Doctor GrubHub

Preface : I have written several views into my experience on Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, a rotation in which I spend the majority of my preliminary surgery year. The description that follows is the mildest of these. The underlying theme in all of the writings is that Trauma Surgery purposefully maintains a culture of malignancy, perhaps out of some warped fealty to a stern, militaristic tradition of the past century. This has been my experience while working in different hospitals and in talking with other Surgery/Surgery subspecialty residents. It is important to note that my description of trauma/acute care surgeons does not apply to all attending surgeons. At my institution, there are a few very intelligent, civil, and able trauma surgeons, but their general decency is often overshadowed by the bad actors, of whom there are not just a few. 09/15/2019 A few months ago, I made food deliveries for GrubHub. It was simple, honest work. A notification would pop up on my phone i...

How much time is spent in a room, spine bent in attentive position, reading, writing, and unbending to sleep? Or what do you make of the things on your daily to-do list, written in earnestness, but failed from procrastination? What drama pervades everyday life more exciting than an unexpected e-mail, unveiling new possibilities - "now I must respond decisively, proving my worth." Much daily work is performed in a hip-flexed posture, sitting stationary but restless. Exercise is scrawled on the to-do list but gets passed over for the comfort of bed - an easygoing old friend - and a movie or two. Every few seconds to minutes, a notification pops up, and the attention wanders: GrubHub - More blocks available for Today. Piqued, I think: "Why not? I'll go for a ride." Two orders in, 13 dollars and 25 dollars (good), another comes up for 13. I accept. On closer inspection, it's actually split into two orders from one place, an ice cream shop. In examini...

Sometimes I drive around with the GrubHub app on and feel the urge to snap a few pictures of the scenery. I roam the city wide with the radio scratching its mystical fuzz as I scan the stations according to mood. Mine is an older car, without satellite radio or bluetooth connectivity, so the choices consist of AM and FM. I could play a cassette if so inclined; or set it to a hollow white noise synced to the electroencephalographic-equivalent beta waves of my unsettled brain. I’m being presumptuous: often while driving my brain activity, like tranquil beach waves coming and going, rests at a rhythmic, relaxing alpha pattern. And so it goes on, until I find NPR.  NPR can be a hit-or-miss. I enjoy their interviews and shows like This American Life, Radiolab, or the Moth Radio Hour. But when they cover controversial political issues, I recede into my shell like a startled turtle. Mostly, I eschew political coverage from any source, as it tends to bitterly divide people a...

I've been away from Medicine and Surgery for a couple of years, addressing health issues, for the most part. Now that my health is restored, I view the world with renewed optimism and am itching to return to my first love, practicing as a physician. I had completed two years of a surgical subspecialty residency which I enjoyed immensely before taking an indefinite medical leave, and eventually my time for returning to the position expired. My approach to The Return has been twofold: Stay busy with work - i.e. GrubHub - as well as fitness, running, and reading for pleasure. Also, when I read, I'm astounded by the gaps in my fund of general knowledge about the world and seek always to remedy it, only to find the gaps expand the more I read. Monitor residency vacancies through several online platforms, including inforesidency , ResidentSwap , FindAResident by AAMC, StudentDoctorNetwork , and a few other specialized sites.  This approach has yielded little as of yet, and ...