situation. THey are both really nice people, so its weird when they ignore other really nice people.
- I fondled a dead man's penis yesterday, and identified the contents of his scrotum. I know now many things about balls.
Let's see... Med School tips:
Tip #7 - if you are looking for the gallbladder - it is bright green. You will find it.
Tip #8 - try to get a cold when you get to the part of anatomy lab wher you dissect the abdominal viscera - things get really smelly up in there. Bile smells pretty raunch, and heaven help you if you accidentally nick part of the colon. Look out. If you dont manage to get a cold, consider wearing a mask (although you might be percieved as a wuss) and definitely double glove at this point even if you normally don't. It is worth it.
Tip #9 - even though the point of anatomy is basically just to learn the name of things and where they are and what they connect to, spend a little extra time to figure out what the function is. You might not be tested on it, but it makes soooo much more sense if you know *why* things do what they do and are where they are. Funny that.
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Posted on September 30, 2002 | Comments (0)
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by fiona
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Posted on September 23, 2002 | Comments (0)
I was in a bad
by fiona
I was in a bad mood. Now I am in a better mood.
This is why I was in a bad mood: I barely studied at all this weekend, which is bad. But i got a lot of things done around the apartment, like cleaning and paying bills and buying the coolest little plants, which is good. But when you are in lab trying to identify the left recurrent laryngeal nerve in the mediastinal region that you butchered last week, the fact that you now have four amazing aquatic scirpus grass-like plants growing in your windowsill doesn't do all that much for you. I mean, dont get me wrong - the plants are great - but i swear that small dogs break into the lab at night and gnaw at our little body - either that or we are just really poor dissectors and are inadvertantly hacking her to bits. Sorry if that is offensive.
Anyway, back to the badness... So i am behind in my studies. But that WAS going to be remedied tonight when i got home and studied all evening. But then i picked mike up after my preceptorship and went to the motorcycle shop to return the foot pegs that i bought because they are too small for the trooper. She is a dainty beast. Zoomed all the way out there on MLK in the middle of rush hour only to find the shop closed. Great. Then went all the way back into SE to pick up some coffee at Stumptown. Which would have turned out fine, had my scooter not refused to start on the way out. Hmm. Then i started getting all flustered and frustrated with driving, because CARS suck! The people who drive them are dumb and dont pay attention and never use their turn signals and think that just because I start SLIGHTLY slower than they do that they can cut me off and then have the gall to make a lot of horrible exhaust fumes all over the place. And everyone i see has only one person in their very large , very heavy automobile. Not cool.
So i was flustered. Which apparently gave the powers at be the right to get back at me by making the spring mysteriously disappear from the stand of my scooter. Which made the stand scrape and dangle, which was only remedied by tying Fred Meyer bulk twisty ties aroud it. Then, while stopping for burritoes, the whole thing just fell off. Then, after twisty tying the stand back on infront of several burrito eating customers, the thing wouldn't start again. Now i have to deal with the fact that little old grunty will leaning up against the neighbor's stone wall all night, not to mention the fact that i will have to get up extra early to take the bus tomorrow. Hence, the very bad mood.
Here's what started getting me in a better mood: I got home and read a lovely email from my mom about her recent trip to our cabin in south dakota. Then i got an email from my friend Starr, an old lewis and clark buddy, who is honestly one of the funniest people i have ever met. In her email she described in amusing detail a recent saga about her bout with fleas, and the unfortunate dermatological mishap that occured when she applied pet flea killer to her own skin. Now whenever I'm feelin' low, i can remember starr and think "atleast i don't have fleas." I am trying to get Starr's permission to reprint her email messages right here on fiona.cx, as sort of a compilation/homage. I hope she'll let me. They are effing funny.
Then, as i was still recovering from the second email in my inbox, i opened the third. It was a message from Reed, saying that he had developed some of the film from our shoot in Astoria (fyi - i am acting as Andrea in the silent film accompaniement to a rock opera called The Showering Dragons, written by my friend Marianna Ritchey, and performed by her band The Badger King). He attached some of the black and white shots - and they look great! I put them on my pictures page! You should go look at them now! Here! I will make it very easy for you! Simply click on this link and i will take you right there! I love that I can kind of do one thing in html! Link! Link! Yay!
Then, to make things cooler, i opened my next email message, to find that someone else had responded to Reed's message, saying, and i quote, "Who is the woman? She has an amazing look." Yeah! No kidding. Hi, my name is fiona, and I don't care that my scooter is broken and that i haven't studied all evening due to excessive blogging, because i have an amazing look. Word.
I really do have to go study now.
(most of this message will be repeated now. Stuff got all messed up when i tried to "write the code." Hey, Fiona, what kind of mood are you in again?)
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Posted on September 23, 2002 | Comments (0)
I was in a bad
by fiona
I was in a bad mood. Now I am in a better mood.
This is why I was in a bad mood: I barely studied at all this weekend, which is bad. But i got a lot of things done around the apartment, like cleaning and paying bills and buying the coolest little plants, which is good. But when you are in lab trying to identify the left recurrent laryngeal nerve in the mediastinal region that you butchered last week, the fact that you now have four amazing aquatic scirpus grass-like plants growing in your windowsill doesn't do all that much for you. I mean, dont get me wrong - the plants are great - but i swear that small dogs break into the lab at night and gnaw at our little body - either that or we are just really poor dissectors and are inadvertantly hacking her to bits. Sorry if that is offensive.
Anyway, back to the badness... So i am behind in my studies. But that WAS going to be remedied tonight when i got home and studied all evening. But then i picked mike up after my preceptorship and went to the motorcycle shop to return the foot pegs that i bought because they are too small for the trooper. She is a dainty beast. Zoomed all the way out there on MLK in the middle of rush hour only to find the shop closed. Great. Then went all the way back into SE to pick up some coffee at Stumptown. Which would have turned out fine, had my scooter not refused to start on the way out. Hmm. Then i started getting all flustered and frustrated with driving, because CARS suck! The people who drive them are dumb and dont pay attention and never use their turn signals and think that just because I start SLIGHTLY slower than they do that they can cut me off and then have the gall to make a lot of horrible exhaust fumes all over the place. And everyone i see has only one person in their very large , very heavy automobile. Not cool.
So i was flustered. Which apparently gave the powers at be the right to get back at me by making the spring mysteriously disappear from the stand of my scooter. Which made the stand scrape and dangle, which was only remedied by tying Fred Meyer bulk twisty ties aroud it. Then, while stopping for burritoes, the whole thing just fell off. Then, after twisty tying the stand back on infront of several burrito eating customers, the thing wouldn't start again. Now i have to deal with the fact that little old grunty will leaning up against the neighbor's stone wall all night, not to mention the fact that i will have to get up extra early to take the bus tomorrow. Hence, the very bad mood.
Here's what started getting me in a better mood: I got home and read a lovely email from my mom about her recent trip to our cabin in south dakota. Then i got an email from my friend Starr, an old lewis and clark buddy, who is honestly one of the funniest people i have ever met. In her email she described in amusing detail a recent saga about her bout with fleas, and the unfortunate dermatological mishap that occured when she applied pet flea killer to her own skin. Now whenever I'm feelin' low, i can remember starr and think "atleast i don't have fleas." I am trying to get Starr's permission to reprint her email messages right here on fiona.cx, as sort of a compilation/homage. I hope she'll let me. They are effing funny.
Then, as i was still recovering from the second email in my inbox, i opened the third. It was a message from Reed, saying that he had developed some of the film from our shoot in Astoria (fyi - i am acting as Andrea in the silent film accompaniement to a rock opera called The Showering Dragons, written by my friend Marianna Ritchey, and performed by her band The Badger King). He attached some of the black and white shots - and they look great! I put them on my pictures page! You should go look at them now! Here! I will make it very easy for you! Simply click on this Posted on September 23, 2002 | Comments (0)
I just got back from
by fiona
I just got back from a good brunch with mike. We found this little cafe in NW that is not trendy and expensive - it is cool and diner-ish and plays weird, energetic 80's music like Xanadu and You're the One That I Want from grease. And they put avacado in their omlettes! Nums.
Here's the plan for the day:
- Drive mike over to Eric's house on the storm trooper (aka my scooter).
- Come home and make flashcards for the innervation/blood supply to the heart on the back deck of my apartment building
- maybe clean the bathroom if i have time
- go up to OHSU to review stuff in the lab with my nebraskan friend Stacey - thats at 3 (hmmm i dont have much time)
- go out to Canitas - the new cuban restaurant on Burnside at around 8
- come home and probably study emryology
It is so nice out! A perfect day for scooter riding.
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Posted on September 21, 2002 | Comments (0)
So, I had my first
by fiona
So, I had my first exam on Monday. "Aaaah... the first test of medical school. I remember it well" (that's what I'll say in 10 years when Im a successful doctor person). That fateful day, when mettle is tested and confidence is shattered and really smart people realize that there are other really smart people out there who are actually smarter than them and it starts to get under their skin and drive them crazy until they lose all sense of self worth. Just kidding. But it was real hard, though. I studied A LOT. I studied ALL WEEKEND. Maybe that wasn't clear from my past entries, but I STUDY ALL THE TIME. Its what I do now. I study. And when I have a test, I study more. And then I take the test and realize that actually, I could have used some more studyin', 'cause that was freaking hard! (Then I go out with a bunch of other people who are also trying not to freak out and I get ever so slightly drunk on amarretto sours and play the best pool of my life).
And then I get the test back yesterday......... and I get ...... a 96! I get honors on the first test of medical school! I feel pretty good about that. Pretty damn good. What does it mean, though? That i dont have to worry about this medical school thing and i should study less and drink more amarretto sours? No. It still means I have to study all the time. It just means that I have something to live up to for all the tests to come - my own high standards. I cant slack off now, because if i don't do as well next time i will feel like i let myself down, that im not living up to my potential. Being a perfectionist sucks sometimes.
The first test was on the anatomy of the back, shoulders, arms,and hands, the first 8 weeks of embryology and some radiology thrown in to make things interesting. I have a stack of flash cards 1 1/2 inches thick. Each card contains one muscle- its origin, its insertion, its innervation, and its action. I have to know all of them. Do you have any idea how many muscles are in the forearm? A lot. They are all very skinny and they all attach to the bone in sliiiiightly different places and do sliiiiightly different things. It is all quite confusing. But its cool in the lab when you can pull on the flexor pollicis longus tendon and watch the thumb move.
The human body is simply fascinating. Its amazing. Its incredible that it all works so well most of the time for most people. Even though I've only been learning about it for a couple of weeks, I feel that Im begining to understand some of the mystery. I kind of keep falling asleep during lecture, but then i get down to anatomy lab and everything kind of comes together. Well, either it comes together, or it makes me feel completely unprepared and overwhelmed, but generally it is pretty awe-inspiring to learn about the body from the inside out.
Today I held a human heart in my hand. A tiny heart. I cut it open. I traced the flow of blood and named all of the structures. Yesterday I cut that tiny heart out of the mediastinum. The day before that I held a pair of human lungs in my hands. I traced the flow of air and named all of the structures. On tuesday i used a "bone saw" to cut off the ribcage.
Tip #4 - don't be afraid of the bone saw. Its fun. Be confident, firm, and perceptive. The feeling of cutting through bone is one you won't forget. And it makes you feel like you can do anything.
Tip #5 - when there is a really awesome spanish movie playing at Cinema 21 by your house called "Lucia y el sexo," go see it even though you didn't finish studying the innervation of the heart. Its a great movie, thursday was its last day there, and you might just run into your good friends Joy and Martin at the theater, and then invite them back to your apartment to look at your bone box. Its worth it! The nerves of the heart ain't going nowhere.
Tip #6 - always show up atleast 5 minutes late for lecture in the morning. That way, when you get there and the hall is completely filled, you can just sit on the steps for the next hour and 55 minutes and take notes on your knee. Oh.... wait.
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Posted on September 20, 2002 | Comments (0)
First official day in medical
by fiona
First official day in medical school. Preceded by a three day weekend of unprecedented studying. Who studied for 10 hours straight on sunday? Fiona! Who now knows quite a bit about the spinal chord and vertebral column, but not enough to feel very confident in the course? That would be Fiona again.
We had our white coat ceremony last friday. It was really great- very moving. All sorts of doctor people welcomed us into the medical profession and gave us sagely advice. Then we, and all the physicians present, recited the oath of geneva, which is a revised version of the hippocratic oath (one that acknowledged women as potential doctors as well). I got a bit choked up at several points in the ceremony, but especially at the final sentence of the oath, which goes "I make these promises solemnly, freely, and upon my honor." For some reason, that one really got to me.
More than anything, that ceremony filled me with a warm satisfaction and sense of anticipation: this is really what i want to be doing with my life. This is my job now - to learn the art of medicine. I'm ready. Granted, I felt all that before i studied for 10 HOURS on sunday, but the principle remains the same. I am happy.
We had our 2nd anatomy lab today. Tiny little Rose (our name for our cadaver) has given us her back muscles, vertebrae, and spinal chord. She is an amazing teacher. The spinal chord was unveiled today, after a lot of crude chiseling and plying, and it was breath taking. To see all the little individual nerves... very cool.
I have decided to put in my journal occasional pointers that i have come across. Not that i think anybody is reading this, but they bring up interesting topics. I will denote the pointers with little asteriks.
* Tip #1 - in gross anatomy lab, pick a little old lady if you have the choice. She will be easier to turn over, and her muscles won't be ocluded by fat. Also, there will be less tissue and bone to get through. Big old men are a lot more work.
* Tip #2 - double glove! There is a very distinct smell to the embalming fluid, and, as you will discover right away, it has the incredible ability to somehow get under the gloves and into your hands. Smelling dead bodies everytime you take a bite out of an apple is not that appetizing. If you are at a school like OHSU that only allows 1 pair of gloves per lab session (what? what the hell is my $23,000 going for if not to allow me enough gloves to get through a 2 hour lab - even gen chem at LC offered unlimited gloves. Honestly, its not that much to ask). Anyway, if you find yourself in this situation, buy your own, or double glove it secretly. Its worth it. (oh, and put a layer of liquid soap between the gloves).
* Tip #3 - If, like me, you have big hands and go to a school where the gloves are neither big enough nor long enough (what is it with this place? They have severe glove issues), AND you don't want your hands to smell like dead people, then try this trick: rub some liquid soap on your wrists and leave it there. It will wash off at the end of lab, and your wrists will be free of that pesky odor! I invented it myself. But just so you know - there WILL be some live skin to dead skin contact. Its unavoidable. But its not that bad.
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Posted on September 3, 2002 | Comments (1)