Ankles!
I get a lot of questions about ankles from my friends when we play sports. It is BY FAR the most common injury for guys our age (and younger)
Here’s a great article I read from Dr. Pribut.
Read the rest of this entry »
Hello everybody,
This site will document my adventures through rotations, residency, and beyond while serving several purposes:
- A journal for my own records and edification. These next two years will teach me things I never want to forget.
- For others to learn from my mistakes and success.
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Lastly, it will provide a glimpse into the life of a medical student.
If you enjoy what you read, please let me know!
Disclaimer: All information provided on this site is for educational purposes only. Please do not take any medical advice from this site, as you should consult your physician in such matters
IMANA Student and Resident Conference
It’s back! The second annual IMANA S&R Medical Bash…
The weekend of April 28th, 2007, in Chicago IL.
For more details, visit IMANA’s website.
If you would like to pass out flyers, you can get one here.
Rotator Cuff Exercises for Rehab
Thanks to all of the years of basketball, football, working out, and generally abusing my body 
I’ve come to the realization that my shoulder pain is due to strained rotator cuff muscles! So while doing some research on the net, I stumbled across some exercises courtesy of The American Academy of Family Physicians. Enjoy!
Diabetes
I get a lot of emails from people with various medical questions.. I try to answer them to the best of my ability, but I must remind you, this is just educational information and not medical advice. I am not licensed to dispense medical advice and unfortunately cannot replace your physician
With that disclaimer, a good friend of mine asked me about diabetes… and here is my response:
Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction Support Group!
Hello everyone,
From the overwhelming demand for information regarding Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunctions (SOD), I’ve managed to establish a support group for all of you to share your experience with one another.
Please visit it at http://SOD.DrIsmail.com and share this link with others you may know who are suffering from SOD.
It’s a horrible disease, and unfortunately it’s not taken as seriously as a diagnosis as it deserves!
Back from Alaska
Well, I had an amazing time in Nome, Alaska. It really was one of the greatest things I have ever done.
I’ll be writing more on the subject in the near future… but for now, I’ve just got 300+ pictures to share with you!
Check them out at http://www.drismail.com/pics
Enjoy!
Going to Alaska
You read correctly… I’m shipping off for Nome, Alaska! for a month of “Rural Medicine”… I doubt I can get more remote and rural than Nome, AK!
I’ll be posting links on here with pictures, videos, and write-ups during my trip. So stay tuned!
And for those of you who are curious:
Common Bug Treatment Guide
Here’s a small reference guide to common bugs and the antibiotic of choice:
How to interpret ABGs (Arterial Blood Gases)
Here’s a quick tutorial that I wrote… more to teach myself than anything else
Video Lectures for Residents
The University of Texas-Houston Medical School has their ‘Internal Medicine Introductory Lecture Series 2003 & 2004 online. Check them out, very helpful for medical students / residents
http://www.uth.tmc.edu/schools/video/streamvideo/ms/im/imedls.html
More questions on the pancreas
From another one of my readers:
“I have 3 questions. Are stones in the pancreas and calcifications the same thing?Do you know of anyone with allergies from the pancreaseMT10 enzyme.Can you get rid of stones enbedded inthe pancreas? Thanks in advance for you reply.
Carole ”
Why I could never be a Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon
When I was an undergrad at the Univ of South Florida, in Tampa… I spent some of my time volunteering at Shriner’s Hospital for Children.
Shriners is a WONDERFUL establishment and provides free medical care for children who have physical deformities, burns, trauma, etc… completely free, irrespective of your income, religion, country of residence, etc… A great organization to support.
When I was at USF, I would go there on Thursday evenings for a couple of hours and just play with the children that were patients there. I promised myself that if I got into medical school and actually COULD do something to help more than the average person… I would…
Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction
At the request of one of my readers, I’ve posted some more information about the Sphincter of Oddi and its dysfunction.
It’s a long read, the first part is a writeup on some background info, and the second is about treatment options. Enjoy!
My latest venture…
Two things actually. Last December I started http://ppc6700users.com and this month it was mentioned in Laptop magazine!
But my latest site is http://ppc-central.com and http://news.ppc-central.com
Check them out It will explain why I haven’t been posting here enough
Just something I’m writing…
While studying for step 2 of the boards, I decided to write this:
Mommy-to-be’s guide to a healthy pregnancy.
So you want to be a doctor?
Or are you just curious about what the entire process is like?
If so, I found this really good article written on the entire journey.. check it out!
Financing your Medical Education…
As the chair of the Student Committee of IMANA (www.imana.org), I get a lot of questions from medical students and pre-meds asking questions about financing their medical education.
A typical medical student will run from $150-200k in debt over four years of training, and most do not have the personal or family funds to pay for this. The majority of students take out federal loans to fund their education, and even though the interest rate on these loans are very low, they still have *some* interest associated with it.
Now this becomes a problem for practicing Muslims because as a part of our faith, we are prohibited from dealing with interest, both taking and receiving it.
So here is an email that I recently wrote to one of the MANY students that ask me for advice on financing their medical education. I know when I looked into IMANA, I was hoping they would have some form of Islamic financing but I quickly realized that their budget, although impressive, wasn’t endless and could not tackle this issue. Read on:
And so begins Surgery
My first day went something like this
6:30 am… rounds with the other physician partners in the group.
7:30 am : start rounding on my patients.
9:00 am: start seeing patients at the office
Noon : Lunch break
1:30 pm : Back in a second office, seeing patiens
6pm : Go to the hospital, see more patients
10pm : get warned about an emergency surgery…
11pm : start surgery
12:15 am… finally get in my car to drive back home… and yes, I have to be back here in roughly six hours! This should be a fun month.
And to think… that was a “non surgical” day!!!!
My first cath!
Ok ok, so I didn’t really get to do my OWN heart catheterization… but I was the first assist on three of them this past Friday!
Well, two and a half… half way through the last one, the patient started bugging out and wiggling all over the table… not a good idea when there’s a bunch of hardware going up to your heart through your leg!
Clinical Mnemonics
Mnemonics… don’t know if I would have gotten through Medical School without them… and now here they come to save the day in my clinical life
Dr.Fitz-isms
Another month rolls by, another one under the belt.
Feels like I’m getting closer to the end, but further from where I need to be. A sense of panic is slowly creeping in… I *need* to know this stuff well, and real soon. Not just for my boards and graduation, but more importantly for myself and my patients.
The more I learn.. the more I realize how little I know.
CMO…
Comfort Measures Only…
When wrapped up in a world strife with altruism, egos, science, heroism, cowardice… it is sometimes difficult to see out of the fogged windows we call the “Patient-Physician Relationship”. Read the rest of this entry »
Falling Behind!
OK! I promise to start writing more than once a month!
It’s been very hectic the past few months, I’ve got too many other miscellaneous projects running…
Read the rest of this entry »
ER Done!
ER is an interesting phenomenon here in the US.
With ever-increasing costs of health insurance and the decline in the amount of primary care physicians taking new patients… the ER has taken on many forms now…
Read the rest of this entry »
Emergency medicine!
I have already been asked several times… real ER is *nothing* like the TV show!
Read the rest of this entry »
OB/GYN Recap
Quite the adventure… I’m not sure how well this ranks up against some of the other medical students and how much they get to do.. but right now the OB/GYN situation in Florida is horrendous with malpractice, it’s very difficult for students to get any worthwhile experience here… !%*&@ lawyers!
my totals were:
Read the rest of this entry »
New Feature for my blog!
Some of you may have noticed… there’s a subscription option now to the right side under my picture:
Or you can just CLICK HERE and enter your info.
You’ll be emailed whenever I make a new post
