When I first heard about the new television series, The Tudors, I was excited and skeptical. How could a show with such a sexy portrayal of King Henry VIII possibly be historically accurate? Well. I'm no student of European royalty but frankly, the show is so hot, I kind of don't care. From whatever I have seen and read about the infamous Henry, so far it does seem to be faithful to true events. As Jonathan Rhys Meyers responded to the surprising depiction of an overweight, bearded old fart as a jacked, sweaty heartthrob: "The Henry that we portray is somebody who's a very, very athletic guy. But, if you were doing as much hunting, jousting, wrestling, running a country and having a lot of sex, you're going to be pretty trim." Well said. Of course there are certain liberties they take in order to make it a captivating show. Kind of like what they do in all the medical dramas - if they wanted those shows to be realistic, all you'd see is bleary-eyed residents sitting at computers checking lab results, attendings pimping medical students on esoteric biochemical pathways, and nurses taking vital signs. Not so thrilling. That's why they have floods and smallpox epidemics in the ER and people having sex in the operating room.
Speaking of which (the boring realities of medicine, that is), one of my NYC electives was approved! So I will be at the Beth Israel Medical Center in September. I will probably have to apply to another program in addition to Columbia as a safety because Columbia is playing kind of hard-to-get. In any case, I'm excited that I will be getting to try out Manhattan firsthand. I can't believe that I only have about seven weeks left of my research position at MGH. It feels like the year really flew by. I'm kind of nervous about going back to clinical work, but I know that it's just a matter of jumping in and then I'll remember how to swim. Whereas a year ago the prospect of graduating medical school was frankly terrifying, now... well, it's still terrifying but also a relief. I don't care what the media shows, med school ain't no picnic.
I'm also glad the weather is finally more conducive to outdoor activities. I've been able to go for my runs outside now, instead of slogging away on the treadmill indoors, as I prefer to do when it's below freezing. If you're an outdoor exerciser, you should check out this website which helps you map out routes anywhere in the country for running/walking. It gives total miles, elevation points, etc and you can search their database for routes other people have created. It's a pretty handy tool, and useful for traveling.
Well, that's all I have to say about that. Now I'm off to curl up with a good book and cup of tea on this rainy day...
Friday, April 27, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Out, out, brief candle
Last week's horrible events at Virginia Tech really affected me on levels I wasn't even aware of. The night after it happened, I had nightmares of my parents being dead, probably as a result of reading about an Indian man with a wife and two daughters who was one of the professors killed in the shooting. I guess it shook me up that this is the kind of thing that could happen anywhere to anyone. It was, on a smaller scale, the same sense of instability and uncertainty I felt on September 11, 2001. Perhaps also because my sister is a student at MIT, the parallels to Virginia Tech being however superficial are nonetheless significant when it's someone you love. It was one of those days that makes you want to drop what you're doing, gather everyone you care about into your arms and hold them for a little while.
As more details emerged about the troubled young man at the center of it all, the fear in my heart gave way to empathy and sadness. Mental illness is something I strive to make others regard as equivalent to any physical ailment. Just like diabetes or cancer, severe psychiatric diseases have profound physical and emotional impact and, if left untreated, destroy lives irreversibly. As the week went on, it became evident that the whole situation brought up more issues than the obvious. Undoubtedly and appropriately, there was a focus on gun control and campus safety. But as the inevitable question of why began to take center-stage, so much more emerged: ethnic identity (the significance, if any, of the shooter's heritage as a Korean-American who emigrated to the States as a young boy); community (his family's isolation and unsuccessful attempts by their cultural and geographic neighbors to reach out to them); responsibility (many of his teachers recognized that he was unwell and shared their concerns with the school's administration, to no avail); and of course, the stigma of mental illness, especially when the illness is poorly understood or socially uncomfortable, such as the likely autism and/or psychotic disorder the shooter suffered from.
In the end, I am left not only with grief and sympathy for the families of the victims who did not know that the last time they said I love you was truly the last, but also with understanding and compassion for the family of the shooter, a victim in his own right, who felt isolated and unloved despite the thousands of I love yous he heard throughout his brief and tortured life.
As more details emerged about the troubled young man at the center of it all, the fear in my heart gave way to empathy and sadness. Mental illness is something I strive to make others regard as equivalent to any physical ailment. Just like diabetes or cancer, severe psychiatric diseases have profound physical and emotional impact and, if left untreated, destroy lives irreversibly. As the week went on, it became evident that the whole situation brought up more issues than the obvious. Undoubtedly and appropriately, there was a focus on gun control and campus safety. But as the inevitable question of why began to take center-stage, so much more emerged: ethnic identity (the significance, if any, of the shooter's heritage as a Korean-American who emigrated to the States as a young boy); community (his family's isolation and unsuccessful attempts by their cultural and geographic neighbors to reach out to them); responsibility (many of his teachers recognized that he was unwell and shared their concerns with the school's administration, to no avail); and of course, the stigma of mental illness, especially when the illness is poorly understood or socially uncomfortable, such as the likely autism and/or psychotic disorder the shooter suffered from.
In the end, I am left not only with grief and sympathy for the families of the victims who did not know that the last time they said I love you was truly the last, but also with understanding and compassion for the family of the shooter, a victim in his own right, who felt isolated and unloved despite the thousands of I love yous he heard throughout his brief and tortured life.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
YouTube and drugs
For some reason, I have only recently ventured into the procrastination heaven that is YouTube. By following various links on Facebook, I have stumbled across some of the most hilariously ridiculous filmed nonsense ever. Awesome. My faves thus far (click at your own risk - embarassingly addictive):
Shoes
Charlie the Unicorn
"My Humps" by Alanis Morissette
In other news, I'm currently reading "Hard Sell" by Jamie Reidy. It came out a couple of years ago and I think I heard of it back then, but was spurred to pick it up based on a New York Times article from a few weeks ago about doctors who are willing to sacrifice credibility as unbiased scientists in order to fatten their wallets. Reidy is a former top sales rep for Pfizer who lost his job after his book was published because it revealed the inner workings of the pharmaceutical industry. And, well, anything that gets someone fired/exiled/assassinated immediately piques my interest (e.g., Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses"). Anyway, Reidy's book is especially intriguing because he began working for Pfizer just prior to the company's introduction of Viagra to the market, which needless to say, rocked everyone's world *wink wink nudge nudge*. I can't put it down. I highly recommend it to anyone who has ever been prescribed a medication and anyone who writes/will write prescriptions. Which should safely include all of you. Unless you've never even had so much as an ear infection and/or hospitals gross you out. Read it anyway.
Shoes
Charlie the Unicorn
"My Humps" by Alanis Morissette
In other news, I'm currently reading "Hard Sell" by Jamie Reidy. It came out a couple of years ago and I think I heard of it back then, but was spurred to pick it up based on a New York Times article from a few weeks ago about doctors who are willing to sacrifice credibility as unbiased scientists in order to fatten their wallets. Reidy is a former top sales rep for Pfizer who lost his job after his book was published because it revealed the inner workings of the pharmaceutical industry. And, well, anything that gets someone fired/exiled/assassinated immediately piques my interest (e.g., Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses"). Anyway, Reidy's book is especially intriguing because he began working for Pfizer just prior to the company's introduction of Viagra to the market, which needless to say, rocked everyone's world *wink wink nudge nudge*. I can't put it down. I highly recommend it to anyone who has ever been prescribed a medication and anyone who writes/will write prescriptions. Which should safely include all of you. Unless you've never even had so much as an ear infection and/or hospitals gross you out. Read it anyway.
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