Three Three O Six

Hi Everybody!

So, I tried to start a web journal earlier this year, basically to record my experiences as an intern and the various revelations of my own life. Unfortunately, I never really got it going. For some reason, I had a hard time writing anything and even when I did, I didn’t feel like it was good enough to show to anyone. I realize now that I was expecting too much of it, wanting every entry to be profound and literary so that nothing met the standard I had set. Well, now that I have a few days of vacation and a breather from call, I thought I would try again…

This blog will just be an entry point to update people about what’s going on in my life. Lately, I feel like I haven’t been able to keep up with everyone because of constraints in the space and time continuum. So hopefully, this will give everyone a chance to see what I’ve been doing, to laugh at the latest antics and check out a few recent pictures. Hope you all enjoy it!

Friends… Leaving people behind was probably the only difficult part of moving back to California. Despite all my cursing in the winters, during my six years in Boston I had formed some strong friendships with some of the most amazing people and, as I boarded my plane to leave for the last time, I wondered whether I would find such good friends again. Luckily, my fears were unfounded because from my first day here, I met a number of great people who would go on to become my friends. A number of them are in medicine but, I am glad to say, some are not connected to the medical field at all. So we have been up too all sorts of things from salsa-dancing and gelato to cafes and coffeeshops to bowling and karaoke to clubbing and bars to dinners and dessert. As it has always been for me, what I do doesn’t matter as much as just spending time with people I love hanging out with. Memorable events that stand out are a huge Halloween party thrown at our apartment by my roommate and me, Cirque de Soliel Corteo, the new De Young Museum and Brother’s Korean BBQ, a valentine’s day dinner followed by Kung Fu Hustle and three hours of karaoke in the living room, the Azul lounge in SF where I drank way too much, an impromptu drive to Carmel / Monterey … Good times, my friends. And though we have had a relatively short time together, I feel like we have formed bonds that will last even when we scatter, me to LA and others to here and there..


Work… we, as doctors, probably talk about medicine a little too much. Understandably so because it takes up such a huge part of our lives and time but I think we often forget that people from outside the hospital find it largely boring. So I will keep this brief. My internship has been, on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being miserable and 10 being spectacular), about an 8, maybe even a 9. I have learned a great deal and finally taking on clinical responsibilities as a doctor. I am doing what I have been studying and working towards my whole life and it has been what I had hoped for (except the paperwork :). There is no doubt the work is hard. Many sleepless nights and even worst day afters. Running to codes where the patient is brought back gasping and codes where everyone leaves the room wondering what went wrong. There have been times when I nearly despaired because of fatigue and the seemingly, endless work. But there have been good things too. Thank you from patients and families even when there was not much I could do, satisfaction from a job well done even if it took til 8pm and most of all, the other residents, interns, attendings, nurses, pharmacists - when we all work together to care for those who need us. Was it worth 4 years of college and 6 years of medical school… you bet.

Myself… Over my time in Boston, I feel like I have largely established who I am and what I am looking for. My chance to travel helped with this greatly along with some of the difficulties I had over the past couple years. But as always, I am striving for improvement and I have tried to grow this year by putting myself in new and ever so slightly uncomfortable situations. I set out to try a few different things for myself: to be more assertive, to dress more conscientiously for work and play, to be a little more serious about my future… Some things have worked and some have not, but it has certainly been a learning process and I certainly feel like I have grown a bit older and wiser. Creatively, I have not had a chance to do as much as I would have liked. My writing has gone largely ignored (this is the longest non-medical piece of work I’ve done all year) and two canvases sit in my living room still wrapped in plastic (hopefully, I’ll get to work on those in the next couple weeks though). Physically, I started off pretty well, going to the gym about three times a week. Unfortunately, since October that has greatly declined but I’m not totally out of shape and I hope to do more as the weather improves. And as for the dating.... I’ve gone out with a few people this year, mostly first dates and a few seconds, realizing I have much to learn about dating and which rules should be kept and which broken :)

Overall, the months since I have become a doctor have been great. I know a little more about who I am and what I want. And what more can you ask? I hope to update this every month or two and add more pictures to the mix. Please know that I do not consider this a substitute for real conversation or exchange between friends… but at least it alleviates my guilt a little bit and lets everyone know I’m alive. Let me know what you think! Drop me an email (nikudom@gmail.com) or call when you can 408-627-5377. Take care, Everyone!

-Nik