Last Fall I got roped into serving as an advisor to our “Caduceus Club” at Pasadena City College. These students want to go into health-related careers…and even if I never did, I agreed to open a classroom once a week at lunch for their meetings. During their meetings I heard the guest lectures and learned a lot about our campus blood drives, but mainly served to encourage them in their academic pursuits. However, I also got e-mails of off campus opportunities to share with them, one of which really caught my eye.
Last November I tripped. Really hard! Caught myself by sticking out my left hand (my right hand was full and couldn’t get empty quickly enough). The good news was I kept my face from hitting the ground. The bad news was I locked my elbow and apparently the head of the radius shattered on impact with the capitulum of my humerus. I am now the owner of a titanium radial head replacement. I asked my surgeon if I could watch the operation, but he said no.
So, there is a program at UC Davis where premedical students can shadow surgeons. I already have all the prerequisite courses, even if I never seriously thought about becoming a doctor. I decided that to be a good advisor I should lead by example. If nothing else, applying to the program would help me understand what my students who need letters of recommendation are going through, right?