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| As residency winds down, I"m preparing for the next step in my training; gonna start my fellowship in peds hematology and oncology - kids cancer and blood disorders. When I tell people I'm doing this, I get this depressed look from them, saying that I have to be strong, that I"m going to be crying all the time.
Granted diagnosing a kid with cancer isn't the best thing in the world, but cancer and leukemia treatment have come a very far in the treatment even over the past 20 years. ALL, the most common leukemia, curable in up to 90% cases; it's actually considered a curable disease. So again, there are still sad cases, but you know, what field of medicine is there that there are only "happy" cases? To name a few:
Internal medicine - old people where compliance is sh*tty and everyone is obese, has type II diabetes, hypertension and heart disease?
Peds cardiology - valves are all sorts of jacked up, having only one ventricle, having multiple cardiac surgeries, eventually needing heart transplant
Neurology - I can diagnose that you have infantile spasms, encephalitis, strokes, MS, and pretty much won't cognitively be around much longer, and that's about it. Chronic seizures? good luck. Actual treatments in neurology are fleeting, at least in the pediatric world.
Pulmonary - ahh cystic fibrosis, where people are glued to their vest machines, meds, and live to about 40. Quality of life, aint that great.
Nephrology - incurable kidney diseases that require dialysis 3x/week and potentially transplant.
All I"m saying, is that every field of medicine has their downside. All you gotta do is jut go to the PICU or NICU where kids are dying from whatever ailment. I was depressed when I rotated on all these services, wondering how someone could live with whatever disease they had. Fortunately advances are being made everywhere, especially in peds oncology. Yeah it's scary, but it's not the samething that it used to be.
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| After nearly completing my residency, I"ve learned a few tips to save money for poor residents.
1) Choose a program based on reputation, but also other benefits. Free food for lunch? Health/vision/dental insurance? Disability/life insurance? Parking? The small things like this make a difference and add up pretty quickly
2) If free lunch is offered, bring it home with you! Bring tupper wear, and after everyone else has gotten their share, go back for seconds, load up your tupper wear, and BAM! Dinner.
3) At these same free lunches, don't be afraid to take ANYTHING - utensils, plastic cups/plates, napkins. If it's a breakfast, take packets of butter and jelly. If there's parmesean cheese in a separate container for a pasta dinner, take it home at the end of the meal.
4) Basic hygiene - Typically when you're on at night, you can ask the staff for toothbrushes, toothpaste, even razors. I think you can see where I"m going with this. Go to town on that! If bottles of soap or hand sanitizer are there, go for it.
5) Do all your printing/copying if you live close enough to the hospital/facilities.
6) There are other...shadier things you could do to save a buck or two.
A lot of these things save you maybe pennies, but it all adds up. And to be quite honest, to do these things, in front of other people, requires a certain...lack of shame. People will look at you funny. They will laugh at you They will make fun of you. But I don't care. I know I"m walking away with food/stuff I can actually use, and if you don't want this stuff that for the most part was offered for free, that's not my problem.
The sad thing, is that even when/if I have money, I don't think my habits are going to change. When my attending, who is Jewish learned of my thriftiness, he questioned if I was actually in fact Jewish and not Vietnamese
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| I've always wondered what the worst job was. You see all these random lists on yahoo, CNN, or even national geographic's disgusting job's show. Yeah, those all look terrible. But to me, I would say the worst job has got to be a security guard. Think about it. 99.99% of the time, nothing is happening. You're patrolling around, sitting watching security cameras, and that's about it. Bored out of your mind. If it's at night, you're potentially all by yourself all night long. If there's an altercation - for example angry patient in a hospital, you're the one being called into diffuse the situation and be an authority figure while risking getting hurt. And say some bad guys are trying to break in to whatever the security guard is protecting, they're the first ones to be taken out! Watch any action movies, security guards get their a**es whooped EVERY time. Also, in general, has anyone taken a look at their local security guards lately? At my old hospital in Virginia, 9 out of 10 were obese and older than 40 years, and some of them to be honest looked like they had Down syndrome. I always wondered if I punched one of them in the gut and ran, what could they do? Not chasing after me or keeping up with me, that's for sure. | | |
| Really random topic, but going to stripper bars and drinking alone are very similar. Few years ago, went to a stripper bar, and, although it was interesting to observe what happened there, it was sort of a no win situation. Sure guys would pay for a lap dance or whatever from a (most of the time) attractive women, but after however long, and exchanging the money, the chick left and the dude is left with blue balls. At the end of the night, he's still going home alone, with a lot less money.
Compared to drinking alone which I've tried a few times, to see what all the fuss was about...kind of disappointing. It was boring and not fun at all. I had no one to talk to, no one to laugh with. If anything I realized how much more alone I was on that particular night. And again, after the buzz wears off, I"m back at square 1. The world moves on, and whatever was there before I got buzzed, was still there when I sobered up. At least drinking by myself is cheaper than strip clubs, although, I did pick up a few more calories. | | |
| As a resident, I"m obviously supposed to take care of patients. On top of that, I'm also supposed to teach/educate my interns and medical students. Help them with their thought processes, making them think a little bit. Why would you do this or that? Have you thought about this "thing" as well? I like it...I feel good educating people. Got me to wonder though and think of something I realized way back in med school. When one teaches, it's because that person has a differential in knowledge base - they know more. That applies to really any job in the world. I don't know how to do "X" so I go to you to help me with it. So long story short, I wonder if a reason I enjoy teaching, is because it makes me feel smart, that I know more than the other person, that the other person HAS to look to me for help. | | |
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