Sleep is not overrrated

I had my interview in Vancouver on Monday and flew back to Edmonton on Monday night. I arrived back in the city at 9:00 p.m. and got to bed around 10:30 p.m. I proceeded to get up at 4 a.m. and drive down to Calgary for my 9 a.m. interview on Tuesday. It was OK on the drive down, but I was so tired on the way back. I was even more tired once I actually got home. I was completely non-functional last night. I could hardly even press the correct keystrokes when typing. I went to bed at 9:30 and woke up at 9:00 a.m., giving me almost 12 hours of sleep. I feel much better now, and I'll be heading out to my U of A Rad Onc interview in about an hour.

Dell's Days of Deals

They have started again...free shipping on everything!

Friday, January 26


Kingston 4GB High Capacity SD Memory Card - $89
Sony DRBT10CX Bluetooth Stereo Ear Bud Headset - $49
Sanyo Eneloop 8 AA Pre-Charged Rechargeable Batteries - $19

Thursday, January 25


Dell 30” 3007WFP UltraSharp Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor - $1199
Dell UltraSharp 2707WFP 27” Wide-Screen Flat Panel with Soundbar - $1399
Dell MS Lab Standard 1500 VA Dell Smart-UPS by APC - $199

Wednesday, January 24

ASUS MyPal A636N GPS PDA - Deluxe Mobile Navigator Pro - $369
Startech USB Bluetooth Adapter - $15
Kensington CC055 Cross Cut Personal-Shredder - $39

Tuesday, January 23


Dell E228WFP 22” Widescreen LCD Flat Panel Monitor w/HDCP - $299
DLink Systems DWA-142 USB 2.0 Wireless N Adapter - $69
IOGear Wireless Laser Mouse with Nano Technology - $19

Monday, January 22

Sanyo 5.8GHz Dual Handset Cordless Phones - $39
Logitech Premium Notebook Headset - $39
Kensington Notebook Expansion Dock - $49

Nike+ Resolution

Westin Harbour Castle Deal

I love a good deal. I've recently been planning my CaRMS travel arrangements, and came upon this nifty little deal.

SPG.com offers the "Lowest Rate Guarantee" on their site, so the trick is finding a lower rate on another site, which I've never really been able to do. However, I got lucky this time!

I've stayed at the Westin Harbour Castle before, and I really liked it. It's close to everything, including Roger's Centre, the Air Canada Centre, and all the shopping downtown. Hoping to stay here again for a reasonable price, I found the site hotelclub.net, which was offering a rate of $159CAD per night, including all taxes. This was in comparison to SPG's rate of $232CAD per night including taxes.

So I sent in a "claim" and asked for the 10% reduction on the competitor's rate. After a few emails back and forth (they first claimed that tax was not included in the competitor's rate, but it actually was), I was finally able to get the rate of $143.10 per night including all taxes, which is just over $90 off their rate per night. Good deal eh? I'm splitting the room with Robyn in my class, so it actually works out to be about $71.55 each a night to stay right in the middle of all the action in Toronto (and it's close to our interview site). Now we just have to find some stuff to do while we're there!

In other news, I've got a big blister on my left small toe which prevented me from completing a full 10KM last night. I'm going to the Oilers game tonight with my Uncle Rod. I'm disappointed Pronger is out, so now I can't boo him.

Nike+ challenge

Part of the Nike+ site includes an area where you can challenge your friends (or foes) to different tasks, like seeing who can run the most distance in one week. I embarked on such a challenge against one of my classmates, Ashish, and it's killing me. I didn't run at all on the weekend, so I was behind right from the start. I've now had to run 20KM in the past two days to stay ahead of him. The challenge ends on the 21st, so hopefully the next six days won't be as gruelling, because I don't know if my body can take it!

In other news, I'm trying to complete my passport application on-line. I actually managed to finish it, but now it keeps timing out when I try to print it. It keeps saying that the server is too busy. You think they would have increased their capacity when they knew there was going to be a mad rush for passports. Poor lack of planning I tell you.

Dark chocolate

I love dark chocolate. I'm thinking of refusing to eat milk chocolate from now on. It's inferior to its dark chocolate counterpart.

On another note, I ran (with some walking breaks) 10.22 KM today burning 867 calories in the process, which allowed me to eat my dark chocolate.

24 is on tonight. Oh yeah.

CaRMS Travel Costs

So there isn't a lot of information out there on exactly how much the CaRMS interview tour costs for 4th year medical students. Lots of people say $5000...which is about half of my tuition for the year. Pretty expensive. So, I'm keeping track of how much everything cost me for my across the country Radiation Oncology interview tour...lets see what it works out to....

CaRMS application costs (14 programs + registration fee) - $429.30
Flight costs: $963


I will update this as the costs come...

CaRMS Interviews

It's that time...my CaRMS application has been submitted and now I'm waiting to hear back where I get interviews at. I'm going to post them here as they come in...if you don't see too many by the middle of January...well, then, it doesn't look good!

• January 29, 2007, Radiation Oncology at the University of British Columbia
• January 30, 2007, Radiation Oncology at the University of Calgary
• January 31, 2007, Radiation Oncology at the University of Alberta
• February 1, 2007, Morning - Urban family medicine at the University of Alberta
• February 2, 2007, Radiation Oncology at the University of Manitoba
• February 5, 2007, Radiation Oncology at Queen's University in Kingston
• February 6, 2007, Radiation Oncology at the University of Ottawa
• February 7, 2007, Radiation Oncology at McMaster University in Hamilton
• February 8, 2007, Radiation Oncology at the University of Western Ontario in London
• February 9, 2007, Radiation Oncology at McGill University in Montreal
• February 12, 2007, Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto
• February 14, 2007, Radiation Oncology at Dalhousie University in Halifax

Interviews offered, but unable to attend: University of Calgary, Internal Medicine
No interview offered: University of Alberta, Internal Medicine

Health Update

So, it's Friday, about 11 AM, I'm hanging with the geriatrics on 4C3 at the Glenrose, taking a history from my new 98 year old patient, when, all of a sudden, I don't feel so hot. I feel dizzy and sweaty, and suddenly asking the patient if she knows how to spell "WORLD" backwards isn't very important. Nevertheless, I finish the history, and promptly return to see my preceptor, who informs me that I don't look so good. Funny, I don't feel so good either.

I decide to try and tough it out by joining my preceptor and another student in the cafeteria. I brought my lunch, but I want nothing to do with it. I buy a gingerale in the hope that it calms down my stomach. It does not. I take 3 sips, excuse myself from the table, and drive home (with a stop at the bank, because I had planned to deposit 2 cheques that day.)

While at home my abdomen feels like someone is twisting it like it was going out of style. The nausea comes in waves, each time I feel like I'm going to vomit, but I force myself not to. I finally relent and violently vomit into the toilet, causing all the small blood vessels in my face and under my eyes to burst, ensuring that I look like I got beat up by someone hitting me with a bag of coins.

Hoping the worst was over, I go to bed and call Amanda, hoping she can come over and take away the pain. She says she is on her way, but it's not soon enough; I proceed to vomit again, further destroying my face from the persistent dry heaving.

My mom then loads me up on gravol, as I had thrown up the other two doses I had taken, and Amanda comes over to take care of me. I promptly fall asleep around 7AM and wake up at 9:30 the next morning, and, miraculously, I feel good, just a little nauseated and dizzy probably from being dehydrated.

Anyways, I'm all better now, but my face still looks awful.

I hope nobody else gets what I got. It's bad.