Matter, Energy, and Life of Michaela A. Castello.

Tag: residency

  • Sword of Damocles

    By now you may already be aware that COVID-19 thing sweeping the world—I heard it’s pretty trendy. Over the past several weeks I’ve felt as though I’m a sandpiper running ahead of incoming waves. I went to a concert Wednesday of last week; by Thursday they were cancelling concerts. Saturday and Sunday I went out…

  • Modern Medicine

    I am a fan of technology, it says so right in my tagline. I also think that finding ways to apply developing technology to medicine is pretty cool, and is something I enjoy doing myself when the opportunities arrive. That being said, technology hasn’t always lived up to its promise of making life easier, and…

  • Fetch Quests

    My friends who play RPGs will be familiar with the concept of “fetch quests.” For the rest of you, they’re sort of in the same family as a MacGuffin, that largely interchangeable noun valued by a story’s characters in order to drive the plot. In games, the character must go out and collect an arbitrary…

  • Urine Output

    In the hospital we care a lot about urine. While we no longer taste the sweetness of diabetes mellitus compared to the flavorless diabetes insipidus, we measure urine output (UOP), volume (per kilo per hour), color, red cells, white cells, nitrites, bacteria… Pee-related reasons for sticking around the hospital range from the anatomic (a kid…

  • Critical Care

    Michael rides in an ambulance for the first time as an adult and learns from some of the most competent people in the children’s hospital.

  • Leveling Up

    If there’s anyone left still following along after all the extended silences and affirmative responses to the “are you still in school” question, it’s time to check in with what I’m doing now. While I did, in fact, graduate with some degrees a while back there’s still a long way to go on the path…

  • Type I Hypersensitivity

    I had another allergic reaction, once again after specifically inquiring  about a dish’s peanut content. I noticed suspiciously peanut-like “macadamia nut” pieces that tasted an awful lot like peanuts to my companion, but after being assured they were not peanuts, the first bite determined that was a lie. Perhaps it was the sauce? I haven’t seen…

  • Pager Trouble

    One of the first items I was issued when I started residency, along with my ID badge, was a pager. Yes, we still have pagers, which has invited derisive remarks from local churls if we go out immediately after work and forget to leave them in the car. You may be surprised to learn that…