Random Thoughts

A few weeks ago I saw this Nova on apes and humans, and it was absolutely amazing. I've always realized apes are very human-like (I used to watch this mommy gorilla at the ape house at the National Zoo, and when too many people gathered by the glass while she was breast feeding, she would give us all a withering look and turn away to (it seemed) protect her privacy), but watching people prove it is just cool. The best was that I made Eric watch it when he came to visit and everything that I found absolutely amazing, he found kind of disturbing. I fully believe we are not that different from apes, but I think maybe most people find that thought kind of creepy, in an existential sort of way. Anyway, I'm not deleting it from my DVR, so if you want to come watch it, please do.

Time reported this week that Hong Kong is experiencing a huge flu scare -- regular flu, not bird flu or SARS -- but it's got the city up in arms anyway. I can tell you from experience that the average Hong Kong citizen is highly excitable and easily thrown into a frenzy, and at the same time majorly over-reacts to things while responding actually completely appropriately. When I went over there in 2004, they were still recovering from the SARS scare, so at every major public place, like museums, they had these body heat sensors at the door, so they could scan to see if anyone had a fever. So having kids wear surgical masks seems a little ridiculous, but at the same time, isn't a bad idea at all. But overprescribing Tamiflu? Not such a hot idea at all.

Anyway, I had this idea that I was going to go back to Hong Kong next spring to do an international away rotation. It would accomplish a few things: 1) Experience a foreign healthcare system for myself (it's a mix of public- and private-pay); 2) Visit my grandmother while earning credit; 3) Take advantage of one of the last times I'm guaranteed to be able to travel for a while. Over the last few weeks I've been making up my schedule for next year, and I had all these grand thoughts of doing all these awesome rotations I'm never going to get the chance to do again. Neonatal ICU would have been cool, for instance, and relevant to OB. Anyway, none of it is going to happen. I have 12 weeks of elective time, and all 12 are going to be spent in OB. I get 8 weeks of vacation, and I'm going to take 4 in the summer and 4 next spring, right before I graduate. So next April would be a great time to go to Hong Kong, but now I don't need the credit and would pretty much have to work in the OB or surgery departments due to scheduling and my lack of fluent Cantonese skills, and if I want to go to HK for my vacation, I can just do that and visit my grandmother without worrying about actually working, so I don't think it's going to happen. I still might go for vacation, but that's totally different.

So here is the next year of my life, as it stands now:

This week: Last week of medicine, final exam on Friday
Next week: Spring break! Visit Eric, go home, host a bachelorette party in Pittsburgh for my friend Jamie
April: Psychiatry
May: Finish psych, start family medicine rural rotation
June: Finish family med, end third year (!), take 2 weeks off and do some hard-core wedding planning (1 of these weeks is one of my 8 for 4th year)
July: Away Ob/Gyn rotation at Drexel
August: Away Ob/Gyn rotation at UPenn, take Step 2 to get it out of the way (there are 3 weeks of vacation in here, as well, but I'll be studying)
September: Ob/Gyn AI at UofL
October: Surgery AI
November: Neurology (ugh)
December: finish neuro, get 3 weeks of winter break!
January 2009: Medicine AI
February: AHEC (rural rotation), probably in Ob/Gyn because if I have to be in the middle of nowhere, at least I'll be doing something I like
March: Ambulatory rotation, maybe in pediatrics. I had fun on peds this year. Match Day!
April: Vacation! Hopefully looking for a house in NJ/PA.
May: Graduate, take another 2 weeks off, get married!
June: Honeymoon, move, get readjusted to the real world after taking 10 straight weeks of vacation.
July: start intern year...

Once again, I've managed to create a projection 15 months into the future, but I am incapable of studying for this test I have on Friday. Pretty much par for the course, though.