So today there was an editorial in the campus newspaper from some Criminal Justice sophomore. She apparently thinks it’s a stellar idea to have a partial birth abortion ban with no medical exception clause. Oh, and we should outlaw it because “merely the mother’s health is at risk”. Quote. Because we’ve lost sight of the importance of the mother’s health in the quest for saving at ALL COSTS the life of the fetus.

I’m totally pissed and wrote an email to the editors… and to the entire med school, trying to get other people to email in. I hope they get published.

Here’s what I wrote. I wish it could have been more inflammatory.

Janne’s opinion on “partial birth abortion” is so vastly misguided I
don’t even know where to start. For example, there is a condition (trisomy 13)
where life expectancy for the newborn is 1 week. Performing a simple D&X (the
CORRECT terminology for “partial birth abortion”), could prevent the mother
from having to carry a horribly disfigured fetus to term, only to have it die-
with all the complications and costs associated with pregnancy and birthing.

Zac
Medical Student, College of Medicine

Neocon fundie pro-life warmongering &!^@#.

South Dakota Senate Passes Anti-Abortion Bill

I suppose we’ll see what Alito is made of, eh? Please note, the bill they just passed has no incest or rape clause because it “would have diluted the bill and muddied the push for a Supreme Court decision overturning Roe”. Next Supreme Court session opens in October. What a fantastic birthday gift. *joy*

Oh, and doctors performing abortions would be sentenced with a felony for 5 years. Please note, there is only one abortion provider in all of South Dakota. I suppose the governor still has to pass it… but somehow with a 23-12 vote in favor, I doubt that’ll happen.

Nice job, guys. Because fathers raping daughters makes for a blissful, happy family. Imagine how fantastic it would be to have both a grandfather and a daddy… AT THE SAME TIME!

If you haven’t seen it already, check it out.

Jack’s Blog

Massive income.

70-80 hour workweek. “Family is a distant 2nd priority to patient care”, according to the surgeon giving the talk.

Nope.

I was doing vaccines today for the free clinic that we run. The only thing you really need to know about this is that we have this woman, Paula, who is in charge of the whole thing.

Paula’s entire life is a power trip.

Anyway, I was giving a Hep A vaccine to a 6 year old girl, spanish speaking only. Paula’s got an 18-point long checklist of the things that you need to run through before you give a vaccine. The vaccine coordinator and I check them. Twice. Because we KNOW how nasty Paula can be.

As I’m about to give this poor little girl her shot, Paula runs into the room and starts screaming. “What are you doing!? Oh my god I wasn’t informed about this! Why are you doing this? You need approval from me! Did you do the checklist?!?”

As she is screaming at us, the girl’s eyes go wide. She curls up in her mom’s arms. Imagine that you are in a free clinic, 6 years old, about to get a shot, and some mean lady comes in and starts screaming in a language you don’t understand. Candace, my coordinator, cooly tells Paula that we have, in fact, run through the checklist. Paula makes us run through it, again, in front of her. Turns out she’s upset because we had the attending physician sign off on the vaccine, not Paula. This is not in her beloved checklist.

I finally give this poor girl her shot. She’s crying by now. She’s so tensed up I can’t even get the needle all the way in… and I can’t do anything to calm her down because I don’t speak Spanish.

Congrats, Paula. You just earned yourself another enemy. I hope you’re reading this.

Lured by the appeal of free Chipotle (whoo!) I went to a sports medicine talk today.

1) Sports medicine is not for me. The coaches and players just want the go-ahead to play… and if you don’t give it often enough, you get fired. Plus, you pay to be associated with the team. Talk about conflict of interest.

2) Sports medicine derives from family practice. I was struck by the complete difference in style between this and some of the surgery presentations I’ve seen. This was pretty vague ( “concussions are bad because they lead to bleeding somewhere in the head… it’s one of those pathways I don’t remember” ) vs. a surgery talk ( “do X, Y, & Z. Problem solved”. )

3) Family practice (at least the way he presented it) is just triage. See an interesting case? Pass it off to someone who can deal with it. I’d rather be the one dealing with it than the one passing off everything cool just as you see it.

Alright, so no family practice or sports medicine for me. Maybe I’m just attracted to difficulty, and I should just start gunning for plastic surgery (and the assorted trophy wives and alimony that come as part of the residency package deal).

*side note* Class ran incredibly smoothly today. There was a line of about 10 people waiting to ask questions after each lecture. Also, we got out 10 minutes early each period. GLORIOUS!!!

Alright, this whole thing has gotten ridiculous. Our class reps finally got involved… and sent out an email to “assure you that your leadership is not ignoring this issue”. I’ve highlighted some choice words to outline my sarcasm.

Then there was another flurry of emails, until our Biochem prof sent back ANOTHER email. I think he was retracting his earlier statements. Can’t quite tell. I’ve kind of lost interest, because now people are starting to propose constructive ways around the problem: class of ’09 wiki, discussion forum, blah, blah, blah. And frankly, I’m starting to need to study, because exams are in 2 weeks.

I’ll tell you what needs to be done. We just need to place a gag order on Persons #1 & 2. Fin. I just solved all the arguments. No more inbox-clogging.

So, of course, I couldn’t help it. I just had to include my $.02
Here it is (the lookbook is a book with all of our pictures in it from the beginning of the year).

~~~

Hey all, this is great… keep it coming!

My one request is that you stop changing the subject line on the emails- Gmail can’t collate all the emails into one if you keep changing the subject line to fit your individual point. Instead, I’m forced to manually tag every email with my newly created “Listserv Throwdown ’06″ label. I propose that all further emails in this love-fest reply to Chirag’s original email, to make it easier for me. Thanks in advance.

I’ll be sitting on my couch, bowl of popcorn in hand, waiting with bated breath for the next email to come through. If anybody wants to join me, I’ll probably be here all day.

-Zac

P.S. I love you all. Oh, and who’s Joseph Smith? I couldn’t find him in the lookbook.

So, I suppose I’ve underestimated the amount to which my fellow students loathe their time being taken up by questions.

Chirag (the guy who tipped off the war) wrote an email BACK to our biochem prof, and Cc’ed the entire listserv. He basically restated his point, told the prof that he wasn’t trying to insult the prof’s teaching ability, but still wants people to shut the hell up. Oh man. Also, someone used hotmail.com to send an anonymous email to our listserv (“Joseph Smith” : silencedmedstudent@hotmail.com, if you care) about how s/he felt that they couldn’t speak up in class and that it was unfortunate that some people were monopolizing the time.

I’m sure it’s not as interesting to all you readers as it is to me… but keep in mind, I spend at least 4 hours a day with these people in a cramped room. When people start to get punchy, it’s like my own personal soap opera. I can’t wait for the next episode. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that our dean will probably cancel Medicine: Unleashed! at any minute, since he also gets all these emails, and he’s big on professionalism.

Like a gaggle of 12 year old girls, I tell you. And these are all future doctors.

I believe the email train has stopped. Why, you ask? Someone forwarded the emails to our Biochem prof, who sent out a hefty rebuke to the people who had called for (as he put it) “freedom of speech” to be suppressed. Of course, nobodys going to mess with a teacher. Case closed.

If, by the way, Persons 1-4 use his email as an excuse to ramp up the question-asking sprees, I think a war may break out.

On a related note, I should also mention that the same Biochem prof been interrupting Person #1‘s questions after a few seconds, and gets somewhat visibly annoyed when her hand goes up.