Team Bayview

Avi, Mark, Sammy, Sarah, Ravi, and I are in the last day of a 9-week surgery rotation at Bayview Hospital, one of the Johns Hopkins system hospitals. There's nothing quite like several hundred hours of incising and draining abscesses, putting in bladder catheters, and pulling out vaccuum drains to bring a group of six folks together. We've had loads of fun and even learned some neat tricks, to boot. For instance: a 14-gauge needle is honkin' big in order to draw up lidocaine quickly from a bottle, NOT in order to deliver said lidocaine more quickly into the forehead of a guy with a head laceration (I won't name the culprit). Thanks, folks...it's been great working with you!

And this was before the wedding...

Streeter Lecka and Jason Norris got in a little nap before we all joined to celebrate the marriage of Nate Maust and Beth Froelke. True to form, these guys made sure that the nights before and after the ceremony were just as memorable as the big night itself. By the time we got out of there, Oxford, Ohio didn't know what had hit it. (N.B. I was the one who took this picture, meaning: I was awake; I was standing; they were the life of the party.)

With three days off between a trip to New Orleans for an engagement party and a trip to Ohio for my college roommate's wedding, I rounded up two friends (and one energetic Weimeraner) from my med class for a 3-day hike in the Shenandoah Mts. of Virginia. We covered about 24 miles over those days, but the miles flew by as we paid more attention to deer, birds, lizards, rabbits, and icicles (yes! it was freezing!) than we did to our footsteps. We shivered through our first night of camp so painfully that one of us (I won't say who) decided to hike all the way back to the car the next day, covering 14 miles between 7am and 7pm in order to avoid spending another sleepless night in the frigid March air. The sights and (lack of) sounds were well worth it, though, as was the camaraderie and vigorous exercise. Pictured are Mike George and Seth Goldstein along with me. We are so manly and tough.