Looking back at 2016, I hit several milestones as an anesthesiology resident. I was selected as a chief resident, matched to an incredible institution to begin my fellowship journey in summer 2017, and visited Chicago for the first time to attend my first ASA national meeting. Overall, 2016 was a pretty amazing year…
It’s been four years since Tassadar’s birth, but with fellowship fast approaching, I once again took advantage of Black Friday 2016 to assemble an updated rig. Say hello to Zeratul.
About six weeks ago, I blogged about how I chose to look at the evidence-based challenges to several dogmas in anesthesiology as my senior presentation. There are countless topics I could have chosen to cover in this presentation (the efficacy of cricoid pressure, vasoactive agents during free-flap repairs, factors in…
I’m sitting at the gate in O’Hare airport waiting for my flight back home to Houston and wanted to reflect on my experiences at ASA’s 2016 annual meeting. The last several days have been such a morale booster! Anesthesiology has such a pervasive influence on many areas in healthcare and is…
I wanted to give you all an idea of what I’ll be doing over the next ~6 months to obtain a Massachusetts medical license and drug enforcement administration (DEA) certification prior to beginning my critical care fellowship. It’s a necessary but cumbersome (and very expensive) process which requires many months…
Another July, another transition to the next academic year of my training. I’m now finished with my CA-2 year and entering my final year as an anesthesiology resident physician (CA-3, otherwise known as PGY-4) serving as one of the chief residents of our program.
Arguably, anesthesiology has one of the largest learning curves right off the bat. Though you’ll rely on the medical knowledge you’ve obtained through medical school and as an intern, clinical anesthesiology is something entirely different. This is what makes entering your first few months a bit unnerving but incredibly exciting! You’re…
This afternoon while traveling home on the light rail, I received a notification on my smartwatch. An email notification which, for a brief moment, made me freeze. “Congratulations” was the subject line.
In high school, I distinctly remember viewing the field of anesthesiology as one for the weaklings. Something that’s easy. Something which requires knowing a few drugs, some simple procedures, and having the luxury of doing nothing 95% of the time while surgeons diligently work to save someone’s life as the real…
Ask young physicians why patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) tend to retain CO2 (hypercapnia) when given oxygen therapy. I bet the majority will claim that supplemental oxygen depresses one’s “hypoxic drive” to breathe. In other words, if our oxygen levels are super high, the body will invest less energy in breathing, resulting in…