DID YOU HEAR ABOUT CONGRESSMAN FOLEY?

I am getting sick of all the media-hype surrounding the man. Ok, he was a congressman, maybe flirted with young men, maybe even was abused by some priest, but it is all getting way too old.

I am sick of turning on the television and seeing junk like this. Why can't the news be about something good that happened. Instead, most nightly news programs focus on the people shot and killed that day, the new rape cases in the local park, or the [insert new political scandal here]. The American media systems sucks. We are so focussed on all the shit and human stupidity in this country that we have completely lost focus on the wonderful things humans do.

People use negative reinforcement to deal with unruly children, whereby they ignore the child. Eventually, that child may learn that nothing good comes from being a pest. Now, in our media we exploit and popularize every negative event that occurs, what is that doing for us? No wonder we have kids shooting up schools, the media, along with video games and poor parenting, encourages it.

Maybe the American public is just so mindless that shows like "Cops" and the nightly news have to be about guns, violence, incest, rape, and death, or people wouldn't watch them. If that's the case, we are more pathetic than I thought.

FAT AMERICA

Why don't people get it? If you eat like a fat person, you will eventually become a fat person. We live in one of the most developed nations in the world with indoor plumbing, electricity in virtually every home, and fitness gyms in almost every town, yet a good portion of the American population look like cows ready for the slaughter. Foreigners must look at our country and laugh (for so many reasons).

We look stupid. We've learned how to abuse most advancements in our developed country. We use cars instead of bikes. We eat fast food because it is just that...fast. Some even watch those rediculous infomertials about a new weight loss diet or piece of equipement and buy it thinking now is the time I'll turn my life around. You want to know the truth. I bet you'll buy that equipement, use it pretty well for a week or two, and slowly begin to taper the amount of time you spend on it until it becomes a decorative piece for your living room.

Do you want to lose weight? Really? Then here are the facts nobody wants to throw in your face. Your fat. Forget all those people saying be happy with your body - their are only saying that because they are hoping to feel better about their own. Just look at them sometime, they are all fat too. Go to a gym and get a membership and if you have the money a trainer too. This is the only way, unless you really are able to turn your entire life around and do this all yourself (however, since you probably know nothing of fitness or healthy eating, because your fat in the first place, this will likely not work for you). The trainer is there not just to show you what to do, but to keep you coming back. A bit harder to skip out when you have a coach to answer to. And of course, stop eating like that cow in the pasture and try to eat somewhat better, maybe even smaller portions. It is ok to be hungry once in a while. I think most Americans don't even kn0w what that feels like.

And if you think that this is just another skinny person speaking their mind, you're wrong. I used to be fat and took action because I got sick of looking like just another fat American.

THE END RESULT OF A LAWSUIT

Short, but true story...

An ER doctor who had been happily practicing medicine for many years had his first lawsuit brought against him. From what I was told by his friend, this ER doctor absolutely loved his profession and helping people. Concerning this lawsuit, he did not make any medical error, showed no negligence, and performed his job to the best of his abilities. His insurance company would have easily settled out of court, which to all doctors is like a big slap in the face. His medical record would have been tarnished and he felt like it would be admitting fault, which he was morally against, so he fought the case in court to prove himself right. The court case lasted a couple years, he was humiliated in court b/c that is what a good lawyer will do, spent thousands of his own money, and eventually won the case. You would think that this win would boost his confidence, but instead, he felt betrayed by the patient and the patient's family, abused by the court system, and worried about a another possible future lawsuit. This doctor then quit the practice of medicine and refused to keep his job, despite the begging of his employer.

My congrats to those patients and lawyers out there destroying American medicine. You're doing a fine job of wasing our time and talent.

THE TRUTH ABOUT RESIDENCY

People may think of medical residents and residency as what they see on the television. Pop culture has advanced interest in medicine and health care with shows like "ER", "Scrubs", "House", and "Grey's Anatomy". The increased interest in the medical field is wonderful, but while a couple of these shows provide some comic relief from the horrors of real life medicine, others worsen the publics perception of modern medicine.

Here's the truth about residency...
Residents get paid a salary - usually around $39,000 per year. This is a nice compensation, but most residents work far more hours than the everyday Joe. Up until recently there wasn't a cap on hours a resident could work; however, after a few large medical mistakes and deadly car accidents, a cap has been set at 80 hours per week averaged over 4 weeks. This means a resident, or house officer in some locations, could work more than 80 hours a week for a week or two as long as the other two weeks are less than 80 a piece. Using $39,000 as an average yearly salary, this means medical residents get paid about $9.38 / hour - IF they adhere to the 80 hour work week. Not a very good salary for 8 years of post-high school training.

Here's the really good part, many of these residents actually like to enjoy life outside of work and a lot even have a spouse and kids. Now, if you were getting paid by salary and it didn't matter how many hours you were at work, would you want to stay at work longer to learn more...of course not. So, here's the skinny about residents...

1. More work does NOT equal more money, so why would you want to work more. From the emergency department persepctive, medical residents who are called to come consult or admit a patient in the ER can be some of the most lazy and work-adverse people in the hospital. They will think of any reason possible to sweep that patient to another service, which leads us to the next point...

2. It is always better to consult than admit, which is why many services will try to avoid the admission. This means less calls in the middle of the night (b/c you are not that patient's primary admitting doctor) and no discharge summary. Less work, less effort.

3. They hate their pagers. Pagers mean more work.

4. They absolutely hate ER consults or admits. These take lots of time out of a day and usually happen when you least want them (like 3 AM). Another reason to try and sweep the patient to a different admitting service.

5. They hate having lots of patients in the hospital (more patients = more time = more work).

6. They really hate difficult and/or needy patients and patient's families . Who wouldn't? These patients take up more time than they need and make work much harder to tolerate.

7. Unlike shows such as "Grey's Anatomy" in which all the residents are getting laid most of the time, medical residents are more often lacking in the sexual realm and sex-deprived; hence, why many medical marriages don't work and why many residents and doctors end up marrying attractive nurses. Now, what do you think it would be like with a two doctor marriage?

8. Medical residents are supposed to be studying a lot and reading every medical tidbit they can get their hands on. Truth, why would you want to read if you worked 80 hours that week and never really got to see your spouse or kids...and your sex-deprived?

9. It is true, residents can usually fall asleep anywhere. This includes floors, elevators, meetings, lectures, and while driving in cars.

10. For you patients out there who demand the "A team" and ride into the hospital on your high horse, shut up and take what you get. Do NOT by any means ask if the doctor speaking to you is a resident or staff. They all know what you mean by this quesion, it infers that you are more worried about their care and that you think the resident does not know what he or she is doing. The truth, aside from the operating room setting, that resident has probably performed the same amount or more of the basic hospital procedures than the staff doctor in the last year. I don't know how many times I've watched a staff physician who is a bit out of practice, b/c they spend more time educating than performing, absolutely screw up a small and relatively easy procedure. My advice, unless the resident is obviously nervous, shaky and sweating, have them perform the procedure, you'll never know the difference. Plus, you will have contributed to that physician's future.

Last note, upon leaving residency, all of these traits will change. They will make much more money, will get paid extra for consults and admissions from the ER, and will have more time to spend with family and doing things they love, like sex.

"RETAINED FOREIGN BODY"

Ladies, for those of you that use tampons, please tell me; how easy is it to forget you left a tampon in? I think most young women have learned not to do this, but when I have to go fishing for a tampon lost in the vast expanse of some poor woman's vagina, I start to wonder.

Please, ladies, remember to take you tampons out. It is extremely dangerous to you health to leave them in (toxic shock syndrome), and to be honest, the smell of a tampon stuck for days in that warm dark place is enough to kill a horse.