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Home Sweet Home

by | Aug 9, 2013

I wrapped up my Stanford experience on the Foot and Ankle service last week and as expected, it was a ton of fun. I also took advantage of being in California to do some sight seeing in the city, get some beach time, eat at Ike’s Place (I got a sandwich with mozzarella sticks and jalapeño poppers in it, no joke), get some Blue Bottle coffee, go to a Giants game (GO TIGERS btw) and even played golf at the same course where Tiger Woods once prowled. Palo Alto was great, people at Stanford were great, and spending a month there was overall a great decision. I even got to see two of my classmates who were spending time in San Francisco (never hard to come by a fellow Wolverine).

There's no such thing as a bad seat in AT&T Park

Hole #9 at Stanford Golf Course

BUT, in the immortal words of Dorothy, there’s no place like home. Especially Ann Arbor in the summer — it is wonderful to be in familiar places and see familiar faces again. After getting over the travails of moving into a new house with some of my favorite pals (they’ll be getting in some guest blogging action later, stay tuned!), I’m now in Step 2 study zone.  Although it feels nice to not have a strict schedule with early mornings and late nights, I’ve had a slightly rude awakening in terms of remembering Pscyh, Ob/Gyn, and even peds all of which I had about a year ago.

Even still, I have lots of things to look forward to, I’m going to a few concerts (Lil Wayne, Phoenix, etc.), I’m going to be playing a ton of golf, and not to mention we’re a mere 22 days away from MICHIGAN FOOTBALL. Although I’ll be missing a few games (namely the ND game which is particularly hard since this is the last time we’re playing them)because my next away rotation is in September in Wisconsin , I’m glad I’ll be in Ann Arbor for my 8th straight home opener in a row.

In the meantime, I also need to change my Facebook name with Residency Applications coming up…any suggestions??

Lastly, as exciting as all these new adventures have been, all of us here at UMMS have had a heavy heart for the last few weeks over the loss of our dear friend Paul. I would just like this to serve as yet another testament to what a great guy he really was, his personality and talents will be missed. One of my last interactions with him was when we were taking Senior pictures. He had asked to borrow my suit (pictured below) because he had forgotten his.


Although he often had the right things to say, he was wrong about one thing…he really does look better in the suit than I do.

Ortho, Ortho, Ortho

by | Jul 12, 2013

Hello folks!

This is officially my first post, I’m very excited to join these other fine bloggers in giving you a  taste of what life as Michigan Medical student is like. As you know from my blurb, I’m an M4 from Troy, MI, I went to undergrad at Michigan, and I’m a certified bartender. But what else? I’m planning on going into Orthopaedic Surgery, I love to golf, I have a younger sister who is an undergrad at Michigan, and I’m currently spending my time in Palo Alto, CA doing an away rotation at Stanford University in Ortho.

Fourth year has been a blast. From the additional responsibility to doing rotations in my future field of choice and not having to worry about the little nuances of third year have been great! I finished two months of Ortho at Michigan alreay and headed out here to sunny California for my third month of Ortho in a row.  Doing at least one away rotation is an unspoken rule of applying to ortho residencies. It’s a great way to spend time at schools/areas of the country you might be particularily interested in spending the 5 years of residency in.

I’m writing this blog from my first on call shift here. I’ve been on the Tumor service and I’ve seen some pretty incredible stuff, (ex. the resection of a 45lb tumor in a woman’s thigh). After figuring out all the logistic stuff with parking, computer access, and locations of bathrooms (seriously), I’ve finally adjusted to the flow of things here.  I’ve got one more week of Tumor then two weeks on Foot and Ankle.

In addition to the new experience as whole, I’ve got lots of other things to look forward to. My parents are visiting for a week, I turn 24 on Tuesday (I’ll be bringing it in style though with 5 cases currently on schedule), and of course finally getting to spend time doing even more fun stuff (SF, Napa, Giants game!)

Thanks for reading and sttay tuned for more updates from thiss Michigan lifer on an adventure in California!

According to a Stanford Alum, it cost the university $60,000 per tree to install and thousand per tree each year to maintain:

 

The main entrance to the hospital: