DNGILB: Trust me, I'm a doctor.

My girlfriend and I just got back from Colorado with some of our best friends the Brownings. What a trip! We started out camping at the base of mount Princeton and ended our trip in Aspen. If anyone reading this has never been to Aspen let me explain how cool it really is. Its small, but has amazing restaurants, shopping, galleries and its all walkable. So, in the crisp mountain air you have the perfect walkable city full of all your desired activities in the beautiful mountain setting with all the adventure you can find in the mountains or on the rivers. We also whitewater rafted. Vanessa was a bit scared by this at first, but she ended up having an absolute blast. Another objective I had on this trip involved a certain diamond ring I had in my back pack during the entire trip. We had plans to hike to the top of Mt. Princeton. My plan was to propose from the top and I had this beautiful symbolic speach planned because the road to marriage has not been easy, but once you make i

i live in a "safe" apartment building. gated. surveilance video. no hits on the tulsa PD crime tracker... but today when i got home, i was very tired so i dropped everything and crashed on my bed. about 45 minutes later i hear the door open. not expecting anyone i jump up and walk into my living room to see a random strange man who is stark naked and dripping wet. he see's me and cups his nuts with his hands. i shout, "what the hell are you doing?!!! get out!!!!" very calmly he says, "oh, sorry." and walks out. I proceeded to slam the door and lock it. . . . .strange. dngilb

to all who read my blog... (all 3 of you. who knows, maybe there are more.) life has been great! i'm in love more and more each day with my wonderful girlfriend. what a blessing from God. she is an amazing woman!! other things, i am growing as a physician slowly and steadily. i will be a senior resident in just a short month. there is still much to learn, but i am pleased to know that i can handle the situation when a patient is crashing in the middle of the night. do i know it all. NO. big NO! i will never know it all, but i will still grow and develop, and i know how to look things up when there is a question. its fun though. difficult. tough. intimidating. sure. but at the end of the day, when you accomplished something great... whether its saving a life, or helping someone pass on comfortably, while comforting their family... it leaves you with a real satisfaction that you've made a difference. one thing i do need to grow in, is sharing about God to patients who don&#

dear blog, i have neglected you terribly. if you were a plant you would have died. if you were a lover, you would have left. if you were a dog, you would have chewed your leg off. please forgive me, and i promise i will never leave you so alone, for so long. sincerely, dngilb

we wake each day to a complex world feeling sophistocated refined and complicated we walk thru this world eyes are on our future ready to claim destiny a soul mate prodigy the pretenders deny the truth that darwin spoke ignore all implications of evolution's yoke blinded to the power of our primal intent we all rationalize and ignore the logic we rent a pursuit with logic and a pursuit with love is a pursuit in guise of evolution's demise (a song by me: http://www.myspace.com/brightlyshiningyetunseen )

March Madness So march has been good. The Nephrology rotation means 3 weekends off and good hours. The only downside is being pimped up one side and down the other. To all of my non-medical friends, "pimping" has nothing to do with money or sex, it simply refers to attending physicians asking difficult questions of us residents in an effort to educate. More practically to humiliate. Despite the pimping, its been a great rotation for these reasons: 1. Usually woke up at 6:30 am. 2. Usually got home by 3:00 pm. 3. Five days of vacation on top of the 3 weekends. 4. Visited 22 different people in 2 states during the aforementioned 5 day break. 5. Spent most evenings having a fun hanging out with my girlfriend. 6. Played tennis several times. 7. Had visits from family and friends to Tulsa. 8. Feeling better about my future career as an internal medicine hospitalist. 9. Being in love. Well, what can I say, I do feel blessed. David MD P.S. More on "pimping." Evidently this

Hello, welcome to my apartment. Let me show you around... I've always enjoyed the more modern style of architecture and design... However, I did not want my apartment to look over done or uncomfortable. So, I've tried to acquire furniture that had nice clean straight lines, solid colors, and minimal decorations. I have always enjoyed the feel of art museums, with their open spaces, parallel lines, and clean feel. I also have an odd sense of humor, so I placed "Bambi", Nathan and I's roommate from when we lived at Hiwassee, on top of the toilet, magically bringing the toilet to life... and making all males feel uncomfortable when then urinate standing up... as she is staring directly at their bits and pieces. I hope you have enjoyed your tour... please come again! dngilb md

Well, as of late, I've been having people ask how I am doing concerning my new career path... meaning how are you doing after being rejected from ophthalmology again... to answer, I guess I'd have to say that I'm doing quite well. I needed some grieving time to say good bye to the imagined life as an ophthalmologist and some more time to start imaging what it would like to be a hospitalist. It has helped immensely that this month I was on a 3 intern ward team. It was seriously like a vacation! Yes, I still had call q5, but I got at least 2 hours of sleep every night, I had 5 days off, and numerous days (like today) where I was done by 1pm. SO!! I'm refreshed... none of my patients have died (yet), and I'm feeling more positive about the thought of being an internal medicine hospitalist. I've also been spending time imagining what it will be like to have 26 weeks off a year and traveling the world with my wife. (no not married yet, not engaged, but I'm excite

For those who have been talking to me this past month, you know that I've been a bit stressed out. Well, after a week on a ward team with three interns and today off work... I finally remember what it feels like to be me. The weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I now feel thankfulness in my heart for where I am and for where I am going. I had the chance to listen to some great music (efterklang), read medical literature over coffee at a coffee shop, and hit range balls on a beautiful day. I remember what it felt like to be me again. I love where I am. I love where I'm going. I love who I'm going there with, and I am at peace. David MD

Some of the greatest things a woman can do for her man is to believe in him, affirm him, and encourage him. During this past January when I was being stressed from multiple angles by my life in medicine (i.e. being surrounded with death in the ICU and being rejected from my dream career as an eye surgeon) I found out how wonderful it is to be with a woman who truly loves me for me, believes in me, encourages and affirms me... what a blessing! I tried to imagine what it would have been like to go through that month without Vanessa. It would have been empty, desolate, and lonely. I felt immensely loved by our heavenly Father for bringing the two of us together and putting so much love in Van's heart for me. Thank you Van, Thank you Abba Father. David MD

First of all, I was in the ICU. Though my residency program is actually fairly resident friendly, it was still a rough month. Call is “q4”. This means every fourth day of the cycle I spend 30 consecutive hours in the hospital. I still manage to average only 75 for the whole week... but despite the “easy” 75 work week, its really taxing emotionally dealing with death everyday. More accurately, it’s emotionally taxing dealing with the family members of those dying. We hold family meetings. Trying to get family members to see reality... and the gravity of each clinical situation. Just let grandpa die! With comfort. With peace. Instead, many families opt to put their precious loved ones through weeks long torture sessions with what I estimate is a 0.01% chance of a meaningful recovery. Exhausting... 35 days later... it’s over! Second of all, I found out that my second attempt to get into an ophthalmology residency was a failure. Ophthalmology (eye surgeon for all who don't already know

Any resident doctor knows that the pager is our worst enemy. Every intern knows that the worst pager to have is the house officer pager. We all have fantasies of "killing" the pager, our nemesis. Tonight, prior to my long call night in the ICU, I "killed" the house officer pager. It wasn't intentional (at least not consciously). It accidentally slipped off of my belt clip as I was standing near the toilet. I was urinating if you must know. In went the pager! After finding a baby blue latex free glove to put on, I retrieved it from its disgraceful demise (Thankfully the water was “status-post flush”!) Now, rescued from the waters, I hear the poor pager using up its last breath as it cried out for help... it was a pitiful sputtering buzz... no beeps It sounded like a noisy flourescent light bulb for 10 seconds, then... silence. I thought about running it over to the crash cart and putting 360 joules thru its little electronic heart to shock it back into a

My friends and I seem to have more fun sitting around thinking up stupid ideas more than we enjoy going out. The latest example: Nate and Randy came up to Tulsa to visit. We ate a cool restaurant and went to a local bar to see a few bands play. When we got back to my apartment, my girlfriend Vanessa had made beds out of sleeping bags, blankets, and such for the guys to sleep on. Just to be nice! (as she is very nice!). Here is their "stupid idea" of a thank you note which seemed to generate the most mirth of the evening: Dearest Vanessa, Though hast thrilled our hearts with thine making of beds. Our weary bones have found rest within the heavenly grasp of these beds thou did'st create. The gods have truly blessed thee with the skill of 10,000 bed-makers. We shall slumber, oh so sweetly, in thou'est's magnificent tapestries of fine linen's and warm clothes. And on the morrow, our refreshed virile young bodies will dance with thoughts of thou'est's