Dead Blogs

I'm toying with the idea of eliminating some of the blogs on my blogroll for being dead. I prefer to think of a blog as being dead if it hasn't had activity in 2 or more months and have a few on my list that meet or are close to meeting this criteria. Plus I've noticed that there are some blogs that aren't necessarily dead, but I just don't enjoy them as much anymore. We've grown apart, I guess.

So here's a fair warning to those blogs: you know who you are and you need to post something before next week...or off with your head!

Friends

Something that's interesting about 4th year is the lack of continuity you have with your class. Everyone is on different schedules, away rotations, and often are not in contact with each other for months. Last year I heard of a student who hadn't been seen for over a year - she had been with her resident husband and children doing her rotations in another state during that time. The first time she'd been seen was when she found out where she matched...then she left again.

What's sad about this is the distance that seems evident between your friends and you. That relationship, developed during stressful times when you could discuss your hassles, irritations, and the like over dinner and movies, is being broken. Now there's really not a lot of people that I can talk to who will understand - even if they are here - because we're on different paths, or in different places, or have different mindsets.

Consider the person who is freaking out over their Surgery sub-I who tries to relate their frsutrations to another who's upset about their Peds rotation. At one time or another these two could have talked, given some pointers, and been more beneficial to each other. Now it's harder.

Sub-Internships have different feels depending on where they're done, what specialty you're in, and whether you truly want to be in that field or are just "being a tourist". I've had some phone calls and run-ins with friends recently and have noticed that I have a hard time relating to their pain, anxiousness, etc. because I've nothing to compare. The same goes for them, I'm sure. What the hell do they care if I feel like shit if I didn't get an IV, or fucked up a patient encounter, or something?

I'm really missing the interactions I had with people the last 3 years. I liked our movie and game nights, dinners, and bar jumping after a hard exam. I think that more and more I'm realizing that, while we'll always be friends and will hopefully keep in touch, we're headed on different paths, growing apart, and ultimately breaking away from the group to accomplish "our goals".

For someone like me who doesn't make friends easily, it's hard to come to grips with the fact that I'll have to go through this process all over again in residency.

Dude, Where's My Fife?

Fife Me is a blog that I've enjoyed for a little while now. She went private around the time the entire medical blog world was blowing up, but I'd not seen any recent indications that she was planning on pulling the plug.

Now there's nothing on her blog site at all. It's a "Page does not exist" website that I come across. Fife, where have you gone? Let me know, will ya?

My Take

There has been a great deal of discussion related to the soon to be infamous "Flea Incident" of which I posted about here. My disgust comes from the apparent reasoning behind the case being settled as well as the comments being left related to Dr. Flea. Some of the beauties I've seen include calling Flea "arrogant", "foolhardy", "asshole", and others. How were these expressions conjured up in the writer? Did they know Dr. Flea or have they had any interaction with him outside of his blog and the newsreports? Probably not, but damn if they're not quick to call him out for doing something that I'm doing right now - writing about my take on a subject based on my perspective.

There has been some rather interesting Anon comments circulating that are shedding some light into the legal world and the validity of the blog concern. I appreciate those as they are well thought out, purposeful, and inciteful. The comments that I'm quite disturbed by are from people who just found it arrogant for someone to blog about their experience - as if he thought he was too smart to get caught. Whatever.

I wrote a comment on Dr. Dino's blog related to these accusations that went something like this:

Is it arrogant to write about experiences and frustrations, victories and defeats, and to ultimately express oneself with the written word which Flea did so eloquently? If it is then call me arrogant as well. If anything it's just sad that people instantly dubbed this intelligent man as being arrogant based on very little information. I wonder if these were some of the same who would whole-heartedly agree with him on his blog only to turn against him so quickly.

The facts of the case are unknown to us, what is known, to me at least, is that Flea was a tremendous asset to the Pediatric blogging community and is now lost. We shouldn't forget that.

I'm pissed about the reaction Flea's mishap has brought up in the blogosphere. I understand that the lawyers want to win their cases and that if they feel they have an advantage they'll take it. That's life. Unfortunately physicians will often find it impossible to be judged by a "jury of their peers" because of the extreme divide between our profession and the laypeople. Lawyers are in the same boat. But what I'm really upset about is the almost universal dismissal of a very intelligent and courteous blogger who was also a physician.

I loved the Flea blog. I keep the URL up to this day hoping he'll return. I fear for his health and his ability to continue practicing medicine after being "outed" by a newspaper source. But what I hope quickly dissipates is the hate-fest going on by people who have no fucking clue what's happening.

Oh. My. God

I just read this over at Musings of a Dinosaur. I can’t be more ticked and nauseous over the outcome. I will try and write something more about this loss of freedom of speech and expression that we, as a medical community, are quickly losing, but for now I just can't. It's overwhelming currently.

It’s enough to scare anyone and make them consider what we write and just how anonymous any of us truly are.

Dear Dr. Flea… I wish you peace and tranquility my friend. Peace and tranquility.

God.

Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

Something is happening in the medical blogging world. People are dropping like flies. I took a brief hiatus after I inadvertently deleted my past posts. I can only hope that these missing bloggers will do the same and return to us. Many of these are some of the first medblogs that I read and were inspirations as well as teachers in getting me to start my own.

So, for now, a fond farewell with hopes that you will soon return:

Flea

Fat Doctor (invite only)

FifeMe (invite only)

VitaminK

Barbados Butterfly

Hospital Phoenix (who turns up again and again only to disappear again and again)

It’s scary to wonder what’s happening here. Censorship, either self induced or forcibly mandated, is continuing its strangle hold of a profession who’s sanctity is quickly slipping away. Where have all the bloggers gone? Sad days indeed.