Obama and the Nobel Prize

I was truly shocked today to find the President awarded a peace prize with less than a year in office, and no firm accomplishments of resolved conflicts.

What can this mean?

An accident?  “Oops! sorry, it was supposed to be in 2019 NOT 2009!”

I don’t think so. the prize was given to the president to give him a moral,  and stature leg up to help in the QUEST for peace. This is rare in this prize. It was given as a way of helping foster the kinds of efforts layed out in his speach to the United Nations.

It seems that the world is ready to achieve peace.
What will we accomplish when we are no longer afraid?  Today I presented in a hospital in Chicago to one of the rare combinations of Faculty and Students together. What would we work on if we were not afraid and worried about our own future?

This is the time to re-consider everything we had formerly thought of as impossible. This is the time to re-commit to the nobel impulses that drove us forward in the first place. I, myself, must be a little more paitent, but not much.

What do you say if you are asked if you applied to other specialties?

Bobbylight writes:

If an interviewer flat out asks, “Did you apply to other specialties?” How do I handle this? It feels so unfair to be put in that situation. Everyone knows most applicants will apply to many specialties, either for “cushions” or simply because they are uncertain or like multiple fields. (The latter applies to me.)

 FISCHER RESPONDS

It is NONE of their business if you applied to other specialties! Tell them “NO” .   Ask them if they were a virgin when they got married. Ask if they have ever cheated on their spouse. Ask them if they have ever been arrested.

YOu tell them “NO”. You are allowed, legally and ethically, to apply, interview and rank other specialties and figure it out on match day.

Maybe you are not sure.       MAybe you only got ONE interview in a more competitive specialty.

Maybe it is just a whim. You do NOT have to embarrass yourself, or THEM by saying :”Yes, I really DON’T want you or your program, Your are just a safety”

Ouch!!!!!   By the way, I propose the same solution if you are on a date as well.

“Oh Yes BABY!!!!! YOU are the ONE!!!!”

What should you tell them? “Actually, yeah, I went out with your sister last week, she was busy tonight  so I called you”

Robert Wood Johnson study on physican Support for the Public Option

Hi All,

Here is a national survey showing majority support for a public option in health care in Over 70% of physicians. The Robert Wood Johnson foundation is one of the finest, best run and most expert organizations I know. Did you know that the money is from “Johnson & Johenson” the home care/baby powder/toothpaste etc company?

http://www.rwjf.org/files/research/48408physician.pdf

This is important to dissmeminate

Joe the Diabetic man is waiting for his cure

I am on the plane to Houston to present today and a friendly cheerful man looks suddenly bruised when the flight attendent spills water on his laptop. “You know, if I did not have diabetes, I could make FIFTY times more than I am making. I normally eat VERY healthy ” he says as the last of the coke and pringles pas his lips. “But my sugar was low when I got on the plane’. He is taking state of the art therapy with Glargine Insulin and an ultra short acting insulin.

“Have you thought of having an insulin pump placed” I ask. In  “Routine Miracles’ the unparralelled triumph from the point of view of the patient is the insulin pump.  No more running into bathrooms to check a finger stick and inject insulin. Freedom, and the feeling of being ‘normal’ are the benefit.

“I am scared of breaking it” he says. “In my work and in my social life, people are always touching me and hugging me, I am scared it will break”

“You can always remove it” I say.

“I have the best eye doctor in the world. Besides laser treatment, I get avastin (Bevacizumab) injections once a month and it has kept me from going blind”

I pause a moment to absorb the grandeur of this advance. How exalted and wonderful to live in an era in which type I diabetes still can be managed to allow the ebulient Joe to travel to see a U2 concert in Atlanta.

 Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) inhibitors are used, off label, to stop the progression of Diabetic retinopathy. Joe lives with Type I diabetes and we have a hard time absorbing or remembering that it is only in the last few decades that type I diabetes was not a death sentence.

The previous generation of physicians did not cure diabetes. Let us take a moment to absorb all the Hope and Goodness of a man who is alive, vibrant and  hopping a fast plane to Atlanta to see Bono.

Joe is waiting however. He is waiting for one of use to cure his diabetes. Help me spread the news.

“Sentient Beings are Numberless: I vow to save them”

“Sentient” means ‘something which has the ability to feel”. It comes from the same root as the spanish word ‘Sentir’.

 

It is also one of the three vows of the Buddhists in Zen meditation. At the Soji Zen Center yesterday, I presented on ‘Routine Miracle” in Philadelphia.

If you live in Philadelphia, I encourage you to go there, meet the teacher and get started. I spent two years doing Zen in medical school, until they finally told me, I would still have to sit still and be quiet.

Our paths are different, but the goal is the same.

Compassion.

Coming to Houston Tomorrow, Tuesday

Hi Y’all, feel free to come by the Houston Kaplan center tuesday at 630. Will be talking about routine miracles and doint test taking and anything else!

Houston: Oct 6, 6:30pm

Houston Kaplan Test Prep & Admissions Center

2500 Dunstan Rd, 5th Fl

Houston, TX  77005

Houston: Brazos Booksellers Oct 7, 7pm

2421 Bissonnet

Houston, TX 77005

The NEWEST fresh Fisch meal

For those of you who are educational afficionados, here is the latest ‘Daily Special”

It’s a Freebie educational case.. Go to the middle where it says “TRy FREE….

http://www.kaptest.com/Medical_Licensing/Step-2-CK/View-Kaplan-Programs/Online-and-Supplemental/comprehensive-cases.html

Peace in many places: Let’s feel good for a minute

Julius Caesar documented Celtic warriors running into battle naked and painted blue. 2,000 years of conflict between England and Ireland, the Scots and the Welsh is over. Even in the north of Ireland, peace is in place.

The Tamil Tigers have surrendered, and although there are mistreatments of the vanquished group, that war is over.

Not since Hadrian in 72AD has Europe seen a moment of peace. Continuous war betweens it’s states, and now the only argument is the price of beer and conflicts are worked out where they should be, on the Football (Soccer) field.

Don’t get too hypnotized by the difficulties in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Look at the places where THOUSANDS of years of conflict have come to peace.

Peace does not sell newspapers, and neither does “Routine Miracles”.  Beauty takes time to appreciate. Conflict hijacks your attention.

Sixty years of continuous peace in Europe. 

RE-devote yourself to the consideration of beauty and the imposssilbe. Bring it into being. Make an effort towards it. YOu only have one thing to sacrifice. YOur own suffering, worry and pain

The “Graying of an Epidemic”

The morning mail with all of its excitement and banality. One of a dozen invitations a week to attend an educational conference comes, evidence that some ‘trusted’ organization is selling my identity. “The Graying of an Epidemic” . It is the need for an educational conference because people with AIDS are now living so long that the caregivers need to be trained in a bit of geriatrics.

What a miraculous age of the world!!

How to handle living so unexpectantly LONG with AIDS!

We are entering the age when all things formerly considered impossible, are now becoming graspable! Get on board! Forget your own economic self-interest and safety. Leap and the net will appear.

THe Fisch Presents at 530 today, October 3 at AMSA convention in Philadelphia

Greetings and Felicitations!

Today I will be presenting on Test taking and “Routine Miracles’ at the AMSA convention in Philadelphia. We will be giving away copies of “Routine Miracles” to the first 25 students.

Here is the new link for the Recent TV interview which is a very important statement on the nature of a Heroic Society.

http://www.king5.com/video/in-studio-index.html?nvid=403279