PreMDpilot

I just want to put my plans in writing, so I can come back and look at them at some later date and laugh. After this summer of studying for the MCAT, I am planning on going to a Spanish speaking country and living there for 4-6 months. After that, I want to come home and move to California where I can get a job as an interpreter in a hospital. I would like to get my phelbotomy certificate so they can hire me as a tech also. I would like to work 3-12 hour shifts and have four days off to persue my glider instructor rating. I figure that is going to cost me about $2000 and take a month or two. After that, I want to work as a glider instructor, a hospital tech, and an MCAT tutor at night. I figure I'll be working at least 60-70 hrs a week and making next to nothing, but I think that would make me happy. Typical schedule:
Mon, Tues, Wed, - hospital tech, MCAT instruction 12-15 hour days
Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun - glider instructor, MCAT tutor, r + r days
Other activities: excercise (frisbee, climbing, working out), swing dancing, cooking classes,

Has anybody ever thought that maybe we have too much freedom. We have the freedom to sue anybody in this country for almost anything, and it will be a complete pain in the ass for that person. As a result, we have a country that wants to blame someone for every single thing that could ever possibly happen. We can't chalk it up to unfortunate circumstance anymore, now there has to be someone to blame.

You may be wondering what set this off, and it was a long shift in the ER today. I actually really enjoyed my work, but there were a few moments that I really disliked. The first happened when I was reprimanded for disconnecting patients, and reconnecting them to prepare them for transport for admission. Now I've been told that I'm not allowed to do anything with patient care, but this is not Rocket Science or even Molecular Biology. It's a stupid little tube that provides oxygen, a blood pressure cuff, possibly an IV, and a pulse ox. Now, I can calculate the partial pressure of the oxygen flowing through that tube. I can tell you the anatomy of the heart of the blood vessels that the blood pressure cuff is using to read blood pressure. I can describe the molecular and cellular mechanisms of the drugs that are being pumped in through the IV, and I can tell you exactly how a pulse oximeter works....but I'm not allowed to touch any of them.

The reason for this is that I haven't been "trained" to use them. Since I haven't been trained, if something goes wrong (which I can't possibly think what would), the patient can sue the hosiptal for negligence. So instead of making life much easier for the nurses and the patient, we have to wait around until someone has a second (rare in a busy ER) to come and unhook the person. I could've saved a good half hour of waiting around today.

The other thing I was asked not to do is blow up glove balloons for little kids. This was my favorite activity. I love watching the kids faces and seeing the parents smile when I give them the balloon and a marker to draw on it with. Well, this is strictly against hospital policy. The balloon could pop and the kid could choke on the balloon. I described this situation to my dad (he used to be an ER doctor), and he said this was reasonable because he was involved in a rescue where a kid had choked on a balloon. That made me stop and think for a moment but still didn't alter my opinion. I'm sure kids choke on lots of balloons, and I'm also pretty sure that kids choke on lots of things that aren't balloons. Does giving a kid a balloon disproportionally increase the risk of his choking on that balloon?...Of Course!! So does giving the kid food, or toys, or anything else that he could ever possibly put in his mouth. That is not a valid reason for not giving the kid food or toys. Unfortunately, since it only takes one case of a kid choking on a hospital balloon to raise the spectre of a lawsuit, all acts of kindness of any kind that could lead to lawsuits are banished forthwith.

I think the only way to counter this trend in our society is to step back when something bad happens to you, and consciously think about not blaming somebody. If someone really is at fault because of gross negligence or intent, then blame them. But if your child chokes because some kind-hearted volunteer gave them a balloon...don't blame anyone.

Man I am exhausted. We just had another practice MCAT today and I bombed it pretty bad. I don't know what it is, but sometimes I will get worried about a test and kinda step outside myself. In this state of mind, I can't concentrate and really focus on what is happening during the test. I just blow through answers and think about other things. It's really annoying. Anyway, just wanted to drop that. I'll write again when I have something interesting to say.

For the MCAT writing section, I need to do a series of researches on important figures and slightly obscure historical events so that I have something to write on in detail on the writing sample. I am re-writing what I have found in my blog, because it will help me learn the specifics better. The first person I picked for this is Marie Curie.

Marie Curie was originally born Maria Sklodowska (no way I'm going to remember that) in 1967. She was born in Warsaw, Poland while it was under the control of the Russians. They were not benevolent masters, but it doesn't sound like they were that bad either. She was raised by a poor family that valued education. She was an outstanding student, but had to forego university for a few years because of financial reasons. She took a job as a housemistress and used her earnings to put her sister through medical school. A favor her sister would eventually return.

In 1891, she went to Paris to study physical sciences at the Sorbonne (ooh, ahh). There she met her future husband, Pierre Curie (so French). Apparently, he was her teacher and they shared an introverted, austere, laboratory life together. Marie decided to focus her doctoral studies on a recently discovered phenomenon...radioactivity. It wasn't actually called that, so she had to coin the term herself. Radioactivity had actually been discovered by another researcher (Henri Becquerel), but the Curie's did the most to charaterize it's properties and their researches eventually brought them to the discovery of Polonium (named after Marie's home country), and Radium (so named because of the podigious amounts of radiation it gave off). These discoveries would net them a shared Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1903. She also won another Nobel Prize in 1911 for her work in characterizing Radium. She was the first to do it, and one of only two people who have ever received two Nobel Prizes.

During this period of their lives the Curie's had two daughters, one of whom would also go on to win a Nobel prize. Life would take a turn for the worse for Marie, when her husband died in 1906, due to a "car accident." She continued with her research and when war broke out in 1914, she developed X-ray vans. I don't know if she actually developed X-ray technique, but she had a major impact in it's distribution and widespread medical use during WWI. Her X-ray vans were used to find metal splinters and bullets in the body. It's probably not such a huge leap to surmise that these machines lead to the modern X-ray machines.

After the war, Marie became involved in Radium research. She headed a laboratory in France, but had difficulty obtaining Radium for study. In 1926, she had to travel to United States, where then President Warren Harding presented her with a gram of Radium that she could use for research. She lived another ten years and watched her daughter Irene become a successful researcher. Marie Curie died of Leukemia in 1934.

So I decided to say screw MCAT studying and went to play video games at my friend's house last night. We stayed up until 4am in the morning playing video games, and then I came home and only got about 4 hrs of sleep (after being awake for more than 20). So needless to say, I feel like shit today. I've beenin bed all day. If this is what medical residency is going to be like, I don't know if I'll survive.

I've finally found it! I've finally found the link between molecular biology and flying...flight surgeon. I can go to medical school and get the Air Force to pay for it, and give me a generous stipend for doing it. I get out of medical school, I do a military residency in Family Practice or General Surgery and make more money than most civilian residents (with no debt). Then I get to go to flight training and get my wings and then I'm a captain in the Air Force, making $100,000 a year and being forced to fly 40 hrs a month! I only owe four years and I get to fly cool planes. It's AWESOME! I will get to travel around during medical school and probably residency. I will be working in a very good system, and overall, life will be good.

I guess the only tiny problem is that I don't really want to be in the military right now. But who knows, I might be drafted in another year or two. I also have ideological differences with most of the people in the military, and I disagree with some of the things they do. But I was thinking about doing a military residency anyway, because I believe that our system should be like the Swiss system. I think everyone should have to serve a term in the armed forces in order to participate in our government process. Like the right-wingers always say... freedom ain't free. Unfortunately, most of the people spouting that have never served a day in their life. I also think military service confers other benefits like increased awareness of health and well-being, and a general sense of duty and honor.

Well, one way or another, I'm going to be a FLIGHT SURGEON!!!!

(Sung to the tune created by the legendary band...Queen)

Yes today was a bicycle day. I rode everywhere on my bike today, and how can I tell? My ass is telling me. I must've ridden 20 miles today. It started at 10am with me riding to the gym and working out. Then I rode to the library to drop off my book. After that, I made the grueling climb up to the school with a 20lb backpack carrying all my MCAT books. I studied for about 4 hours and then I went to dinner. Then I had class from 7-9:30. Then I rode home at dark.

If you've never ridden a bicycle in the dark, it's a pretty interesting experience. Luckily I knew my route pretty well so I wasn't worried about anything accidentally catching and throwing me off my bike. The coolest part about the whole bike ride, and the reason I'm blogging about it at all, was coming home. A raistorm had just passed over and the ground was still wet, but there was a massive amount of lightning eminating from the clouds over the mountains. Every two or three seconds, a massive bolt would illuminate the mountains and sometimes even gave me enough light to see. The coolest thing was that there was no thunder. It was so far away that there was hardly a sound. It was weird and yet really cool. The culmination was when I was almost home and a blinding bolt struck about a mile away. I was temporarily disoriented by the suffusion of so much light. That was worth all the ass pain.

Wow, it's like OJ Simpson all over again. Actually it's not that bad. I remember hearing the Simpson verdict in home room in middle school while standing in a crowd around the only boy in the room who had a pocket radio. I remember hearing the verdict and being as nonplussed as I am now. Who really cares. I like Michael Jackson. I think he was a very talented artist and I still love his music. But, his personal affairs are his own. I trust the jury in this case and I think the American people should do the same. I've heard so many people complain or be jubilant about the verdict, but I just saw a system that worked like it was supposed to. He was judged by a jury of his peers and they found him not guilty. End of story.

That said, I was amazed that the CBS evening news took up about half its alloted time talking about the trial. They had analysts, on-scene reporters, family reporters, more analysts and a segment devoted to his continuing problems...then came the Iraq news. That just goes to show you there is something SERIOUSLY wrong in America when the Michael Jackson verdict trumps marines dying in Iraq. It's a shame that this war is being relegated to the back burner of the American consciousness. It's turning into another Vietnam, and I just hope the soldiers aren't treated like the nam vets were. People have a lot of "Support the Troops" bumper ribbons, but it's just empty sentiment. We're not actually doing anything to support the troops. You want to talk about supporting the troops, you talk about food, oil, and steel rationing that we had back in WWII. That's supporting the troops and the war, not putting a stupid, yellow ribbon on your gas-guzzling SUV.

After a great weekend of soaking up sun in the lovely town that I used to live in, I am now back in my parents house...sigh. Oh well, at least I have very loving parents who are willing to let me stay here. I am very fortunate

Anyway, today was a really good day at the ER. It started off kinda slow and I was concerned because the good coffee machine wasn't there, so I didn't have too much to do. I found out later that some psyche patient had used it start a fire somewhere (dontcha love the ER). Anyway, I spent most of my time wandering around and getting people water and magazines. One of my favorite things to do now is to blow up a glove and give it to the little kids that sometimes show up in the ER. I also give them a sharpie marker so they can draw all over it, and they love it. I've become the ER's public relations coordinator. It's also nice because people are always very appreciative. They like to see someone taking a personal interest in them and playing advocate for them. I think it would go a long way for doctors to simply ask as they were on the way out the door if the patient needed water or a magazine or anything. But doctors don't have enough time for that.

Another cool moment happened today that was really profound for me. It was the first time that I've ever come close to feeling about medicine what I feel for flying. There was an older gentleman in the trauma room, and I noticed that a bunch of nurses were starting to congregate there. So, like a moth to the flame, I wandered over to see what was happening. There were about five nurses in the room and a doctor and a couple techs and the man's blood pressure was slowly dropping. He would also occasionally convulse as if being defibrillated. The thing that struck me was the absolute concern on the part of the staff. There were about 10 people in the room and they were all staring silently as the automated blood pressure cuff pumped up for the next reading. The mood in the room was very serious professionalism, and I stepped back and looked at these people as...lifesavers(not the candy). That's what they do for a living. They fight to hold on to any shred of life left in a person. It was a very noble scene, and it really struck me.

Also, the last thing to happen to me on the way out was guiding a woman to the elevators and she was very appreciative, and my first thought after that was...man, I love this job.

I am going to be quick because I have to study for MCAT, but I need to mention a few things about my political beliefs. I was carpooling to MCAT class with this girl and we started talking about the military. I don't really have any problem with the military. I grew up surrounded by military and I believe they provide a very valuable service of protection for our country and our worl in general. I think there are a few times when the use of military power is justified. I think WWII, The First Iraq War, and military interventions like Bosnia are completely justified. We stepped in when another country became an aggressor and beat them off. I think that's a great and moral justification for use of military force. Our current situation is not.

The Iraq war was a completely unjustified use of military power. I was talking to the girl I was riding with and she was saying that she's glad they are taking pro-active measures to take the fight to them before they can come hit us again. I have said from the very beginning of this show that pro-active war is NEVER the right solution. The "attack them, before they attack us" attitude is basically what every single aggressor in the 20th century has used to intiate war. Then, the good guys have to come in and stop them. America is not on the moral high ground here. We are the aggressors.

The next argument that she used was, "Well, if we hadn't gone in, Saddam would still be in power." My answer to that is who gives a shit! Saddam was the toothless wonder. There were no WMD's and he was absolutely no threat to the rest of the world. Now I understand that he was a ruthless dictator and I have no love for him, but it was the reponsibility of the Iraqi people to overthrow him in a bloody revolution and seize freedom for themselves. That's how most revolutions have worked and that's how it should've worked with Saddam. While we were "overthrowing the ruthless dictator," we were letting millions (yes MILLLIONS!!!) die in Africa. I would much rather see a military intervention there than in Iraq.

The next (and last) argument she used is that Democracy in Iraq will make the rest of the world safer. Umm...how? How is freedom in Iraq going to stop terrorists? If anything, it will give them a society that is more open and easy to operate in. The war has polarized Muslims against the United States, and I can't blame them. They see things like Abu Ghraib and Gitmoe and they think that this is turning into a culture war. There probably weren't many terrorists in Iraq before we went in. There sure as hell are terrorists there now. They love killing our soldiers. Also, how come absolutely nothing has been said about Saudi Arabia? All of the hijackers who participated in 9/11 came from Saudi Arabia. Most of the insurgents who are coming into Iraq are coming from Saudi Arabia, not Syria or Iran. Osama is from Saudia Arabia, and that is where all the funding for terrorist activities is coming from. Yet, our President is holding hands with leader of Saudi Arabia. I SAY FUCK SAUDI ARABIA!! What we should've done with the $300,000,000,000 that we have spent on the Iraq war is to completely revamp our oil infrastructure to use self-generated fuels. We should've tapped all our natural resources and made oursleves compleely energy independent from the Middle East. That would stop the terrorists in their tracks, and make us safer and more economically viable for the future when they will eventually run out of oil. Invest this huge debt in our country rather than Iraq.

I was against this war from the beginning...and I LOVE being right!

Yes, as dorky as that may sound, I really do love science. It's just so freakin' cool!! I look back at the 5 centuries of accomplishment that our civilization has aquired, and I am shocked and awed (to borrow a crappy phrase). Science is humanity's greatest accomplishment. It is our highest achievement and the thing that I am most proud about of our society for. America is the number one producer of ideas and if anyone has any doubts that this is the reason we are the only remaining superpower, then they only have to look to our superior scientific and technical capabilities. I read something interesting in studying for the MCAT: ninety percent of the scientists that have ever lived are living and working today. We are producing knowledge at a rate that the world has never seen before! We are uncovering new ideas and shaping the future of humanity at an unprecendented rate. I love it!

What brought all this on, you might ask? Well, today I started my research study on Congestive Heart Failure. It's a pretty simple study and it will probably never be published, but it's nice to know that I will be contributing something useful and statistically true to the body of human knowledge. I had the realization that I love science as I was searching through the body of literature on the subject and realizing that I was probably the only person in the entire world who was searching for that article at that moment. There was actually a surprising amount of research that had been conducted on my particular subject. Again, I'm doing what's already been done before, but it's just going to strengthen the theory. Even if I'm the only one who ever knows that, it will still be cool. The love of science feeling was strengthened when I saw this month's Scientific American and picked it up. I learned all kinds of cool things that I never knew before. I Love Science!!

I should be in bed right now, but instead I am up and surfing the blogosphere. I just wanted to make a quick comment on our MCAT class. It's amazing watching the social dynamics of a class evolve in just a week. You put 10 strangers in a room together for the first time with the intent of listening to a lecture and they won't say a single word to each other for the entire time, including the breaks. Spend a whole Saturday together taking a practice MCAT and all of sudden we all have a common bond for some reason. We've all survived the first trial relatively unscathed (until the results come back). Now you can't shut us up. As soon as our teacher releases us for a break, we chat incessantly. She had to yell at us to get us to shut up. It's a nice feeling of dorky solidarity.

I guess I should go to bed now so I can actually be useful tommorrow...nah. Let's go see what's going on in the medical blogsphere.

I volunteered for 8 hours in the ER yesterday. It was pretty busy in there and I met some really interesting people. The most memorable was a little old lady who must've been about 90 who had to be wheeled up to her room. She was the sweetest person I've ever met. She was so happy and laughing and commenting on how kind all the people were being to her. I don't know if she was all there mentally, but she was responding well to my directions and my comments and whatever she lost, she easily gained in kindness and happiness. The other memorable thing that happened was a guy who was trying to use his cell phone while strapped into a backboard. I was busy with something so I couldn't help him immediately, but it was kinda comical to watch him try to stuff the cell phone into the tightly secured foam pads that surrounded his ears. I walked over and offered to be an interpreter for him. I also gave a couple kids some glove balloons (one of my favorite activities). It felt good to walk out of there knowing I had made some people's stay there just a little better.

It all went downhill from there. I volunteer on a Sunday from 12-8, and I have just met this girl that I like a lot and we were supposed to go out after I got off. Well, I called her from the hospital and right in the middle of planning to meet up, my cell phone dies. Oh sh**, smooth move Romeo. I run into the hospital and I have to figure out a way to get a hold of her number. I can't turn on my cell phone and get it from there, so I have to call my house and have my dad (groan) get the number off our caller ID. He gives me the number and I promptly forget it and dial a wrong one. Sooooooo, I have to call my dad back, get the number again, call her and finalize plans to meet extremely far away from her house, making it really inconvienent for her to get there. I decided we should meet at a restaurant before we go to the movie (I'm pretty hungry after 8 hours on my feet with only saltines to eat). So I get to where we're supposed to meet....and the restaurant is closed. Lucklily, there's a little pizza joint right next to the place so it worked out. She got there about a half hour later (like I said, really far). I paid for our food and we finally started this travesty of a date.

We talked about ourselves for a little while. She's a really cute girl and pretty interesting. I seem to have a thing for dramatic girls. A substantial portion of the girls I have dated have been involved in music or theater or musical theater. She's be a good actress, she had great facial expressions. She was a little negative for my taste. It seemed like she wasn't really enjoying life right now ( and I can't blame her), but it's not a very attractive quality. Other than that though, I thought we got along pretty well, and then we had to go to the movie. The movie we decided to go see was Madagascar. I figured it wasn't anything controversial and it might be kinda funny. Well, being Sunday, late at night, the movie theater was completely empty! You might think this was a good thing as we could totally make out right in the middle of the movie theater. Those were my first thoughts (of course being a guy), but it turned out to be a kinda weird thing at first. I think she thought I was going to throw myself at her and she wasn't comfortable without other people around. It turned out to be a really fun thing though because we could talk all through the movie without worrying about making anyone mad. We turned it into out own little Mystery Science Theater 3000. The movie was kinda random, but it was funny, and made moreso by us making comments every 5 minutes.

After the movie was kinda an awkward moment. I really wanted to lean over and kiss her ( I mean, how many times are you going to get a beautiful girl in a dark movie theater all to yourselves?) I couldn't pluck up the courage though until we were about to walk out, and then I stumbled all over my tongue in the attempt to say something smooth,
"I've always wanted to be in a beautiful girl theater with...uhh...umm,"

Crap!! Just lean in for the kiss, got it, not much response...back the hell off. I'm an idiot. We walked the rest of the way out and I stole another kiss before we got in our cars and I told her I'd call her this weekend. Overall, I'd say it went pretty well. There were a few trip-ups, and I shouldn't have gone for the kiss, but overall I think we both had a good time and she mught deign to go out with me again. Here's hoping....

I should do a search and see how many times this subject heading has been used. Unfortunately, I'm too lazy...good quality in a future doc huh? Anyway, today we had our first practice exam and it went off without a hitch... as long as you don't call guessing on 70% of the problems a hitch. It actually wasn't that bad, but I definitely have a lot to learn before test day. I have taken the MCAT once before and got a resepectable score. Unfortunately, nowadays you need much more than a respectable score to get into med school. I got a 29 and you need at least a 30 to be anywhere near competitive. My GPA isn't too bad, and I graduated with a degree in Molecular Biology in 3 years, but I need to do much better on the MCAT in order to get into medical school. I also need to learn how to write better so people will read my blog...sheesh.

Anyway, the MCAT is supposedly a "grueling" experience. There are four sections. Two sections take 100 minutes. One section takes 85 minutes and the other section takes an hour. All told, this is about 6 hours of testing that takes 8 hours with breaks and them signing you in and stuff. The hardest part about the MCAT is the fact that the answer choices they give you are really obscure and hard to reason out. It is all multiple choice, so it's encouraging to know that the right answers are all there somewhere. It's also nice to know that when you guess, you have at least a 25% chance of getting it right. That's where all the niceness stops. An analogy to a typical MCAT question would be:
Which answer is least likely to not support the conclusion that the sky is blue?
(a) Spectroscopic evidence suggests that the light emmitted by the sky has a wavelength of 600-750nm
(b) A researcher runs a column of air through ionizing radiation with a f=66hrz, it is then run through a mass spectrometer, and determined that it has a mass of 1.7x10-6 g. The sample is then run through the stupidly contrived contraption in Fig.1 that has nothing to do with anything and is supposedly used to determine the number of oscillations the air undergoes per nanosecond. From this data, the researcher argued that the sky was blue but now it is yellow.
(c) Look up
(d) 50% of baby rattles are blue

This is, of course, not a very good analogy, but it helps me relieve stress. Actually, the answers on the MCAT are usually very damn close. Usually it is not a matter of picking the "right" answer, but rather picking the answer that is the "most right" or conversely the "most wrong." Sometimes all four answers will be technically correct, but the questions will subtly refer back to the passage (the questions are based on passages) and say which answer is supported by the author. I sometimes wonder if the authors give permission to use their essays, because I'll bet they couldn't answer some of those questions.

The most interesting thing that happened today was talking to the lady who was proctoring the exam for us. I would guess she was in her mid-thirties and we got to talking about her medical problems because I was stretching my knee. It turns out, she has also had ACL surgery on both knees, but she had it 20 years ago. Apparently, the surgical techniques were a little less sophisticated back then, and she has large scars all up and down her legs from the surgeries. That lead into a conversation about her other health problems. Apparently, she had a liver transplant because of her Hepatitis C. I was floored. Here was a lady, in perfect health, who had both knees operated on and a liver transplant. She was both in great health and a testament to the medical profession. This is why I want to be a doctor, so 10 years down the road, I can see someone who I have helped and see that they are walking around and doing well. It's going to be a long ten years to that point though...stay tuned.

I have been surfing the blogosphere for about 4 months now and have decided that it is about time to join in the fracas. So here I am. Man...that was anticlimactic. Anyway, I guess I should tell everyone a little about myself. I am a 23 year old recent college grad currently living with my parents due to a dibilitating knee injury sustained a few months ago while perfecting my ski crashing technique. I studied biology in school and have been agonizing for the last three years over whether or not to persue a career in medicine or a career in aviation. Hence the name of my blog.

I have been flying since I was 16 and I love it, but I'm not sure it's what I want to do for a career. I also really enjoy science and biology ( I won't go so far to say that I love it, but I do have a very sincere interest). I think most people would tell me to go with what I love, but there are problems for me. I'm an very altruistic kind of person and I believe there is a certain nobilty inherent in the academic, medical, and scientific professions. I have never been able to quite put my finger on why this is, but suffice it to say that I consider medicine to be a much higher calling than aviation. So, that's why I'm currently persuing medicine. I also figure that a doctor's salary will allow me to purchase time in an airplane if I really want it. Maybe I can be both pilot and doctor. Here's hoping. I am volunteering at the local hospital and shadowing all kinds of docs around. I am also taking a practice MCAT class in order to get a damn good score.

That's the gist of my professional life. As far as personal stuff goes...well, I don't have much personal stuff because I'm unemployed and I live with my parents in a town where all my friends are still off at college....hence why I'm typing on the Internet on a Saturday night :(

Things will look up at the end of the summer though, because then I take the MCAT and either moving to California or to Chile for 4 months to learn Spanish! I wonder if I can blog from Chile? Anyway, most of my posts will probably be about the MCAT as it's going to be my life for the next 3 months.