Certify This

Had to get up real early this morning to get certified in Advanced Cardiac Life Support.  The class was held at Northwestern's Memorial Hospital in Chicago - talk about a beautiful hospital! There are few hotels that look as nice, I've never seen such a big and luxurious hospital.  Someone told me each patient gets his/her own room and that there are something like 700 beds in the place...

 

The Northwestern medical students have got to be spoiled.  Can you imagine going to school at a place that is walking distance to both Michigan Avenue and Lake Michigan? Shoulda worked harder in college...

 

The other thing I had time to reflect on, as I was zooming up I55 at 7:15am, was how cool it must be to be a morning person.  While it took every ounce of will power to drag myself out of bed for class, I thought about how much more productive people who rise and shine must really be.  The morning just feels so full of potential and opportunity, especially on a bright sunshiney day like today.  I've always been a nighthawk, staying up late to do what I do, but a part of me has always wished to be more of a morning person...

 

Well, these days I'm doing a rotation in orthopedic surgery with a surgeon who operates out of Christ and Little Company of Mary Hospitals. Had a nice little break since my preceptor was gone for a few days, but it'll be back to the operating room on Monday...

 

Orthopedics is like carpentry in a lot of ways, and if you have that kind of skill there are probably few jobs that are more rewarding.  [Honey, I fixed that cabinet up vs. Honey, I hammered someone's pelvis back into shape today ].  Plus, as my friend Ejaaz pointed out, there are some more elegant aspects to orthopedics in terms of the fellowships they can do in hand surgery or spine surgery.

 

I can also attest to the fact that the stereotype of orthopedic surgeons as jocks seems to hold largely true.  My doc had tried out for the US National Soccer team before injuries kept him from going on...

 

For me the main value of this rotation really is in learning a little bit about the clinic side of orthopedic surgery, learning how they manage their patients before and after surgery.  It's funny to think this is my second-to-last rotation of medical school...