Babies!

I love babies! I seriously think that anyone who can look at a (happy, not-screaming) baby without smiling has a chip missing somewhere. I even think scientists recently did PET brain perfusion studies to show that the sight of a baby stimulates the reward centers in your brain. Sadly I'm too lazy to look those up right now, so I have no links.

I'm rotating on Inpatient Pediatrics this month and boy is it awesome! I think I'm going to have a really hard time chosing what I want to train in--surgery was awesome, and now Peds is awesome! I used to think pediatrics would be something I couldn't commit to, because of the lack of exposure to adult medicine. But what I've realized during this rotation is that treating "kids" means treating people aged newborn to 21. Late adolescents are young adults, really. And in treating kids you're also engaging and teaching their parents. Pediatrics is by no means a field in which you're only exposed to children. It's a revelation that's broadened my views of future career options. I'm realizing how lucky I am to be learning at a top-10 hospital system that has attracted the great doctors who love to teach, and do it well.


In other unrelated news: Olympic time!! I loves the Olympics! At face value, the opening ceremonies were amazing. But these Olympics give me an uncomfortable feeling. There have been so many caviats to the magic of the games: China's last-minute withdrawal of visas of Team Darfur members, their label of Taiwan as "Chinese Taipei", the silencing and restriction of protestors and dissidents, the fines for the release of earthquake photos, the many attempts to paint a false veneer over the "real China" (last-minute smog-reduction attempts, buildling pretty walls around slums, halting construction in Beijing, messing with traffic to keep cars off the road, shutting down street vendors, etc), it goes on and on and on. I mean, weather control!? There's a great post on HuffPo right now about the insane propaganda of the opening ceremonies, and how the international community should feel ashamed for taking of the Kool-Aid. I highly recommend reading it, if you can find it. I just searched for it and couldn't. I could search harder, but it's the weekend and I'm an exhausted MS-3 who is entertained by some good bball, so this is where my efforts end.

Ciao, friends.

To my dear Crange: bon voyage, mon amie!!! Be curious, be adventurous, be open-minded, be safe! Write everything down and share it with us! Don't eat anything raw! Only eat fruit that you peel! I love you and I am so insanely proud of you!