Inspiration...or not.

Tonight was my first night at the new jujitsu gym. Pretty cool place. I will blog about it later.

After jujitsu, I went to Starbucks to study. I had a ton of great blogging ideas, but then I came home, got tired, and decided that it would have to wait.

I bet I'll look at this post tomorrow and have absolutely no recollection as to what I was going to write...

ahhhhhhhhhhh............

Sleep such a wonderful thing. I know I'll have to go without it for much of the next four (eight? ten?) years, but for now I can enjoy sleeping in both days of this weekend. I hadn't had a full night's sleep since orientation, and I was getting pretty sick. After two nights of 10-12 hours' sleep, I feel much better.

Today we have the annual Case Fall Picnic, where each of the med school "societies" compete for some sort of prize. (The societies are arbitrary groups that students are assigned to during their first year for advising purposes.) It sounds like it's going to be a pretty good time. In the afternoon, I'll probably leave the picnic a little early to go to the Cleveland-area Stanford Send-Off Party...it's an event for the students who are preparing to begin their freshman year at Stanford, and local alumni are encouraged to attend to talk with the students, give advice, and generally get them excited to begin school.

As far as med school is concerned, I'm pondering whether to do the joint degree program in bioethics. I'm a huge fan of joint degree programs (an additional degree for no additional cost?), but I'm really not sure which one I like most. My friend David is doing the MD/MBA program, but he started taking classes last summer and I would probably have to dedicate this upcoming summer to MBA classes if I wanted to complete both degrees in four years.

I was also interested in the master's degree in applied anatomy, especially the fact that students in the program score a full standard deviation above the Case average (which is already reasonably high). But I don't want to be a surgeon (the group that is usually most dedicated to anatomy) and my impression is that the program is pretty intense.

There's also the joint degree program in bioethics, which originally was not of much interest to me. After our bioethics lectures during the first two weeks, though, I had a lot to think about. The program isn't supposed to be that hard, and it would give me a lot more training to face some of the difficult decisions I'll have to make as a doctor. The program is supposed to be fairly easy, at least when compared to the other two programs. I don't really want to be an ethicist exactly, but I think I would like to know more about the topic. Fortunately, I have some time to make the decision about the program...

Off to the picnic!

Mood: Relaxed
Song: Jason Mraz, "The Remedy" (acoustic) / BT, "Somnambulist (Simply Being Loved)"

Progress

We started biochem today, and so far I love it. I'm sure I will soon learn to hate it, but for now I'm excited to be studying real science again....it has been a pretty long time for me. Don't tell anyone, but I actually enjoyed our five hours of lecture this morning. :-)

I'm also making progress on finally catching up on sleep. I took a 4-hour nap this afternoon, and tonight it looks like I'll be in bed before 11:00. I'm also sick, which sucks, but it's a good reason to finally get my sleep schedule arranged to where it needs to be.

Mood: Other than being sick, I'm in a pretty good mood. Friday is almost here.
Song: Uncle Kracker, "In A Little While"

Confidentiality

This morning's lecture on patient confidentiality just began. It's one of several lectures we will have on bioethical issues. It has been particularly interesting when the lecturers (all of whom are bioethicists) make the point that doctors do not always obey certain expectations of laypeople. Truthtelling in medicine, for example, is a relatively new idea. We've had several quotes from famous physicians -- from Hippocrates to individuals just a few decades ago -- who insisted that there was no need (nor any benefit) to telling a patient about a serious diagnosis. It was believed that telling the patient this bad news would merely worsen his or her condition. Instead, it was commonly accepted to warn the patient's family and let them take care of the issue. We were asked, "Would you rather (a) be honest with your patient or (b) provide the best health outcome for your patient?" There was some pretty strong debate on that question.

Patient autonomy is another bioethical issue. We usually hold autonomy to a pretty high standard, but the lecturers brought up numerous situations in which most of us agreed that patient autonomy could potentially be superceded. And now we're talking about confidentiality; as usual, we're finding some situations in which confidentiality is paramount and others in which we defer to the principles of justice, beneficence, or "doing no harm." And we're barely scraping the surface of the issues we'll face in the clinics and hospitals. It's an intimidating feeling.

Who Needs Sleep?

Let's see how many nights in a row I can get to bed before midnight. I haven't had a full night's sleep in nearly two weeks, and I'm starting to get sick, so I think sleep is pretty important.

In other news, my small group made a ton of progress on our project. I'm excited that we're finally almost done with it -- it has been a great way to meet people, but I'd rather start on the real med school classes. Biochem starts Thursday...

And so it begins...

So far, so good. We just started the second week of class...and we have our first exam on Wednesday! Our first class (or "committee" according to the Case nomenclature) is pretty easy -- we're covering the fundamentals of biostatistics, epidemiology, study design, etc., as well as bioethics and health economics. It's not too hard, especially since I already covered most of the material in my master's degree program.

Case provides all first and second year medical students with a desk in a study room. It sounds really basic -- it's just a desk with electrical and ethernet connections for a laptop -- but so far it has had a huge impact on my schedule and ability to study. The study rooms are right next to our lecture room, so we're never far from a place to work (instead of having to walk to a library), and there are usually people in the study room who you can talk to if you have questions about a lecture topic. I'm pretty sure this room will be a major part of my life this year.

Alright, enough blogging. Back to the problem set, then to the gym, then to a group project meeting, then home by 10:00 or so.

Mood: Focused
Song: Jason Mraz, "Wordplay"

PS - Jason Mraz is coming to the House of Blues in Cleveland in October. Anyone interested?

Update from Cleveland

Wow. The last few weeks have absolutely flown by. I moved to Cleveland, took a short vacation to Portland, and returned to Cleveland to begin orientation at Case. I'm so busy with the basics -- i.e., moving into my house -- that I don't even feel like I have time to think about school. That better change soon!

Don't Use U-Haul

U-Haul is among the most frustrating and least competent companies I've ever seen. I was originally going to write a lengthy story about how they screwed me over multiple times during my move, but I decided that I preferred not to lose another hour of my life thanks to them. In short, I will recommend that everyone look at Don't Use U-Haul and rent from another company. Penske seems to get good reviews from my soon-to-be classmates.

Moving complete!

After two months of thinking about moving, a week of packing, a few days of getting screwed by U-Haul (which I will soon write about), a long drive, and a lot of carrying, I am finally moved into my house in Cleveland. I'm back in Portland, Oregon to visit my family for the week.

Time to relax......