Things I've learned in medical school

After having been here for a month I thought I'd let all my faithful readers know some of the important things that I've learned since coming to medical school...

1. How to take blood pressure (kind of cool, I'll take yours if you have a sphigmomanometer I can borrow)
2. How to draw blood (again I'd be happy to practice if you have the needle and the tubes)
3. How to remove the top of a skull...d0n't worry it was the cadaver (I'd offer, but I don't think you'd be interested)
4. That even though we're all aiming at being doctors here, we're all using different ammunition.
5. Surgeons really are a lot like everyone says they are and yes we can pick out the future surgeons from our class already....
6. Even though doctors would like you to think that they are normal or at least once were normal like their patients, it's not true. We're all freaks.
7. I don't get to ride my bike nearly as much as I thought it might be possible to squeeze into my schedule, but it really is still possible to have a life while in medical school (it's just a very full one).
8. I like tea
9. Drivers in Milwaukee are not very good...
10. The students from California here at MCW have no idea what they signed up for when they agreed to come to a school with winters.

So far so good. I'm actually half way through my first semester which means I only have 15/16 of the way left to go before I am Dr. Anderson. Cool? Scary? Nigh on unbelievable? I'll go with D. All of the above.

Most importantly though, I've relearned the beauty of weekends. After working the past two years in a job where weekends don't have any meaning, my week once again has a beginning and an end. Woohoo! Bring on the weekend.

Medical School is a lot of Stamp Collecting

All science is either physics or stamp collecting.

Ernest Rutherford, in J. B. Birks "Rutherford at Manchester" (1962)
British chemist & physicist (1871 - 1937)

So maybe I'm the only one who finds this amusing because I'm a big nerd, but after my past three weeks of Human Development which is basically a class based on "We know that this is this and that turns into that, but how it really works we're not so sure" I can sympathize with old Ernie, there. Now, I was a Chemistry major in college and will make my argument for Chemistry given the difficulty of chemistry concepts, but I'm willing to hand over most Biology courses to the stamp collecting side.

...just a side note, Lord Rutherford went on to win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Ironic, no?

DON'T TEXT AND DRIVE!

Or should I say "dont txt and drive"? I can't believe the number of morons out there who are tapping away at their cell phone while on the road. You know who I'm talking about, the ones who forget to go at the green light because they're too busy having their conversation with 1000+ different people at once. The scariest one to me is the drivers I notice in rush hour who are doing it. The most frightening situations being when I look at the driver behind me in the rear view mirror and they are clearly split between the road and something in their hand or lap.

It has to stop! Recently, the Washington Post reported that 28% of traffic accidents involve drivers using cell phones (either texting or talking). That's worse than the number of accidents caused by drunk driving (5-10%). It's not just drivers who are having this problem. What about those pilots last year? The ones who went cruising past their destination because they weren't paying attention while they checked out "work schedules" on their laptops. Yeah, right.

Texting scares me as a driver, a passenger, a cyclist, a walker, or even just someone sitting on the side of the road. Although I'm more scared standing on the side of the road when someone is listening to their GPS without thinking about what they are actually doing.

The bottom line, think about what you're doing now and not about something that you're connected to through your latest electronic gadget. It'll be better for all of us.

It's Official

As of today I am a bona fide commuter.

I made it safe and sound and in one piece from home to school and back again. It's not a long commute, but not too short either. It's about 6 miles. The best part is that with goofy traffic patterns around here it only takes me 5-10 minutes longer than driving in rush hour. Woohoo! Hopefully that makes for some regular riding.

Now, though, it means that I have a little work to do on my new steed. After his first true trial run I can see a little where he is lacking. New tires and tubes are in order...and maybe a new saddle. Good thing those can be cheap. The biggest trouble at this point is still a little difficulty truing the front wheel. I've made some improvements, but nothing phenomenal. I'm trying not to give in and bring it to a shop but I'm wondering if it needs a total rebuild. I have exams next week, so we'll see what happens during the weekend after that.

And the world has a new Champion

It sounds like it was a great race too! I wish I could have seen it. Great to see it go to a guy like Thor. It'll be interesting to see where is career goes from here. He may be done contesting the points jersey at the grand tours, but after a solid win on a 262.7 km parcours at worlds this weekend I think is aspirations as a classics rider may just be realized before too long.