Closing my MySpace

I have decided to close down my MySpace account because no one visits it, especially me. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a hardcore facebook addict now. But who isn’t really in this day and age? Hell, my grandmother is on it (Hi Grammie!)

The only thing that kept me from closing it sooner was the preservation of these gems from 3rd year. But hey, I have a web site now! I can put them here! Well technically I’ve had this since the beginning of med school… but it has direction and…. and… I post here regularly. Damn near monthly 🙂

So here is what I didn’t want to delete from the MySpace account I had in my 3rd year (2 yrs ago):

Michelle’s Interests
General
Pretending…
-I like to pretend I’m on Top Chef and plate my mac & cheese beautifully.
-I like to pretend that if medicine doesn’t work out, I could be a renegade space cowboy on Mal’s crew.
-I like to pretend I’m Imogen Heap and belt out mmm whatcha say!
-I like to pretend I’m a penguin and Walk It Out.
-I like to pretend I’m in Jethro Tull and play the flute on one foot.
-And I definitely pretend all the scut I do is very, very important doctor-y stuff.

Music
There’s hardly a genre I don’t have a few favorites in, but I’m going through this hippie, Lillith fair phase, so when I put in a CD (I did not have my beloved iPod touch back in 3rd yr), its Bjork, Kate Havnevik, Imogen Heap, KT Tunstall, Sarah McLachlan, Chantal Kreviazuk, Lucia Micarelli, and Anna Phoebe.(I have since moved on to an island vibe with Ziggy and Iz.) When I flip on the radio, its all rap….Eminem, Luda, whatever. And when I’m down, I sing the soundtrack of Jesus Christ Superstar or Hedwig & the Angry Inch. (I still do!)

Movies
Too many to list- here’s the top 10: Fifth Element, Princess Bride, Vampire Hunter D, LOTR, Kill Bill, Pirates of the Caribbean, Clerks, Blazing Saddles, Army of Darkness…and any of the Tyler Perry plays! (let’s add Star Trek to the list!)

Television
I don’t have TV. I suck. (Now I do, yay! … Have TV I mean, not suck) But I try to keep up with House, Grey’s, The Office, American Idol, Top Chef, Hell’s Kitchen, America’s Next Top Model, So You Think You Can Dance, Project Runway, and How I Met Your Mother. I miss Trailer Park Boys, Ab Fab, Spaced, Firefly, Rome, Gilmore Girls, and Deadwood. (Again, I still do)

Heroes
A.T. Still,
Patch Adams,
Heather Armstrong,
Michelle Au

About Me
Lessons I learned in 3rd year:
#1–When patients and drug reps ask about where I am in my education, I say I am done with the science part of medicine, sitting in a dark room stuffing my noggin with every bit of medical minutiae I could fit in there. I have moved on to the art portion of medicine, namely gaining the experience of how & when to apply that knowledge. And NO, I am not a fucking intern. Thanks to Gray’s Anatomy, thats the only thing people understand about medical education… where my career is in relation to intern year. (This still kinda bugs me bc when I go to explain it, people don’t even know what exactly an intern IS per se, as in whether they have graduated, are they REAL doctors, etc… but they know they are lower than residents, work an ungodly amount of hours for little pay, get up at 4am to as people if they have passed gas yet, and are yelled at constantly for being stupid. Oh and have lots of sex in on-call rooms! Seriously? Eww. On-call rooms are gross.)

#2–Everyone wants to know what you are going to do and the whole story behind the choice. If you don’t have the story, you sound flaky. As for what I want to do, I don’t know yet. Not surgery. Not anesthesia. Definitely not radiology. Probably not FP, peds, or OB/GYN. I might do something with IM, PM&R, or Psych. Thats all I know. (Now I’m psych all the way baby, woo!)

Other medstudent: “So what do you tell docs you want to be then?”

Me: “Interventional Cardio”

Other medstudent: “Why that?”

Me: “Well if I say anything primary, including IM, I get the speech about how I’ll never make enough money to pay off my loans. If I say PM&R, they might ask me why, and all I can say is “I just think it sounds neat.” If I say Oncology, they’ll ask if there is a story there and then I have to launch into my mom’s story and its just such a serious conversation when first meeting someone. So I say IM- Intervent Cardio, b/c
1) IM is general enough to where whatever the rotation is, it could apply somehow and they don’t feel like they are wasting their time teaching me,
2) “Cardio” makes me sound smart, and
3) “Interventional” b/c they always respect the desire to do billable procedures.”

#3–The key to preventing burnout is to find humor in your work. Thats probably why I like psych so much. In FP, you get fat old men who won’t take care of themselves, but then complain that they hurt all over and want you to fix it. It pisses me off, especially if a rectal exam is involved. But with psych, I find it hard to get mad at someone who is wearing war paint and says they didn’t take their meds b/c they crawled away. (Still true for me!)