Couch 177: I Get a Strange Magic - ELO

"Shakshuka" makes an even better sneeze than "kurtosis".

Haha...true enough.

=

What they have done to me is inhumane!! I pray for someone to help me.

"Words are the source of misunderstandings."

We're here if you want to talk things through.

My professor was too lazy to grade my thesis in time, now I have to pay another semester of tuition -.- Some people really are annoying to work with!

No. They have NEVER had ANY flavor. Thats exactly the problem with them. Very well put.

That's terrible! I would complain, if it's their mistake you shouldn't have to pay.

i just googled that...

(it's not too early to nip some of sd's scotch is it?)

we got our first exam (on chapters 1 and 2) last night. thankfully they are take-home exams or I wouldn't have a chance in hades. I still may not!! it's 40 questions, thankfully 22 of them are matching terms to definitions so at least I'll get the first 22 right. As for the actual problems - well. I'll be going to the tutoring center...

Have a fab day couchies!! I'm actually excited about getting to work today, that new project I'm on? the very high-visibility one? it starts today!! we've been training for it and having lots of meetings about it and at last today is the day! The real thing rolls out.

Artie, there are also some great resources online for learning statistics. Check out Kahn Academy on YouTube. There are plenty of others too. Sometimes just having something explained a different way can be helpful. Plus the obvious benefits of being about to re-watch the confusing bits.

Thanks, I contacted the secretary to see whether they can do something. It would only be the equivalent of 50 dollars though, which I can pay just fine if necessary. Still a bit of a hassle though.

Thanks everyone who came in my pocket to the hospital! I think it helped. The general anaesthetic was a perfectly pleasant experience, I fell asleep laughing thanks to the lovely anaesthetists and woke up fuzzy and content. Now feeling pretty okay - sleepy and with a bit of a sore throat.

I still haven't got any concrete answers. Doc said they want to do an MRI of my heart next... and the paper they left next to my recovery bed said this:



Took me about three hours but I translated the terrible handwriting:

Severe mitral regurgitation. Combined mechanism - annular dilation and posterior leaflet refraction. Two jets.

Dilated left atrium. Good left ventricle function. Mild tricuspid regurgitation. No increased RVSI (right ventricular systolic index)

The fact that the regurgitation is severe and the fact that my left atrium is enlarged... I think they are signs that I will need surgery sooner rather than later.

Also I don't think it matters particularly but why the f*** is my tricuspid valve getting in on the regurgitating now too? Can you not?!

I only had hydrox at other people's houses. My mother was a staunch oreo proponent.

Art - you have only been in the class a couple of weeks. I don't think it is unexpected that you don't have it all down. I have first year law students who get worked up that they do not understand something, or that I "make it look easy" and I remind them they have only been in law school for 3 weeks and that I have been a lawyer for over 30 years -of course they don't have it mastered yet and the expectation that they will be able to pick it and know it that easily is unrealistic.

Oreos do have more sugar.

I was kept ignorant of oreos. My father would bring home hydrox sometimes, but i knew they werent the holy grail i sought.

Sorry to hear, Luc. Surprising to me that they left that by your bed for you to read...surely things like that ought to be discussed with the patient?

Yay for Oreos

Oh they don't leave it there for me to read. They leave it there along with my entire medical file for other doctors or nurses to refer to if necessary.

The doctor who performed the procedure did come and discuss it with me (she's the one who said I'll be sent for an MRI next) but it was pretty half-arsed. She didn't mention any of the things that are written there, except for the severity of the MVR.

Sorry - completely misunderstood...that's not unusual for me at the moment.

(((Luco)))

No need to apologise, Lost!

Apparently I'm irritable for no reason all the time now, so here is my stupid rant of the day:

-I just had to take an exam on Tuesday (it's a yearly "how-are-you-progressing" exam required of all American residents in my specialty--the results don't actually matter but it's still 8 hours of multiple choice tests). And then next week I have to take part 3 of my board exams which is two infernal full days of multiple choice questions and these stupid computer-based simulated cases where you have to spend all this time before the exam learning how to use a totally non-intuitive computer program in order to go through the damn things.

-My stupid pharmacy doesn't carry the MAOI patch that I take. So every month I call them and say I need a refill, and every month they have to order it special and it takes them like a week to get it (even though I've told them that I'm going to be on this for the foreseeable future). And then they screwed up and told me there was a month of the stuff waiting for me in the pharmacy when in fact my psychiatrist failed to approve the refill I requested a week ago, so now I'm completely out of it and have no hope of getting any in the near future. (I wish I could switch pharmacies but this is the only one my stupid work insurance will work with.)

-I still don't like my new therapist and I still hate this stupid group I have to do.

-I just went to get a massage and the stupid guy spent all his time on the wrong side--he asked at the beginning and I said "my right side is tense but my left side is fine." I wasn't really paying attention but then I noticed that he only bothered with my left leg not my right. I asked him if he could do the right leg too and he said "no we're out of time; that's why I asked at the beginning what you wanted me to work on." To which I said, "yeah the part that I wanted you to work on was the right side." He apologized but didn't actually seem to give a crap. I dunno what I should have done... I paid for the stupid massage (even though all he did was charge me $80 to worsen the lopsidedness) but gave him a really terrible tip.

-One of my program directors just sent me an email referring to the fact that apparently I have to teach a didactic session in two weeks and was like, "oh, you don't have a case prepared?" To which I replied, "this is literally the first I've heard of this so no I don't have a case prepared." I'm just so sick of the fact that I have to work 80h/wk and then also do all this extraneous ********--isn't the work in the hospital enough??

I guess the themes are "I resent having to do all of this extraneous crap when they already make me work inhuman hours and I am just barely keeping my head above water" and "why is it that even though I'm Being Responsible and Doing Everything Right, other people's screw-ups are making my life worse?"

Yesterday a hearing impaired student in my larger lecture course gave me a microphone to wear as part of her accommodations. It transmits what I say to a third party offsite who transcribes it and then sends her the text.

Very cool. And the thought that a random third party now has to listen to me lecture on history really tickles me.