Thursday, May 13, 2004

I still have a split S1...at least that's what I'm calling it for now. I thought it went away but I listened very carefully and it was still there. Bizarre. Maybe it's the weather that's causing it. Or maybe I need to learn more cardiology.
~me~ at 10:05 PM

So I now have an interesting heart exam. I was drinking some tea (only 1 mug, or about 10 or 12 oz) and afterwards started feeling sort of jittery. This is odd since that has never happened before and tea isn't exactly packed with caffeine compared to coffee. I felt like I do when I need some sugar...you know, that shakey feeling. Well, I decided to listen to my heart just for fun and was surprised to hear 3 sounds instead of the 2 I usually hear. Now, the rhythm sounded like an S4 gallop. You usually only hear S4s if the heart is messed up and I have no reason to have or suspect cardiac disease since I don't have other symptoms suggestive of disease. Then I went to the littman website (they make stethoscopes) and listened to the S4 samples they have and compared them to a normal split S1 (I was aware of split S2s but I guess it makes sense that the S1 can be split as well). They sounded very similar to me and since a split S1 is heard in 70% of normal people, I'm calling this a split S1 and then after dinner tonight I'll listen again and see if it's still there. Sometime between now and the last time I listened to my heart (last block sometime...hey, I get bored), this new sound appeared. Very odd...the story of my life I suppose.
~me~ at 5:13 PM

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

I finally learned a good way to detect jaundice in a baby from Dr Dise. Apparently that peachy complexion that people love to see in babies is jaundice. or you can press down on the babies cheek and instead of being white, it will be yellow. oh and babies are not meant to look like peaches or pumpkins...or blueberries for that matter.
~me~ at 6:21 PM

Remus

If you're curious, I put up some pics rob sent me of her son.
~me~ at 5:46 PM

Oh and another thing. Today I had clinics at THC and it was half-lame. It was like I was a 1st or 2nd year again because I didn't get to see any patients by myself. Apparently very rarely will attendings let students see patients by themselves because these are private patients. Um...so were the patients at my family medicine site. ANyway, it was only halfway lame because at least the attending went through developmental stuff with each patient. He then gave me a little talk about how med students like to put lots of info in the history section of his charts but that I should read his to see how he summarizes it well...Um, yeah, maybe if his handwriting was legible!!! It's got to be the worst I've seen all year. I couldn't read anything he wrote down and I was in there and knew the story myself! You would think that would help with the interpretation. Tomorrow is grand rounds. we don't have to sign in and so I'm tempted to not go since all I do anyway is pass out or play games on my pda.
~me~ at 4:28 PM

the usps is so damn slow. I ordered some supplies and not only has the package not arrived yet (mailed 5/5) but they haven't even updated the shipping tracking info since 5/7, when it left memphis. Now, I haven't driven to memphis from new orleans but if my dad can drive from Oregon to New Orleans in about 4-5 days, shouldn't the idiots at the usps be able to get from memphis to new orleans in less time?!? bastards. Sure, I don't need to print stuff right away but sometime this month would be nice and I refuse to pay $30 for an epson b&w cartridge because the 5 generic brand ones I bought for $25 total is sitting somewhere between tennessee and Louisiana. It's not the first time those idiots have lost my mail either. My dad sent me tax forms to sign and mail in to the irs and those were lost for 4 months and finally arrived long after april 15th in a sun faded envelope. I say again...bastards! Stop holding my mail hostage!!!
~me~ at 4:22 PM

Monday, May 10, 2004

Oooh...I just got an email from AAA and got another great idea for a vacation - a cruise! Let's see, where could I go...alaska! Jeff and his family went on one and they enjoyed it. Or I could go on a caribbean cruise but that seems too cliché. eh...back to work
~me~ at 5:29 PM

Well, I think I fixed the problem by using my geocities account. Some browsers may not load the images properly so that sucks but oh well. Now I'm going to prepare a talk on IVH: intraventricular hemorrhages. The NICU babies get them and the really bad bleeds aren't great for neurological development. But hey, they're alive! Sure, they can't walk, talk, or otherwise have a real life but the parents have their kid to love.
~me~ at 4:35 PM

The angelfire bastards have implemented a no remote loading thing and since they overcharge for the plans that would allow this, I now have to find another place for my files. Those jerks!
~me~ at 3:22 PM

Sunday, May 09, 2004

I took a study break to research all-in-one printers. They print, scan, fax, and copy...anything I could possibly want for less than $300. And of course, bought separately these machines would be more than $300 because I would have to buy the best in each category. Sure, you may say, "Cara, you really don't fax more often than once a year." But if I had a fax machine, I could fax more often. You reply "and who would you fax stuff to?" and I say "anyone with a fax machine." In other words, I probably don't need a fax machine and since I no longer fork over the $$ for long distance from my regular home phone, I really would only be able to fax people in my area code. So I guess I should look for machines without fax capabilities.

Now you ask, "do you really need your own copy machine?" And let me say that it would be handy to have my own copy machine because then I wouldn't have to go to school or kinko's to make copies if i had it in my home. But I suppose it's not a necessity...but then again, many of the things I have bought in the past weren't necessities in the true sense of the word but have become an integral part of my daily life.

And yes, I need a scanner. Think of all the things I could do...hey I bet I could scan and then make copies. Maybe I'll just stick with my original plan from last year and just buy a scanner and stick with my cheapo epson printer...especially since I can get good cheap ink for it compared to the cost for the ink if I got the HP all-in-one I'm currently admiring. Actually, i think my mom needs a scanner so that we can scan in all the pictures she's collected over the years. Better yet, I think I should take her negatives that she does have and get the folks down at sam's club to put them onto a photo cd so that she can dump the 6 copies of each picture she took of her classroom kids. She says she uses them for her memory book classes so her friends can practice but then, shouldn't she have run out of pictures by now? Unless she has people who master the skills of using those things faster than me...is that possible?!? Just kidding. I take longer because I'm more obsessive-compulsive about having a nice looking album page than her customers. I think it pays off because I have a nice album but then again, it's taking me forever to finish my album.

I sort of have my schedule finished but I need to find out if I will be going to oregon for 2 months of family medicine. Regardless, I will be done with 4th year at the end of february. Anyone want to go traveling with me? Right now, I'm looking at australia, england, france, japan, and denmark (cause legoland is there and you know I LOVE legos; actually that's the only thing I want to see there even though I'm sure it's got some other good stuff...like the hans christien andersson museum and little mermaid statue). I'd need a translator for japan and probably for france because I don't want to think too hard to translate while I'm on vacation...I've got to save braincells for residency. I'm also tempted to visit Point Barrow, Alaska. it's the northernmost point of the US and is above the arctic circle. Sure, I'll probably freeze to death but wouldn't it be fun to visit the northernmost point? We have to go in the summer where it's sunny almost 24 hours/day (still cold). When I first brought up going on a trip with my mom, she said "do you want to go to the beach house?" Vacation to Oregon?!? If I want to go somewhere I've been before, I might as well go home! Actually, I do want to go home for awhile so we can start planning that trip. I should ask Liz about what spots in australia are cool since she lived there for a year. Well, back to peds!

~me~ at 3:50 PM