Who derekinla

[AGBF]

derekinla has been contributing to other people''s threads without writing about himself. Havine exchanged e-mails with him, I know he is an interesting fella. For instance: his name. His last name isn''t "kinla". It refers to his being in LA (Los Angeles). Oh...the rest of you figured that out already? Also: he isn''t originally from LA. In fact he''s from where I''m from. Not that I was born here, but moving to Connecticut at one year old and remaining here makes me "from" here. (That and both my mother and maternal grandmother being born here. But I digress.)

Derek likes the singer Corrinne May. I now do, too, having followed one of the links he posted and heard some of her music. I even ordered a CD of hers as a Christmas present for my cousin who likes Jon Mitchell''s music.

I think we must encourage Derek to share more about himself .

Deb

 

[derekinla]

haha....will post some info soon

 

[mike04456]

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On 12/1/2003 9:08:48 AM AGBF wrote:











derekinla has been contributing to other people's threads without writing about himself

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That's all right with me, neither have I.

 

[AGBF]

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On 12/1/2003 7:40:15 PM LawGem wrote:

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On 12/1/2003 9:08:48 AM AGBF wrote:











derekinla has been contributing to other people's threads without writing about himself

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That's all right with me, neither have I.

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Ah, but LawGem, you and I have never exchanged e-mails, so I hadn't presumed to
nag you. Since you insist, however....

 

[Kamuelamom]

I'm interested in hearing more too, especially after that Alcohol Metabolism 101 post! Yikes! That's too much to think about when drinking a glass of wine.

 

[derekinla]

Okay here it goes..... I'm 29 and I'm currently working as a physician in Los Angeles. I discovered DT and PS this past July while surfing the web as part of an all out effort to find the perfect engagement ring. The banning over at DT kind of left a sour taste in my mouth so I've found myself posting mainly on PS. The community of posters here on PS are a very enthusiastic, educated, and entertaining group of people and I'm truly grateful for all that I've learned. Thanks again everyone!

I was born in Montreal, Quebec Canada so I guess that makes me a CBC. For those of you who are scratching your heads, that’s Asian American (Canadian) lexicon for “Canadian born Chinese” as opposed to ABC.... I was born the middle child among three rowdy boys so my mom had it cut out for her to keep the three of us in order. My early childhood was filled with fond memories replete with good natured rough housing, snowball fights, warm summer days at day camp, and weekend excursions to Chinatown for Chinese School

and dim sum

Our family emigrated to the US when I was 10 to a small town in Connecticut of approximately 20,000 people so it was pretty much culture shock coming from a big city environment. My dad's a pediatrician and he found a great job at a local community hospital, so it was a career change that prompted the move to this country. In contrast to the cultural diversity that surrounded me in Montreal, small town Connecticut was a bit more homogeneous. As the seemingly “token” Asian in school, there were certainly moments punctuated by racial insensitivity and feelings of awkwardness (i.e. Lots of “Sixteen Candle” jokes about the character played by Gedde Watanabe). Middle school was particularly brutal at times but most of the teasing and jokes dissipated by the end of high school. I was certainly quite “nerdy” and “geeky” in my preteen/teenage years (hell, I’m still nerd, who am I kidding???!) and as the prototypical Asian American kid, I excelled in academics and music (can you guess which instrument???). At the end of my senior year, there seemed to be an influx of Asians into the community and I think there were like up to five Asians in my graduating class of close to 300 people.

I attended the University of Connecticut for my undergraduate education, which was a hop, skip, and a jump from home. The campus was located in Storrs, a beautiful, quiet college town with about 20,000 students in the middle of rural northeastern Connecticut. I remember being able to see cows grazing from my freshman dorm room window and feeling even more far removed from the city life of my early childhood. College was a great time and I seemed to really feel more comfortable, social, and extroverted in the dormitory environment. The unprecedented success of the men’s and women’s basketball team was a rallying point for campus spirit and season passes to the games made the cold winters very happy times indeed.

After earning a degree in molecular and cell biology, I went straight into medical school. I knew fairly early in college that I wanted to pursue a career in medicine. Medicine was a profession that not only appealed to me intellectually for it's scientific rigor, but also for the many opportunities that it provides to bring positive, meaningful changes to peoples lives. My parents were actually pretty hands off when it came to school and career choices which is quite unusual for an Asian family. In an attempt to avoid the six digit debt of a private medical education, I decided to stay within the state university system and also went to UConn for medical school, although I would now find myself right outside of Hartford in the town of Farmington.

Medical School was an interesting part of my educational career. As far as learning was concerned, the amount of information that had to be acquired in the pre-clinical years bordered on overwhelming at times. Within this intense learning environment, lifelong friendships were made and some of the funniest, most enjoyable moments were in Med School. You’d be surprised how much fun (and juvenile) a bunch of guys in a lecture hall can have sitting in the back row at 8:00 in the morning. The last 2 years of medical school were even more exciting as it was an opportunity to apply all of that knowledge and information to real patients. Interacting with real patients and being an active part of the health care team was very satisfying and clear validation of all those hours spent studying in the first two years.

After graduating with my MD, I moved to the “City of Angels” for residency training in the field of internal medicine. ( http://www.doctorsforadults.com ). For those of you not familiar with residency training, it’s the “poor doctor” training phase of the medical profession where newly graduated doctors have to work for a period of time in a supervised environment (3 to 7 years or more). After spending close to 15 years in Connecticut, it was culture shock to move to one of the largest and most ethnically diverse cities in this country. It was surreal, for example, to see LA communities of say 80,000 people where 80% or more are of Asian descent.

Compared residency training, however, medical school was almost a “walk in the park.” My first year of residency (internship) was probably the single most challenging endeavor I’ve ever had to face. The physical and emotional toll of having to care for critically ill patients on very little sleep was something I couldn’t even begin to fathom when I was sitting in the first year lecture hall of medical school. I still remember one night on call where I was up for 40 hours with no sleep! 40 straight hours of work without an iota of sleep was absolutely surreal. Clocking 120 hour work weeks on the ICU and CCU meant running dangerously low on clean underwear but I can proudly say I never had to recycle! The main organization overseeing the accreditation of residencies recently passed legislation putting a cap on the workload to an 80 hour work week so hopefully some of the brutality of internship will change for the better....

Despite the challenges, grey hairs, and the long hours, the single most significant event to change my life since moving to Southern California was meeting a very special someone at a health care dinner! She was a dentist and I still remember the cheesy opening line that fell out of my mouth: "I need a good dentist

" Can you say Velveeta? She fell for it and gave me her business card. One year later, one dental cleaning later, and we're now engaged!

Having finished residency this past July, I am now currently working full time doing urgent care at a local hospital before having to move back to the east coast this spring for even more training! I will be doing fellowship training in digestive diseases in Boston so it will be another 3 years before I am totally finished with any and all sort of formal training. This year has been a great respite from being in residency training mode so I will have to enjoy it while it lasts!

 

[Kamuelamom]

Aaaaaah, Derek, it is finally great to hear from you. Please stick around for as long as you can. I love your pick up line!

Something tells me that once you re-enter your training in Boston, your time here will be limiting, although I really hope not.

Thank you for sharing your story with us. My BIL is currently doing his residency in Pittsburgh, I think he is slightly over 1/2 way through. His wish is to return home to Hawaii to practice, but who really knows at this point. He specialized in oncology and likes it a lot.

All the best in your blooming career. I see many shining years of success ahead of you. Please keep us posted of your wedding plans.

 

[pulp_princess]

Hey, I thought I pointed you to PS!

Or did you know about it before me? Lovely story, and I'm going to make a guess that you're top notch at piano (wild and crazy guess, ha ha!). Congratulations on a beautiful ring and your engagement.

 

[derekinla]

Violin

BUT CLOSE! You knew it was gonna be the violin or piano so you had a 50/50 chance

and yes, you pointed me to PS

 

[AGBF]

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On 12/4/2003 11:34:03 PM derekinla wrote:

Violin

BUT CLOSE! You knew it was gonna be the violin or piano so you had a 50/50 chance

and yes, you pointed me to PS

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Does she have inside information I don't have? How did she narrow it down to piano or violin? Since my daughter (who has studied piano, clarinet, and saxophone) seems to have settled on the cello, I cannot help but be aware of the most famous contemporary cellist: Yo-Yo Ma! (Or were you *not* talking stereotypes?)

BTW, you are even more interesting than I realized! You hadn't told me quite everything you posted!


Deb

 

[fire&ice]

Thanks for sharing Derek in LA! Interesting!

I see you are specializing in digestive disorders. Why do you think they are so more prevalent these days? Or, maybe I'm just hearing more about it.

 

[derekinla]

Deb: Yes, I was playing on those "stereoypes"

F&I: I think the BIG news this week in the field of GI was the impressive study released in the NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine) on Virtual Colonoscopy. The study results were impressive indeed and hopefully more people will want to be screened for colon cancer. The implementation and integration of this diagnostic modality will take time and how it will affect our current recommendations on screening remains to be seen.

 

[AGBF]

...and did you see I posted an article about that? Hmmm? I didn't see a comment in *that* thread!!

 

[Colored Gemstone Nut]

Nice to read about you Derek...