Subaqua Sternal Rubs

Now I don't mind doing work, I just dislike doing other people's job for them… Four of the rooms in my dorm were occupied this weekend by MD's from neighboring islands taking an ATLS (Advanced Trauma Life Support) class. Today the housekeepers were supposed to clean/ready the rooms for another group of guests staying in the building starting tonight. Needless to say, they didn't complete the task as assigned, so all the beds had dirty linen on them and the bathrooms had towels thrown on the floor. It was now 7PM, and the guests were expected to arrive at 9PM. The housekeepers went home at 3:30PM. Well luckily, a supervisor from Housekeeping came in from home, secured some linens, and together we were able to make up the rooms shortly before the guests arrived. I think I did a pretty good job, considering the bulk of my bed-making experience comes from the Emergency Department, where the patients should be having enough of an emergency not to care what the bed looked like…

Two things I am in favor of:

1) Universal Health Care - providing equal access to all.
2) Welfare Reform - Getting lazy people off welfare, when there are jobs available.

However, Germany's latest reforms seem to be taking these ideas too far:

A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services'' at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.

Prostitution was legalised in Germany just over two years ago and brothel owners – who must pay tax and employee health insurance – were granted access to official databases of jobseekers.

The waitress, an unemployed information technology professional, had said that she was willing to work in a bar at night and had worked in a cafe.

She received a letter from the job centre telling her that an employer was interested in her "profile'' and that she should ring them. Only on doing so did the woman, who has not been identified for legal reasons, realise that she was calling a brothel.

Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job – including in the sex industry – or lose her unemployment benefit. Last month German unemployment rose for the 11th consecutive month to 4.5 million, taking the number out of work to its highest since reunification in 1990.

Continue reading at: The Telegraph

Dammit. I just lost my last post to the gods of cyberspace. I will recreate it ot be the best of my ability, but to be honest with you, I am not all that thrilled about it. Anyways, last night was Code True Blue, Emergency Medicine Club's first fundraiser party of the term. [True Blue is the peninsula where my school is located, and if you don't know what Code Blue is, you haven't been watching enough ER. Not that that show in any way reflects medical reality. Oh, I am quite off-topic here, aren't I?] Anyways, the party was held at De Big Fish, a local open air bar/restaurant on a nearby bay.

I attended as volunteer to help out, so I got free drinks, but unfortunately, I had to limit them. The Student Goverment Association requires 4 Security Guards, as well as 4 Royal Grenadian Police Officers, for each party due to problems in the past with altercations and hijacking of school buses. I guess my previous security experience made me qualified to provide security to this party… Luckily, the only problem we had was getting the DJ to stop playing at 2AM, the scheduled end of the party. I wouldn't have minded continuing for a bit, but the Police Officers were eager to get home, and offered their assistance in getting the DJ to comply.

Overall, we had quite a good turnout, especially for a party organized only days ago. After paying the Police and the DJ, we are well on our way of our goal to buy the Grenada Fire Department an Automated External Defibrillator, if we are not already there. (The Treasurer still has to count the profits.)

I ended up going to bed around 4AM, due to another SGA rule. Party organizers are required to stay until all students either get on a bus, or find other transportation home. Even if that means taking a student to drunk to walk home in your personal vehicle. At least he didn't vomit in the car.

I am actually quite tired, as I had to get up and go to a mandatory class this morning, at 9AM! (And before you motherly-types or actual mothers get on my case for not going to lectures much of this week, I scored above the average on this week's online physiology quiz. Since I have been to all the lectures before, I have found it more efficient to review the material on my own time. Suprisingly, it's all coming back pretty quickly.) Anyways, back to todays class: formerly called Basic Science Foundations of Clinical Medicine, now re-titled the Professional Development Program. Basically the class is designed to teach you 1) how to access online medical literature, 2) how to interpret the validity of studies presented in journals, and 3) integrate basic sciences with clincial presentations. My original class' assigned disease was Rheumatic Fever/Heart Disease, yet today's presentation was on Diabetes. A Biochem professor first lectured on the biochemical basis of the disease, and then a practicing physician lectured on Symptoms/Diagnosis/Management. After that, went to a small group session where I had to present two of the studies investing Rheumatic Fever/Heart Disease out of journals that I had read last term. Considering that I hadn't looked at them since last term, I think I did pretty well. The clinical tutor (a praticing MD) was impressed with my knowledge, but the class couldn't care less, since I was doing RF/HD, and they were doing diabetes. Oh well, another requirement out of the way, only 2 case summary write-ups to go, and this class will be out of the way for the term!

As my hosting contract is about to expire, I have decided to switch hosting providers to someone that gives me more for less money I was also given a free domain name, so this site can now also be reached at http://www.subaquasternalrubs.com. It will take 24-48 hours for the DNS servers to update themselves, so some services (web/email) may be unavailable during this time. If I haven't responded to your email, most likely I haven't gotten it yet! I should get it, as most mail servers try sending for four days before giving up. Thank you for your understanding.

Update: All web/email services are up and running. Let me know if you experience any problems.

Also, I've decided to experiment with Google text ads. Let me know if you hate them. Interestingly, all the ads are for detox programs… must be because of all my recent drug-related posts.

In the latest attempt at ridiculous over-legislation: (From CNN.com)

A dozen Republican and Democratic senators want to put nonprescription cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient used to make meth, behind the counter.

Their bill, modeled on an Oklahoma law that took effect last April, says that medicines with pseudoephedrine must be dispensed by a licensed pharmacist or pharmacy technician, and purchasers must show ID with their date of birth and sign for the product. Buyers are limited to 9 grams in a 30-day period.

The government can make exceptions in areas where pharmacies are not easily accessible.

Like medical students going to a foreign country for six months? Because giving them access to larger quantities of pseudophedrine would obviously cause the downfall of society… At least according to Walmart… Hopefully they will see the light that I have access to all sorts of commercially-prepared and tested narcotics, paralytics, and mind-altering drugs at work, so I really don't need to go around making meth in my trailer…

I used to be excited that I could heat up soup out of a can on the stove… and I told people I could cook. Then I got excited by being able to "cook" microwave dinners. Now after being without my personal chef for many months, necessity has become the mother of my cooking skills Tonight I prepared a delicious Chicken Teriyaki, topped with pineapple slices. Accompaniments included green peas, and a salad with carrots, croutons, and Blue Cheese dressing. Who knows? Maybe I really will learn to cook some day.

Every afternoon this week I have been scheduled for Clinical Skills 2 Small Groups. This sucks because, well, it's every day. It's good however, because by doing the "completion" sessions now, I won't have to worry about Clinical Skills the rest of the term. The sessions aren't really that bad - 1.5 hours each day learning about patient interviews, and ultimately interviewing an actor feigning some illness. It was pretty interesting, except it is done in groups of 6-8 students where all of the group hears each previous interview. Today I was the last to go, and as usual, all of the questions had been asked by my predecessors, and the patient was getting exhausted of answering the same questions over and over. So I ended up just reviewing/summarizing the case with the patient, and then went into my plan of treatment. I think I got a little too detailed, listing medications by name, and explaining various diagnostic procedures in detail. Hopefully the rest of the group didn't think I was showing off too much, but I had to say something. Anyway for those of you who like to play along at home, here was today's case:

Pt: 66 yo female
CC: Difficulty swallowing/Chest Pain
HPI: Pt unable to swallow, progressively worse for the past 3 and a half months. Now so bad she could only get a "couple of teaspoons of water" down each day. Unable to keep solid food down. Progressive weakness/tiredness. Loss of 15-20 lbs weight. Excruciating 10/10 pain sternal chest pain. All started after eating "oil-down" - felt like she got a bone stuck in throat. Disappeared same day, but then a week later gradually became worse.
PMH: None per pt.
PSH: Hysterectomy 30 years ago.
Meds: Maybe an OTC Tylenol, no Rx.
Allergies: States Codiene makes her vomit (This is not an allergy, folks, but that's another story.)
Social History: 1+ PPD Smoker x30 yrs. Drinks 4-5 alcoholic beverages daily, more on weekends.

So what's your diagnosis? Click on "Read the rest of this entry" to find out!

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Today was my first day of second term classes… again… Same professors, same powerpoints, same delivery, same notes, even the same jokes! One of the professors that made walked around the large lecture hall looking for audience participation got the same response from me, and I from him. (At least according to one of my friends…) 4 hours of lecture today, nothing at all new or interesting… After lecture, spent more time in a line (this time only around ~350 students) for Neuroscience notes, (about 4 inches thick..) only to realize they were the exact same as last term, and I could have saved myself the time in line…

Oh well, off to bed… 7 AM comes early…

As the weekend trip to Carriacou was cancelled, I ended up going to a barbeque on Grand Anse Beach with some friends on Friday night. Met some nice new people as well, and had a few beers. Actually more than a few, but I got a ride back, so it was ok Until I had to check people in, and gave them the key to the wrong room where someone was already living…. Ooops

Saturday was spent on duty, checking people in, opening storage, etc. as the other RA was out for the day.

Sunday was my day off, and I spent it guess where? Scuba diving, of course! The first dive was the Bianca C… and even though it was the 3rd time I had done that dive, it was still cool - saw new stuff. Just found this interesting web page about the ship's history. The second dive was Shark Reef… visability was a bit less than normal due to strong surf/surge, however I still managed to spot two baby and one large (6′) nurse sharks, in addition to various other moray eels, reef fish, lobsters, etc.

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