Monday, December 15, 2008

It's DONE!!

Finally I managed to pass the boards, not with great color but I did pass and thus allow myself to continue with my stalled education. I spent the day attempting to line up rotations from NY City to Michigan. I'm excited again for the future, and can't wait for the new year to come. It's a good new beginning for myself I think. 

Training is going well, I just found a whole new level of difficulty on the 15 year old trainer I'm using. It managed to humble me quiet effectively.  Up to this point I had been doing hour+ sessions, sweating but working well the entire time, but with this new level.... I had to give a pretty good effort to make it through 55 minutes. Buckets of sweat later I gave up on the idea of doing a swim work out later today.

 I think in the coming season I would like to do a few more Time Trials on the bike. I did one last year and really enjoyed it, and I think that doing a few more this coming year will really allow me to enjoy the sport I tend to enjoy the most of triathlons. I think in a few months I'll change the bike I have right now (Cannondale six13) to a complete aerobar setup since I don't plan on doing any regular road races. I think in the next month or so I'll plan out my 2009 race schedule. 

Below is a great story my mother came across and if any of you have the time to read it you'll get a great laugh! 

Dave Barry on His Colonoscopy

...I called my friend Andy Sable, a Gastroeneterologist, to make an appointment for a colonoscopy. A few days later, in his office, Andy showed me a color diagram of the colon, a lengthy organ that appears to go all over the place, at one point passing briefly through minneapolis. 

Then Andy explained the Colonoscopy procedure to me in a thorough, reassuring and patient manner. I nodded thoughtfully, but I didn't really hear anything he said, because my brain was shrieking, quote, 'HE'S GOING TO STICK A TUBE 17,000 FEET UP YOUR BEHIND!!!!'

I left Andy's office with some written instructions, and a prescription for a product called 'MoviPrep,' which comes in a box large enough to hold a microwave oven. I will discuss MoviPrep in detail later; for now suffice it to say that we must never allow it to fall into the hands of America's enemies. 

I spent the next several days productively sitting around being nervous. Then, on the day before my Colonoscopy, I began my preparation. In accordance with my instructions, I didn't eat any solid food that day; all I had was chicken broth, which is basically water, only with less flavor. 

Then, in the evening, I took the MoviPrep. You mix two packets of powder together in a one-liter plastic jug, then you fill it with lukewarm water. (For those unfamiliar with the metric system, a liter is about 32 gallons..)

then you have to drink the whole jug, This takes about an hour, because MoviPrep tastes - and here I am being kind - like a mixture of goat spit and urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon.

The instructions for MoviPrep, clearly written by somebody with a great sense of humor,
state that after you drink it, 'a loose watery bowel movement may result.' This is kind of like saying that after you ump off the roof, you may experience contact with the ground. 

MoviPrep is a nuclear laxative. I don't want to be a too graphic, here, but: Have you ever seen a space-shuttle launch? This is pretty much the MoviPrep experience, with you as the shuttle. There are time when you wish the commode had a seat belt. You spend several hours pretty much confined to the bathroom spurting violently.  

You eliminate everything. And then, when you figure you must be totally empty you have to drink another liter of MoviPrep, at which point, as far as I can tell, your bowels travel into the future and start eliminating food that you have not even eaten yet. 

After an action-packed evening, I finally got to sleep. The next morning my wife drove me to the clinic. I was very nervous. Not only was I worried about the procedure, but I had been experiencing occasional return bouts of MoviPrep purge. 

I was thinking, 'What if I spurt on Andy?'

How do you apologize to a friend for something like that? Flower would not be enough. 

At the clinic I had to sign many forms acknowledging that I understood and totally agreed with whatever the heck the forms said.  Then they led me to a room full of other colonoscopy people, where I went inside a little curtained space and took off my clothes and put on one o those hospital garments designed by sadist perverts, the kind that, when you put it on, makes you feel even more naked than when you are actually naked. Then a nurse named Eddie put a little needle in a vein in my left hand. Ordinarily I would have fainted, but Eddie was a very good, and i was already lying down. Eddie also told me that some people put vodka in their MoviPrep. At first iw as ticked off that I hadn't thought of this, but then I pondered what would happen if you got yourself too tipsy to make it to the bathroom, so you were staggering around in full "Fire Hose Mode." You would have no choice but to burn your house. 

When everything was ready, Eddie wheeled me into the procedure room, where Andy was waiting with a nurse and an anesthesiologist. 

I did not see the 17,000-foot tube, but I knew Andy had it hidden around there somewhere. I was seriously nervous at this point. Andy had me roll over on my left side, and the anesthesiologist began hooking something up to the needle in my hand. 

There was music playing in the room, and I realized that the song was 'Dancing Queen' by Abba. I remarked to Andy that, of all the songs that could be playing during this particular procedure, 'Dancing Queen' has to be the least appropriate. 'You want me to turn it up?' said Andy, from somewhere behind me. 'Ha ha,' I said. And then it was time, the moment I had been dreading for more than a decade. If you are squeamish, prepare yourself, because I am going to tell you, in explicit detail, exactly what it was like.  

I have no idea. Really I slept through it. One moment, Abba was shrieking 'Dancing Queen! Feel the beat from the tambourine....' and the next moment, I was back in the other room, waking up in a very mellow mood. Andy was looking down at me and asking me how I felt. I felt excellent. I felt even more excellent when Andy told me that it was all over, and that my colon had passed with flying colors. 

I have never been prouder of an internal organ. 

Note of the Author; Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist for the Miami Herald.  


Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Interesting News

Ran across an interesting news article today on www.reuters.com under the health section. A doctor out of Penn School of Medicine set up a study that provided financial compensation to volunteers that entered a weight loss program and successfully lost weight, those that did not meet their goals did not receive compensation. I thought it was an interesting article that was worth looking at, and potentially try to do something with here at the Biddeford Free Clinic. Maybe when  get into my fellowship year i'll look into doing a similar study. 

A couple new goals I wanted to accomplish in the next 3 months. 
1. Do 80 pushups in 2 minutes
2. Do 80 sit ups in 2 minutes
3. Complete 12 pull ups without stopping from dead hang. 

Today was a long day of exercising, 45 minutes on the treadmill (first running i've done in a month luckily no girls to embarrass me while i was doing it). Then got home had some lunch and did an hour on the bike trainer. Doing good this week, trick is to keep the motivation going through the off season without over doing it. I do need to get into shape for the 44 mile event we organize up here in the spring, looking forward to that. Last year we raised almost $12,000 for Adopt a Doctor (www.adoptadoctor.org). I don't know if we'll be sponsoring them this year however I do have hopes of reaching similar funds even with the recession looming. If you're interested in that event or the 5K we run the same weekend I'll have more information on that coming in a few months once logistics get worked out for the new year.  

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

A Time of Waiting

Well without the scores in last week I'm in a waiting game for the board scores. In the mean time I started training again. Today was the first pool day in over a month. I did a mix of strokes working to not feel completely out of shape but woefully failed. I mean when three girls get in the pool and start kicking my ass on every lap machoism goes right out the window and all I'm left with is the goal of not drowning in their wake. 

Started trying to play the guitar again, another not so easy thing since natural rhythm doesn't come easy to me, but hey in my mind everyone should be able to play some kind of instrument. Figured I'll take twice the normal time and learn an instrument and be happy about it (besides aren't guitar's chick magnets?). 

The first snow fall has come and gone with bitter cold to go with it. I can't wait to go somewhere warm or for summer to come back. But the good news is the shortest day of the year is about to occur on the 21st and after that nothing but longer days aimed toward summer.  

Carpe Diem  

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Things To Know

I forgot to mention yesterday about some of the interesting things I've come across in the last few weeks. The first site is called www.plus3network.com. This is an endurance community that aims at tracking ones training while at the same time donating money to certain non profits for the amount of distance you do. 

I chose to do my exercise for World Bicycle Relief, their mission statement is 'simple sustainable transportation is essential element in disaster assistance and poverty relief. Bicycles fulfill basic needs by providing access to health care, education and economic development. Bicycles empower individuals, their families and their communities. Our mission is to provide access to independence and livelihood through the power of bicycling.' Most of the bikes are proved to community based health care volunteers, disease prevention educators and vulnerable household. At the same time they are training 100's of mechanics to keep the program sustainable. 

If any of you are exercising regularly and want to easily put some of those miles to good use, I highly recommend you sign up on their website. It's very fast and easy. 

On a side note I was hoping for the board scores to come back yesterday, but it never did, so I'm still left in limbo. Keeping the fingers crossed. 

My First

This is my first blog entry. My main goal is to be an ambassador for Evotri and maybe provide myself with a little update sections that I can continually add to to keep myself motivated towards achieving my goals for the coming years. 

Goals for the year....
1. Pass the medical boards 
2. Run a Marathon
3. Compete in at least 3 triathlon events this season sprint distance and olympic distance
4. Apply to the international research fellowship through NIH 

Life has a funny way of throwing things at you, and the interesting part of it all is that you keep rolling with it and enjoy all the obstacles that have to be crossed in the process. One of my favorite quotes helped me a lot in the last 5 months. It is "Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving in a pretty, pristine body but rather to come sliding in sideways, all used up and exclaiming, "wow what a ride!" 

It's going to be a good year and i look forward to sharing it a little. You'll have to excuse any spelling mistakes you find during the blogs as my spelling isn't exactly the best. Bear with it as best you can!