I know nobody reads this anymore, particularly since I don't write here anymore, so this may be the last post.
Anyway, I have had a few really good ideas over the years only to find that someone else already or very soon thereafter had developed the same or similar idea. Recent examples include bio-solar and modular cars. Bio-solar is genetically engineering plant or other photosynthetic organisms to link their photosensitive enzymes to electron transport chains and produce electricity. That's more or less what these guys have done. Modular cars are a solution to the problem of wanting something tiny like a smart car to drive to and from work but needing something bigger for long trips or hauling anything bigger than a purse in cargo. My wife recently heard a story on NPR detailing this exact product.
So my next great idea is not so much a product, but a prediction. It's 100% accurate. In 50 to 100 years I pray someone digs up this blog post and officially recognizes my prognostication in the appropriate annals of history. Here it is:
Stem cell therapy, especially with regards to neurologic illness, is doomed to failure but cybernetic augmentation/adaptation will legitimately cure neurologic diseases. The reason for this is the incredibly complex cycle of development the human nervous system undergoes. Each step must be completed in order. Try to do step 289 and then go back to step 17 and it just doesn't work. Unless the entire nervous system can be recruited o recreate the milieu of the original step 17 even the addition of stem cells at their individual step 17 would be fruitless. Ontogeny matters. I'm going to make a bunch of shirts with that slogan and start wearing them to presentations on stem cells.
I'm not anti-stem cell research, I just think it's ultimately fruitless.
Cybernetics however are incredibly close to breaking through into real, curative treatments that sound like science fiction. Deep brain stimulators have already proved quite successful in treatment of Parkinson's disease, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. More diseases are being studied all the time. (Personally, I think this is how we will cure obesity -- augment the satiety centers and Li'l Johnny Fatso suddenly eats 1000kcal/day less than he used to.)
Anyway, you read it here first. Oh, and LCD contact lenses that beam the image directly onto your retina.
1. Just finished the last three posts for afraidtofail. Also working on the new layout for whatever takes the place of the easy jokes about my dad. I've still got lots of ideas, but have basically thrown out the notion of a webcomic. I just can't draw well enough or quickly enough to do it right. I've thought about continuing the same format with random quotes from my life that have stuck in my head, from myself and others. (See: "Dude, we're fucked. Run!") Have also considered using it as a vehicle to talk about work, but that's probably ill advised. Lastly, might use it to document things my kids do and say. Still not sure.
2. The old blog seems to be up and working again. I guess I just had to log in a few times and try to make new posts to wake up my account. So, no more migrating old posts over here.
3. I start my last week of stroke as a junior resident tomorrow. Yay.
I've recently noticed that the link to the original menometrorrhagia is broken, so I checked it out. My account at blog.com still works, but if I try to post something to that blog or even view the blog I get routed to the sign-up page. Fortunately it looks like all my posts are still accessible, so I'm going to migrate those posts over here, little by little. So, here we go.
I chose menometrorrhagia as the title for this blog because it is: a) pedantic, b) medically themed, and c) implies that I will use this space for occasional, unpredictable venting. I will also use this blog to mention medical terms and/or other verbiage I find interesting or amusing. There will be anecdotes from my time on the hospital wards and the occasional bit of medical news. I will occasionally post non-medical things such as the afore-mentioned venting, and reviews of music, books, and movies. As a test to see if blog.com automatically creates hyperlinks, you can find my brother's blog, which was the impetus for my starting this blog, here: http://www.cursedwithambition.blogs.com/
I keep meaning to post about this store in Schulenburg. Like for years I've meant to post about it. M* and I laugh about it every time we go to Victoria. It looks like a prop for a Saturday Night Live skit. But it's oh, so real.
Many days I wish there were a store like this near Parkland.
The stroke service at the large county hospital I work in is incredibly busy. The past 8 months it's been even busier than usual as one of the other large hospitals in the metroplex has stopped accepting acute stroke patients (because the neurologists who work there feel they don't get paid enough to come in in the middle of the night to evaluate these patients -- and they're right). The stroke rotation is far and away the busiest rotation a neurology resident in my program can do. I just did it two consecutive months of stroke. By the end I was hating life, for many reasons, but here are a few: - the sheer volume of work is daunting - most of the work is not "doctor" work, per se, but more appropriately social worker work - greater than 60% of my time is spent searching for and filling out useless paper forms - the people I work with can't find it within themselves to be on time for the 7a.m. rounds that happen every single day, so every single day starts with me wasting my time waiting on these assholes to show up, watching precious minutes of the busiest time of my day evaporating while I get progressively more pissed off - fuckers - the volume of work dictates a certain amount of time be allocated toward fulfilling that work, yet this amount of time is greater than the mandated work hour restrictions on residents; thus I'm forced to either look like (and in fact be) a shitty doctor or lie about the number of hours worked -- I'm pretty sure this is not what the ACGME had in mind - fuckers
But this month I was scheduled for neuropathology. I'm not sure non-M.D.'s will appreciate what this means, but essentially it means that instead of getting to the hospital at 5:30, I'd get there at 8:30. Instead of being on call every 4 nights, I'd never be on call. Instead of getting pissed that people can't show up on time I'd be reading in the library. I'd see my kids. I'd be in a good mood. I wouldn't want to strangle everyone.
Instead, last Monday I got a frantic page from my chief resident that the person taking over stroke from me was not coming in and I had to cover for them. And, oh, by the way, you're on call tonight. And oh. by the way, you also have your clinic this afternoon. And oh, by the way, we didn't consider asking either of the residents coming off two or three months of not being on call to cover.
So I stepped up and worked an extra week of stroke and on Friday I was told the derelict resident was set to return this week. I signed out to her on Sunday and she took over on Monday. For 36 hours I enjoyed my life on neuropathology. This afternoon in my clinic I get a page from my program director that I am required to take over the stroke service again because that resident had gone derelict again. FUCKERS!
I don't know all the details of what's going on with my colleague, and I don't care. Whatever is going on she has handled in a most unprofessional way. On two occasions she has simply NOT SHOWN UP. Doctors are not allowed to no-call no-show. EVER. It goes without saying. What the fuck is wrong with this woman? You deal with your non-emergent shit until you can make arrangements without fucking up everybody's shit, you selfish cunt. Fuck.
I'd blog about my fucked up day but it would probably just end up giving me a stroke and then you'd have to murder me as I've requested, so let's just skip it. We'll watch this instead and imagine ourselves as the big guy with the black cape.
1. If you have to take an 8 hour exam on your day off, it's not a day off. 2. The theme song for Chuck is the best sitcom theme song since Cheers. 3. FUCK PRIDE. 4. Never think that letting your wife spend the night at a hotel so she can get some sleep is a good idea. It is not. 5. Holding a sleeping baby is THE highlight of human existence. (Unless it's sex with Angelina Jolie, but I haven't had the opportunity to study that in as much detail.)
I've gotten another five posts for afraidtofail done, which gives me a total of six in the hopper. I'm on the hook for five more posts to reach my stated goal of 52. I have two started, one of which is going to be the very last post in the series. I've got at least 6 more solid quotes to work with. The first real post was on 5/7/08, which would mean I should finish up on 5/6/09, but I did squander a couple of weeks in there, so it'll probably be more like 5/20/09 before the final post. Then I'm planning to do a post highlighting what I thought were the most successful (and sometimes under-appreciated) posts, and a final post summarizing the experience. After that, who knows. I'd hate to see afraidtofail die. There are more than a couple disappointing posts that I'd like the chance to re-write, so if I find time I'll probably do that. But really I'd like to come up with another idea to commit to for a year. If it weren't so time intensive (mainly due to my OCD), I'd love to do a webcomic of some sort. I don't think I could commit to a weekly comic though. My ideal transformation is actually to a webcomic with two panels, one is "what happened" and the second is "what happened in my head". There would probably be a lot of fire and Mortal Kombat fatality moves involved. Barring the webcomic I may just do that idea as prose. We'll see. I'm not sure I could work up 52 of those anyway.
No matter what though, one thing is certain, whatever afraidtofail becomes, it won't be as sweet as fmylife.com.
this is the 3rd month in a row I have complained to Sprint about my phone charges and got a credit. This time I received a $100 credit for having a third phone line I claimed I didn't know about.
WIDGETIZE