Temporary Shower

I am attending ARVO in a few weeks and am super excited about it. I haven’t gone to an ARVO conference since college. It is the largest ophthalmology conference in the world so it’s a lot of fun and most presentations are interesting/relevant to what I am doing. As part of the program, there is a Thesis in Three competition where you make three powerpoint slides on your research and narrate it to a broad audience for 3 min. I had worked super hard on my presentation because winner get an all-expense trip to next year’s conference but alas, I was told they never received my powerpoint. Thus, my presentation wasn’t even judged. As disappointed as I am about this, I did learn a valuable lesson (one I should have known): you must ALWAYS confirm your submissions! I am glad that this wasn’t my residency application or something more important! Ok. That aside, I went to vegas this weekend with Dave and his family and it was super fun. We basically ate the whole time (I am still no...

It surprises me the stereotypes people make about doctors. The most common assumption is that we make lots of money, play golf, and have time for fancy cars/houses/vacations/etc. This is simply not true. Sure, eventually most of us will make a lot of money but you have to factor in the cost. As I am struggling to figure out what to do after medical school (aka which specialty to pick), I’ve done a lot of research on the topic. The best is from shortwhitecoat.com where it clearly shows: 1.    We DO make a lot of money: http://shortwhitecoats.com/2012/the-ultimate-guide-to-physician-salaries 2.    However, money doesn’t buy happiness: http://shortwhitecoats.com/2012/physician-satisfaction-by-specialty 3. And you work really hard in most specialties: http://shortwhitecoats.com/2013/which-residents-work-the-hardest I am young right now and capable of working hard but is it so wrong that I really don’t want to do this for the rest of my life? In my...

A little blurb about medical research: Is it me or is research like real life where the rich gets richer? I have been doing a lot of writing/scut work for other people to get my publication record up but if there is one thing I’ve learned, it that a lot of people get on my papers without doing anything. This is fine for the PI who funds the projects but when the only contribution is editing the manuscript, I’m not sure it deserves so much credit. It’s interesting because this is how research goes. You start at the bottom where you will do almost anything to get on a paper (aka me). You do 90% of the work until you are senior enough to run the studies (aka residents/PI/doctors), and then you have the privilege of accruing more papers at minimal cost because you have underlings to do 90% for you (aka other people like me). Thus, it’s sweet when you actually get to that level but getting there is hard/time-consuming and sometimes impossible (much like moving from lower class to upper cl...

I wrote this post on monday but didn't have time to upload pictures till now.... This weekend I went down to southern Utah with Dave. We originally wanted to do a 3 mile hike in monument valley but we left late so decided to forgo the extra 2 hour drive just for a 3 mile hike. Instead, we got to Moab around 4pm Friday and decided to do a 2 mile hike to Corona Arch. Dave had never been and since it was a relatively easy hike, we both had a lot of fun.   Our ultimate destination was Mesa Verde so we drove further south and camped right outside the park at a KOA in cortez. I have never booked a KOA before (though I think I stayed at one with my parents). The campground was very nice and clean and the options ranged from full sized cabins to camping spots (with electricity and water!). We opted just to camp but seeing the Teepees made me think that next time, we can try something different. Dave got the campfire going while I set up camp but since it was already 8 and the...