ems ftw!

Woohoo! My [current] chosen career path has been legitimized!

EMS as Emergency Medicine subspecialty!

fluffy post!

Nothing interesting really going on with med school right now...

But I did get to meet a somewhat famous doctor! (Though I'm perplexed as to why he doesn't have a wikipedia page...) Dr. Brent Ridge, geriatrician (I believe) and former vice president for healthy living at Martha Stewart Living. More importantly, he is 1/2 of The Fabulous Beekman Boys, a tv show I have come to adore- though I sadly no longer have Planet Green due to my cost-saving downgrade of my cable plan. The New York Times called the show a "gay 'Green Acres'", so you know it has to be amusing. I've gone up to their store in Sharon Springs, NY twice now and bought their delicious cheese and some soap.

So here is an iPhone photo of us- no, I did NOT realize how awful my hair looked- it was windy with the car windows open!

So when he asked what school I went to, he actually knew Robert Wood Johnson! I'm only surprised because so many people who actually live in New Jersey have no idea. He even made some suggestions for local residencies in emergency medicine. A very nice encounter :)

Check out his show and order their cheese! It is seriously good.

celebrity advice

I think most of the time I hate it when celebrities feel the need to share their often ill-advised "medical expertise", most notably Suzanne Somers and her natural treatment for cancer (see: http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/the-human-condition/2009/10/23/breaking-health-author-suzanne-somers-mostly-wrong-about-science-medicine.html).  However, I am pretty happy that Barbara Walters, back to the View today after open heart surgery, is encouraging viewers to think about heart health. In particular, she's recommending getting a baseline EKG.  We had this debate in family medicine seminars this year- should healthy people get an EKG?  The doctors said no- unnecessary and not cost-effective.  I am really ignorant to costs of care, but it seems like an EKG can't be tooooo expensive in the grand scheme of things- after all I did one on pretty much every patient who walked in the door when I was an ER tech- and it could save a lot more money in treatment later?  Small price to pay to see a life-threatening rhythm?  Anyway, I think a baseline EKG is a good idea.  When a patient comes into the ER with chest pain, the doctors ALWAYS ask for an old EKG and most of the time there isn't one so they can't compare and see if this is new and notable.  So thank you, Barbara- I agree :)

chicken or the egg

In my attempt to keep myself sane and still do something medical, I did an ambulance shift this past Friday. Usually I do nights and see no action, barring the occasional elderly person who doesn't feel well and decides to call 911 at 4am. So during this day shift, we had 3 jobs between 0700 and 0845. And apparently the surrounding towns were busy too because we did mutual aid to 2 other towns as well. 

My crew was 3 of us under 25, which I think is refreshing in an EMS community where the day shift always fields retirees, but it has always made me nervous. Our experience is much less and I usually worry unnecessarily- we can't really do anything to actually KILL a patient, after all.... (can we?). Anyway, on this day, I felt totally confident in myself and my partners... but more importantly myself. I talk a big game, but I do still get the shakes on squad calls. I think on Friday some sort of switch flipped and I somehow knew exactly what to do and how it should be done. FINALLY. 

So now I wonder- I always thought the squad helped me with patients in med school, but has med school now turned around and helped me with the squad?