More information to follow, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I matched to the University of Ottawa Pediatrics Program. It officially starts on July 1, 2008.

Thanks to everyone for your support. Amanda and I are thrilled with the outcome!

Here we are after writing our last exam of the year. I’m off to Australia on Friday and hope to have lots of updates from there! (In case you are wondering, Tuataras is a reptile from New Zealand and is our class name.)

Today I participated in an event called Head for a Cure. It was a fundraiser for cancer where people were sponsored to have their head shaved. It was an incredibly successful event that raised over $20,000 for a great cause. You can see a before and after here on the left. Although I’ve had my hair short in the past, it’s never been this short - it’s weird to feel a draft on my head! Thanks to everyone involved and to those who donated for a great day!

UPDATE: You can see the pictures from the process here. As you can see, they had some fun with me and it was just like shaving a sheep!

Just wanted to let everyone know that yesterday, I successfully defended my PhD thesis - so I guess that makes me a Doctor now!

After spending close to the last 4 years doing research in Medical Science, I handed in my thesis 4 weeks ago and then prepared for the oral defence yesterday - hence the lack of posting here lately. After a 2 hour oral defence, I was congratulated for having fulfilled the requirements of the PhD portion of my degree. I start medical school in August for the second part of the combined MD/PhD program I’m enrolled in which is another 3 years to go before I officially convocate and receive the combined degree.

Thanks to everyone for the support over the years and helping me reach this milestone!

Well, I’ve been back from Chicago since the end of last week but I haven’t gotten any pictures posted yet. Truth is, I personally didn’t take any pictures, but Kristen from my lab did and she actually has the exact same camera as me, so the pictures that I get from her to post eventually will be exactly the same as if I had taken them anyways!

In other news, I’ve been in Calgary almost 4 years now and had not been to the emerg at the hospital - until this past weekend that is. After waking up in the middle of the night on Thursday and Friday nights with a sharp, piercing pain in my lower back and side, it was off to the hospital on Saturday morning to see what the problem was. After joking with my brother the day before that the pain in the night was “probably just a kidney stone”, sure enough, that’s what it was. They hooked me up to an IV, gave me some pain killers (morphine!), and a muscle relaxant - then I just waited for it to “pass”. A few hours later, I took a pee into what looked like a coffee filter and witnessed the culprit of my pain. Who would have ever thought that something only a few millimeters wide could do so much damage?!?! The nurse and the doctor both commented that the stone looked quite jagged so I guess that level of pain was to be expected.

They told me that there is a 33% chance that I’ll get more kidney stones throughout my life but that for the time being I don’t need to be worried about changing my lifestyle at all. I’ll be a pro at this if there is a next time (in that I’ll get to the hospital for the morphine much quicker!), but I must say, I would never wish kidney stones on anyone. I feel like an old man now - hopefully it will be when I truly am an “old man” if I ever have to experience this again.

Where is the year going! I can’t beleive we are already through 1 month of 2005! Sorry for not updating this site last week. I’ve had other things going on and this site slipped a bit.

Not to keep bringing it up, but The Skinny on Sports is still doing really well. An interview that we did recently for PodcastAlley.com is not posted on their main page as the Featured Podcast. I also had an interview last night with Erin Bell from HUB: Digital Living Magazine. They are doing a story about Podcasting, and being a Canadian publication, they wanted information from a Canadian podcaster. I don’t really know what form the article will take, but I’ll definitely post links to the story when I have them. I think it’s supposed to be in the March 2005 issue. Matt and I think this is pretty cool! We’ve also got T-shirts to give away to anyone making a donation to the podcast - head over to www.skinnyonsports.com for more details.

I’m away this weekend at a conference in Banff. It’s the Banff Inflammation Workshop and it’s always a good time. It’s coordinated by our research group and the guest speakers that are invited are always from the top of the field making for some really interesting presentations. The conference starts on Thursday and many of us are sticking around on Sunday for a day of skiing.

Have a great weekend!

Most of us have trouble deciding what to eat each day or even each meal. How would you like to be in charge of planning the menu for the first space mission to Mars which could last a minimum of 2.5 years! Wired has an interesting article about what food scientists are working on in order to be prepared for the appetites of the astronautes. Give it a read and it may just make planning your next meal seem a little easier!

With the Olympics set to begin, I just remembered an article I read on TSN the other day. It warns athletes of the new drug tests that have previously only been under review. With all the talk in recent weeks about athletes testing positive for drugs, could these new tests lead to the most drug-filled Olympics in history? It will be interesting to see how everything unfolds.

I saw this article this morning on Wired and thought it was interesting. Stan D. Ardman (which actually stands for ‘Standard Man’) is a computerized mannequin costing about $200,000 that is currently being used in hospitals and medical schools. Connected to a Mac computer, Stan is able to present a variety of symptoms and reacts to medication simulating human reactions. Here’s the link to Stan’s website. I wonder if the Universtiy of Calgary will have any of these next year when I start medical school?