I have my first cumulative final tomorrow. Not that all of medical school isnt cumulative...its not like i can just forget stuff after i was taught it, im sure i will need to know most of this stuff for life, but being TESTED cumulatively is a different story. Covering a weeks worth of new material and 2 weeks worth of OLD material (pretty much learning about the entire endocrine system in the body) in a weekend? i don't want to say its impossible because I have to do it and that would be discouraging...but you can see where i am going with this. good lord tomorrow cant come fast enough, at least we get the afternoon off after the bloodbath.
from earlier today on facebook:
Leigh's status (she lives below me): WTF!!! Why does the car alarm right in front of my room keep going off???
(our responses to her status)
Dorothy Habrat: thank god im at the library!
Lindsay: i have no idea, im about to throw a gallon of milk at it. not yours dorothy, i will use mine.
Leigh: While you are throwing things from your balcony, I wouldn't mind if you "accidentally" hit one of those power scooter kids either :)
Dorothy: Library studying-1, Home-0
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
only 2 more days of endocrine....YAAAAAYYYY!
i live a pathetic life these days, and endocrine is OFF the list of interest (mostly because it is so damn tricky). life is pretty much 75% school and then 25% having a good time. but we still have a good time so thats all that matters.
its ok though, only 1 more year of classroom work and then they release me into the wild (what you would call the hospital). the more i learn the more i get excited. its also really fun to hear the 3rd years, who we got really close to last year, talk about their experiences.
oh, this was a fun quote from class today:
(after a question was asked to us about what drug you would prescribe a patient and everyone answered correctly):
"yes very good...theres really no science here this is just route memorization. theres really no way around route memorization in any subject.....whats your best long acting insulin? (as he casually goes back to the lecture topic)" -Dr. W
So today was our first standardized patient encounters of the year and my job was to counsel a patient on their drinking habits, even though they came in for back pain. it was an exercise on communicating with our patients and building repore again....blah blah blah. To get us back into the swing of things, they put us into groups of 6. Each one of us got 12 minutes with a SP (standardized patient--ps they call them standardized because every patient seen is the same to each student regardless of age or sex..they are all coming in with the same stories and symptoms so we can discuss them in lecture later). While we talked, 5 other students watched and then after the 12 min we got 5 min of feedback from the actor and our peers. after the encounter, the SP left the room and a new one came in. we had 3 scenarios, a diabetic patient, a smoker and an alcoholic then we had the same SPs come back and we pretended to do follow up visits. not sure if that makes sense but oh well.
Anywho, it was fine...nothing to write home about. its much more fun seeing ACTUAL patients. today was another 8:30 to 5 day and i got to unwind a bit by playing volleyball with my classmates. its always a good time. ok, im getting back to work. studying again till 12 and then bedtime.
its ok though, only 1 more year of classroom work and then they release me into the wild (what you would call the hospital). the more i learn the more i get excited. its also really fun to hear the 3rd years, who we got really close to last year, talk about their experiences.
oh, this was a fun quote from class today:
(after a question was asked to us about what drug you would prescribe a patient and everyone answered correctly):
"yes very good...theres really no science here this is just route memorization. theres really no way around route memorization in any subject.....whats your best long acting insulin? (as he casually goes back to the lecture topic)" -Dr. W
So today was our first standardized patient encounters of the year and my job was to counsel a patient on their drinking habits, even though they came in for back pain. it was an exercise on communicating with our patients and building repore again....blah blah blah. To get us back into the swing of things, they put us into groups of 6. Each one of us got 12 minutes with a SP (standardized patient--ps they call them standardized because every patient seen is the same to each student regardless of age or sex..they are all coming in with the same stories and symptoms so we can discuss them in lecture later). While we talked, 5 other students watched and then after the 12 min we got 5 min of feedback from the actor and our peers. after the encounter, the SP left the room and a new one came in. we had 3 scenarios, a diabetic patient, a smoker and an alcoholic then we had the same SPs come back and we pretended to do follow up visits. not sure if that makes sense but oh well.
Anywho, it was fine...nothing to write home about. its much more fun seeing ACTUAL patients. today was another 8:30 to 5 day and i got to unwind a bit by playing volleyball with my classmates. its always a good time. ok, im getting back to work. studying again till 12 and then bedtime.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
round two...DING
Well, i just finished my second week of second year and am already sleep deprived, stressed and a little bitter about life. getting off of summer vacation/break is one thing but being thrown into school (especially with this new curriculum) is exhausting. I was speaking with my good friend/classmate Sarah who had gone on a long trip as well and both of us seemed to be in the same boat of depression. Not a true 'SIGECAPS' depression (that is a mnemonic for all the symptoms of depression we learned in Psych last year- sleep disorder, interest deficit, guilt, energy loss, etc etc) but just a minor depression...mostly sadness. It is very hard to have been allowed to sip from the glass of freedom and then now be dyeing of dehydration as it was taken away.... seriously, thats exactly what it feels like. free time has gone down the drain, sleep has been severely reduced and life is back to normal as a medical student. only now, I am an MS2 and classes are going to be more difficult and we are expecting to know stuff. i cant use the excuse that i am just a first year anymore. I CANT IMAGINE when one day i cant use the excuse 'I dont know, im just a medical student' or 'i dont know im just an intern' or 'i dont know im still in my residency.' There will be one day when i am on the top of the pecking order and i cant say 'i dont know' its gonna be Doctor, what do you want to do? and i will HAVE to know.....shit that scares me
well anyways, these two weeks have sucked (for lack of a better word). But last night I worked another shift at Montclair and that definitely added a bright light to the tunnel. First off, I got about 5 hours of sleep on Wednesday night mostly because I had coffee in the early afternoon and then couldn't fall asleep (and im sure anxiety wasnt helping) then I got up Thursday to be in class for 8am. After just an hour of one of our only lectures this week, i met with my small group at 9 until 12 going over our cases and answering the questions about differentials, further testing, treatments, mechanisms of treatment,etc. Then i took an hour lunch and went to OMM from 1 to 5. After OMM i went straight to the Montclair clinic were I worked until 10pm. Now THAT was a long day but it wasnt to bad because it was women's clinic and i have been wanting to work one for a while now.
SOoooo, one of my patients last night was a 41 yo F (who did not speak English). She presented for a routine women's health visit (you should start to learn the short hand too--42 year old female---that one was hopefully not to difficult). Basically, she was here for a pap smear and breast exam. This was the first exam I have seen and I felt privileged that this women trusted me to learn from her. The resident at the clinic did the exam, i watched as he explained and the clinic coordinator assisted. Sadly, the coordinator was the only one in the room who spoke Spanish and it was probably not the most uncomfortable experience for the patient. But, I was there and learned how to do both a pap smear and a breast exam and I will always remember her as my first womens health patient. There is another first.....and I may have ruled out OB/GYN with that one...
ok. its time for a nap, dinner and then a fun night of studying and playing music very very loudly in my headphones to keep up my moral. that is the silver lining of studying...good music. monday is our 2nd endocrine exam, its on the thyroid gland and adrenal glands...then next week we learn about the wonderful world of diabetes. that is gonna be an important week since its gonna affect my daily work for the rest of my life. ill try to pay attention and learn some stuff for my future patient's sake...cant make any promises though
back to spending the best days of my life (early 20s that is) studying. Only have a few weeks of them left since i turn 25 soon
well anyways, these two weeks have sucked (for lack of a better word). But last night I worked another shift at Montclair and that definitely added a bright light to the tunnel. First off, I got about 5 hours of sleep on Wednesday night mostly because I had coffee in the early afternoon and then couldn't fall asleep (and im sure anxiety wasnt helping) then I got up Thursday to be in class for 8am. After just an hour of one of our only lectures this week, i met with my small group at 9 until 12 going over our cases and answering the questions about differentials, further testing, treatments, mechanisms of treatment,etc. Then i took an hour lunch and went to OMM from 1 to 5. After OMM i went straight to the Montclair clinic were I worked until 10pm. Now THAT was a long day but it wasnt to bad because it was women's clinic and i have been wanting to work one for a while now.
SOoooo, one of my patients last night was a 41 yo F (who did not speak English). She presented for a routine women's health visit (you should start to learn the short hand too--42 year old female---that one was hopefully not to difficult). Basically, she was here for a pap smear and breast exam. This was the first exam I have seen and I felt privileged that this women trusted me to learn from her. The resident at the clinic did the exam, i watched as he explained and the clinic coordinator assisted. Sadly, the coordinator was the only one in the room who spoke Spanish and it was probably not the most uncomfortable experience for the patient. But, I was there and learned how to do both a pap smear and a breast exam and I will always remember her as my first womens health patient. There is another first.....and I may have ruled out OB/GYN with that one...
ok. its time for a nap, dinner and then a fun night of studying and playing music very very loudly in my headphones to keep up my moral. that is the silver lining of studying...good music. monday is our 2nd endocrine exam, its on the thyroid gland and adrenal glands...then next week we learn about the wonderful world of diabetes. that is gonna be an important week since its gonna affect my daily work for the rest of my life. ill try to pay attention and learn some stuff for my future patient's sake...cant make any promises though
back to spending the best days of my life (early 20s that is) studying. Only have a few weeks of them left since i turn 25 soon
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
PTH, FSH, LSH, GH, etc etc etc
"Studying endocrine = alphabet soup....CK14-, lower p27 index , PTH+, Ki-67+, cyclin D1 overexpression in >90%, DNA ploidy, Rb gene loss, HRPT2 gene mutation (hereditary hyperparathyroidism and jaw tumors syndrome)"
-Nolan
The acronyms just keep on coming....I think getting a medical degree is partly based on learning what a bunch of letters mean in the medical context. That way, you have to pay a doctor just to translate each others writing. its actually pretty brilliant!
-Nolan
The acronyms just keep on coming....I think getting a medical degree is partly based on learning what a bunch of letters mean in the medical context. That way, you have to pay a doctor just to translate each others writing. its actually pretty brilliant!
Monday, August 9, 2010
Day One...again
Today was my first day of second year and it was.....uneventful. Unfortunately, school began just like every other day and before I knew it, I was sitting in a histology lecture again trying my hardest to keep my attention span. After 3 hours, we had lunch and got to catch up with each other but after that there was a realistic feeling of work looming. Our first quiz is Wednesday [in 2 days], then another one Friday and our first exam is Monday [one week from today]. We are going to be studying the endocrine system for 3 weeks and every week will be the same... Our school has changed the curriculum and we will be doing a part Problem Based Learning instead of lecture style. Basically, we are given 5 cases with questions and in a group of 10 selected peers we will meet up and come up with a diagnosis and answers to the questions. The quizzes we have are all based on these cases and then after the quiz we get lectured on them. If it sounds confusing its because it IS confusing and its going to take me a good amount of time to 'learn how to learn' best in this style of teaching. For example, this is next weeks schedule
Monday: Exam 1 [from the previous weeks material]
Tuesday: the entire day is blocked off to meet with our group to go over the 5 cases and for self study
Wednesday: 8:30am to 12-Quiz on the cases we covered Tuesday and then 3 hours of lecture on this material
1pm- 5pm-Essentials of Clinical Medicine [this is the class where we learn to deal with patients and see standardized patients [actors] every other week]
Thursday: AM is blocked off again for groups to meet about another 5 cases
1-4pm- Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine
Friday: 8:30am to 12-Quiz on the cases we covered Thursday and then 3 hours of lecture on this material
*note, there are some Medical Ethics classes and other randoms thrown in their as well. Also, this will change with each system but the general set up is the same.
As you can see, things are very different from the usual lecture day. I am not sure how i feel about it yet but im thinking positively and im sure it will be good for me to have my own free study days.
Sooooo, now that Africa and my incredible summer are behind me, im gonna go learn lots of stuff so i can eventually go back and be able to help [and not just look over people's shoulders].
And another thought, today was my last 'first day of school' EVER. Thats because next year [actually in July] I will be spending my first day of third year in a hospital...and then rotating in and out of hospitals. CRAZY to think about
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