Thursday, February 2, 2012

Ova and Parasites


I repeatedly cannot believe that nobody seems to be working on a baby-bowl - basically a fishtank that you can grow an embryo in. Basically, it would allow you to bypass all the hassle of finding a surrogate, and raise your embryo more like a bird takes care of an egg. Manily: outside you. Birds have it right.

The applications are clear. Infertility, convenience, gestations where mom would rather be drinking a bottle of wine every day. All problems ameliorated by the baby-bowl. One would think there would be big money behind it. Anyway, if you've perfected this idea, I'll buy it for $50. Just shoot me an e-mail.

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Success


Haters say my abdominal exam drawing is overly detailed. And by 'haters', I mean 'everyone'. But hey, would it kill you to put a little drop shadow on a hastily scrawled 'vtx'?

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Always the Bridesmaid of Delivery


Another call night tonight. Another promise of hard work, diligent charting, and sporadic sleep. But another opportunity.

I want to catch baby. I think it's a reasonable request. Heretofore, however, circumstances have conspired to not give me that opportunity. I have come close. I've stood next to the doctor, I've delivered placentas, helped dry off baby. But I really think I would like to get one out. You know, to say I did.

I think the placentas are good practice. But nobody seems that interested in what I'm doing. They never have a name picked out, they never want to hold it, they're just never that excited about the placenta. Maybe I should start charting that... seems like it might be relevant - I don't think these placentas that I'm bringing into the world are necessarily getting loving homes.

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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Slogans


This started as the idea for a banner over my waiting room if I were an Ob/Gyn. Except lately, I'm thinking rads, so I won't need the banner because:

a) it won't make sense given the context
and
b) I won't have a waiting room

Come to think of it, it might be funnier out of context. Put it up in the neurosurg. waiting room.

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Thursday, January 19, 2012

[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]


There used to be these bills called 'SOPA' and 'PIPA' yesterday. I'd heard about them a little bit, something about using a firewall to unilaterally black out websites accused of copyright infringement. And that was the rub - not 'proved', but 'accused'. That made people kind of nervous, as Big Brother tends too. And it's probably not the best for the sharing of ideas.

Anyway, due to astounding concerted effort by most of the websites you would have ever gone to, support for these bills collapsed yesterday. So that's generally a good thing. The only problem was, when I got curious and went to try to use Wikipedia, it let me right in. I read like 16 articles and clicked a bunch of links. Couldn't get it to turn black.

I really learned a lot.

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Sunday, January 15, 2012

Underwater


I'm really courting the technical French/English pun loving demographic on this one.

Spent another day on call this past Friday. It nearly killed me. I've come to the conclusion that medical education is about 10% raw hazing. I did okay, got my notes done, kept my head down. But if they sense a hint of weakness, they will hound you mercilessly all night long.

It was rough. Every time I carved out a two hour block of no notes, in came the ambulances and the triage, and it was a fresh set of H&P's all over again. The actual medicine of Ob/Gyn is okay, but the schedule (and the suing) make it pretty tough. I had this realization when an attending told me how awesome it will be when she quits, opining that late 50's would be a good time to hang it up for good.

Happy retirement. Enjoy sleeping at night.

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Thursday, January 12, 2012

Island of Misfit Birth Control


Talked about birth control today. Basically, part of being a medical student is the fact that we get the high-school health talk about every year, and at a slightly higher level of complexity each time. And less taking out a sheet of looseleaf paper and making a list of five reasons why abstinence is the best for me.

I've come to the belief that there are too many birth control options. "Blah blah blah, choice, blah blah -" Unimpressed. People don't need 16 options for their blood pressure medication, they need a few that work. Birth control isn't that different. I am unsurprised that they stopped manufacturing the sponge in 2009, and that the Oby/Gyney giving the lecture hadn't fit a diaphragm in years. I mean, how can either of those compete with the sleek stylings of NuvaRing in the category of 'things you put in your vagina'?

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