Tuesday Update

I'm half way through my first month of internal medicine. It's going well so far. Call has been a bit crazy, but I guess that's life. I'll be heading back up to Edmonton between September 24 and September 27th, so if you're around and in town, give me a shout!

Update

Amanda and I finished painting our kitchen on Tuesday. We still have a little touching up to do, but the main work is done. My uncle took us out for dinner on Wednesday night to Boston Pizza, which was great. I hadn't been to Boston Pizza in about 2 months, as we're trying to save money by not eating out. I think that's where most of my money went when I lived at home.

I'm on call this weekend (tonight, Saturday and Sunday), and again on Tuesday and Thursday. Lisa is coming to stay with us for a couple of weeks on Sunday as she does an elective at the Children's Hospital.

Amanda and I also booked a trip to Las Vegas at the end of November. We got a really good deal on it, so we couldn't pass it up. It was about half the price of going to Mexico, etc., but, of course, it won't be as warm in Las Vegas at that time. I'm saving all of my clothes and Christmas shopping until I get there. Hopefully the dollar stops its slide and I can get some good deals when I'm there. I need some new shoes, and I may purchase a tux there.

Anyways, I have to be in the hospital at 6:30a.m. tomorrow, so I'm going to go do some cleaning and then get some sleep!

Lazy Sunday

Amanda and I, along with Lindsey, Kevin and Karen, went floating down the Elbow River today. It was tons of fun, however, I got some sunburn because I'm not very smart. There were tons of people on the river, or, more appropriate, stream. Amanda and I floated down on a double air mattress. There were supposed to be cops checking for life jackets, etc, but we didn't actually see any on the river.

After our 3 hour float down the river, we stopped at TNT supermarket so I could get some groceries. If you've never been to TNT supermarket, it's a big asian grocery store. They always have some crazy sales, and, wouldn't you know it, they had whole beef tenderloins on for $5.99/pound. I bought a whole beef tenderloin for under $20. Crazy. I trimmed it and cut it into steaks. I might either go pick up another tenderloin or a whole striploin (around $40) later on this week. Can't go wrong with those prices.

I'm doing my last week of pulmonary. Should be good!

I'll be up in Edmonton this coming weekend, so if you're around, send me an email.

Update

Hi everyone,

I haven't written here in a long time, which I know I should be doing! I've got one week left in my first rotation as a resident. It's gone well so far. Nothing that I didn't expect. The hours are certainly longer than they were as a medical student. Much more responsiblity, much more accountability. I've enjoyed it so far. It's certainly a big adjustment with owning your own house, getting used to cleaning and cooking all the time, especially when you've lived at home your entire life! But it's been good so far, nothing I can complain about. I've tried cooking a few new things, some good, some bad. Too bad Amanda has to deal with the bad food as well as the good! :)

I start thoracic surgery after this rotation. I'm looking forward to it. I quite like the surgical rotations, except for the fact that you have to start so early. But it's at the foothills, so it shouldn't be too bad. I'm especially looking forward to the reduced driving time.

Anyways, I'll talk to you all soon!

All moved in

We moved into our house on Friday. A big thanks to everyone who came to help! Thanks Jon, Nafisa, Adam J and Bob who helped load up in Edmonton. A big thanks to Justin (who also got the awesome moving truck), Scott, Steve, Lacey, and Jan for helping load up in Edmonton and unloading in Calgary. Big thanks to Christine and Jamie, who came and helped us unpack on Saturday!

The house was pretty dirty inside, so Amanda, my mom, and I have been cleaning away, first starting with cleaning the walls and baseboards, then vacuuming all the rugs, and then we went and rented a steam cleaner to further clean the rugs and get out some of the stains. Amanda painted the master bedroom before we came and it looks great. My mom and I will be painting one of the spare bedrooms in the next couple of days, and then the rest of the house will eventually have to be re-painted, as the previous owners didn't seem to be too careful with the walls.

We've done a lot of shopping in the past couple of days, getting a new coffee and side table from Ikea, a new iron from Costco, a ton of groceries, and a slow cooker from Zellers. It's fun to play with all the new toys!

Work starts on Tuesday, so I'm excited to get started and start getting paid!

June 20th, 2007

The MCCQE results (our licensing exam) finally came out today and I passed! So that was the good news of the day.

Hear about the news that Ted Morton wants to raise the drinking age from 18 to 19? I've always had one opinion on what the drinking age should be...if you're old enough to vote and pay taxes, then you're old enough to drink. So if they raise the age of drinking, they should raise the age of voting. By the way, if you can't vote, why should you have to pay tax? That doesn't seem fair to me either (though I doubt many people under 18 earn enough money to have to pay tax on it, unless they drop out of high school and get a full time job.)

The big move is only a couple of days away. The weather is looking good for moving day, so hopefully the forecast stays true!

One thing that's a big pain the ass when moving is changing your address for all your bills. I'm actually having trouble remembering how many bills I have, thus, what I need to change. I'm sure if I somehow miss a bill payment they'll find me! :)

Possession of new place!

Amanda and I got possession of our place in Calgary on Friday. I also had some nose surgery done on me on Friday too -- I wasn't feeling too hot after the surgery, so I didn't make it down on Friday, but my mom drove me down to Calgary on Saturday, so I got the chance to stay overnight here! It's very nice. It needs some cleaning (especially the carpets) and some new paint, but otherwise it's great! I'm very excited to be a homeowner.

The big move is next week. If anyone can help, that'd be great. We're going down Friday after work. Free beer, or whatever type of alcohol you want, and pizza. Bring some sleeping bags and air mattresses if you've got them.

I'll be packing all of this week, but if anyone has anything fun to do, let me know!

Tiger Pride!

Although I've been out of high school for 8 years now, I still check up and see how McNally's teams are doing, especially their football and rugby teams.

So, I was pleased to see that the McNally Men's Rugby team won the provincial championship this year by defeating St. Francis of Calgary. Congrats guys!

McNally's Women's Rugby team also had an extremely successful year, finishing as the runner's up in the Provincial Championship.

Congratulations to both teams on their outstanding seasons!

Links: McNally High School

Updates

I haven't written in my blog in almost a month! Our holiday to Disney World and Michigan was a lot of fun. The weather was great. We did, however, put on a few extra pounds due to the Disney Dining Plan. Just way too much food!

Amanda and I are heading up to Bryan's cabin for the weekend. The weather looks like it's going to be spectacular. Sun burn here I come!

The dollar has had an incredible rise in the past few weeks, especially in the past few days. It's sitting above .94 cents US right now. Pretty crazy! I hope prices in Canada start falling soon. I was amazed with how cheap things are in the USA are compared to here. As the Canadian Dollar approaches parity with the US Dollar, you would think that there would be a lot of pressure on retailers in Canada, especially ones like Futureshop, where you can order the same goods from US retailers at a much lower price. I actually hope that more US retailers will start shipping up to Canada -- like Banana Republic....which I've been waiting for years for them to start to do!

Sunday Updates

Hi everyone,

Only a week until Amanda and I leave for Disney World, and then to Michigan afterwards! We're so excited!

We also got some good news today -- we get to take possession of our new house in Calgary a month earlier, so our planned move now is June 23 (Saturday). We actually get possession on June 15th, but I've got my nose surgery that day, so we're going to do the move the weekend after, and just clean the place up before we move everything in during that week that it's empty.

We all went over to my Uncle's tonight for a big beef dinner. I'm so full I could puke.

Anyone else find it disgusting that the BC Ferries Union first tells their members NOT to cooperate with the investigation looking into why the ferry sank, which resulted in the deaths of two passengers, and now they're going to defend those members who were fired. It sickens me. If you screw up, take some responsibility for your mistakes, especially if it resulted in the deaths of two innocent people.

Canadian Dollar breaks 90 cents US

It's 7:30 a.m. MNT, and the Canadian Dollar has once again surpassed the 90 cent US mark. Let's see if it can stay above that level....

Studying

I'm studying right now for my last finals of university -- ever. I've got a 3-day comprehensive exam from Monday to Wednesday, and then my licensing exam on Thursday. Although I'm very happy to be done everything, my motivation is quite low to study all of the material -- and there's a lot of it!

My abdominal circumference appears to be getting larger. It's kind of grossing me out. I'm going to have to do some exercise when all of this is over. I realized how out of shape I really was when I couldn't move after playing 4 games of hockey. It literally hurt to roll out of bed.

Anyone catch The Office last night? It was awesome as per usual. I wish it were an hour long. It's that good. I have the theme song as my cell phone ring tone. Awesomeness.

TSN.ca has started offering a service that sends free updates to your cell phone via text messaging. It's pretty cool. And it's free. I love free.

Amanda and I wanted to go to the Keg last Saturday (with 4 other people mind you.) We got there at about 7:45 p.m. Wait time -- 75 minutes! Needless to say we didn't wait. There's just way too many people in this city with too much money to spend.

All right, this was fun, but I guess I should get back to studying!

Update

The Canadian dollar closed over 89 cents today. It's just in time for our US vacation that's coming up right away!

I have one more week to study before our 3 day comprehensive final and then the Canadian licensing exam. It'll be four straight days of fun!

We have our annual interphase hockey tournament this weekend. We have a game tonight at 11p.m. and 2 tomorrow back to back during the day. We won the tournament last year, but we'll be a little shorthanded this year with only 11 players including the goalie.

We're renting one of our rooms in our new house in Calgary. If you're interested, send me an email~

New townhouse

Amanda and I bought a townhouse-style condo in Calgary on Monday. We saw 20 different places and decided to make a bid on this one. There was one competing offer, which was nerve-wracking, but it all worked out. Hopefully the housing market doesn't crash! I'm going down again on Monday for the house inspection, so I'll take some pictures then, but until then, you can check out the new place here:

http://abmls.mlxchange.com/Pub/EmailView.asp?r=499726007&s=ALB&t=ALB

We take possession sometime between July 1 and July 15, so if anyone wants to take a journey to Calgary and help us move, that'd be great! There's lots of room to crash + free booze and food.

Passport arrives

My passport arrived on Monday, after my very angry blog post last week. We're still waiting for Amanda's to arrive. Mine came 9 weeks and 5 days after the passport office received my application. Perhaps they should increase their capacity, because I can't see a decreasing demand for passports anytime soon. And, hey, the unemployment rate in Quebec is still quite high compared to the rest of Canada...they should be able to hire some more workers there!

House Hunting

Hi everyone,

Amanda and I finally got our mortgage arranged, so we're heading down to Calgary on Monday to view some listings. Hopefully we can find something, but I won't be too worried if we don't find something on the first day of viewings. I guess if you're going to live there for five years, you better be really happy with what you're buying!

Passport woes

I've been waiting for my passport to arrive for over 9 weeks now. It'll be 10 weeks next Wednesday. They received my passport on January 24th (I kept my xpress post tracking number). When I first submitted my application, it stated on the website that it would take up to 8 weeks. It now says that it can take up to 10 weeks on their website. I don't know how they can just keep changing the rules as they move along. I'll be sending them a very angry letter of complaint if I don't get my passport by next Wednesday (10 weeks), and sending a letter to my MP to complain about the problem.

Off to Calgary for the weekend.

Hi everyone,

I'm off to Calgary for the weekend with Amanda to go and visit her friend, Kelsey, and to look at some housing options. We have an appointment with MD Management on Monday to get a pre-approved mortgage, so things are moving ahead quite quickly! Only one more week of rotations left...I can't believe med school and university is almost over.

CaRMS Match results....

The verdict is in and I'll be heading to Calgary in July to start my 5 year residency training program in radiation oncology! It was my 2nd choice on my rank list (Edmonton was first), but I'm excited to stay in Alberta, but not so excited about the housing prices (although they're pricey in Edmonton too!).

Robyn Banerjee will be joining me in Calgary, so it'll be an awesome 5 years together. We had such a good time on the rad onc tour together, so it'll be great to work with him for 5 years.

Anyways, I'm sad that I'll be leaving so many friends here in Edmonton, but Calgary is still pretty close, and it'll be close to the mountains, so hopefully ppl can come stay with me when they go skiing!

Brock on call...

I'm on my first in-house call shift of 4th year. Ortho is the only rotation during 4th year that we have in-house call, and it just so happens that mine is almost at the very end of the year. The call room is actually pretty sweet -- it's an apartment, with two bedrooms, one for the ortho student and one for the plastics resident, and we share a whole kitchen, bathroom, computer, TV, etc. It's way nicer than any call room I've ever had. Usually it's just a room with a hospital bed, desk and a phone.

I learned how to put off (and take off) casts today. Pretty interesting. I've had one consult so far in emerg as well. Ortho consults are nice, as they only take about 10 minutes, even when your patient has severe dementia.

Anyways, today is the last day to change up the rank list. I think mine is completely done...I made a change last night, and I think I'm happy with it. We'll see what happens in a week, at which time the house, townhouse, or condo hunting will begin....

Last day before rank list due

Our rank list is due tomorrow for the CaRMS match. I submitted it a while ago, but if you have any particular reasons to suggest why I should choose one city over another, let me know! :)

CaRMS Waiting

I submitted my ranking list a couple of days ago, and I've considered changing it a few times (but haven't). Match day is March 14. I really wish it wasn't so far away. It's all I've really been thinking about -- looking at housing prices at all the cities on the list, thinking about if I ordered everything properly. As always, the unknown is killer for me. I can always deal with something once I know what I'm dealing with, but I hate not knowing what is going to happen.

Anyways, the Office is on, time to go!

CaRMS Travel Costs Part 2

Now that the CaRMS tour is over, I had a chance to calculate how much the whole process cost me (3 weeks, 11 cities, 12 interviews), not including application or postage costs (which would be around $500).

I've calculated how much it would have cost if I travelled alone, and how much it actually cost splitting the costs between 2-3 people for the majority of the trip.

Some things to keep in mind....
1) I went from west to east, and didn't have to travel back and forth, which drastically reduced my flying costs.
2) We travelled by rental car in Ontario/Quebec, which, again, reduced the costs significantly.

Here are the numbers....

1) Travelling Alone:
TOTAL FOOD: 421.3
Total Accomodations: 1675.74
Total Car: 295
Total Parking: 58.75
Total Gas: 210.89
Total Flights 963.93
TOTAL: 3625.61

2) My costs:
TOTAL FOOD: 421.3
Total Accomodations: 816.23
Total Car: 175.52
Total Parking: 34.08333333
Total Gas: 99.63
Total Flights 963.93
TOTAL: 2510.693333

So, as you can see, I saved over $1,000 by travelling with people from my class. People last year said that they spent around $6,000 on the interviews...I didn't come close...which is nice, that's for sure.

The next big day in the process is March 14th, which is when we find out where we will be for the next 5 years!

Almost done the CaRMS tour...

Hi everyone,

I'm in Halifax, the final stop of the CaRMS tour. It's been kind of a bizarre day so far. It started with my super early flight, which required me to get up at 4:15 a.m. to get to the airport on time. The flight was interesting to say the least. I sat by this woman, who was nuts, so absolutely crazy that I ended up moving seats because of her bizarre and erratic behaviour, which the flight attendants did not appreciate. I then proceeded to lose my gloves somewhere between the airport shuttle and my hotel room (which I assume I left in the airport shuttle.)

I walked around Halifax a bit when I got here. It's pretty neat. I continued my poor eating habits by having the Extreme Classic Sandwich meal at KFC, which included a classic sandwich, fries, popcorn chicken, coleslaw, apple turnover and a pop. Way too much food. I didn't end up eating most of the fries, coleslaw or apple turnover. I'll have to resume my running when I get back home.

Anyways, I'm stealing this wireless internet from someone in the hotel. Lots of unsecured wireless routers here.

Cold in TO

I arrived in Toronto last night from Winnipeg. My flight was slightly delayed, but I still ended up getting to the hotel around 11:30 p.m. at night. I'm staying at the Westin Harbour Castle. I love the rooms but dislike the non-free internet. I did, however, cave and bought 24 hours of access for $11.00. It's still cheap entertainment if you think about it.

I wandered over to Eaton Centre today. It was very cold. It actually wasn't that cold when the wind wasn't blowing, but that didn't occur very often. My ears were freezing by the time I actually got into the mall. They've got lots of shops and a really cool Apple Store, even though I'm not a fan of the Mac. iPod accessories are very cool, but very expensive.

I ate at McDonalds. It was awesome. I then picked up some Ruffles and Pepsi for the Oilers game, which I'm watching right now. On the way back I tried to stay underground all the way to Union Station, then I walked outside from there to my hotel. Again, it was cold.

I'm debating what to eat tonight. It would be nice to go to a sit-down restaurant, but I kind of feel like a loser going by myself. I may just hit up the deli across the street, because it's close.

Anyways, I'm off to Kingston tomorrow and I'll be picking up Ryan and Robyn at the airport before we start the drive to Kingston. Hopefully the weather holds up!

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.

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.

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.

New Years Update

Happy New Year everyone!

I did my farthest run so far with the Nike Sports Kit -- 506 cals, 43 mins, 5.93 KM. I proceeded to break out in a rash afterwards. Nice. If anyone has a Sports Kit as well, let me know...I want to join/create a challenge group.

Amanda and I, along with Lacey and Aaron, will be joining some of my classmates at Earl's for dinner tonight and then we will be proceeding to the Ivory Club (formerly the Druid South). It is now a piano bar, so hopefully this will negate any chance of us being stabbed, shot, punched, or kicked.

2007 will be bringing a lot of change to my life. I'll finally complete my university at the University of Alberta after 8 solid years of education. I may be moving to a new city in another province depending on the results of the CaRMS match. I'll also be planning our wedding with Amanda, even though she's the event planning pro, so I doubt I'll have to worry too much about that! Amanda and I will also be taking our first real vacation together to Disney World in May, and, then, we'll be stopping over in Michigan for Dom's high school grad. It looks to be a busy year, but, as I've said before, odd-numbered years are usually good luck for me. So let's bring on 2007 and get out of 2006!

Holiday Review

Happy Holidays everyone!

It's been a busy holiday season so far. Last Friday Amanda and I went to Adam Ritchie's annual Christmas party, which was fun as per usual. Saturday was a lie-around day, which included an appetizer fest at my house with my parents. I love the jalepeno poppers. Can't get enough of them...no matter how sick I get.

Sunday was Christmas Eve, and we went out to my mom's cousin's cabin out at Pigeon Lake. Too much food, one (and one too many) drinks of Wild Turkey, and the annual gift exchange. I walked away with a meat thermometer. YES. I actually wanted it. It's sweet.

Monday was Christmas Day and we had breakfast in the morning with my grandparents. It was good. The afternoon/evening brought us to my Uncle Rod's house where we dined on turkey, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, corn, stuffing, cabbage rolls, perogies, pickles, and two desserts. Wonderful. We then watched the Jets vs. Dolphins sleep-fest. Who knew offences could be so inept?

I went to Sportchek, CD Plus, the Bay, Futureshop, and Superstore today on Boxing Day. I picked up some new running shoes at Sportchek and the Arrested Development Season 1 DVDs at CD Plus. We had bought a lot of stuff on the futureshop.ca website for their boxing sale, which I'm glad we did, because the store was just jammed packed and all the good deals were GONE. If you're looking at things on the futureshop.ca website and it's not in stock, don't worry, they usually re-stock a couple of times a day...you just have to go back and keep checking. My mom picked up a nice 6MP Casio digital camera for $169 ($130 off), and my brother bought a new desktop computer, 20" widescreen LCD monitor, and 25 DL black DVD's for $25. I bought a CD wallet for $4. Huge.

Anyways, I hope everyone is doing well. Amanda and I don't have any plans for New Years, so if you're doing something cheap, let us know!