Alaska Day 1

Wednesday March 14, 2007. Day one in Alaska.

Today we rented some snow shoes from REI and drove 45 minutes south to Portage Glacier. We parked at the Day Lodge (which was closed) and put on our snow shoes to begin our 7.5 mile round trip hike across the frozen lake to the Glacier. It was around 0 degrees F plus some pretty gusty winds but we were prepare and stayed plenty warm once we started hiking. It didn't look very far to cross the lake but the further we walked, the more we realized that the other side didn't seem to be getting any closer. It was worth the hike in the end to see the glacier.

The road leading into the Daylodge (as you can tell there is not much snow here).

Teresa starting out the hike.

Teresa, Mom, and Me ready to go.

Heading across the lake.

This is a picture of the Glacier with me walking towards it. Unfortunately you can not appreciate the color from these pictures. It was a very bright blue that seemed to be glowing.

Teresa in front of the glacier.

Teresa and Me hiking back from the glacier.

Me and Teresa, very tired upon our return to the car.

Getting to Alaska

I flew to Anchorage, AK on Tue. March 13. I arrived at 12:00 am after a 9 hour trip from Phoenix (7 hours of flight time and 2 hours layover in Salt Lake City) When I left Phoenix the temp was 90 F and when I landed the wind chill was -15 F. It was very nice to get away for a while and see someplace new. Here are a few general pictures of the area. This is what Teresa sees everyday. It is a very rugged area to say the least.

Here is a Moose along the road.

This is Teresa's apartment.

.

This one is eating Teresa's leftovers from one of the community dumpsters in her complex.

And this one is eating her tree.

There are some random pictures from along side the road looking towards Cooks inlet.

This is a sunset from one of the hills in the area.

ALASKA

I just returned today from a one week vacation to Alaska to visit my sister who lives in Anchorage. My parents were also able to make the trip so we were all able to hang out and have a great time. I have many pictures that I am planning on posting but it will take me some time to get them organized and posted. Keep checking back over the next few days or so for more pictures.

Plans for the Future

This last Thursday I found out that I will be moving to Louisville Kentucky for the next four years. I was accepted into the Anesthesiology program at the University of Louisville. I will be moving towards the middle to end of June. I start in Louisville on June 28, 2007 After I complete these four years I will be free to work where I want to and live where I want to live (hopefully WA or OR). Louisville is a great city and the program that I will be joining there is a very good program. The city itself is around 1 Million people and there is plenty to do to keep me busy with the limited free time that I will have. Here are a few pictures of the area.

This is the main University Hospital.

The Louisville Slugger factory/museum

A couple of pictures of the city sitting on the banks of the Ohio River.

Traveling

Over this last month I have been traveling a lot. Unfortunately I have not been traveling for fun. I have been on the interview trail once again. I am interviewing for Anesthesiology. Since I am also working and am very busy it has been quite difficult to get away for these interviews. I have scheduled on the weekends as much as possible since this last month was my clinic month and I got the weekends off. I started out by going to Jackson Mississippi. This is a brand new hospital that is part of University of Mississippi. It is very nice and High-Tech!! I am not sure if Mississippi is my favorite area to live but it would only be for four years and then I could move to where ever I wanted to live. Here is a picture of the front of the new hospital.



After Mississippi I went to Louisville Kentucky, Home of the Derby!. I really like this program. Louisville is a great city with lots of things to do. The Hospital is also fairly new so everything is nice and up to date. I think that this hospital is my first choice of places to go! I have a couple of friends in Lexington KY which is about 90 minutes away so I would be able to meet up with them from time to time. Here are a few Pict's of U of L.


And a Pict from the Internet of the Kentucky Derby! (I will have to go if I move here even though I don't know anything about horse racing!)



My next interview was at Loma Linda University in Southern California (my old home for medical school.) This interview was very relaxed since I know most of the people here already. I really like this program as well. It is a very strong program and the residents here get good fellowships if they want to specialize. This program is also at the top of my list. I am not sure if I want to move back to California though. I am ready for something new.


After Loma Linda I went to Cleveland Ohio and interviewed at Case Western ( the nicer part of Cleveland Clinics). This is also a very well known Hospital and would be a great place to go. The only real drawback for me is the harsh winters. I am getting to be spoiled living in the southwest and I don't know if I want to put up with the Cleveland snow storms in the winter. Actually it isn't that big of deal either way. I am sure that I would be happy here. There are many hospitals associated with Case Western, but they are all on the same campus. Here is the entrance to the Children's Hospital. The whole campus is amazing!





I have one interview left. Near the end of this month I am going to University of Missouri to interview with their program. Here is an Internet Pict of that Hospital. I will let you know how it goes. These are all of the interviews that I am going on this year due to many uncontrollable factors (like WORK schedule, etc.) so hopefully everything works out!


Here is a Map showing the locations that I have interviewed(you can click on it to make it bigger). The red dot is Loma Linda California. The blue dot is Jackson, Mississippi. The green dot is Louisville, Kentucky. The brown dot is Cleveland, Ohio. The yellow is Columbia, Missouri, and the Grey is University of Arizona in Tucson (the program that I am currently affiliated with at my hospital in Phoenix.)

Treadmill dance

here is a new way to use your treadmill.

Weekend Update!

I have just finished my 3rd month of my intern year. I am officially 25% of the way through!!! It has been going very well. This first month I was on the general medicine ward. It was very busy but a great way to get broken-into being a "real" doc. The 2nd month (August) I was in the MICU (Medical Intensive Care Unit). This was one of my favorite rotations to date. It was extremely busy but that kept me from getting bored. I was on call every third night for a 30 hour shift along with normal days in between. Needless to say, I didn't really sleep much during this time. I was able to do a lot of invasive procedures like placing central line catheters and arterial lines along with doing lumbar punctures and endotrachial intubations plus many more. We had about 20 beds that were full most of the time. This last month I was on the GI service. It was nice because it was a consult service so I never had to spend the night and got the first weekends off since starting (4 in a row!!). I mainly did the consults and reported back to the attending so that they could do the colonoscopies and the EGD's (looking into the large intestines and stomach with a camera) along with the many other procedures that they performed. This is my last weekend off before starting wards on Monday.

It has been a lot nicer here weather wise. It has been cooling down into the 70's at night and the storms are over so the sky has been amazing. Here is a pict from the stairs outside my apartment looking towards downtown. Unfortunately my camera was not capable of capturing the true brilliance of the sky but this can give you an idea of what it looked like (use your imagination to fill in the bright orange/pink in the clouds).



Have a great weekend everyone!!

Camelback

This afternoon I went to Camelback Mt and hiked to the summit. I have been trying to hike either this Mt or Squaw Peak Summit at least 2 times a week. It is the best in the evenings. The sunsets are amazing from the top. Today I went mid afternoon though because it was only in the 90's today instead of the usual triple digits. Here are a few picts from the trail.







This is looking down the trail on the way back. The "trail" is just walking in that general direction and watching out for the occational markers on the rocks to tell you that you are still waking in the right direction.

Below are some pictures from the top. You get a panaramic view of Scottsdale, Tempe and Phoenix from here. It is relaxing to find a nice soft rock and just sit down and enjoy the view for a while. (my apartment is just to the right of those rocks in the pict below which is Papago Park)

This is looking towards Scottsdale

The peak in the distance is Squaw Summit which is my other favorite hiking spot. (man, that looks really small from this angle!)

This is looking at Tempe an ASU.


Unfortunatly there are no good shots of the peak from the trailhead which starts on the backside of the mountain but here is a shot from the front.

Monsoon Season Comming to a Close

Since Monsoon season will soon be ending I thought that I would post one more Monsoon related page. Here is some live video that gives you an idea of what the storms look like at night. I do not have a video camera so I had to borrow this clip from the internet but this was taken during a storm a couple of weeks ago.