Aloha kakou!

Aloha kakou! Welcome, all!

I’m a PGY-1 resident physician in anesthesiology and pain medicine. I completed all my education on the east coast, so I am thrilled to explore the west coast for little bit (or perhaps a long bit!).

First, the easiest way to navigate the website is through the sidebar. Here’s what is going on there:

  • COVID-19 Resident Resources
    • I created this for myself before rotating in the COVID-19 ICU and it became a hit. Honestly, it reminded me how much I loved to write and it’s one (huge!) reason I returned to this website.
  • Intern Life
    • All the stuff I wish I read as an intern
  • Categories
    • Residency: My life under indentured servitude. Will update with a catchier name later (or now, if I found one by the time you read this).
    • (Pre-)med: My life as a premed and a med student. Boring and strange, probably.
    • Noms to the Nom: My food blog, conceptualized in college and manifested in medical school. I also refer to this as “Munch, munch.”
    • Daily life: Non-medical stuff… that honestly probably has medical stuff in it.
      • Ukulele tabs
      • Arts & crafts
      • Recently: moved Noms to the Nom in here.
  • Aloha kakou! (this page)
    • Welcome, everybody! — from lil ole me 🙂
My first day of residency orientation! Hi, mom and dad!

Hometown: Maui, HI; Los Angeles, CA

College: Brown University

Medical school: Johns Hopkins

Fun fact: by popular vote, I won the “best breakfast” in medical school. As an early bird at heart, anesthesiology — and deep reverence for breakfast — was a natural fit. 😎

Favorite book: Candide by Voltaire; East of Eden by Steinbeck

Favorite movies: foreign, indie, low-brow comedy with cinematography bias, by year — The Lion King (1994); In the Mood for Love (2000); El Labirinto del Fauno/Pan’s Labyrinth (2006); The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014); Far From the Maddening Crowd (2015); Eurovision (2020)

honorable mentions, by year: Zoolander (2001), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Her (2013), The Handmaiden (2016), Zootopia (2016), Deadpool (2016), Black Panther (2017), Always Be My Maybe (2019); most Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away), the X-men series (Wolverine is my favorite!)

Favorite cafeteria food: Harborview’s breakfast sandwiches on sourdough are probably the best in Seattle! I like the fried chicken meal deal too.

Favorite Sailor scout: Mars/Rei Hino! She gets to wear pumps, not gogo boots! 😎

Favorite animal: my cat but also the alpaca (formerly, the lemur)

Favorite place to meet up with friends: my local dive bar or cocktail bar (depending on my company); a park, a beach, a mountain, a roof, in front of a fireplace, or a dance or yoga studio (depending on the time of year); the cafeteria – any company and any time of the year!

Pain medicine rotation during intern year! Interviewees often ask if I feel “abandoned” as an intern or if I feel incorporated into our department. I’ll let you decide!

Why I love UW: I chose UW for the diverse clinical sites/patient population, the abundance of research opportunities, closed ICUs (which I prefer as a trainee), and the training at UW (academic research institution and one of only ~3 locations nationwide where anesthesiologists manage peri-op AICDs) and Harborview (public hospital with commitment to serving patients of all backgrounds; excellence in trauma and orthopedic surgery — helllooo, regional anesthesia!). Between those two hospitals alone, we have a variety of ICUs (medical, surgical, trauma, burn, cardiothoracic, neurosurgery/neurology, peds). We also rotate at the VA Puget Sound and Seattle Children’s with occasional other sites.

Just during intern year, the variety of clinical cases is absolutely surreal because the UWMC/HMC system and Seattle Children’s are tertiary care centers for five states. Although I haven’t spent time in the operating rooms, we have four anesthesiology rotations just during intern year (2 in pre-anesthesia, 1 in pain medicine, and 1 in OR anesthesia). I can tell that anesthesiology training will be a positive and fruitful experience here because of the clinical sites, the cases, the patients, and the awesome people I train under/alongside.

Listening to a concert in the park, with my co-intern!

Why I love Seattle:Since residency is demanding, I wanted to live in a city that was accessible to all the things I love (physically and financially) as a resident.

  • Diversity! You’ll find it in the food (Lao, Ethiopian, Malaysian, French, you name it!), the hobbies (lindy hop? bachata? house dance?  waacking? Dance Church?), and more!
  • My favorite summertime activities are paddleboarding (popular on the lakes here), hanging out on the beach/in a park (lost count of how many within 20-30 minutes), and impromptu rooftop barbecues with friends and neighbors.
  • During the winter, I like yoga, museums, dance, and general coziness. This is my favorite time to try something new indoors (… I tried bouldering once…).
  • Any time of the year, I love gardening, biking (bike lanes in the city! great lakeside trails!), hiking (the views are incredible!), and urban exploration.

Seattle is a fun mix of everything I love and did I mention that it’s pretty quick/relatively affordable to get to Hawaii? Mahalo to Hawaiian, Alaskan, and Delta for the direct flights to Maui! Seattle’s great but I need me some of da ono grindz (in LA and Maui), ya know?

All questions or comments can be directed to me via this form. Thanks!