So on the weekend off post shelf exam, i did my usual biking around the city. But this time joining me were two classmates, derek and edozie…the group of us in chicago with alternate methods of transportation and the cojones to use them is fairly small, so we all kind of know each other. We picked as our initial destination the field museum of chicago, a 5.5 mile ride from our starting destination at north beach. And we’re off

Some sort of summer camp competition

In the far distance you can see buckingham fountain, perhaps better remembered from the show, married with children

bicycle safety is important, especially when you see how many head injuries come into the hospital

The Adler Planetarium

And an amazing view of chicago’s skyline and lake michigan…now with bonus segways!

We found a latin music festival taking place in grant park, so we stopped there, and played games

I’m Mclovin it! big money!

and it did.
From there we biked on over to halsted where there was the greektown festival taking place

And tomorrow its back to work…stories to follow

During the last week an unusual event has been taking place in the windy city-namely the Bicycle Film Festival

And coincidentally, my last day off fell on the day of the first annual bicycle scavenger hunt. So I grabbed my 21 speed, my helmet and set off for Logan Square, in need of two teamates.

A brief history of Logan Square, courtesy of Wikipedia. The community area and neighborhood are named for General John A. Logan who served in the Civil War, and later in Congress. One of the most striking intersections in the city, the square itself is a circular green space located at the center of a traffic circle formed by the junction of Kedzie and Logan Boulevards and Milwaukee Avenue. At the center of the circle is the Illinois Centennial Memorial Column, built in 1918 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Illinois‘ statehood. The monument, designed by Henry Bacon, famed architect of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC and sculpted by Evelyn Longman, is a single 70-foot tall marble Doric column topped by an eagle, in reference to the state flag. Reliefs
surrounding the base depict figures of Native Americans, explorers,
farmers and laborers intended to show the great changes experienced
during the state’s first century.

The turnout was bigger than anyone expected, with easily a hundred cyclists of all ages and societal niches present. My partner in crime was Jayan, but the competition demanded 3 per team…so we had to round up a new friend

ANd there we are…team, mean and Nasty

The rules of the competion were as follows:

1. Each team consisting of 3 people would set out from logan square to one of 5 designated locations
2. At any of the locations, the team had to accomplish a task, upon successful completion of which the team would receive a token
3.The team then had to return to Logan Square, drop off the token in the team bag, and set out for the next location
4. The team had exactly 90 minutes to collect as many tokens as possible

And off we went, with the obligatory self pic.

Each one of us had to answer a question correctly from these kings of trivia to receive the token from Belmont and Elston. Whereas skin pictionary was required at underground theater milwaukee, and cranium charades and belmont and kimball. Which Jayan and I crushed, completing the charades task in less than 30 seconds each time we attempted it

However, despite being in relatively good shape, none of these locations were close to each other, and we had to return to each one multiple times, so we got tired by the end

and hungry
 

and somewhere to park

At the end of the night, we congratulated ourselves on a job well done, and decided to see just how far we had biked that day

That’s right…almost 20 miles in one day…w00tsauce

=J

Alright, so in an effort to keep myself active and always learning, I am starting a new game/feature in this blog, which will consist of me visiting various chicago landmarks on my days off and describing them to those of you not in the loop. (Pun intended-chicago’s main sites are all near the elevated train known as the “El” of which the main part consists of a track called “the loop” ha ha oh it is to laugh.)

So off I set on my bike (10-15 miles a week! w00tsauce me!)

This is me biking down lakeshore drive and that is the hancock building you see in the distance

And here is my first location

The international museum of surgical science…admission $4 for students and free on tuesdays…and yes i go to medical museums on my day off, but if anyone doubted my nerdiness before, you clearly havent been playing along

Asklepios, son of Apollo, founder of the medical profession in ancient greece and bearer of the a single serpent entwined staff that has become the symbol of the medical profession and is indelibly inked on both my psyche and my arm.

Another well known figure, that of Hippocrates…cant make out the words of his oath?

“I swear by apollo, asklepios, hygea, panacea and all the gods and goddesses that i will carry out this oath and its indenture according to the best of my ability and judgement. To hold my teacher in this art equal to my own parents…ton conside4r his family my own brothers and to teach them this art without fee or indenture…to impart instruction to pupils who have taken the physicians oath…I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgement…I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art…Into whatsoever house I enter, I will enter to help the sick and whatsoever I shall see or hear in the course of my profession i will never divulge, holding such things to be holy secrets…Now if i carry out this oath may i gain forever reputation among all men…but if i transgress it, and forswear myself, may the opposite befall me”

You will notice, that while it is certainly implied, primum non nocere (first, do no harm) is never explicitly stated as part of the oath. Fun fact.  One other random fact…listerine is named after Joseph Lister, who was in the hall of immortals for his implementation of sterilization of surgical instruments

The Hallway of one of the 4 levels of the museum

In the exhibit of Pain, i found a bottle of choloroform!

and subsequently got a date…oh yeah!

An early amputation kit…what no self respecting chirugeon would be without

And in the exhibit on spinal surgery, here is an early kit for bone taps and spinal screws

Some sort of medieval torture device? 19th century girdle? steampunk brassiere?

Nope! picture of a early 20th centrury back brace for scoliosis (spine curvature) that i forgot to turn right side up!

Prostheses to help new amputees get a leg up on the competition, or at least their foot in the door

This would be handy to have around.

Early wheelchairs were designed more for aristocracy than mobility…but damn you would look all upper class in this

This is a struvite stone from the kidneys. Someone at one point had this in their bladder and had to pee it out. **Wince**

I want random paintings of surgeries like this in my house someday

In the exhibit on medical technology i discovered this old school EKG machine

And this ultrasound…did you know that the Ultrasound was invented by the Japanese? I dont know why this surprises me, given the nations propensity for electronics, and its deep seated fear of giant ocean dwelling lizards whose presence could be detected by such a machine

And who could forget the trepination device? Wondering how it is used?

In one of the oldest known surgical procedures, a hole was drilled into the skull. This goes back to neolithic times (surgery so easy, a caveman could do it!) when it was believed in other recorded civilizations that creating an egress in the noggin could allow for the release of evil spirits. It is a procedure still occasionally used today, although for different reasons. And it only takes a brief leap of imagination to picture this as the preferred method of zombie surgeons to get access to those juicy juicy brains through a crazy straw

YES! ZOMBIES HAVE BEEN WORKED INTO ANOTHER POST!

A gratuitous shot of downtown chicago, near the entrance to greektown

Thus completes the first episode of “blown about the windy city”

On another note, I was feeling pretty bummed out a few weeks ago about my boards scores, and the disparity between what i thought they would be, and what they actually were. And randomly, my resident , who knew nothing about this, said something in passing to me today that finally got through my thick skull faster than a trepination tool.

“Why do some people study all day long and do poorly, while others never open a book and ace every test? It’s not all just pure intelligence…after all, everyone in med school is smart-you got into med school, what do you have to prove to anyone, right? The key is in how you organize the information. The people blazing through the test have learned to organize the information in a way that allows them to access it faster even if you know more.”

Even though he was referring to studying for the Shelf exam, something struck a chord. All this time i was upset thinking that i know i studied more than some people, that i am smarter than others, and yet i still didnt achieve my target. I kept thinking the fault lay with me, in some way that i hadnt studied enough, or blew through the test to fast, or got cocky because everyone kept telling me i would do well. And while any of those may be true, what it ultimately comes down to, is that no matter how much i may have known going in, i still was not thinking about in the right way, and THAT is what is reflected in my score…not a lack of intelligence, but a lack of organization. And i can live with that

The words of Ralph Waldo Emerson come to mind: “Whilst he sits on the cushions of advantage, he goes to sleep. When he is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance to learn something.”

Or in the words of Robert Ludlum via his character Allan Demarest: “Can’t see a way out? take the time to see things differently. See the two white
swans instead of the one black one. See the slice of pie instead of the pie with
the slice missing. Master the Gestalt. It will make you free”

I can finally get over myself, and take this for the opportunity it presents.

And of course, thanks be to the buddhas, karma, or whatever chain of coincdences brought all three of this isolated experiences to my attention at the same time. When you look for answers genuinely, they are usually there

if you read this whole post down to my whining, you may ALREADY be a winner! Keep reading indefinetly to one day claim your prize potentially

-J