short hair

so i chopped off all my hair last weekend... it's liberating in a way. i donated about 8 inches to Locks of Love. i never realized that the shorter my hair gets, the more i seem to shed. my hypothesis is that when my hair was a long tangled mess of dreds, the loose pieces were held in place by being tangled. now, they just fall off and scatter across my bathroom floor. and... everywhere else.

i started at a different hospital this month. it's a chronic care facility so there are a lot of patients with cerebral palsy, asthma, sickle cell, diabetes, etc. they stay for a looong looong time, while waiting for placement or for their homes to be ready to accommodate all the "technology" that's supporting their breathing, feeding, etc. it's a really unique and special place but REALLY frightening at night because i'm the only doctor for the entire place, when i'm on call (every 4 nights).

usually things are fine... but some of these patients are teetering on the edge and things can go badly very quickly.

we have one back-up senior resident who works in the emergency room on the first floor, but other than that, we're it. and there are no ancillary services, like labs or xrays in the middle of the night. it really does feel almost like a community hospital. at least what i imagine it to be like at a community hospital. i'll see how it goes this month. tomorrow is my first call there. wish me luck!

Wonders

The New 7 wonders have been chosen!

The Great Wall, China
Petra, Jordan
Christ Redeemer, Brazil
Machu Picchu, Peru
Chichen Itza, Mexico
The Roman Colisseum, Italy
The Taj Majal, India

I've been to 3 out of the 7: The Great Wall, Machu Picchu, and The Colisseum. Not too bad, given my tender age of 26. (kidding!) I really want to see the Taj Majal. Maybe some day when I'm rich and have more time?!? (I'll never have more time)

I would say that Machu Picchu has been the most breath-taking, amazing place I've been to in my entire life. This Incan city, fortress more like it, is nestled high up in the mountains and it is mind-blowing how they built such a place in the 15th century. Totally worth seeing at least once in your lifetime.

Go Go Sox!

One of our attendings has these season ticket seats for the Chicago Sox, that he gives away to residents every now and then. So today, I found myself in possession of four awesome seats to the game against Minnesota. I was feeling exhausted (I've been working 9 days straight), had a headache, and today was supposed to be the HOTTEST day of the summer, but I went and had fun learning how baseball works (again...), snacking on nachos and frozen lemon ice. Plus I think I got a nice tan, to supplement the color I already got from being in California a couple weeks ago.

The hematology/oncology rotation is going better, now that we're a week into it. It's been rough getting adjusted to my new role as a "senior," and also our program's restructuring of all the teams. It's no secret that I prefer the old system that our program had, but it seems like I may be in the minority. And part of that may have to do with the fact that the heme/onc team is so different from the others and we are always super busy with a lot of really sick kids.

This past weekend, I had to work both days but I still managed to fit in shopping, and dinner at the May St. Cafe in Pilsen and Joy-Yee's in Chinatown. May St. Cafe is quite good. It's Tex-Mex/Cuban/American fusion? I had the fajitas with chicken and different vegatables in a cinnamon chipotle sauce. Very good. But my favorite was actually our appetizer- brie and pear quesadillas.

Joy-Yee's has moved to a larger location in the same shopping mall as before. No wait!! It was incredible. I had the thai iced tea freeze with tapioca and the duck curry, which I enjoyed. I wished that the duck came boneless, however. I hate having to work to get my food.

A couple doors down from Joy-Yee's in this great little bakery where I got mini red bean moon cakes. YUM.

Confessions

I think I'm a bit of a movie-snob, but when it comes to television, I'm shameless.

I record and watch General Hospital almost every day. It's my favorite soap and I'm hooked for life.

Tonight, I watched "I'm Smarter than a 5th Grader." The sad thing was not that the contestants looked like idiots but that I totally didn't know the answer to some of their questions! Like which President's head is on the nickel? or which planet is larger Jupiter or Saturn?!?