Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Take a deep breath in...let it out...and your done with your pulmonary block! Wow, that was a quick, not so fun ride! A week and a half to learn all that is pulmonary: actually, plus one day. As some of you know, my birthday was last Sunday, which means I got to spend most of it studying. However, earlier in the summer my dad said that he wanted to fly in for my birthday just for the day. I knew it was likely that I was going to have an exam on the following Monday to I contacted my class counselor to see if I could get a potential deferral. I was able to get a one day extension for the written final, but I had to take the lab final--which is okay because it is easier to prepare for that. The reason it was potential was since it was just a short amount of time and my dad knew I would have to study a lot, I thought there might be a chance I could take the written.
As the days drew closer, my dad e-mailed me and asked me for directions. He happened to through in the word "we" in there, which kind of threw me. I asked him if that meant that he and Libby were coming and he said yes. They were going to stay at a local Red Roof Inn despite my continual reply; we have a great guest room! Why would you stay at a motel? His response was, we'll be more comfortable in our own room. Whatever, I thought. They are a crazy couple and if they want to get all funky on their trip, I don't want to hear it! Parents usually don't make much sense anyway and I had too much work to do to pay any attention.
I watched their plane take off and land on the computer so I knew when to expect them. I greeted them at the door and my dad says to me, come on! Your present is in the car. So I walked outside in my study slippers and warm-ups and as I round the corner of the trees behind our place, I see my grandmother (grandma-Gert), my old sister Michelle and her husband Vic! WOW! We all hug and while I think to myself what a lucky guy I am, I also think, I'm really glad I got that deferral and there is no way it is going to be potential anymore! It turned out that my younger sister, Shana, was delayed in NYC and would arrive in a few hours. Then, I come to the understanding that this has been planned since early summer, but what is worse is ML was in on it and never said a peep! (She is in such trouble!) We had a great visit and it reassured me that my family was, well, my family!
After capturing Shana from the wrath of AirTran, we went out to one of the local restaurants I like: Blue Nile Ethiopian. And even Vic, with his meat+3 diet was able to eat at least some of the food. He did make the observation that he had tried Ethiopian before and really did not like it and my dad and Libby made the same observation although about a different restaurant. But, the all found this to be really good! No, that's too far for Vic. He found it to be tolerable--I think that's a better description. Back at the house, we had my favorite cake made by my favorite spouse: Tres Lechase. I've probably spelled that wrong, but it's SO good! It's a break-like-cake soaked in a concoction of sweetened condensed milk, cream and evaporated milk. YUMMY! We spent the next morning just hanging around and then they all flew out after lunch. What can I say? I'm just the luckiest man there is!
In other lucky news, I may FINALLY get my manuscript out from my post-doc at the NIH. That only took three years! We are tossing a draft that may actually be submitted this Friday. Hopefully, it will be accepted without too much more work to be added. It's just a communication, so that should help. I did have to revile to Marius (my PI while I was at the NIH) that my affiliation is with UM medical school and not UTMB Radiology anymore. We'll see if that changes how he feels about publishing. He had warned me against going to medical school for one reason that the other students would chide me and not be friendly because of my age. But, I am happy to say that he was dead wrong on that. Anyway, it will be interesting to see what, if anything, he says when he puts two and two together.
It's time to go study Renal! I'm skipping today, as I always do, but today (in 20 minutes) ML's boss will be teaching! I already warned him that I probably would NOT be there. He just laughed and said he did not expect me.
As the days drew closer, my dad e-mailed me and asked me for directions. He happened to through in the word "we" in there, which kind of threw me. I asked him if that meant that he and Libby were coming and he said yes. They were going to stay at a local Red Roof Inn despite my continual reply; we have a great guest room! Why would you stay at a motel? His response was, we'll be more comfortable in our own room. Whatever, I thought. They are a crazy couple and if they want to get all funky on their trip, I don't want to hear it! Parents usually don't make much sense anyway and I had too much work to do to pay any attention.
I watched their plane take off and land on the computer so I knew when to expect them. I greeted them at the door and my dad says to me, come on! Your present is in the car. So I walked outside in my study slippers and warm-ups and as I round the corner of the trees behind our place, I see my grandmother (grandma-Gert), my old sister Michelle and her husband Vic! WOW! We all hug and while I think to myself what a lucky guy I am, I also think, I'm really glad I got that deferral and there is no way it is going to be potential anymore! It turned out that my younger sister, Shana, was delayed in NYC and would arrive in a few hours. Then, I come to the understanding that this has been planned since early summer, but what is worse is ML was in on it and never said a peep! (She is in such trouble!) We had a great visit and it reassured me that my family was, well, my family!
After capturing Shana from the wrath of AirTran, we went out to one of the local restaurants I like: Blue Nile Ethiopian. And even Vic, with his meat+3 diet was able to eat at least some of the food. He did make the observation that he had tried Ethiopian before and really did not like it and my dad and Libby made the same observation although about a different restaurant. But, the all found this to be really good! No, that's too far for Vic. He found it to be tolerable--I think that's a better description. Back at the house, we had my favorite cake made by my favorite spouse: Tres Lechase. I've probably spelled that wrong, but it's SO good! It's a break-like-cake soaked in a concoction of sweetened condensed milk, cream and evaporated milk. YUMMY! We spent the next morning just hanging around and then they all flew out after lunch. What can I say? I'm just the luckiest man there is!
In other lucky news, I may FINALLY get my manuscript out from my post-doc at the NIH. That only took three years! We are tossing a draft that may actually be submitted this Friday. Hopefully, it will be accepted without too much more work to be added. It's just a communication, so that should help. I did have to revile to Marius (my PI while I was at the NIH) that my affiliation is with UM medical school and not UTMB Radiology anymore. We'll see if that changes how he feels about publishing. He had warned me against going to medical school for one reason that the other students would chide me and not be friendly because of my age. But, I am happy to say that he was dead wrong on that. Anyway, it will be interesting to see what, if anything, he says when he puts two and two together.
It's time to go study Renal! I'm skipping today, as I always do, but today (in 20 minutes) ML's boss will be teaching! I already warned him that I probably would NOT be there. He just laughed and said he did not expect me.
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
And I almost forgot! To all my Jewish readers, Shana Tova!
Hearken back to a time long, long ago: May 4, 2004 to be exact. I received a parking ticket on that day for parking in Northwood without a parking pass. As you may recall, I did have a parking pass and I did successfully fight the ticket with the parking referee. Fast forward to today. The medical school held its annual memorial service for the families that donated to the anatomical donations of U of M. I went out to me car and to my dismay, another ticket! I looked over the ticket and saw that it was for, again, not have a parking pass--which, of course, I still have. What was more curious is saying the same thing to myself as I said back in May, “Huh, the officer’s last name is the same as my nephew’s nick name.” Well, almost. The ticket is from officer Ely and my nephew’s name is Elijah (his nick name is Eli). I went back to my trust web site--yes, the one you are reading now--and looked up for the image of the old ticket. Somewhat surprisingly, I was correct! The same officer issued both tickets.
Now I know I’ll be able to win this ticket just like that last, but I thought, maybe this time I should go one step further. I don’t need to be taking time out of my schedule to deal with this especially when I could spend it posting on my blog. Or, heaven forbid, studying. I called the department of public safety and spoke with officer Williams. I explained to her what had happened and after bouncing a few phone calls back and forth, I asked if it would be possible to meet with office Ely. Although reluctant, she agreed to ask him if he would meet up with me at my car. It is not their SOP since some people can be quite aggressive, but she said I sounded like a nice person. I reassured her I was. Those of you who know me best, well you know I can fake it when it’s really important. After all, he has a gun and we had to get rid of ours when we left Texas. Seriously, I know in situations like this it is much better to be kind and professional.
I saw him drive up and I went out to meet him. I stayed dressed in my professional clothes sans the white coat. I introduced myself and thanked him for taking time out of his schedule to meet with me. I explained to him my quandary and that this was actually the second ticket that he has issued me. He was quite pleasant the whole time, looked at the car and said that it was in the correct place. He noted that my car was actually one of the few cars to have it in the lower passenger side corner where it is supposed to be--most people have it part-way-up the windshield. It’s more dangerous because it blocks your view, but obviously gets you less tickets. He apologized and explained that at this point he could not “take care” of the ticket and that I needed to go to the parking referee. He even offered to have the referee contact him if there is a problem. I nodded and told him that I knew and my only request was for him to remember, “Green Sebring with Black top has a parking pass.” We both laughed and he said he’ll certainly try and after meeting me and have the conversation it should help. He did ask if I have a problem with the sticker falling down, which I have not. He was puzzled because before he writes any ticket he walks around the car to check in all windows, but since this was his second time writing me a ticket he did not have a good answer other than to promise that he will try to be more diligent
I thanked him for his time again and I came in here to write this entry. I’d scan it in for you but my scanner died, actually several weeks ago. I just bought another one off of e-bay so when it gets here I’ll post the two tickets together. :) But for now, it’s back to respiratory!
Now I know I’ll be able to win this ticket just like that last, but I thought, maybe this time I should go one step further. I don’t need to be taking time out of my schedule to deal with this especially when I could spend it posting on my blog. Or, heaven forbid, studying. I called the department of public safety and spoke with officer Williams. I explained to her what had happened and after bouncing a few phone calls back and forth, I asked if it would be possible to meet with office Ely. Although reluctant, she agreed to ask him if he would meet up with me at my car. It is not their SOP since some people can be quite aggressive, but she said I sounded like a nice person. I reassured her I was. Those of you who know me best, well you know I can fake it when it’s really important. After all, he has a gun and we had to get rid of ours when we left Texas. Seriously, I know in situations like this it is much better to be kind and professional.
I saw him drive up and I went out to meet him. I stayed dressed in my professional clothes sans the white coat. I introduced myself and thanked him for taking time out of his schedule to meet with me. I explained to him my quandary and that this was actually the second ticket that he has issued me. He was quite pleasant the whole time, looked at the car and said that it was in the correct place. He noted that my car was actually one of the few cars to have it in the lower passenger side corner where it is supposed to be--most people have it part-way-up the windshield. It’s more dangerous because it blocks your view, but obviously gets you less tickets. He apologized and explained that at this point he could not “take care” of the ticket and that I needed to go to the parking referee. He even offered to have the referee contact him if there is a problem. I nodded and told him that I knew and my only request was for him to remember, “Green Sebring with Black top has a parking pass.” We both laughed and he said he’ll certainly try and after meeting me and have the conversation it should help. He did ask if I have a problem with the sticker falling down, which I have not. He was puzzled because before he writes any ticket he walks around the car to check in all windows, but since this was his second time writing me a ticket he did not have a good answer other than to promise that he will try to be more diligent
I thanked him for his time again and I came in here to write this entry. I’d scan it in for you but my scanner died, actually several weeks ago. I just bought another one off of e-bay so when it gets here I’ll post the two tickets together. :) But for now, it’s back to respiratory!
Monday, September 13, 2004
You wait and wait for the next interesting installment. Days, weeks, months go by! Well, maybe not months, but certainly weeks. I am proud to announce EKG’s version 1.1 EKG! I still have some bugs to work out, but at least I got a couple of images to put us. Anyone that has ever looked at an EKG (or ECG) knows that there is WAY too much noise in my prototype, but I’m working on it, slowly. There are two datasets over in the photo section. One is from Lead I, which looks the best of the bunch except it does not appear that I have a clear P-wave. At the very end, you can see the T-wave shoot up, probably because I’m asking ML to hit the Stop Recording button. Also, don’t be alarmed by the message in the upper right hand corner. It defaults to that when you stop recording. The other is (approximately) V6. And, from the looks of it, I’m in BIG trouble. It should not have such a pronounced S-wave (the negative tail after the tall positive R-wave). It makes me think that the position is more V5 which does have a more prominent S-wave. Well, and I was sitting up when I took this and I should be lying down. Datasets
I’m not too worried. I think my heart must be okay considering when I went biking yesterday and ended up "racing" someone up the hill (second time for me first time for them) and I maxed my heart rate at 202 without any angina-like symptoms. That’s got to be a good sign. (Husband and wife on two mountain bikes. They did not stop for the stop sign/railroad track like I do and they came flying up the hill. I was able to pass the wife and catch up to the husband with my slow-and-steady hill climbing.) Too bad I don’t have a recording device I could use with the EKG and take my EKG while I’m biking. Wouldn’t that be a trip! I suppose I could hook a tape recorder to the EKG output since the EKG run’s on a 9 volt battery…it could be done! Maybe if I can down size it, get some good/sticky electrodes and get my signal-to-noise ratio up it would work! We’ll see. But for now, enjoy a little peak at my heart and know that the next time you visit, I may just slather you down with KY jelly and see what your heart looks like!
I’m not too worried. I think my heart must be okay considering when I went biking yesterday and ended up "racing" someone up the hill (second time for me first time for them) and I maxed my heart rate at 202 without any angina-like symptoms. That’s got to be a good sign. (Husband and wife on two mountain bikes. They did not stop for the stop sign/railroad track like I do and they came flying up the hill. I was able to pass the wife and catch up to the husband with my slow-and-steady hill climbing.) Too bad I don’t have a recording device I could use with the EKG and take my EKG while I’m biking. Wouldn’t that be a trip! I suppose I could hook a tape recorder to the EKG output since the EKG run’s on a 9 volt battery…it could be done! Maybe if I can down size it, get some good/sticky electrodes and get my signal-to-noise ratio up it would work! We’ll see. But for now, enjoy a little peak at my heart and know that the next time you visit, I may just slather you down with KY jelly and see what your heart looks like!
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Well, I thought I would post yesterday, but I was wrong. I started putting the finishing touches on the home-made EKG and that took a little longer than expected. Unfortunately, it’s not working yet! I’ve gone through the schematics a few times and everything seems to be in order. Well, actually, I did find an extra capacitor where it was not supposed to be, but that really didn’t change anything. I guess the most important part is it does not kill me when I hook it up. The funniest parts are the electrodes. They’re made out of pennies! I am using KY for conduction jelly so I was all slimy when I went to bed. (Not really, but it sounds funny!)
Cardio is done and it was pretty tough. They dropped 3 days out of the course without dropping material and it is quite voluminous. Unfortunately, it sounds like they did that to most blocks. I really don’t know why! M2 was tough enough and now it’s even tougher. I fear that it will hurt our board scores ultimately. I really wonder if they are thinking this through carefully enough. I understand making M1 harder, but making M2 harder so you can add more touchy-feely stuff I think is a big mistake. Oh well, too late now!
The exam was really long and I did pretty well. I needed to study a bit more for the pathology lab practical. It just was not sticking in my brain very well, which is odd because last year it came to me pretty easily. No matter, that’s easy to fix.
So, now I can read EKG’s and actually know what I’m looking for. The profs call us junior squiggologist! It’s just too bad that I cannot get my EKG to work so I could read my own, and ML’s, and the neighbors’, and whoever else will sit still to let me take it. :) I forgot to mention that ML’s mother flew up here to escape the first Florida hurricane. It was just after I started the sequence. I think she had a nice time-I was spending most of my time studying.
We start respiratory today so I need to clean all of this EKG building off of my desk and get to it! We have an open-book quiz this weekend. I like the idea, but I’m afraid, to be honest. And then the final is the Monday after next. I’m already behind! :)
Cardio is done and it was pretty tough. They dropped 3 days out of the course without dropping material and it is quite voluminous. Unfortunately, it sounds like they did that to most blocks. I really don’t know why! M2 was tough enough and now it’s even tougher. I fear that it will hurt our board scores ultimately. I really wonder if they are thinking this through carefully enough. I understand making M1 harder, but making M2 harder so you can add more touchy-feely stuff I think is a big mistake. Oh well, too late now!
The exam was really long and I did pretty well. I needed to study a bit more for the pathology lab practical. It just was not sticking in my brain very well, which is odd because last year it came to me pretty easily. No matter, that’s easy to fix.
So, now I can read EKG’s and actually know what I’m looking for. The profs call us junior squiggologist! It’s just too bad that I cannot get my EKG to work so I could read my own, and ML’s, and the neighbors’, and whoever else will sit still to let me take it. :) I forgot to mention that ML’s mother flew up here to escape the first Florida hurricane. It was just after I started the sequence. I think she had a nice time-I was spending most of my time studying.
We start respiratory today so I need to clean all of this EKG building off of my desk and get to it! We have an open-book quiz this weekend. I like the idea, but I’m afraid, to be honest. And then the final is the Monday after next. I’m already behind! :)
Sunday, September 05, 2004
I have been busy as H3!!, can you tell? I have my cardio final on Tuesday and I will try to post some news then. I may even get to post a copy of my heart rhythm with my home-made EKG! Provided I get to finish building it on Tuesday. :-)
