I feel like every post recently starts with this: but WOW it has been a while. A few housekeeping updates- I am currently in my second year of family medicine residency. For those of you that are new, I started my career in general surgery residency, but ultimately made the switch to family medicine in order to broaden my scope of practice and have flexibility in my career. I have a particular interest in women’s health and obstetrics, emergency and urgent care, critical care, integrative medicine, osteopathic medicine, global health and wilderness medicine (so you see why the switch to famil ..read more

https://www.modmedblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/On-the-COVID-Front-Lines-The-New-Dystopian-Era-of-our-World.m4a   This virus, for its impact on our health as well as our livelihood, is not one that is forgiving. For most—a mild cough. For those whom the virus has fully taken hold of — sedation, intubation, and death. We don’t know how to prevent it. We don’t know how to cure it. We can only hope to manage its complications until our patients can recover on their own or until death wins. In a crisis, the good and the bad of human nature is intensified. There are those that come toget ..read more

I MATCHED—to the specialty and program that is absolutely perfect for me and the work that I want to do. All throughout medical school I envisioned a life either in the emergency department or in the operating room (whether it be as an ob/gyn or surgeon)—a life living, sleeping, and breathing medicine where all of my friends and loved ones worked at the hospital (a fantasy dreamt up by watching too much Grey’s Anatomy). And you know what? There are times as a surgery resident, in the midst of delirium after being awake for god knows how long— a trauma is called and your undivided attention is ..read more

I’ve slacked on a lot of things since starting residency… blogging, reading (non-medical things), traveling… but I did manage to whip out a few dresses. Living so close to Manhattan and the Garment District makes it pretty easy to find inspiration. Still lacking: my photography effort. But here are a few snaps of some of my latest creations. P.S. current situation: Working the COVID ICU. Updates to follow soon. Look #1: Vintage- Inspired Crushed Silk Get Up. Worn swing dancing in the city of course ;) Look #2: 20’s With a Twist Worn to a holiday party. The post Dress Designs Through the Su ..read more

https://www.modmedblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/The-Dystopia-of-General-Surgery-Residency.m4a August, 2019 (7 weeks into intern year): I sit here on a warm Sunday morning with a cup of coffee in hand, curled up on my balcony thinking I about going back to work tomorrow. ‘Welp, back to reality.” My new reality– now confined to the four walls of the hospital that suppress any thoughts about the world outside. 7 weeks in and I have already forgotten that this is not reality. It is a dystopia where you’re forced to ‘just bend over and take it,’ as I was advised— the mindset you just have to ..read more

WOW. It has been a while. No more Instagram. The blog has been neglected. I am currently 6 months into being a doctor. There are a couple of things that I wanted to update you guys on that you will find in this post: Not matching. FINALLY sharing what it was like and my advice for the current applicants who might be worried. The crazy transition from medical student to doctor Life after Instagram (It exists!) These each could probably receive their own blog post. But with my schedule I don’t know when I’ll get the energy to write again anytime soon, so here is a long one for ya. The Match Fo ..read more

Context, cultural background and perspective influences everything. It defines outlooks on life, how decisions are made, and ultimately how the world is shaped and continues to grow. But are we taking context and culture too far when we explain away why people think the way they do? Or perhaps, we’re not taking it far enough. This idea of boxing people into their identifies (by race, gender, political ideology or religion) has taken over the way we operate our lives. It’s how we read news, influences how we talk to people, and sometimes scares us into not communicating what we truly think beca ..read more

Musings from Colombia More so than other countries I have visited, I found the medical culture in Colombia comparing their practices to United States practices quite often. “It’s important to be selective about labs and imaging. In the U.S., doctors just order everything and don’t think about what they are ordering.” WORD… sort of. It’s pretty difficult to be selective in the sue-happy medical environment that we live in. For valid reasons or not, patients just don’t trust doctors like they used to. People want proof (or a nice payout). And this is one part of the reason medical costs are so h ..read more

When you publicly announce something, share what you think or how you’ve interpreted something… it becomes more solidified in your mind. You have just created a bias for yourself that will inevitably subconsciously hinder you from exploring new ideas that would change what you publicly announced. Even if you are aware of this bias and try to not let it influence you, we are human and it inevitably will to some extent. I think this is a big flaw in all humans—but even more so for people in power positions that are extremely confident that their political ideologies are the correct ones. The wor ..read more

Can we exist without the assistance of technology anymore? Are we developing into a new species like all of these AI books suggest? Is this as bad as it sounds or do we just need to change our perspective? Traveling now-a-days doesn’t have the mystery and adventure that it once had. You don’t speak French? No problem, there’s an app for that. Need a taxi? No worries, Uber will pick you up with the touch of a button. Travel experiences are becoming more and more ‘comfortable’ because we aren’t forced to be uncomfortable. We don’t need to struggle through communicating in different languages or ..read more