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tomjrau
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Name: Thomas
Country: United States
State: Colorado
Metro: Denver
Gender: Male
Interests: gym, sleeping, kart racing.
Expertise: making old ladies cry and convincing ppl to pull the plug on their mom
Occupation: Resident Physician
Industry: Medical
Message: message meEmail: email me
AIM:  tomjrau
Member Since:
9/19/2003
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It's been over a month now since moving here from cali and here's my initial impressions. It actually almost feels like cali, except without the expensive cars, diversity, ethnic foods, celebrities, pretty girls, trader joes. Yeah, almost like cali. Weather wise, it's been the hottest summer in recent years, with temps approaching 100. But that's ok, because it's drier than a bone here and that makes it more bearable than 80 deg in Chicago. The sun is intense, more so than I can remember on a typical summer day in Cali. That makes wearing sunscreen and sunglasses an absolute necessity, esp for us radiologists that spend the entire day in a dark reading room!
But the most striking thing here is the lack of diversity. Since moving here last month I have officially doubled the asian population here. I was told that asians make up 2% of the population, or was that 0.2%? Walking into a sushi restaurant, I'm immediately struck by the fact that not only are all the patrons caucasian, so are the waiters, the bus boys, and even chefs. And the prices too, so unasian, but I expected no less from a landlocked state! Even the gardeners are caucasian. In the rare instance that i'm standing in the checkout line at a grocery store behind another asian person, the checker automatically thinks we're "together" and tries to put our tab on the same bill. I haven't been to a place this lacking in diversity since being in the boonies of Iowa. Even asians seem to give me a funny look when i walk by, almost to say "what are you doing here? I was here first!"
The new hospital I work at is the brand new University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Anschutz campus in Aurora. Pretty much state of the art and everything seems to run well here. It's completely computerized with computerized order entry and documentation. Patients can be seen in outpatient clinic and can be fit in the same day to get outpatient tests like ultrasound with a short wait. I've never seen such efficiency in a Chicago hospital or at Loma Linda.
I haven't explored this place too much yet, but here's some pix from Mt Evans, at 14, 250+ feet, it's home to the highest paved road in N. America and testing site of auto manufacturers for their high altitude tests.
Just driving here is a cardiovascular exercise. High altitude sickness is definitely a problem. Shortness of breath, lightheadedness, chest pains, headaches, and constant yawning kick in midway up the drive. It feels somewhat like the altered mental status you'd get from being alcohol intoxicated. Now I know what it feels like to have severe emphysema. This is not a place to be if you're out of shape. Walking just 10 yards on flat ground is quite physically demanding here.
 
Some of the local residents didn't seem to mind us being there, though its amusing that they're all mooning us simultaneously.
The only place to find snow mid-summer.
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| Well, I guess this is good bye once again. I'm leaving to Colorado to continue residency training for the next 4 years so I can sit in an dark room all day! Woohoo! Thanks to everyone who made my intern year an enjoyable one! | | |
| I just completed my last call of the year! No more 30 hr shifts, no more 80 hr work weeks, no more working 26 out of 30 days out of the month. At least for a year. People sometimes ask how it's even humanly possible to stay awake for that long and perform patient care duties. Well, it's not. But it helps if you sleep through a few pages in the middle of the nite to get a couple hours of sleep. =) Thankfully nobody has died on any of my shifts. Though a few pts have been rather uncomfortable with fever or pain until my damn beeper was finally able to arouse me from much needed sleep so I could respond. The worst of it is mostly over and I have to admit that I'll miss some of the drama and excitement with being on the wards. There's something about being the only doctor to watch over 100 patients in the middle of the nite which is somehow exciting, if exhausting. For those of you I haven't talked to recently, I'll be moving to Denver, Colorado at the end of June for 4 yrs to start my Radiology residency.
Though to cope with such a miserable existence, it helps to have a dose of adrenaline every now and then. Last week I attended the BMW Ultimate Drive for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer research. Available to drive were the 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, X, Z, and even the M3 and 7 series alpina (for those 30 yrs and older).
 
 
I was able to drive the 135i, 335i, 650i, 535i, and Z4. The 135i, sharing it's 3 liter twin turbo 300hp engine with the 335i is quite a rocketship.
What I liked about the 135i: Massive amounts power delivered in a smooth refined manner. Even at 40mph, I was able to break the rear wheels loose and induce a tad bit of wheelspin at full throttle. In typical BMW fashion, the car is responsive, predictable, and easy to get in and drive fast immediately. The car is also well equipped with leather seats, moonroof, and i-drive.
Cons: Expensive, fully loaded it'll push over $40k. Steering has lost some of its raw feel present in older generation bmw's. It's still leagues ahead of lexus or honda, however. iDrive is still unintuitive, acura still makes the best navigation interface in my opinion.
Too bad the route I was given (in Palm Springs) was a 12 mile stretch of straight paths and unchallenging terrain so I can't say too much about the handling. The ride quality is a bit firm and is comparable to the previous generation 3 series with a Performance package, perhaps a little less compliant in general but it tends to take the edge off shaper impacts better.
Yesterday I attended the Lexus Performance Driving Event. https://www.tasteoflexus.com/performance/default.asp
This was perhaps the best free driving event I've ever attended. The event kicked off with a 35 min chalk talk about the importance of looking ahead and using your eyes to "do the driving" and how "smooth is fast." Afterwards we got to do 9 timed laps autocross style in the parking lot. Our choice of cars: IS250 F-sport pkg, IS350, IS350 w/ F-sport pkg, GS430, and GS hybrid. The autocross featured a quick slalom section, followed by a decreasing radius bend, some sweeping esses and then a final braking zone which required us to come to a complete stop in a boxed area to complete the timed lap.
I chose to do the first 6 laps in the IS250 w/ F-sport pkg which was the only one offered with manual. I quickly set the fastest time of our session group with a 24.5sec lap. I found the car difficult to launch properly and the engine quite underpowered for any real serious driving enthusiast. The gearbox is also not up to par with sporting duties and I found myself grinding gears whenever I rushed a 1-2 shift too quickly. However, once underway, the car handled well and predictable with the Fsport pkg allowing large slip angles and allowing me to push the car hard but not arresting speed overzealously. The steering is lite on effort but unfortunately even lighter on road feedback. Roll control is good for a sports sedan, but not best in class.
Afterwards, I did 3 laps in the IS350 base model. I was disappointed by the aggressiveness of the traction control and stability systems to intervene at minimal slip angles and arresting speed. The electronic brake assist also tends to intervene and apply the brakes aggressively when it detects a rapid increase in brake pedal force which also took away control, fun, and hurt lap times. It also didn't help that the car is a bit more front heavy and tended to push more in the corners. My best time in the IS350 was 24.7 secs. I wouldn't recommend the base IS series to anyone who has the the skill to drive these cars aggressively. Unless you intend to disable the stability control systems everytime you drive, which isn't smart in my opinion either.
The instructors were rather please and quite impressed with my consistent speed so they allowed me to have one final lap in the IS350 w/ Fsport package to see if I could set fastest lap time of the day of 24.0 secs, set in this very same car. My one and only lap: 23.8 secs. =)
Afterwards, we capped the day in a lead and follow session on the
Fontana racetrack itself in the ISF! Each driver was handed the keys to
their own ISF and followed the pro-driver in the lead car at about 70% speed on track.
It was just enough to feel the power of the 5L V-8 416hp engine with its throaty exhaust note and enjoy the
8-speed semi-automatic gearbox. Without a doubt, the 8speed gearbox is the most impressive transmission I've ever experienced, cracking off shifts in 0.1 secs. Downshifts are accompanied with an electronic blip in the throttle to match revs like a person doing heel-toe-downshifting, only that it never makes a mistake and does it at superhuman speeds. My only gripe about this car is that the steering seems lifted straight off the base IS series without any improvement in steering feel, and the suspension probably allows for more body roll than it should. Otherwise, it's a pretty amazing piece of machinery that I'd like to own one day.
Finally, we all got to ride along with the pro driving instructor for 2 hot laps to experience what the machine was truly capable of doing. With its amazing composure at over 125mph, quiet cabin, and soft leather interior it's a near supercar that can be driven fast for multiple laps. One of the driving instructors later confided to me that after having driven the new BMW M3 and ISF, he felt the M3 was a bit faster than the ISF and had a more raw feel and rougher ride, but the ISF is the car that was easier to drive for longer.
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| On vacation this week till March 23. Anyone free?
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| Ugh, I'm gonna shoot the next resident who orders a GI consult. After 4 straight months of being on call every 4th night, I thought that being on the GI rotation would give me some time to kick back. Well, it sorta does. The past couple weekends were the first weekends I've had off in 3 months and marked the first time I had 2 consecutive days off work in 2 months.
Got bombarded today with 7 consults for GI (gastroenterology service). Why are we seeing so much pancreatitis of unknown etiology these days? Why are 30 y/o guys dying of lupus flare ups? Why are so many ppl bleeding outta their asses?
I'm so glad I decided not to do internal medicine, it's the smartest career choice or perhaps life decision I've ever made. I was told sometime during med school that you should choose your
specialty not based on the "good days" at work because there will
always be great days in any specialty. Rather, the worst days. I'm glad I did that.
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