radiolucent

Hey everyone, hope your Mother's Day was swell.  And thanks again for all the great photos you've been sending me--I have them all saved, but I'm going to preempt them for this series, which I received from Bea, Eve, Jess and Tony, some of my old friends from med school.  They got quite into the spirit of things, as you can see.  AND I LOVE IT.

Here is my book getting a mammogram.  Or rather, my book as a boob.

And here Natalie, a patient care assistant, demonstrates that reading my book can make getting a mammogram a slightly less unpleasant experience.

Tony, my old med school classmate, poses in the CT scanner with his copy.

And Bea, who's actually in the book (she's the one who compares med school to being in the army) gets a brain MRI while reading.  Now if only it was a functional MRI, so we could see which areas of the brain light up.  (My guess: the hippocampus, and the amygdala.  Neuroanatomy humor, hey-ooooo!)

This one I thought was super-cool: my book in the MRI coil.  See how the suture needles are attracted to the MRI field, and are getting dragged into the coil?  I get really paranoid about that every time I have to administer anesthesia in the MRI scanner--I keep having this vision that my pen or something is going to shoot out of my pocket into the coil and stab someone.

Hello, other authors.  Have you had your books examined under fluoroscopy?  Pity.  IT IS AWESOME.

Luckily, the scan came out clean.  Radiolucent as the driven snow, baby.

Bea was right, by the way.  Med school is like the army.  I mean, there's no actual warfare (for the most part), but you're working hard and going through some physically and psychological hardships with the same group of people for four years, all while charged with a greater sense of purpose.  And it really affects the quality of the relationships you form with people during those four years.  I met my best friend in med school--later, I married him.  There are friends I have from med school that I know I'll keep in touch with my entire life.  Because we've been through the fire together and emerged intact.  We did it together.  And most importantly, we had fun.  

Anyway, that's something I want to convey to people who are pre-med right now, or in med school, or going through residency.  It's hard, but you have people around you, and you're doing it together.  Don't forget to have fun.  Because that sense of fun is what's going to carry you through, and it's what's going to meet you on the other side.

Thanks, Bea, Jess, Eve and Tony!  I admit, getting that photo montage from you guys made me tear up a little bit, and I am not a person who habitually tears up at stuff, with the exception of "Toy Story 3," because good lord, I'm human after all.

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Hey, do you have a radio?  Do you live in the Southeast?  Well then, listen to me on the radio tomorrow!  I will try not to embarrass anyone!  First at 8:20am on KFRU-AM out of Columbia, MO on the David Lile Show, and then at 9:35am on WRVC-AM out of Huntington, West VA.  (The website for WRVC-AM does not seem to be displaying correctly on my browser, but maybe it's just me?)  It's live radio for both shows, so watch it in the same spirit that you watched that live episode of "30 Rock," 50% out of actual interest for the topic, and 50% for the bread and circus and the excitement of me slipping up and saying something irrevocably dumb.  I LIVE TO ENTERTAIN YOU.

Also, let me point out that I added a meet-up for after the NYC event this Wednesday at the Columbia University bookstore.  So after the reading, let's say around 8:00pm, we'll meet at The Heights, which is about a five minute walk away.  It's a nice place and they have a nice rooftop bar, and yes, yes, I know, it's a Wednesday and you have to get home to study (or whatever)...but have have to eat anyway, and it's not like we're going to keep you out all night and get you wasted or anything, just stop by and relax with some harmless pleasant nerds.  It'll be pleasant and I guarantee that taking a few hours off on one night will do more for good for your brain than studying all the rest of the entire week.

I'm shipping out bookmarks in the middle of next week.  Even though the book is widely available at this point, I did say originally that the bookmark giveaway was for all orders prior to May 11th (which is the "official" publication date), so that offer still stands as is.  You still have a couple of days to get your free bookmarks and a personal note from me, so if you were waiting for some reason, go ahead an order the book and then e-mail me  to let me know you did!  I will mail you one bookmark for each book you order prior to Wednesday, so yes, if you order ten books, I will mail you ten bookmarks.  Need I also point out that it makes a wonderful graduation gift?  Much better than a polyester stuffed bear wearing a mortarboard, I can tell you that right now.