Rounds

I spent most of my spare time this weekend working on my final rounds presentation. I am so unmotivated these days and just finished putting together the worst presentation ever. I would like to think that in the past I have taken quite a bit of pride in my rounds presentations. I presented on 'Meth Mouth' before a lot of published articles were available (should have published my research, but I'm obviously way too lazy). I also presented on 'Treatment and Management of Medically Compromised Patients. As you can see, these at least sound like good presentations. Now, let me wow you with my most recent one. I will be presenting an antibiotic cheat sheet for dentists, an anesthetic cheat sheet, and a denture fabrication cheat sheet. Anyway, on friday I went to a local watering hole called 'The Working Man's Friend' (proud to say that I've eaten at 4 of the top 6 on this link). This place really is a hole in the wall, not to be confused with another establishment around town actually called 'A Hole in the Wall'. I still maintain that 'The Friend' has the best cheeseburger around. They also have great cheese sticks and battered mushrooms. I really haven't slept well in about two weeks. I am very stressed out with my impending graduation, not knowing where to practice, and quite frankly what to do in my personal life. I guess I will just do what I did last year when my life was in disarray; spend all my time at the gym. On wednesday I played basketball (and lost by about 30 points), thursday I played volleyball, friday was basketball again, saturday was a very intense workout and today is indoor soccer. I suppose if I keep myself busy enough my problems will either go away or I will be so involved with other things that I just won't worry about them as much anymore.

Nashville

I took an impromptu trip to Nashville with a couple of friends yesterday. I had a haunting suspicion that Nashville was a little country, but it was really country. We went to quite a few places on Broadway, 2nd Avenue, and Printer's Alley. We started at a place called Tootsies. From what I can gather, Tootsies is to the Nashville country music scene as CBGB was/is to the punk rock scene. Next we went to a bar/club called The Stage. This place was pretty big and had, as you might imagine, a really big stage. The sound system was insanely loud as evidenced by the arrythmia that I now suffer from. I recieved a phone call from a buddy of mine that left us some tickets for a show that he was opening for at a venue called the Wild Horse Saloon. This place was enormous, three levels, giant dance floor (for line dancing and other such activities), and tons of really attractive girls. We felt really cool because there was a ton of people wanting to get into this sold out show and we just walked up to the door and said we were with the band and got in. Okay, it may not have happened exactly like that, but we still had an in. Nashville was really cool in that every single place had live music (including street performers). Also, it seemed as though there was no place that wasn't at least 3/4 capacity. Tootsie's and the Stage were incredibly packed. The people that were out are also worth commenting on. There were college type people (from Vanderbilt I'm guessing), hicks, old (over 40), and young. I was rubbing elbows with hot girls with pointy shoes, expensive clothes, and designer perfume and mingling with guys in wrangler jeans, heavy starched shirts, cowboy boots, and brut cologne. By the end of the night I found myself watching the rodeo on TV and commenting "at boy kuh ride". For those of you that are unfamiliar with Nashville speak, it translates roughly to "that gentlemen is quite capable and adept at maintaining balance upon that unusually large, ill-tempered bovine". Needless to say, I had a great time and am looking forward to doing it again.

Hi Five

I had a very stressfull week at the emergency clinic. My brother now laughs at me because a stressfull week for me usually involves working at the hospital from 8-5:30, standing the entire time, taking med histories, and doing oral surgery all day. I had the worst patient on friday morning. She was HIV+ and didn't know her T-Cell count. She also didn't know what meds she was taking and what she was taking them for. Every 10 minutes she told me a new condition. Oh, I have neuropathy, and thrush, and I had alcohol poisoning two weeks ago, and depression. I could go on, but I'll stop and spare anyone reading this the agony. She has been positive for 11 years but when I asked her what her T-Cell count was, she promptly stated "18" (full blown AIDS is anything under 4oo, she obviously didn't know and was making up random numbers). Finally, I could tell that she was getting frustrated with the fact that a dentist was asking all these questions. As I occasionally walked out of the room to talk to the doctor I noticed that she would talk to the wall, her purse, and the x-ray hanging in the view box. When I walked back in with the doc, she cursed at both of us and stormed out. Good times.
Satisfied the usual friday sushi craving last night and then met BG and his fiance, JC and his lady, and MJ at Olives (the bar in the Omni). Right now I'm listening to Thievery Corporation and Kenny Chesney. I don't really know anyone else who has those together on a playlist. Quite frankly I'm not sure why I do either. I really like this picture. Pakistan may be the only place on earth where you could find a family of 8 on a 100cc motorcycle.

Yee Haw!

I had a pretty exciting weekend. I went to sushi at Wasabi on the north side on friday. After dinner we met up with about twenty other people for a friend of mine from IU who had a surprise 30th birthday party thrown for him. It was good to see some of the old crew from IU. They drove from Chicago, Nashville, and Columbus, it was a good time. On saturday a group of fourteen of us went to the rodeo. It was a lot of fun, but the highlight of the night had to be Whiplash, the cowboy monkey. They had a monkey in a cowboy hat, riding around on a sheepdog, herding cattle. It was the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. Although it did also remind me a little of the monkey I saw in Pakistan that smoked, did push-ups, sat with his legs crossed in a chair, kneaded mock dough, and aimed a miniature rifle at you. After the rodeo we all went out to the usual dive. Sunday started out as one of my laziest days on record. I refused to anwer the phone until 4 o'clock as it sat ringing 18 inches from my head all afternoon. I finally got up to play soccer (we won 6-0 and I scored, but for some reason Real Madrid hasn't come calling yet), went for a run afterwards, and then tried unsuccessfully to do TaeBo with MP. I took it seriously, but she kept laughing at me and I kicked her dog twice accidentally. I'll stick to weights and sports. I am at Regenstrief Emergency clinic all this week. So I will be stuck with the unenviable task of trying to discern drug seekers from those who are in legitimate pain. I also have to start studying for my Jurisprudence exam on wednesday. Instead of listing all 1000 songs in the nano, I will just quote a line from a random song:
"To the extreme I rock the mic like a vandal, light up the stage and wax a chump like a candle"
Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby

Resolutions

My patient cancelled this morning, therefore allowing me time to write a few lines. I think I would enjoy blogging a lot more if it was like the medical profession. I wish I could sit with a tape recorder dictating and then have the tape outsourced to south asia and posted to this page. I recently took the North East Regional Board Exam (NERB). I felt a lot better about this test than National Step II. If I pass both of these exams, I may never have to take another written test ever again (at least none of any significant value). I partied with some friends on the 31st and have watched my fair share of college football this last week. I am very depressed in that I have to go to school again and deal with all of that nonsense. Now for resolutions:

1. Lose 20 pounds by early April (i'd be happy with 15)
2. Graduate on time (by Mother's Day weekend)
3. Figure out where I want to live
4. Find a job
5. Become more active (aerobic activity daily)
6. Drink more water (pretty lame, but I do need to)
7. Throw away all loose papers dated prior to August 2000
8. Give away all clothes that haven't been worn in over one year
9. Learn to ride (and buy) a motorcycle (Yamaha FZ6 or Suzuki SV650S)
10. Don't eat after 10pm

I think that is all the resolutions I came up with. I feel that I can and should accomplish at least 8 of the 10. Those were my reasonable resolutions. Here is my unreasonable resolution/wish list:

1. Travel to Spain, France, England, Italy, and Greece (includes sailing the Mediterranean in a chartered yacht)
2. Own 100 acres of land somewhere in the Carribean where I will eventually build a house and retire
3. Become the dentist to the stars, have my own show, get asked to star in movie along side one of my patients, become an international phenomenon (okay, this is just ridiculous, I'll stop now)
4. Get asked to be a consultant for Ferrari's F1 team (this wish also includes dating a model/actress which is a customary perk of the job)

Let me get back to my reality of travelling to the gym, owning a half acre in southern Indiana, becoming a dentist to the underprivelaged, and being a consultant for my soccer/volleyball team.