Savage.MD Blog

Last weekend I had the chance to visit my alma mater for Homecoming 2022. It was my first time back to campus in 5 years. It's now been 15 years since I graduated! My college opened a new science center called the IDEA Center (Inquiry, Discovery, Entrepreneurship, and Access) in fall 2013. I had not seen it since it opened, but this weekend I got to tour the beautiful building. The labs, study spaces, and faculty offices were so nice! One of the display cases in the IDEA Center had pictures of the college majors from 2005, 2006, and 2007 that include me. These used to be on the wall in the chemistry student lounge of the now retired chemistry building. I have so many memories of late night studying in that old room. It brought back a lot of great memories from early in my academic career to see these pictures again. 2007 2006 2005

Today I finished a month on the palliative care service. It was a really great rotation. I spent the first two weeks at Scripps Mercy doing consults and the last two weeks in the palliative medicine clinics in La Jolla and downtown San Diego. A few things I did/learned this month... Received mentorship in leading Goals of Care conversations Learned about symptom management - especially pain, nausea, fatigue, loss of appetite, and insomnia Learned about Advanced Care Planning Learned how to explain a POLST (Physician Order for Life Sustaining Treatment) Learned how a palliative physician approaches a new consult with a patient and their family Learned about how physician-assisted end of life care works in California One of the most touching patient encounters happened this week. I met a patient with metastatic esophageal cancer and his wife. They have been married 50+ years and had a beautiful relationship with one another. They were answering questions for one another, while also respe...

When I was in graduate school I worked after hours as an MCAT teacher for the Princeton Review. I really loved teaching. I especially enjoyed when I met and connected with students who stayed in touch after the class was finished. One such student was named Luna and we met in Spring 2015. At the time that she was in my class, I was really into podcasts and had just started listening to the short series "Serial" about a man wrongly convicted at age 18 of murder. The story was well told and I mentioned it to my MCAT class one evening. Luna started listening and told me that she enjoyed the podcast as much as I did.  After the class finished I lost touch with Luna. Like many students, I wondered how she did on the MCAT and whether she achieved her dream of getting into medical school. She wrote to me in 2018 after seeing me on LinkedIn. I let her know that I was almost finished with my MD/PhD program and would soon be headed to Ohio for residency. Today I got a surprise email fr...