Thursday, March 28, 2013

The books of M4 year

Over the past eight years, I’ve frequently posted about “The books of…” various portions of my training. There were the books I read during my first summer of medical school in 2006, with the last few listed in a second post. Then there were all of the books I read while in South Africa just before starting graduate school in 2007, so voluminous that they couldn’t be captured in a single post. Then there were the books of the summer of 2008, which also required some wrapping up in an additional post, confirming my tendencies not only to read in binges, but also to post summaries of small portions of my life before they are actually finished. Continuing this trend, I’d like to post about the books I read for pleasure during M4 year, even though there are still some weeks left before graduation.

1. House of God by Samual Shem
I started reading this during 3rd  year, as I’d been strongly recommended to do by several faculty members, but was too overwhelmed by my internal medicine rotation to finish it at that point. I think I struggled through it for a variety of reasons, first and foremost being the volume of reading and studying I was doing for my rotations, but a close second being how disturbingly close it remained to my experiences as a medical student, even as so much about the hospital has changed in the intervening years.

2. Privatizing Poland: Big Business, and the Remaking of Labor by Elizabeth C. Dunn
My introduction to history and anthropology in Eastern Europe, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I was smugly pleased to note that when someone asked why I was reading this book, that I could casually mention knowing someone who is doing engaging and important work in that part of the world…

3. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
What can I really say about this that hasn’t already been said. It was disconcerting to enjoy so much a novel with such a troubling plot. I read this on flights while I was interviewing and creeped out many a neighboring traveler while passing the time. Mission accomplished.

4. Gold by Chris Cleave
This was no Little Bee or Incendiary, but I liked it nonetheless. As I have explained to several folks, I felt that his other two books took impressively extraordinary situations and made them feel intimate and quotidian, while Gold made a rather big deal out of situations that felt a bit like the daily grind. I suspect that some of this was my particular career choice, as the hospitals featured prominently in the book are a much larger part of my daily life than they are of many, but I also didn’t the writing was quite as skillful. Despite this, it was a good read, and motivated me to get on my bike.

5. The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht
I’ve just started this, so I’ll need to write a second post both to maintain parallelism with my previous book posts, and to let you know how this goes. The first thirty pages have been great.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

How far I have come?

As I prepare to move across the country, I’ve been doing some sorting at my mom’s house (read: mostly throwing away things that probably should have been thrown away a long time ago). When I moved out for college, she let me keep a bunch of things there and, although some of it has been culled over the years, there are still some piles. I’m making my way through them, keeping the photos but trashing things that have neither real sentimental value to me nor resale value for others. In my most recent visit, I came upon this:



Lest you feel puzzled, let me clarify. It is a reconstructed mouse skeleton from an owl pellet, posed with a Polly Pocket doll in its mouth climbing the Eiffel Tower, or at least a King-Kong-like-scale replica of that notable monument. I made this in ninth grade biology, learning about skeletal anatomy for the first time. I have only Mr. Bassier, my high school science teacher, to thank encouraging us to not only reconstruct the skeletons, but also pose them creatively. There may have also been a contribution from my already-slightly-off sense of science humor...

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

We now return to your regularly scheduled programming...

With all of the craziness surrounding Match Day, I know you were worried that Walter had been forgotten. Fear not. He is very excited to be heading to a city with notably less snow, despite having notably more fog. He has been hiding from the weather recently...



Monday, March 18, 2013

Matched… and then…

Cross-posted on Dose of Reality

As some of you have heard, Match Day is over and I’ll be heading out to San Francisco to start my OB/GYN residency at UCSF in June. It’s hard to believe that the day is past, and no one really said what we could all anticipate after Match Day itself. Some had hinted that it was somewhat anticlimactic, but I didn’t find it to be that. Finding out where I would be living in just a few short months was nothing short of exhilarating, to say nothing of sharing it with so many important people in my life. Confirming that I’d be leaving the University of Michigan after 12 years here was monumental. What have been odd are the days that have followed. All at once I have nothing to do and so much to do. It’s too early to find an apartment, but too anxiety provoking not to peruse the SF Craigslistings; I don’t have any of the paperwork I need to sign yet, but I know that it’s coming and will need a quick turnaround; I don’t have the energy to really focus intensively on academic work, but there are so many things I’d like to get done before I graduate. I know it’s only been a few days, and it is all starting to settle into place, but I’m getting the sense that this is only a beginning.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

On the twelfth day of Matchmas…

My ERAS gave to me,

a major scale serenading from Yale,

some hubbub about U Dub,

a hurrah for the Yellow and Blue,

a disco to lure me to San Francisco,

an evangelist for Los Angeles,

the pitter-patter of palpitations for Pittsburgh,

a passionate yen for Penn,

the paragon in Oregon,

a turn toward Northwestern,

a hopscotch path to Hopkins,

a Partners program love telegram,

and the awesomeness of Beth Israel Deaconess.

Fantastic things about Yale:

  • Some of the happiest residents I met on the interview trail
  • Incredible School of Public Health
  • New Haven! A surprisingly endearing town with fantastic pizza

On the eleventh day of Matchmas…

My ERAS gave to me,*

some hubbub about U Dub,

a hurrah for the Yellow and Blue,

a disco to lure me to San Francisco,

an evangelist for Los Angeles,

the pitter-patter of palpitations for Pittsburgh,

a passionate yen for Penn,

the paragon in Oregon,

a turn toward Northwestern,

a hopscotch path to Hopkins,

a Partners program love telegram,

and the awesomeness of Beth Israel Deaconess.

The University of Washington was fantastic for the following reasons:

  • The only OB/GYN residency in the state – that means all kinds of excitement
  • Amazing research resources and residents who are excited about using them
  • Seattle! So many friends, so much delicious food, and such a beautiful part of the country.

*Just a reminder that this list is alphabetical, and is in no way indicative of the order of my preferences. I said that at the beginning, but wanted to say it again. Alphabetical. All alphabetical by program name as I had them listed on my list (so basically random, since they were sorted by all kinds of odd abbreviations)…

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

On the tenth day of Matchmas…

My ERAS gave to me,

a hurrah for the Yellow and Blue,*

a disco to lure me to San Francisco,

an evangelist for Los Angeles,

the pitter-patter of palpitations for Pittsburgh,

a passionate yen for Penn,

the paragon in Oregon,

a turn toward Northwestern,

a hopscotch path to Hopkins,

a Partners program love telegram,

and the awesomeness of Beth Israel Deaconess.

Awesomeness at Michigan:

  • Fantastic residents that I know I adore
  • An amazing chair who has mentored me for over a decade now
  • Friends and family so nearby

*For those of you who do not already bleed maize and blue, this is a line from the alma mater, The Yellow and Blue.

Monday, March 11, 2013

On the ninth day of Matchmas…

My ERAS gave to me,

a frying pan-Rube Goldberg-plan to get to San Fran,

an evangelist for Los Angeles,

the pitter-patter of palpitations for Pittsburgh,

a passionate yen for Penn,

the paragon in Oregon,

a turn toward Northwestern,

a hopscotch path to Hopkins,

a Partners program love telegram,

and the awesomeness of Beth Israel Deaconess.

UCSF has so many great things going for it:

  • Awesome residents who are friendly and accomplish great stuff while doing all kinds of other things (like biking!)
  • San Francisco! Family, friends, and all the queer culture a girl could want in an overall amazingly fantastic city.
  • A great range of clinical experiences (including a PGY-3 rotation in Hawaii…)
  • Faculty in my research area

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming…

…to announce that I matched!

I find out where on Friday, but I got the official e-mail today letting me know that I’ve matched somewhere.

Let the Matchmas continue…

On the eighth day of Matchmas…

My ERAS gave to me,

an evangelist for Los Angeles,

the pitter-patter of palpitations for Pittsburgh,

a passionate yen for Penn,

the paragon in Oregon,

a turn toward Northwestern,

a hopscotch path to Hopkins,

a Partners program love telegram,

and the awesomeness of Beth Israel Deaconess.

UCLA was an exciting surprise on the interview trail, as I’d never really visited LA before:

  • Great mix of academic and county hospital experiences
  • Phenomenal School of Public Health and research resources
  • The beach – many of my other options are near the ocean, none offers a beach experience like LA
  • LA! Great food, Hollywood, giant pits filled with tar, good friends, who could ask for anything more?

Sunday, March 10, 2013

On the seventh day of Matchmas…

My ERAS gave to me,

some palpitations for Pittsburgh,

a passionate yen for Penn,

a paragon in Oregon,

a turn toward Northwestern,

a hopscotch path to Hopkins,

a Partners program love telegram,

and the awesomeness of Beth Israel Deaconess.

Offerings from the University of Pittsburgh:

  • Big program filled with friendly residents
  • Women’s Health Research Institute with amazing resources
  • Pittsburgh! A surprisingly charming city that somehow straddles the East Coast and Midwest, retaining the best of both worlds, including a reasonable cost of living
  • Every OB/GYN fellowship you could possibly imagine available

Saturday, March 09, 2013

On the sixth day of Matchmas…

My ERAS gave to me,

a passionate yen for Penn,

the paragon in Oregon,

a turn toward Northwestern,

a hopscotch path to Hopkins,

a Partners program love telegram,

and the awesomeness of Beth Israel Deaconess.

Things Penn has to offer:

  • Fantastic public health research resources
  • Diverse patient population
  • Nyia! One of my original med school classmates is an OB/GYN resident there
  • Philly – a fun, new city with a super cute gay-borhood

On the fifth day of Matchmas…

My ERAS gave to me,

the paragon in Oregon

a turn toward Northwestern,

a hopscotch path to Hopkins,

a Partners program love telegram,

and the awesomeness of Beth Israel Deaconess.

OHSU (Oregon Health Sciences University) is truly an exciting OB/GYN residency programs:

  • Closely-knit residents with interesting curricular and extracurricular interests (i.e., great research and bikes!)
  • Unique research resources
  • Portland! Friends, food, family nearby… Also bikes everywhere… AND affordable housing. I love Portland.
  • Engaged and excited program director

Friday, March 08, 2013

On the fourth day of Matchmas…

My ERAS gave to me,

a turn toward Northwestern,

a hopscotch path to Hopkins,

a Partners program love telegram,

and the awesomeness of Beth Israel Deaconess.*

Amazing things about Northwestern:

  • Chicago! Friends and family so near by! Countless academic institutions so near by! Delicious food so near by!
  • Partnership with Storger (Cook County) Hospital for an exciting breadth of experiences
  • Possible Physician Scientist Training Program for a fellowship when I’m done with residency (Please do not groan – it would be nice for someone to pay me to do my research…)
  • Friendly residents who are excited about research

*I realized I had forgotten one of the key features of the Twelve Days of Christmas, which is that every new one is repeated every day following. Please forgive me…

Thursday, March 07, 2013

On the third day of Matchmas…

My ERAS gave to me,

a hopelessly happy hopscotch path to Hopkins…

  • So much history…
  • Incredible connections to a great School of Public Health
  • Beautiful new hospital
  • Baltimore: It’s the Detroit of 2030 – an exciting and vibrant town with a troubled past that has lots of affordable housing
  • So many friends living in or heading toward Baltimore, DC, and New York

On the second day of Matchmas…*

My ERAS gave to me,

a Partners program love telegram…

The combined Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospital program, also known as the Partners program, has all kinds of great things going for it.

  • Vast resources and connections to the rest of the Harvard system (i.e., School of Public Health)
  • Boston! So many friends live in Boston!
  • Residents dedicated to research and scholarship
  • My PhD advisor’s PhD advisor is one of the chairs there, so it would complete some sort of crazy circle…

*We are going to need to double up for a few days, since I missed a few posts due to emergency medicine shifts and sleeping…

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

On the first day of Matchmas…*

My ERAS gave to me,

the awesomeness of Beth Israel Deaconess…**

  • Small, friendly program
  • Teaching oriented
  • Boston! I love Boston!
  • Easy to live near work
  • Fantastic research support, including dedicated research staff who work closely with the residents

*Apologies for the terrible rhyming and alliteration that is about to ensue…

**We’re starting alphabetically, lest you think I’m giving away my rank list completely.