Legalizing Marijuana

I just watched a documentary recently called "Escape to Canada." It was about the summer of 2003 when for a brief moment in time both marijuana and same sex marriage were legal. Since then same sex marriage is still legal and going strong (yay civil rights!) but marijuana is back to being illegal. It is a great movie and I recommend that everyone should watch it, especially if you want to feel proud to be a Canadian. Even though weed is illegal now there were some very good arguments for legalizing it that I want to bring up. I should probably mention that I don't really have any vested interest in this because I don't smoke marijuana, but I do support legalization for the following reasons.
- It is the most commonly used illicit drug and in places like BC it is the number 1 agricultural crop.
- Massive amounts of money could be saved in police and law enforcement costs if the cops concentrated more on other crimes. Also legalizing weed would dramatically decrease the amount of illicit activity related to marijuana.
- Money made from marijuana tazation and regulation could go to support health care
- There would be increases in tourism (look at Amsterdam)
- In terms of its effects, people who use weed are less violent than drunks and there hasn't been a link yet to lung cancer (and if you are worried about the smoke you can always eat it!)
- marijuana is already used or could be used to treat lots of medical problems: cancer, MS, glaucome, gout etc.

I am sure there are more Pros than I have put in this list and I am purposely omitting the cons, but I think it is still a compelling list! Hopefully one day our country will be progressive enough to break away from the US and establish our own drug policies- which I hope include legalizing marijuana!

"Right of conscience"

This post is all about the controversial passage of a bill in the US called the "right of conscience." The original article can be found here.

Basically the proposition is to expand a health care workers right to decline providing treatments that they are not comfortable with on religious grounds. Specifically abortion and birth control. I am fine with that part of it (mostly). What I am not ok with is the fact that this new law will also allow with holding of information AND referrals for birth control, abortion etc. This is ridiculous. Part of a health care worker's duty is to provide patients the best standard of care possible. This should be regardless of any moral or other objections we may have to the treatment they are asking for (as long as that treatment is legal of course). This makes me extremely angry and is just another reason why we should actually enforce separation of church and state!

Med School is officially hard!

After getting my first test back I got pretty comfortable being in medical school and thought
"Hey this isn't so bad, I can easily do this, I don't know why everyone thinks it's so difficult"
And then came anatomy....
I have never taken anatomy before and while I know where are the organs are I have no idea about any of the muscles, tendons, ligaments or bone. And since everything pretty much looks the same inside a cadaver it is pretty difficult to figure everything out. Oh how I wish it was beautifully colored like in my anatomy atlas. Basically I have to memorize a ton of strange names - like levator scapulae - know where everything is attached and how the blood and nerves are innervating it. The idea of this is overwhelming, not because I find it difficult to memorize stuff but because I now realize I need to take this knowledge and apply it to people! This is learning for life and having gotten a taste of the muscles and skeleton I am scared! Not to mention learning about X rays - I still can't figure out what I am looking at, let alone tell if the fracture is translated medially or laterally.
It's going to be a long 4 years.

Matching and Fears

I just got the grade back from my first test in medical school. My school is pass fail so there is no pressure to get over 90% in every single thing. And passing is only 60%. I know that even if I get 61% I will still become a doctor but I wanted confirmation that I was studying the right way and the right material. I did really well on the first test - in the 80s- without a ton of studying so it boosted my confidence that I can really do this! Next we start learning all about anatomy and the muscle groups so I am going to be way over my head, but a little extra confidence is nice. Anyway, this brings me to the point of my post. Just as I started getting comfortable in med school I talked to some first year residents about matching to my chosen specialty. Turns out only 3/4 of people get their first choice specialty and location! Don't quote me on the numbers but I previously thought it was much higher! So my current fear is not matching to anything at all and then being stuck with a job I don't want in a place I don't want to live in. I have also been volunteering a lot lately and am involved in a ton of clubs, which is fun but I heard from one consultant that residencies really don't even look at any of that stuff. I think I just need to take a deep breath and relax, after all I don't even know yet if I want to be a surgeon or a family doc or anything. In conclusion, the stress is only beginning!

New Pregnancy Diagnostic Test coming soon

Interesting research has been done in the field of prenatal diagnostic testing. Right now the current diagnostic tests are invasive and come with a small risk of miscarriage, but now there might be a new DNA test that can be done to identify babies with Down Syndrome while the mom is pregnant. You can find the story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7654201.stm

It should be available in 2-3 years. I was told that the information I learned about in the next four years would be obsolete by the time I came to practice but i didn't realize information would be obsolete within the first month!

Female vs. Male Med students

I just read an article about comparing female versus male medical students and how they estimate their skill level.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081003122713.htm

Basically the gist of it is that female medical students have the skills but are not as confident as their male counterparts. I am not sure if this is a good thing or not. On one hand it seems like female med students might be more humble and therefore less likely to overestimate their skills and make mistakes. On the otherhand sometimes you have to be a bit cocky to convince other people they can trust you. There is a good episode of Scrubs where the surgeon Turk stops being cocky and says he is a capable average surgeon, which causes the patient to rethink the decision to have surgery. When he returns to his confident attitude the guy agrees to have the surgery.

I am sure there is a happy medium in there somewhere.

Rural Family Medicine

I never thought I would consider family medicine, the lowest paying of all areas of medicine, in a rural area. But the other day I went to a physician panel the other day where I heard what it is like to be a family physician in an urban area and a rural area. It turns out in Canada that family docs can also sub-specalize with anesthesia, OB/GYN, surgical assists, ER etc to create variety and expand their practice. The things they get to do make it seem like family docs have the best of both worlds. In other words they get to build relationships with patients while doing a variety of procedures. I am now seriously considering working in a field like this. And in a rural area physicians get to run hospitals and be involved in group practice with an overhead of 25% and make around $200,000 I am very impressed. I am not totally convinced but it is definitely something to think about!

I am a "real" doctor

I just bought my first stethoscope the other day and the feeling was amazing! I feel like I am officially a doctor now and I spent a lot of time walking around with it around my neck and listening to my own heart beat. It is interesting how one simple piece of equipment can define my identity. I was tempted to buy a lot more equipment like an ophthalmoscope (for looking in eyes) and an otoscope (for looking in ears) but the total would have been well over $1000. However, I am glad I am not in dentistry because their tuition is much higher than mine and they need over $10000 worth of equipment! Hopefully my skills will not suffer because of not buying all the extras but every exam room has most of this equipment anyway. I guess it is official now...I am going to be a doctor.

Old people and Sex

I recently had a series of lectures on geriatric patients including what kinds of foods they eat, delirium, and sex. I was surprised at home many seniors still have sex and even more surprised at the amount of STDs these people have! About 12% of people with HIV are over the age of 50! And most of these people would be new cases because the treatments have not been around that long to increase longevity of those infected in the 70s and early 80s. Because normally men die younger than women the population in a nursing home or senior apartment complex can be 7 women:1 man! So it is assumed that guys will have multiple partners. And since most of these people probably have never had the "safe sex" talk diseases like chlamydia and syphilis are way too common. I just recently came to terms with having to give the awkward sex talk to teenagers, but now it seems like at some point I will have to talk to everyone over the age of 10 about sex!

Dead bodies

I just had my first anatomy lab recently and became acquainted with my own personal corpse. I was extremely worried that I would pass out or cry when I saw a dead person because I have never seen one before. None of that happened though. They were careful to cover up the person's face for now, which helped a lot. Someone they didn't look human though. The skin was a grayish color and all the parts just seemed a bit alien. I am definitely grateful for all the people who donated their bodies to help us learn, but it is a much weirder feeling cutting into a person than a mouse for research!