Wandering Spirit

I'm a wandering spirit, yes I am a restless soul
I'm a wandering spirit, there's no place that I can call my own



I've decided to move again for my clinical year -- it has been nice living 5 minutes from campus during my didactic year, but since I only need to be at the school maybe 10 times during my clinical year, I've decided to move back to the side of town I'm more familiar with and comfortable in. Which got me thinking ... this will be my 7th move in just less than 4 years. As you can imagine, you learn to travel pretty light when you don't let the grass grow under your feet. And for about 2 of the last 4 years, I lived with basically whatever I could pack into my car (the bulk of my belongings spent time in storage sheds in Michigan and Texas, as well as in my brother's garage -- even my "stuff" can't seem to stay in the same place for very long). Those of you who know me well would probably attest to the fact that I'm a sleepless nomad, so it's not so surprising, but the number of moves lately even leaves me a little stupefied when I sit down and do the math. Had to include my favorite solo Jagger tune (with rot-rod guitar by the groovy Jimmy Rip) as I've been on a rockabilly kick lately (my musical appetites shift like the winds too...) Mick name-drops so many exotic locales in this tune that I almost feel like I'm listening to Warren Zevon's Excitable Boy album.

So what's been going on in school, you wonder?

Well, after enjoying the usual test-free 2 weeks of the new quarter, I had 2 exams this week -- the honeymoon is officially over and it's all downhill from here.

In Emergency/Surgery this week, we covered the various forms of shock (hypovolemic, cardiogenic, septic, and neurogenic.)



In Clincal Medicine, we are starting the GI unit. So far we've covered Alcoholic Liver Disease, bowel obstruction, peptic ulcers, GERD, diarrhea/constipation, Hepatitis, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome, which is not to be confused with the benign condition known as "guitar face", illustrated below by Gary Moore, one of my favorite Irish guitarists :



To the non-guitarist readers, I know what you may be thinking, and let me just say that no, "guitar face" and passing a kidney stone are not related either. It has more to do with a hyperemotive personality state or a manic phase -- a sublime channeling of one's emotional essence that makes its way from the soul and into the fingers and then is transformed into electrical and sonic energy. Someday I'd love to study the physiologic effects that music has on the body...

And with that, I'm off to sequester myself to study for my Pharmacology exam on Monday.