People ingest the darndest things

Doctors regularly see very bizarre things that people do to themselves and the ones they love (or hate). This includes inserting various objects into the openings on ones body. One of the more remarkable ones I have seen just recently was published in the British Medical Journal. A woman, poking at her tonsils with her pen, accidentally swallowed it. 25 years later, GI symptoms prompted an evaluation which found the pen, still tuck in her stomach. It was cautiously removed by endoscopy, and amazingly still functioned.

A brief hiatus

I am taking a little time off from here to study up for my certification exams in Cardiology. I will return in a few weeks, until then, enjoy some of the great content at my favorite medical blogs: Science Based Medicine, KevinMD, and Medgadget.

Getting the most out of a national meeting

KevinMD had a guest post on this topic, which I thought had some excellent advice. It is written by a palliative care physician, but much of the advice fits for anyone going to a national meeting for their field or profession. If I could recommend just one thing off this list, it would be to have some business cards! I continue to be amazed at the number of people who do not have them. Yes, we all have smart phones and twitters, and LinkedIns, etc. but there are still some notable advantages to business cards. The connection of physically exchanging something, the reminder that they bring when you are emptying out your luggage, and of course, it is much faster if you have to quickly break a conversation off. If you are presenting a poster that you cannot stand next to for the entire meeting, you can leave your cards tacked up so people can take one and contact you later.

Update on "bath salts"

UPDATE: Last month I posted a little something about "bath salts". Basically these products are street drugs similar to cocaine or MDMA (ecstasy) that are sold in a powder form. By calling them "bath salts", the manufacturers can use legal and legitimate distribution methods and without any regulation of the products,  people can just snort them and get high.  Now, federal agents have cracked down on a series of head shops in NYC for selling the products, perhaps putting a dent in their sale and distribution. Also this week, a man was arrested in Arizona accused of being high on bath salts when he allegedly burned his son, believing him to be 'possessed'.

Day one of my "real doctor" job

Last Thursday, my name badge read "Cardiology Fellow" and today, it reads "Assistant Professor". My wife has pointed out that it is great that I am finally starting my first "real doctor" job. I am the first to admit that I did not awaken any smarter today than I did on Thursday June 30th, but nevertheless, at certain points in medicine we encounter these bright lines of responsibility and authority. I remember, for example, being given my first short white coat at a ceremony after the first couple of weeks of medical school. At the time, we were repeatedly told by the faculty and the event organizers how important of a symbol the white coat is and the deference we should pay to its hallowed place in the institution of modern medicine. What I first noticed was that the thing did not come close to fitting me. Despite pointing out that I am 6'4" and have a 36 inch arm length, my short white coat came down to my waist and ended about 4 inches short of my wrist. My white coat made me look like a doofus.

Eastern Virginia Medical School apparently has an added twist to this phenomenon of the White Coat by holding a white coat burning ceremony at the conclusion of undergraduate medical training (ie: medical school). Nathan Favini points out on a guest post on KevinMD that the intention is to be reverent, a sort of funeral pyre symbolizing yet another metamorphosis into a more complete physician. The small sampling of comments on the post illustrate how the white coat has myriad meanings for different people.

New journal does not care how good your manuscript is

For anyone who has ever tried to get anything published, an essay, a book, a research article, you can appreciate the humor of the Journal of Universal Rejection. Sometimes I wonder if my manuscripts have been sent here instead of to the intended journal.

CLEAR!! Jelly on your toast?

This has been going around the interwebs since it got picked up by Gizmodo, Medgadget, and The Awesomer, but originally this was created/designed by Shay Carmon at: http://www.shaycarmon.com/ideas/toaster/

How'd they make the diagnosis?

Saw a patient today who told me about how his lung cancer was diagnosed. He had cancelled his cell phone service since his wife was nagging him constantly. When she couldn't reach him, she called 911. EMS took him in to the ED and a screening chest xray found a malignancy.