MXC: Most Extreme Elimination Challenge

Vic: Should be a close match today, Kenny. We have the "Dedicated Enema Technicians" versus the "Perianal Fistual Fixers".

Kenny: Hehehehe. Peri*anal*.

Vic: Kenny!! Enough! We have Guy LaDouche on scene for an interview.

Guy: Hello. I *ass*ume you will win the Med Monster Mash costume competition. What do you think?!

Contestant 1: I have blood in my stool!!!

Contestant 2: I like dirty girls!!

Guy: You are so turning Guy on!

Captain Tenneal: Leeeeeeet's git it on!

If you haven't seen MXC on Spike TV this won't make much sense to you. This year for the Med Monster Mash dance, me and a bunch of friends got together for a group costume. Although the costume prize went to Chris dressed as Gwen Stefani and a bunch of girls dressed as his/her Harajuku Girls, it was still good times.

MXC: Kenny Blankenship and Guy LaDouche

Here is Nelson (Guy) interviewing me (host Kenny Blankenship). I built my costume using a cardboard box and clothes I borrowed from Laine: flip flops, a kimono, cardboard shoulderpads, a scarf taped to the shoulder pads, and a sash from a taekwondo uniform. Don't get eliminated!!

Pelvic Exams!

Today was a more than normally fun day at school. We spent the entire morning practicing speculum exams, bimanual exams, and prostate exams on plastic dummies! Woo hoo! The dummies were actually very realistic -- I think they cost around $600 a piece. They had replaceable uteruses and prostates so you could feel different pathologies. Good times!

After class Carla and I went for a run. We ended up running down the river bank and across the LRT (subway) bridge over the river, back up the river bank (~200 stairs), and back across the river on the high-level bridge. In this satelitte image you can see the two bridges we crossed, and the parliament buildings to the top right of the screen.

Other than that I've just been studying gynecology (gross/boring) and wasting time on my laptop. Time to go iron a shirt/tie for tomorrow!

First day of school: Bar Wild

Here is the cute couple, out dancing after the first day of school this year. That week actually included 3 nights out dancing (one of which was a pub crawl), the golf tournment, free BBQs, free stuff from the banks, and all of the other usual orientation stuff. Good times. Hopefully we showed the first years a fun first week in medicine.

Tiger Woods?

Is that Tiger Woods lining up a PGA Tour-winning Eagle putt? No. That is Madamoiselle Nicolina lining up his/her fourth put for a triple bogie on the 11th hole of a par-three in St. Albert, Alberta!!!!

O-week Golf Tourney

The first week of September is known as Orientation Week for the new first year med students. No, not "sexual orientation", but rather orientation to medicine and the campus/city. Had this been an excercise to sort out "sexual orientation" we would have confused some med students with our outfits. Because we were seriously hot! This pic is from the Costume Golf Tournement.

Needless to say we won the costume competition. In fact they just handed us the prize as soon as we showed up. When we heard "costume contest" we thought "crazy crazy costumes" but apparently everybody else thought that meant "wear a funny hat". It was crazy fun though. Not the best golfing attire however: nowhere to hold tees, and the stockings tend to rip easily (as Brian noticed when he totally ripped his the first time he pulled them on).

The best part of the afternoon was actually the car ride over to the golf course. We had to drive along the highway. So just try to imagine 6 french maids (5/6 are male) jammed in a tiny car with only 5 seats. We were also waving/winking and yelling at every trucker we passed. We got some mighty strange looks. And also some winks back. Some people just sped up so they didn't have to look at us any more. Heheheheh. 

Ultimate Frisbee

This year's Ultimate Frisbee season went by really quickly. It was a ton of fun, as usual. I was in a second year med intramural rec team with about 15 friends, and this year we managed to win a couple of games (unlike last year...). We lost the first playoff game 7-3, and worst of all, we lost to the first year med team!! Considering the first year meds have beat us in every single other sport, I suppose its not that bad. They must have changed the medicine admissions criteria this year as to weed out the uncoordinated biochem students like us!

Late Night Dip

This past week Mark and Carla both came to visit me in Vancouver, and wild times ensued. Mark has a talent for making me party harder than I usually would (especially on a work night), and also a talent for making girls swim naked with him. This I cannot explain. What I can explain is what happened in the picture above. Thursday night Mark, Katrina, Carla, and I were up late partying in the games room, playing some pool and attempting to do handstands drunk. After I lost about 9 games of pool in a row, we all walked Katrina to the bus stop (or what Mark referred to from the outset as "an adventure"). By the time we got to the bus loop and checked the schedules, we learned that it was too late and no buses were coming. We turned around and began heading back. Katrina, a UBC graduate, remarked that there were two things that she had never done at UBC: 1) sleep at a frat house, and 2) go swimming in the outdoor pool after hours.

Being as the pool was on our way back we dropped by to scope the place out. It looked nice and warm, with steam pouring off the top of the dark water, but it was friggin' cold out and there was a security truck in the area. After being super sneaky (i.e. running across the parking lot and looking to see if anyone was in the security

...from behind the bushes I heard a splash and girls giggling...

truck), we approached the pool. In the time it took me to urinate in the bushes I heard a splash and girls giggling. When I walked around the bushes to see what had happened I could see Mark swimming in the pool, and Carla and Katrina holding a camera and giggling (needless to say there are other pictures which I refuse to post on this blog, you can thank me later). The rest of us tore off our clothes (or most of our clothes) and hopped the fence to join Mark. After a quick dip and lots of laughing, we scrambled back to land and back over the fence. It was quite the adventure! Katrina did end up forfilling her other sin on her wish list, and ended up crashing on the couch at my place (which just happens to be a frat house). All in all it was an amazingly fun week!! A little sleep deprived, but amazingly fun just the same!

Raining and Pouring

It has been raining for the past week solid here in Van, and it doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon. This has put quite the dent in my running schedule (I don't have a schedule, I just run when its sunny out and I have a lot of energy). I should just bite the bullet and go out for a run in the rain anyways -- right after I finishing writing this up. The only problem going for a run right now is that my night vision is REALLY bad. I need to eat more carrots or something.

I spent the last 2 hours working on this blog, and in the process learned a lot about blog layouts. I tend to do this with any presentations I make in public too: I spend about 30 minutes on content and ten times as much time on aesthetics. Some would think that suggests that the product is devoid of content, or perhaps the author is somehow vain. I think its more likely just the fact that I have partial obsessive compulsive disorder. There is this incredible desire in me to do everything to the best of my abilities, every single time. I have often wondered where this desire comes from. I used to tell myself I was just trying hard for everything just to get into medical school.

...just the fact
that I have partial
obsessive compulsive disorder...

But now that I'm in, I have no lesser desire to achieve. One possibility is that I am deeply insecure and thus I make an attempt to achieve perfection in hopes of masking these inner insecurities -- but I doubt this is the reason. My best hypothesis is simply that I inherited a gene for "obessive compulsiveness" from my father. My dad has the same work habit as me, only 10X more dedicated. When he gets interested in something (fishing, mycology, paleontology, etc.), he goes out and reads ALL of the available literature, becomes a local expert, and dedicates 90% of his free time to this activity! I am grateful to have received this trait. On the otherhand I most likely inherited my cleanliness and orderliness from my mother (while my dad is compulsive, he is definately not orderly). It is a combination of these traits which has allowed me to breeze through school, and I can only conclude that it is a result of these same traits which explain my current addiction to redesigning my blog. Ok time for a run.


P.S.

Make sure you check out the "games" links I put to the left!!

Fluorescence Microscopy

Here is a picture I made at work with some amazing technology. This is a sample of HeLa cells, which are human cancer cells derived from a cervical cancer from a woman named Henrietta Lacks some time in the 1950s (without her permission...). They have since devolved into a cell-line able of infinate self-replication (hence they are used in a variety of medical experiments). So anyways, to visualize these cells I have stained the nucleus blue and my protein of interest red.

...which absorbs the
emmited photons and then fluoresces
red...

Because proteins are too small to be seen with microscopes I had to be tricky to be able to see this particular signalling molecule. First I added an antibody against my molecule (so basically I made a large protein which will stick selectively to my protein), and a second antibody against my first antibody with a luminescent protein attached to it (derived from a phosfluorescent jellyfish protein!!). In the solution is a fluor which absorbs the emmitted photons and then fluoresces bright red under the proper wavelength. I then took a picture of these cells and imaged with the red wavelength, revealing that my protein is indeed in the cytoplasm of the cell (i.e. not in the middle of the cell). The blue staining was a similar process, except staining for DNA in the nucleus. I then imaged a second time under a blue wavelength of light, which allowed me to see the nuclei of the cells only. Using the computer that controls this microscope I was able to merge the two images to create the picture above. Fun, eh?

New Stylish Blog

Well I just put in a couple hours on this blog template and I like what I've done! I made the "alphageek" logo on a pretty cool website: typoGenerator. You just type in a word and it randomly generates a logo. Another cool site I found was ACME Label Maker which allows you to make labels from a bunch of nice fonts. I think the best find of the day, however, was the Mandarin Design page which is full of amazing CSS tricks. People who change their blog templates every other week (Dana) should definately check this site out!

In other news, I am having a great time at work lately. Although this is the exact same research position as last summer, I seem to be much more relaxed and carefree this time around. I think its a combination of being more comfortable with the lab equipment and staff, as well as not being in the process of applying for med school and not wanting to screw up letters of recommendation :)

...in other news
I am having a great time
at work lately...

Either way, I'm having a great time in the lab: getting lots of experiments done while still being able to chat and crack jokes with my co-workers. Our lab is investigating the cell-signalling involved in the FliC (a protein from E. coli which makes up its flagella/tail) and human TLR5 (a cell receptor in the gut which recognizes the tails of bacteria and then causes inflammation) interaction. I get to play with all sorts of cool equipment including fully mechanized fluorescence microscopes, digital cameras which cost 1/4 million dollars, -80 degree freezers, tons and tons of E. coli, human cancer cell lines, insect cell lines, and all of the protein/DNA purification you can shake a hat at.

Well thats all for now, hopefully it will stop raining soon!

Long Time No Post

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted. Lots of things happened... I'm trying to think about which ones to write about....

Well first off, the reason I haven't posted in a while is that the Med2008 website went down. This website has been my source of photos which I've been posting on this blog. So I just kept telling myself that I would post again as soon as some photos came back online, because I know there are some good pics out there. Alas, the photos are still not back online, so I'll just have to describe events with my remedial english/journalism skillz.

In summary, I finished off my first year of med school concluding with a nephrology (kidney) exam, a thorax anatomy bell-ringer exam, and a couple of practical patient-interview exams. All went well. I think...

The day of the last exam (also known as my birthday!) was awesome. Quite a sense of relief.

...I find it
incredibly difficult to not
discuss exams...

Immediately after finishing the exam (in fact while some of my friends were still writing), a bunch of us went out for lunch at Earl's. I find it incredibly difficult to not discuss exams after I'm finished writing them. I find myself constantly asking people what they put for question 27, how many "C"s did they put on their answer sheet!? But now that classes are pass/fail I should stop stressing myself out like that.

After lunch I went and bought a "victory cigar" with a couple of buddies. From there we went down to a local park where a med barbeque was happening, where we were able to fill up on free food and play some soccer with the boys (the girls played in net, with approximately 11 goalies per team).

From there, Zac, Ryan, and I drove around getting fancied up for the evenings. While at Ryan's place his mom fed us, so we stayed for a while sipping red wine and watching a bizarro animated film: Waking Life. This film is basically a series of lucid dreams in which the main character discusses a variety of philosophies of the mind with the people he runs into. The animation was amazing! Very dream-like. They filmed the whole thing live action and then painted over every single frame. Be warned though, its a very abstract movie.

After this was the bar scene. The meds had arranged to all meet up at Halo downtown Edmonton, which was the strangest bar atmosphere I've ever been to. The music was somewhat random, including: The Beatles, Elvis, Sublime, various Punk. It seemed like somebodies random MP3 player playlist, not much of a club scene at all. The people hanging out at this club were all of the "alternative" type. Dressed all grunge/punk style and not interested in dancing (hence the non-dancefloor areas were absolutely packed).

From there the night becomes a bit hazy in my mind, but basically involved taking off to a different club (with a tip that there were tons of med students there), only to find a couple of med students there making out in the corner. So the 3 other people I was with just danced the night away with me until the place closed and we wandered home.

Ok this post is too long. I'm stopping now.

I-House Year End Formal

Here's another pic from the Formal last night. To finish off the story: there was a buffet dinner, speeches, presentations from each floor (my floor re-enacted the prank Monica and I pulled on Sara when we faked her eviction notice), and then a dance. The DJs at the dance sucked really really bad. They had over $15,000 in Numark DJ equiptment yet still couldn't manage to beat match a single track.

After a couple of hours of dancing we moved the party back to I-House,

...shots of Blue Poweraid
and Jack Daniels...

where I DJed in the kitchen for the rest of the night to compensate for the crap music we heard all night. We played drinking card games until about 4 (5am with the time change). One of the guys drinking with us lives down the hall, and I hadn't seen him in the kitchen ALL YEAR. I've only seen the guy about 4 times in the halls. This guy (a Korean named Ram) drinks like crazy. Despite our large array of fine liquors including Malibu, Disarono, flavoured vodkas, and a variety of mixes, the ONLY THING this guy would drink were shots of Blue Poweraid and Jack Daniels!! What the hell?

I-House Year End Formal 2

Last night was the year end formal which was a lot of fun. It included a really good buffet dinner, followed by a ton of speeches about living in an "international community" with "global awareness" and building our "global citizenship". Then the students of I-House were invited up to the microphone to share stories of their "increased global awareness". The stories people told were horrible!! It was soooo funny. The big wigs were all expecting heart warming stories about how living in I-House has changed our lives, but all they got were story after story about "Well it started after campus security dropped us off for being too drunk, and then Jules went and....", or "and then our porn videos from the lounge all went missing", etc.

The representatives looked absolutely horrified and now probably think we are awful people. I on the other hand thought these types of stories actually prove what a success I-House was. Yes there are obvious differences between members of different cultures, but there are many more similarities. We don't spend an ENTIRE YEAR exploring these differences. All exchange students just fit right in and I-House operates just like any other residence on campus. The differences between me and an Egyptian exchange student are much less than the differences between me and many "Canadians". At I-House we all live together, have classes together, eat together, watch the same TV. I don't think we are as different from one another as the founders of I-House had hoped.

FLOOD and FIRE at I-House

There was a fair amount of excitement in the building I live in this weekend. Late Thursday night the fire alarm went off (a common occurrence as we have about 3 drills a semester). I wandered back to my room to lock my door and on the way a girl came running out of the stair well soaked from head to toe. At this point I realized that there might actually be a real fire -- so I hurried up a little bit and told people I saw that this wasn't a drill.

We evacuated the building to the back and rumor was passed around that this wasn't a fire, instead some girl on the 5th floor had hung something on her sprinkler in her room, and had apparently broken off her sprinkler head, triggering the alarm and busting open a 1 inch water main in her ceiling. Ooopsy!

We went back instead when we were convinced it wasn't a fire to check out the damage. Water was literally gushing out from under the perpetrator's door and flowing down the hallway. Girls were screaming at people to go get towels to try to sop up the water (which is pretty funny when you think about it because a towel would do absolutely nothing).

The firemen soon showed up and told us to get the hell out of the building, so I went to a nearby building and played some foosball and piano for about an hour. Finally when we heard the alarms stop we went back inside, only to have the alarms go off again. We were told to vacate once again, and to meet in the meeting room at which point an out of breath fire chief told us "OK everything is now undercontrol guys, we just put out the fire on the 2nd floor"!!!!! Some idiot had left their dinner on the burner on full blast in the kitchen for the last hour.

To summerize there is extensive water damage to about 20 rooms including rooms on every single floor beneath the 5th. There is also smoke damage on the 2nd and 3rd floors.

Lucky me I'm on the 6th floor!! This made for an exciting day, but it must be pretty crappy for the people that had to move out (with it being final exam season and all). Especially for those few people that had water damage to ALL of their stuff.

P.S. I feel bad now because as soon as I saw the damage to the 5th floor that night, I ran down to the 4th floor and banged on peoples doors to tell them to move all of their stuff. I asked one girl if she wanted my help moving all of her electronics out of her room. She insisted they would be fine where they were. I insisted back that I totally disagreed with her and that water will soon be pooring from her ceiling. I'm not sure if she ever did move her stuff... Oh well.

4 Day Weekend

Well had everything worked out as I had planned this weekend, I would currently be in Victoria right now :(

I had tickets to fly home with Jetsco, but if you haven't heard already, Jetsco has gone bankrupt. I will eventually get my money back I think, because I paid with Visa. Phew!! So I guess I'll be hanging out in Edmonton all weekend. Thats ok because I have some shopping to do, including looking for some new glasses and possibly a new palm pilot. However it is close to the end of the school year, and I could last the summer without a palm, so maybe I should wait until the next school year to buy a next generation palm (and thus have a better palm than all of my friends...).

Oh well I will get lots of studying done I suppose. And maybe watch some movies as well. I miss Carla tons and tons. Hopefully when she vists me in Vancouver we can have just as many fun adventures as we did last summer!!

Med Show (Saturday)

The final night of performances was amazing. Not only were the skits smoother (with all the extra practice) but also there were lots of extra lines thrown in ad-lib style. Lots of people were yelling from the crowds and usually the actors on stage were able to respond quick and witty. Like the host Ron Burgundy yelling out "Who said that? Was that you, Doorman? You're fired!!! Clear your desk, because you're fired."

After the show there was a staff party at the Armory (dance club), which we totally packed in with upwards of 200 med students. I had an excellent time, dancing the night away. Including having my shirt ripped off and having med girls attack me (I may or may not post pictures of this....). Hehehehe. The Armory has two separate dance floors, with the hiphop/dance music downstairs, and more 80's/90's music upstairs.

I am already looking forward to next year's med show, and have started planning!!

Med Show (Friday)

The second night of Med Show was also a success. Except that it was a really tough crowd this night. I think it might have been the difference in the ticket prices. Thursday night was $5, while Friday was night was $10 advance or $30 at the door. Maybe our show isn't "$10 funny", but its "$5 funny" -- because on Thursday night the crowd was rolling around laughing at ANYTHING, while Friday night some of our jokes got absolutely no response (which is very scary when you are on stage).

After intermission the crowd definitely loosened up (and all the med students got drunk), because the 3rd and 4th years got tons of laughs (and random drunken phrases yelled at them). So it was still a success.

Here are the lyrics to one of the 4th years' songs. I must give a disclaimer to the nursing students that occasionally read my blog: This song is hurtful to nurses/women. The song previous to this one made fun of med students (i.e. killing patients, prescribing wrong drugs, dropping babies, etc.), while this one makes fun of nurses (who apparently give 3rd/4th year meds a really hard time when they're on the wards). Still I think the lyrics are brilliant, please enjoy and remember that I love nurses (especially one in particular).


Nurses' Song

Nurses we are overjoyed
To meet you face to face
You've been getting quite a name
All around the place
Being bitches
Screwing up the meds
Now we understand you're whores
But at least you give good head

So you are a nurse
You're a wonderful nurse
Prove to me that you're the best
Let me look upon your breasts
If that you will do
Then my hats off to you
Come on show me those boobs

Nurses you just won't believe
The shit you've stirred up here
Your incompetence is all
So very fucking clear
Oh telling Doctors
What they ought to try
When in fact your management
Would make our patients die

So you are a nurse You're a competent nurse
Show me all that you were taught
Go fill up my coffeepot
And then go beserk
When I ask you to work
Come on show me those boobs

Nurses like to bitch and moan
They often go on strike
They somehow think their job is more
Than just the village bike
Oh... if you really
Want to get respect
Come right here
And tell me why
The vitals aren't done yet [Yells: It's basically your entire job!!!]

So you are a nurse
Yes a superstar nurse
Prove that you're as good as me
Do this Neurosurgery
Or maybe instead
You should just change the bed
Come on show me those boobs

Med Show (Thursday)

Last night was the first performance of Med Show (a comedy show put on by all the Med students at UofA as a fund raiser for grad). This show consists of a series of short skits, much like Saturday Night Live. The first show was definately a hit. It was absolutely hillarious. I think the first years and the fourth years had the best material, but it was non-stop laughs for over 3 hours. Here's the script from our first skit:


Random Boner Prevention Device

Buddy: (walking towards Main while looking at and touching sweatpants) These Med sweatpants are great! The material is so soft against my skin.

Main: Yeah, they’re sweet but I still don’t feel comfortable wearing sweatpants in public. Aren’t YOU worried about getting an RB?

Buddy: RB?

Main: You know, RB, Random Boners: the one’s that pop out of nowhere. And this soft material isn’t gonna hold anything down. So embarrassing.

Buddy: Oh Yeah, they always happen at the worst times.

(main and buddy do pondering motions)

[lights off us]

[lights on 1^st boner scene on Stage R]

Sister: Hey, grandma’s coming over for supper

Brother: Yay! (gets boner, accompanied by slide whistle)

[lights off]

[lights on 2^nd boner scene on Stage R]

Babysitter Requester: Can you babysit my daughter tonight? She’s five.

Babysitter Boner: I would love to. (gets boner, accompanied by slide whistle)

[lights off]

[lights on 3^rd boner scene on Stage R]

Lifeguard: (blows whistle) Everybody out of the pool!

Pool Boner Guy: (looks down at boner) Oh shit. (hangs head and walks out Stage R) [lights off]

[lights back on Main and Buddy]

Buddy: Oh god! I totally forgot.

[salesman walks in Stage L]

Salesman: Sorry to interrupt but I think I have a solution.

Main: What are you talking about?

Salesman: It’s a Random Boner Management Device. It’s good for RB’s, Random boners AND HGIB’s, Hot Girl Induced Boners.

Main and Buddy: Yeah, HELLO!! (high five eachother)

Buddy: So how does it work?

Salesman: Well, how about I just demonstrate it on one of you guys.

Main: (looks at Buddy and then to Salesman) Sure.

Salesman: First, your penis goes into the penis holder. (sales man puts on penis holder but does not remove hands from Main’s pants). The string that is attached to the penis holder runs up the back, like this (runs string up Main’s back). It then attaches to the cap. (clips string to cap). When you start to have a boner, the string will become taut. This is the signal for you to use you neck muscles to keep your little buddy down.

Main: That makes sense.

Salesman: OK. Let’s test it out. GIRLS! Phase 1.

[2 Hot girls walk on Stage R]

GIRLS: Hello big boy (waves to Main)

Salesman: So, is it working so far?

Main: (head slightly tilted back) Yes, but my neck is getting a little bit sore.

Salesman: Yes, it will do that. Alright. GIRLS! Phase 2.

[First part of song “Satisfaction” turns on]

(2 hot Girls strip)

[Music off]

Salesman: What about now?

Main: (head tilted back a lot) This is great! I don’t think I have a boner! Now no one will stare at me like I’m a freak.

Salesman: Ok, then. Final test. GIRLS! Phase 3.

[Lights off Main, Buddy and Salesman]

[Rest of girls enter stage R, Lights on Girls, Main part of song “Satisfaction” Starts]

(Girls perform choreographed dance routine)

[Girls pull Main into spotlight]

(Girls dance around Main)

[Music simultaneously, GIRLS walk off stage R]

(Main on ground with neck flexed back)

Buddy: Oh my god, I think it broke his neck.

Salesman: Yeah, but no boner (points at mains groin area)

[Scene out]

Cardio Exam

Well I just had my cardiology final exam on Friday, and I think it went pretty well. Most of the questions were fair, and I got all of the hard questions right (because my friends and I study by quizzing each other with the hardest possible questions on the most obscure minutae we can read about). The best part of the test however, was that this test had more technical errors than any other test I've ever written. It was literally a "gong show". There were upwards of 30 corrections the profs had to make during the exam, and that involved interrupting us about 40 times. Lets see if I can remember exactly went wrong:

1. Some people were missing pages 3 and 4.
2. Questions 82-89 had the right answers written right beside the questions. We were told to put "A" for our answer to all of these questions, yet later you will see that we never got to questions 82-89 on the answer booklet.
3. The graph question printed out wrong, with the labels not lining up with the graph at all.
3. Questions 42-90 had 8 options for multiple choice (A through H), yet the answer sheets only had 5 options (A through E) per question. Because of this problem one of the profs ran to go get some proper ScanTron sheets and we were told we would be given an extra hour to transfer our answers to the new answer sheet. One student put up her hand and said, "What if my flight leaves at 11:30" (which should have been half an hour after the test ended). Meanwhile the other prof decided that we should just forget the ScanTron and fill in the answers in the question booklet. But then a different prof changed that decision to having us skip from question 41 to question 201 on the ScanTron (which had 15 letter responses). So now question 42 became question 201, and question 93 became question 252, etc.
4. Some minor typos - like "subclavian vein" instead of "subcardinal vein".
6. Late in the test writing period, one of the profs suddenly announced we only had 20 minutes left, while people started to freak out. He told us that the original hour we were promised was only if we had to transfer answer sheets, but as this was no longer the case the test ends at 11:00am. So people started to yell. We were given the full extra hour.


As you can see this was a disaster. Somebody will probably be fired. I thought it was a fair exam that tested our skills of recalling cardiology medicine while in a highly stressful dynamic situation (hehehe). Oh and by the way I know that the numbering of my example errors is all messed up, and that is a joke.... laugh....

Med Formal 2005

Insert MedFormal post here (to be completed when I receive some good pictures).

I have no time to add pictures, I am far too busy.

Clinical Skillz, auscultation skillz, diagnostic skillz....

The cardiology course I'm currently taking introduces med students to Clinical Skills for the first time, which I have found very exciting. These are the things doctors do at the bedside during a physical exam. So specifically to cardiology this includes observing for the jugular venous pressure (something I had never heard of before this class), taking blood pressure, taking pulses, and what I find particularly fun: listening with the stethoscope. I think my musical skillz directly help my stethoscope skillz. When listening to a murmur its important to grade the intensity of the sound, the pitch, where on the chest its loudest, where it radiates to, where in the cardiac cycle the sound starts and where it ends, whether its regular, regularly irregular, irregularly irregular, etc. The hundreds of hours I've spent listening to piano solos over and over again has enabled me to hear a sound and be able to basically take a "picture" of it in my mind.

These clinical skills classes are fun because they show you how the "book-learnin" I'm doing actually helps in the real world -- as opposed to helping for nothing other than test scores.

Reading break at last

This is Carla, Alissa, and myself (with my "pedophile-face") at the back of the UpStairs Cabaret dance club on Bastion Square in Victoria. With my buddy Mark taking the picture. We had an excellent night of dancing at that club, and as usual we got the party started by being the only 3 people on the dancefloor for about half an hour. As the bar slowly filled people gather around to gawk at us and probably make fun of my dancing skillz (or lack thereof), but eventually a couple of pub-crawls arrived and filled the place up. I felt the DJ played an excellent set that was right up my alley (except for the obligatory hip-hop section).

I had an excellent visit home to Victoria for reading break this past week. I spent the entire week laying low -- spending most of my time either with Carla or asleep. It was very nice to finally get an entire week off, instead of rushing home for 2 days and rushing back. It was nice being able to just hang out and relax with Carla, instead of rushing around doing things like we normally do (as my time back home is usually limited).

Ben visits!!

This is my 65 year old brother Ben. He flew over to visit me in Edmonton during the end of his UVic reading break, and we flew back to Vic together on the next Sunday. It was fun to show him around my place and this campus. Its kinda cool because everything is bigger in Edmonton than in Victoria. The buildings are tall, the roads are super wide, and the hospital itself is gigantic.

Hanging out with Ben here was much different than at home. Usually I don't really see Ben at home, as he goes out often, and while home kinda sticks to himself. But here in Edmonton he was forced to hang out with me. I also showed him my new squash and foosball skills I've developed since September.

At Ben's request we spent Saturday evening at the West Ed waterpark (having not been there together since 1996) and bombed as many waterslides as we could in 2 hours. I think with the extra mass I've developed since I was 13, and also the "watersliding skillz" I've learned as a lifeguard, I am able to slide significantly faster. It hurt. It hurt a lot. Ben and I both had scratches on our backs for days afterwards. But it was tons of fun.

Its kinda sad because I used to imagine that one day Ben and I would be roommates after we moved out from home, but I don't think this will ever be the case with both of us locked into a seemingly endless education program.

Carla Visits!!

Carla's parents surprized her with plane tickets to Edmonton for this weekend!! So I've been visiting with Carla for the past two days! So far I have showed her off to all of my roommates, given her a tour of campus (something I haven't even done myself), showed her the hospital, and we've gone out for dinner twice (including going out for Chinese food with about 20 meds from my class to celebrate the Chinese New Year). I found it funny to learn that the menu in Mandarin is not the same as the menu in English. The meals are different and significantly less expensive. I only paid $11 for a 4 course meal with something like 10 dishes.

Unfortunately that night Carla got really sick. It started with GI upset, and by Saturday morning had somehow evolved into a nasty cold. I have seriously never been as sick as Carla is right now, in my whole life. She has been in bed all day long. Its too bad because we had big plans for today, including shopping at West Ed and clubbing with some of my friends. Well at least I got to take care of my girlfriend for a weekend (which I will probably be repaid for in some form or another ;-) and get in more studying than I originally would have. Hopefully Carla will be all better tomorrow morning...

On another note, I have been getting discouraged over the past couple of weeks in the anatomy lab. What started out as an intensely interesting experience, has quickly changed into a monotonous, required task. I think the problem is that the cadaver I am dissecting is very obese, so I spend a huge amount of time (i.e. at least 3 hours so far) simply cutting away fat. And this fat is everywhere, attached strongly to all of the vessels, and basically prevents you from observing anything in the anatomy without carefully teasing away the fat with tweezers. Hopefully my disections for the next course (Gastroenterology) will not be so tedious.

FAAMSCAR Banff Conference

I had an amazing weekend at Banff. The first year med students at UofA and UofC got together for a retreat at Banff for "student wellness". This trip started with getting drunk on a bus for a 7 hour trip to Banff while playing strip poker with about 10 people at the back of the bus (the game ended when Phil striped down to nothing but his socks...). After arriving in Banff, we checked into our rooms, had a welcoming dinner/lecture and then headed out to the local clubs for some dancing all night. The next morning i slept in and eventually dragged myself to a couple of lectures: the first was a meditative Yoga session, while the second was a discussion on wellness and relationships in medicine. After which I shopped with some friends at downtown Banff, and watched a movie at the local theatre. The next morning most people went skiing, while I instead hit up the hot springs (that picture is the entrance to the springs). After a nice 2 hour dip in the pool, I walked back to Banff (40 minute walk!!), had a latte downtown and enjoyed another 7 hour bus ride back to Edmonton!!

I really enjoyed the chance to get to know some of my classmates better, and interact in a non-academic environment.

Anatomy

Anatomy has finally started! On Friday we had our first anatomy lecture, which involved using pencil crayons to colour in most of the anatomy of the chest. It was insanely fast paced. Our anatomy prof is absolutely amazing -- definitely one of the funniest profs I've ever looked at / listened to.

After this introduction we were taken up to the cadaver labs and introduced to our cadavers. That day all we did is basically stand over the bodies and expose their chests. I was definitely more anxious than I thought I would be for the uncovering of our bodies. I think it was just the big work up to the event (i.e. all of the lectures on professionalism, death and dying, respecting the wishes of the donor, etc.). And also the fact that it stinks in the anatomy lab like formaldehyde and phenol.

All of the anxiety I felt on Friday was definitely gone by this afternoon however. Today was our first day of cutting. We cut through the skin along the sternum and the costal angles along the rib cage. Its crazy how easily a scalpel will cut through flesh! We then proceeded to cut "finger holes" in the chest wall so we could pull the skin off and cut away the underlying superficial fascia (fat). It was awesome! We continued to dissect the pec major muscles. Its amazing how tough nerves are! Blood vessles rip very easily, but the nerves are like tough threads. We had our hands deep inside the body, underneath the pec majors, feeling around for the lateral pectoral nerves. It was so cool!

Now I'm not so sure that surgery would be that horrible of a position. I would still like to have patient contact in whatever specialty I end up in, so up until this point I hadn't really been considering surgery.

Endo Ender

Here's a pic from the med party at the Rum Jungle the night of the Endocrinology final exam. That is my "dancing" shirt. For this party the med class arranged to have limos pick us up from the hospital and take us out to the club at West Ed. The Rum Jungle is the largest club in Canada and has one of the largest sound systems in North America. Its probably my favorite club in Edmonton so far (I'm not sure what the usual crowd is like, because I've only been there on pub crawls and med parties).

Catch and Release Squirrel Fishing

This is a funny story: This Christmas while visiting home in Victoria my dad and I went on an adventure. A couple of days earlier my dad had baited his "squirrel-trap" with peanut butter because he noticed a squirrel hopping around our yard. I'm not sure why my dad exiles all squirrels from our property, but it has something to do with the possibility of them eating insulation or something like that. We ended up taking this squirrel for a car ride with us, up to the summit of the Malahat (10 miles away from home) where it was released into its new habitat. I figure it will only take a week before it finds its way back home.

Winning Gingerbread House/Cathedral

notredame (1)
Originally uploaded by alphageek101.

Isn't this insane. It took a group of 2nd year meds 26 hours to complete this gingerbread model of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Notice the illuminated stained glass windows (apparently made from melted Jolly Ranger candies).

New Layout

I'm avoiding studying, so instead I've redesigned the layout of my blog. My new plan is to post photos on the right, and to post mainly text in the main part. I found this new website called Flickr which is awesome for posting photos on the net. It has a nice program for posting multiple pics at once, and you can even just email attached photos in order to have them posted. So much better than Picasa, which is what I have been using up to now.

New Semester

This semester I will finish off the endocrinology course I'm currently in, and start the CPR block (cardio, pulmonary, renal). I'm looking forward to CPR because thats when we start anatomy (this link will take you to some sweet dissection videos)! I will probably buy my own human dissection kit sometime this week. Nothing major like buzz-saws and corkscrews, just some forceps, scissors, and scaples.

Cutie

Isn't my girlfriend beautiful? She is not really happy to have braces again, but that just means that she'll have perfect teeth by September!! I wish Carla was living over here but instead she is going to move into her mom's house for a semester. I can't wait until she is living with me with those perfect teeth!

Very Very Bad Day

Wow. I only had 2.5 hours of lecture this morning. So I went to school all bundled up and proceeded to the men's med locker room to put away all my stuff. I suppose during that 2.5 hours somebody cut through my lock, went through my stuff and took my wallet and palm pilot. FUCK!!

Lets see, wallet had all of my credit/bank cards, $200, most of my ID, and some receipts. My palm is probably worth $600 new, and contains every little detail about my entire life. Including where I'm going to be every 10 minutes for the next month, as well as every detail about my identity (they'd have to dig deep for that). Unencrypted info would include where I live, where I buy my food, what groceries I need, what music I listen to, what classes I have when and where, where I get my hair cut and when, and basically what I've done every single day for the past year and a half. That's kinda scary.

So now I'm stuck without any money or any way to get money, no ID, and the guy who stole my crap knows everything about me. Oh and he has access to my building now. Hmmmmm....

This is especially frustrating because my stuff was taken out of the med student locker room in the hospital, which is only accessable through 2 doors. One door has a 5 digit numeric code, and the other you have to swipe your keycard to gain access. My 60-digit combo lock was also secured on the locker at the time. So it really doesn't get much more safe than that (you would think).

On the bright side (very dimmly lit side...) maybe I'll get a newer model palm pilot!!! That would be fun. I think maybe the Palm Tungsten T5.

Vickie

Don't I have a cute dog? This is Vickie.

Holidays in Victoria

Ahhhh I'm back in my room in Edmonton, after having spent 2 weeks with friends and family in Victoria. I definately needed a break -- just to relax and hang out with my girlfriend. We had lots of quiet evenings watching movies. I also had a couple of chances to drink with my buddies from highschool, which is always fun. For Carla's christmas present I bought her a digital camera, a Canon Digital Elph PowerShot SD200. I think she liked it!

I'm kinda sad to be home. My room is so small and the building is absolutely empty tonight. I've spent the past 2 weeks in a super busy huge house, with cousins (1, 2) and aunts and girlfriends everywhere! And to come home to absolutely silence is definately a change. The only person I can talk to is my blog :(

My only regret this holiday was not having a more spectacular New Year's. But that being said there really wasn't much going on in Victoria. All my friends were at other friend- of-a-friend-of- a-friend's parties, so Carla and I just hung out a my place playing video games and sleeping. I definately recommend playing GTA: San Andreas if you haven't already -- its amazing!!

I've decided as of this post to include more links in my posts, that should be fun.