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Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Please Love Me!

I'm still laboring over my personal statement. I don't want it to be boring. I don't want to list the trite things: altruism, dedication, easing human suffering, blah blah blah. Everybody who goes into medicine comes in with those bright ideals. (Well... I'm sure there are a few uninformed applicants that think they're going to make a lot of money.) I don't have any good stories about how some major surgery saved one of my family members. (Thank goodness.) I don't have a witty story about one of my patients. Most of the stories I have seen have been sad ones. I have seen pancreatic cancer and colon cancer by the boatload. I have seen it in relatively young people who don't know that pancreatic cancer is a death sentence. Of course, I have seen success stories, like a man who was almost killed in a car accident and survived because of the trauma surgeon on call that day. It's all interesting. I try to keep in mind that the people who are going to be reading this have already participated in enough of those stories to be bored by any I could tell.

So, I am left with what a third (almost fourth!) year medical student has. I love the feeling of the bovey in my hand. Not because it's powerful, but because it's just fun to cut. I like the tidiness of trimming through adhesions with the mets, carefully separating the loops of small bowel. I love the delicacy of the ansa cervicalis, with its smooth loop and the rays of nerves radiating from it. I love curved needles and one-handed knots. I like the instruments and gadgets, which allow me to satisfy a genetic technology quirk that made my sister an engineer. (I think if she could get over the blood, she would dig the laparoscopy equipment.) I like the subcuticular suture drawing an incision into a smooth, unblemished line, and burying the knot for the grand finale. I was never much of an artist. I think I stopped drawing bunnies and flowers in the third grade. Maybe this can be my art. I can't think of anything more beautiful than lean muscles wrapping around long bones, and the way the subtle architecture can make a pianist's fingers move over the keys. (I will think of this the next time Gary makes me listen to him play Appalachian Spring.) Some of the people I have met have been beautiful, too. Today, I saw a little, gray-haired lady learn that her ovarian cancer had come back. She squared her small shoulders as she left. That showed her bravery more than any words she could have spoken.

These are my observations. These are the things that draw me to the O.R. on a post-call day. I'm not sure how to weave it into a personal statement. Maybe what I'm trying to do is layer these simple elements to make my readers recall the first time they saw the inside of a living human body. I can only assume it was as fascinating for them as it is for me. I have to find some way to make the paper less concrete. I sound like the psychiatry patient that can't decipher the abstract anymore. This is much harder than I thought it would be.
~Sara~
8:53 PM


Monday, May 16, 2005
You are Bettie Page!
You're Bettie Page!

What Classic Pin-Up Are You?
brought to you by
~Sara~
8:32 PM


Saturday, May 14, 2005
Honors
I got honors on my surgery shelf exam! I worked my ass off and it actually amounted to something! This is the best day, ever!
~Sara~
3:44 PM


Thursday, May 12, 2005
amoure
You like the sweet, shy type.

What kind of guy are you most attracted to? (CUTE anime pics)
brought to you by
~Sara~
8:47 AM


Wednesday, May 11, 2005
The instrument has yet to be invented that could measure my indifference to psychiatry.
~Sara~
1:12 PM


Friday, May 06, 2005
Revised Schedule:

July: Acting Internship in General Surgery
August: Clinical and Laboratory Hematology/ Trauma Surgery at Georgetown
September: Clinical Anatomy
October: Plastic Surgery
November: Diagnostic Imaging
December: Infectious Disease

woo-hoo!
~Sara~
9:57 AM


Monday, May 02, 2005
I HATE writing personal statements!

I'm sitting around, trying to describe myself for my residency personal statement. I want to sound confident, yet modest. I want to sound passionate, yet not self-destructive. I want to sound bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, yet not naive.

Any suggestions? Five words that say "Sara," would be super.
Try to be nice. I'm very sensitive. (heh)
~Sara~
8:42 PM

About me
profile
My"Space"
Things I love
hot coffee in the morning, lively conversation, the ansa cervicalis, my bed, single malt scotch, men who read, hazelnut gellato, a good secret, people who make me laugh
People I love
Missy
Courtney
Tiffany
Diane
Dave
Lindsay
Carrie
Ifinding
Cardiac Tamponade
MB
Memories
'08/01/2003 - 09/01/2003' '09/01/2003 - 10/01/2003' '10/01/2003 - 11/01/2003' '11/01/2003 - 12/01/2003' '12/01/2003 - 01/01/2004' '01/01/2004 - 02/01/2004' '02/01/2004 - 03/01/2004' '03/01/2004 - 04/01/2004' '04/01/2004 - 05/01/2004' '05/01/2004 - 06/01/2004' '06/01/2004 - 07/01/2004' '07/01/2004 - 08/01/2004' '08/01/2004 - 09/01/2004' '09/01/2004 - 10/01/2004' '10/01/2004 - 11/01/2004' '11/01/2004 - 12/01/2004' '12/01/2004 - 01/01/2005' '01/01/2005 - 02/01/2005' '02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005' '03/01/2005 - 04/01/2005' '04/01/2005 - 05/01/2005' '05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005' '06/01/2005 - 07/01/2005' '07/01/2005 - 08/01/2005' '08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005' '09/01/2005 - 10/01/2005' '10/01/2005 - 11/01/2005' '11/01/2005 - 12/01/2005' '12/01/2005 - 01/01/2006' '01/01/2006 - 02/01/2006' '02/01/2006 - 03/01/2006' '03/01/2006 - 04/01/2006' '04/01/2006 - 05/01/2006' '05/01/2006 - 06/01/2006' '06/01/2006 - 07/01/2006' '07/01/2006 - 08/01/2006' '08/01/2006 - 09/01/2006' '09/01/2006 - 10/01/2006' '10/01/2006 - 11/01/2006' '11/01/2006 - 12/01/2006' '12/01/2006 - 01/01/2007' '03/01/2007 - 04/01/2007' '04/01/2007 - 05/01/2007' '05/01/2007 - 06/01/2007' '06/01/2007 - 07/01/2007' '09/01/2007 - 10/01/2007' '11/01/2007 - 12/01/2007' '12/01/2007 - 01/01/2008'
crédits
picture design: © Alexander Karpenko 2005 | aikart@pisem.net or AiK-art
skin: slayerette, modified by Sara
image font: adine kirnberg script