Several months ago when I was on the surgical oncology team, we ran the patient list in the surgical conference room on the 4th floor every day.  There’s  a shiny plaque on the door that looks like this:

4th floor conference room door

I later found out this guy on the door is Mehmet Oz‘s dad, who was also a CT surgeon.  Jeez, this guy and his family is everywhere. Mehmet Oz is one of the CT surgeons who’s an attending at my med school. He’s everywhere–on Oprah, on XM Satellite radio’s Oprah channel, on Discovery Health Channel, in books, magazines, you name it.  I remember that he gave us a lecture about homeopathic living once. “Put your olive oil in the fridge, drink [nasty-tasting-previously-thought-to-be-nonedible-substance] every morning…etc”.  I remember him talking about giving the patient headphones with Mozart playing in the background because it helps speed recovery.  Yeah. I’d give the guy headphones too, because we surely don’t want the patient to overhear us jamming out to AC/DC tunes intermixed with occasional swearing by the surgeons in the OR.

Anyway, this guy is a smart man, and a great marketer.  Also a weird coincidence that I’d end up in the small town where this famous guy grew up.  I feel privileged.

medicine life, medicine

I like a clean environment. That is, one without dust, dirt, and whatever disease-causing fomites we can rid of without being overly compulsive.  This should not be confused with an organized environment. Believe me, I vacuum my living space regularly and keep hospital articles far away from my bed as possible. But I still struggle to keep myself organized. I tend to keep things I may not necessarily need, and objects pile up everywhere I go. I have been trying to purge with little success. Today is an example of what can happen if you don’t.

I have a shoddy bookshelf that I keep many things on–books, papers, trinkets.  I had a bookshelf. I’d say a third of its objects were important, like bills, receipts, and keys.  I have 2 boxes of books conveniently supporting the bookshelf on both sides.  Why that is, I don’t know. Perhaps that’s all $20 will buy these days. I was digging around in the boxes when I heard a crack. The next thing a pile of rubbish was all that was left.

pile of rubbish

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misc hobbies, life