Well, again no posts for a while as not muc hhas happened. Had my last official research day on Friday - actually got a patient for the study - bringing us up to a whopping 11 (yay!). I am actually headed to Weiler in a few minutes to see if they have any charts for me. Why do you go in the rain and not call? you may ask. Because if I'm not there in person looking upset about how it has been a week since I ordered the charts they simply do a perfunctory look and tell me it's not there. I've dealt with this already.

Perhaps later I will get a chance to ramble on and moan about the disapointment of my research, but for now I must bid adieu. I start neuro tomorrow. blah.

oh yeah - Billy Joel concert was AWESOME!

Well, again it has been awhile with no posts and there is a simple reason for that - i have nothing to report. This past week got 1 patient, he was admitted, did better and went home. i enetered all data i have into the epidemiological program, so i just have to do stuff as charts come now (got at Weiler and Monte tomorrow).
Hopkins was nice. I liked, but not gonna be #1.

tomorrow i have to go to the dentist =(
but i go see Billy Joel this week and it is my birthday this week!

that is al.

very frustrated with lack of progress from study.
D

Long time no speak...


Well, it has been quite some time since I have posted. But there is good reason. Not much has happened regarding research since my last post. I missed every day this past week except for Friday b/c I was in Boston and New Haven for interviews. I liked them both a lot.
Quickly, regrading research, since there is a smiling 5 month old waiting for me to play with him..... Dr. Khine was in house several days this week and got no patients... there was only 1 first time wheezer the entire time she was there (which is amazing) and taht person did not have a family history of asthma. I suppose the 50 degree weather isnt helping that much for our study, but this is rediculous! I am not expecting too much on MLK day tomorrow. Likely to be anotehr graveyard.
So for my chart review, the amazing people in the Health Information Office at Monte did as they said and saved me a ton of charts throughout the week, that I had plenty to keep myself busy with on friday. I dub them amazing specifically to contrast them with the morons who run Health Information at Weiler. (We need stuff at Weiler as well since a lot of taps are done in the NICU). I was there almost 10 days ago, gave in the stuff for the files and was told it would take at least 72 hours and I would be called when the files were in. Fine. On wednesday I get a call saying that they need another photocopy of the IRB form b4 they can get files. I flipped out and yelled at the woman who tried to use the fact that she was on vacation as an excuse for the office not getting their shit together and getting me my charts more than 144 hours after i submitted the request. So first thing friday morning I went to Weiler and lo and behol, they had boxes of charts waiting for me. What idiots.

in other news - GREAT ind-pit game this week.Peyton Manning. wow. never gonna win a big game.
gn

Progress!

First, before my excited explanation… a quick update on that baby I enrolled last Friday. She is still in the PICU, though she is doing much better. Today when I went up to visit, she was out of bed, which is a damn good thing. Means there are less tubes and wires connecting her, which is always a good thing

So… Over the last week Dr. Khine enrolled 2 and I enrolled 1! Amazing… we doubled our previous enrollment (though one of Dr. Khine’s enrollees went to a different hospital the following day and got Orapred (argh!)). So yesterday I was very busy b/c I had some follow ups to do (and of course, they came at the same time), however there were 0 new first time wheezers <2>

The other thing on which I am making progress, and being kept busy with, is my LP study. Got my first 25 charts to flip through yesterday, awaiting my 25 for today; however, most of the work I was doing the past 2 days on this study is computer work. I do have to complain about the fact that whoever did this study beforehand would write “no documentation” way to frequently. I mean, simply looking for the LP sheet is not enough. Sometimes the attending write a LP procedure note elsewhere, sometimes they don’t. But you can always check the nursing records, medications given, and the computer record of meds given. Really annoys me that I can’t trust anything, which was written beforehand. I really hate it when people do half-assed jobs.

Jason Broder (college friend, I know- I still need to talk about those) is coming to visit tonight. He was supposed to come 2 weeks ago, but thanks to the transit union, he couldn’t make it. Bastards. Anyways, I’m excited.. haven’t seen Jason since September.

I am currently reading Robert Ludlum’s The Promethus Deception. A very very good book. I am eagerly awaiting the release of Steven King’s newest – The Cell – later this month. Also looking forward to seeing Billy Joel on the 26^th!!!!

We had Shosh’s friend Dana’s wedding the other night. It was very nice. But we have sheva brachot on Saturday night at 8pm. That’s the Pats-Jags game! ARGH!

Ok.. off to read.

D

Addendum::
Today and yesterday no one. Rediculous. I think the only time the asthma room has more than 1 person in it is when my peeps came back at the same time! Tomorrow is always another (frustrating) day.

Happy New Year!
Well, 2006 is here. Bye bye 2005. I can only hope 2006 will be as good as 2005 for me. Sammy was born, I finished my 3rd year of med school and kicked ass doing my sub-I, Shosh's sister, Yael, got married, Stevie got married, Josh Korn got engaged I won my FFL league, and came in 2nd on an online poker tourney. I think those are the highlights of my year.

Last highlight of the year was getting TiVo and hooking it up (which took a long time, since it doesn't go through Vonage)... i can pause live TV. Never need to miss anything anymore. I cna set up what I want to record ONLINE! How awesome is that. Brief side note. TiVO customer support people - not so helpful. Linksys customer support people - awesome. Best CS I have ever spoken with.

2006 begins in a week devoid of any interviews, which is good, since I am still pooped. I am going up to beantown next week for Boston Children's and then hitting Yale on the way down. This does mean, sadly, that I will be spending several days away from Shosh and Sammy! I am not very excited about that = (

This week was interesting. We enrolled two patients, 1 vomited the study meds and is out of study, another I just found out was moved to the ICU and they have discontinued the study. I'm gonna check on Tuesday, I hope she is doing okay.
So my study has 3 patients in it, still. Dr. David offered for me to be around Monte in February, but I dont think it is going to make a difference. No one is coming in. I know Dr. Khine and I are not in the ED 24/7, which is a problem in terms of enrollment (Dr. Khine did get someone who said no to the study btw), but I"m not sure what we can do in terms of getting otehr people to o the study. It does get really busy there, and the study does require someone to check every 30 min on the patient for 4 hours, and if you are getting slammed it is tough to find the time to do that kind of "extra" stuff. Also... people are on shifts.. even if we ask 1 or 2 more people to do it, they arent there all the time either! Dr. David also came up with the idea of someone starting the study for me, calling me, and I come over and take over. Problem with that is that, 1) patients need to get started on meds ASAP, 2) since the begining part is partially subjective (change in wheezing) having two different people listening doesnt work, and they can't wait till I get there.
Everyone is so surprised how few patients there are in the asthma room (Dr. Khine was sure we would have more than enough) and apparantly they were much busier in November and end of October (earlier RSV season), when the IRB and pharmacy were dragging their feet.
yep thats about it, i think

I also started another study, which I believe I briefly mentioned last week. Dont have tim to go into mroe detail yet, but suffice it to say i spent 12 horus on thurs/fri organizing the data. Should have my first 25 charts late Tuesday afternoon.

Anyways, I gotta go. Dentist appointment (ahhhhhh) in the AM and then Shosh's friend Dana's wedding in the evening.

Gonna be a busy day.....