Neuro Lecture Quotes so far:
"What is the human brain designed for? do you think it is sitting in this lecture and learning about neuroscience? not likely...there is no reproductive advantage to sitting in this classroom. you could be doing something else that would produce much more offspring right now"
On brain capability/limitations:
"You reached this point in your life by showing you are capable of doing a lot of academic problem solving, we dont know wether you can do real world problem solving, but many of you did well on whatever test you needed to take to get here...or at least reasonably well. Now there are lots of people who didnt do well on these tests...and those are going to be your patients."
Friday, March 5, 2010
"Hello Neuro, Good-bye Life" -LB
Wellll, I had saw my first patient Monday but it feels like it was so long ago because of everything that has happened since! Tuesday we had our Blood and Lymphatics Final and then Tuesday afternoon we had OMM. Wednesday we started Neuro, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. It is the hardest block we have our first year and it is gonna SUCK.
Back to Monday, I shadowed a 2nd year and saw 2 patients. One was a 24 year old female with a sore throat and another was an 18 year old Male who needed a physical exam to be able to play varsity tennis in his high school. In both cases, the 2nd year and I talked to the patient and got a good history and did the appropriate physical exam components to each. Then we went back and spoke with the resident about what we thought we should do, and then he came back to the exam room with us. It was a great experience and it made it even better knowing the resident was very approachable and easy to joke around with. We stayed from 5 to 9pm and then I went straight to a group study session to review all the things i had studied for the next day's exam. It was great/stressful. Great because I felt like a DOCTOR! Stressful because it made me realize how much i need to know and how much responsibility i am going to have in the near future on my 3rd and 4th year rotations. I laughed every now and again to myself because i couldn't help thinking 'what the hell am i doing here, they are really letting me do this? i feel like im still a child, how am i supposed to treat people when i feel like a kid?!' When i voiced this to the 2nd year i was following she laughed back and let me know not to worry, she still feels like that all the time.' I guess i will act like i am playing dress up :)
well we have an OMM exam this Monday so we will be practicing a ton for that as well as balancing neurology studying. Two more full weeks of school and 2 more exams before break...almost there. Oh and i almost forgot, the best part (*cough*sarcasm*cough*) is that we are back in the anatomy lab on our own time to do required anatomy learning of the brain. Remember all those cadavers we stared at all last semester? well, now we get to stare at their brains for a while. just we i thought it couldnt get any worse, i get to add formaldehyde back into my life. but hey, they are going to let me be a doctor so i will just keep playing along until one day i actually feel component enough to be one!
Back to Monday, I shadowed a 2nd year and saw 2 patients. One was a 24 year old female with a sore throat and another was an 18 year old Male who needed a physical exam to be able to play varsity tennis in his high school. In both cases, the 2nd year and I talked to the patient and got a good history and did the appropriate physical exam components to each. Then we went back and spoke with the resident about what we thought we should do, and then he came back to the exam room with us. It was a great experience and it made it even better knowing the resident was very approachable and easy to joke around with. We stayed from 5 to 9pm and then I went straight to a group study session to review all the things i had studied for the next day's exam. It was great/stressful. Great because I felt like a DOCTOR! Stressful because it made me realize how much i need to know and how much responsibility i am going to have in the near future on my 3rd and 4th year rotations. I laughed every now and again to myself because i couldn't help thinking 'what the hell am i doing here, they are really letting me do this? i feel like im still a child, how am i supposed to treat people when i feel like a kid?!' When i voiced this to the 2nd year i was following she laughed back and let me know not to worry, she still feels like that all the time.' I guess i will act like i am playing dress up :)
well we have an OMM exam this Monday so we will be practicing a ton for that as well as balancing neurology studying. Two more full weeks of school and 2 more exams before break...almost there. Oh and i almost forgot, the best part (*cough*sarcasm*cough*) is that we are back in the anatomy lab on our own time to do required anatomy learning of the brain. Remember all those cadavers we stared at all last semester? well, now we get to stare at their brains for a while. just we i thought it couldnt get any worse, i get to add formaldehyde back into my life. but hey, they are going to let me be a doctor so i will just keep playing along until one day i actually feel component enough to be one!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
FIRST REAL PATIENT [not an actor] OF MY MEDICAL CAREER!!
I have an exam on Tuesday....BUUUUT, thats not what i am sooo excited right now [obviously].
On Monday night [tomorrow] I will be seeing my first real patient as a medical student!!! Our school has an amazing opportunity for students called the Montclair Clinic. It is run by residents of a nearby hospital and medical students from our school. It is run every Mon, Wed and Fri from 5 to 9. It is not completely free for the patients but it is very cheap and most people use it as their only source of medical care because of its decreased costs. The way it works is a medical student [me!] will initially see the patient, take a history and physical, and then make a educated guess [since I dont know anything yet] and present this information to a resident. After discussing it over with them, we both go in and the resident will do his own exam while incorporating the medical student [me!].
Obviously since this is my first time i am not going in blind, we are required to shadow a 2nd year student one time before we can sign up for shifts. That is what i am doing tomorrow. Hopefully the 2nd year i get paired up with will be cool and let me interact with the patient and do some stuff myself. Also, I am keeping my fingers crossed that the patient speaks english so i can understand what is going on.
Throughout the night we can see anywhere from 1 to 5 patients and after it closes, we have to stay until we complete their medical chart and get it approved by the resident and supervising doctor.
I will let you know how it goes later in the week!!!
OK, back to leukemias, lymphomas, chemotherapy drugs, anemias etc etc etc
On Monday night [tomorrow] I will be seeing my first real patient as a medical student!!! Our school has an amazing opportunity for students called the Montclair Clinic. It is run by residents of a nearby hospital and medical students from our school. It is run every Mon, Wed and Fri from 5 to 9. It is not completely free for the patients but it is very cheap and most people use it as their only source of medical care because of its decreased costs. The way it works is a medical student [me!] will initially see the patient, take a history and physical, and then make a educated guess [since I dont know anything yet] and present this information to a resident. After discussing it over with them, we both go in and the resident will do his own exam while incorporating the medical student [me!].
Obviously since this is my first time i am not going in blind, we are required to shadow a 2nd year student one time before we can sign up for shifts. That is what i am doing tomorrow. Hopefully the 2nd year i get paired up with will be cool and let me interact with the patient and do some stuff myself. Also, I am keeping my fingers crossed that the patient speaks english so i can understand what is going on.
Throughout the night we can see anywhere from 1 to 5 patients and after it closes, we have to stay until we complete their medical chart and get it approved by the resident and supervising doctor.
I will let you know how it goes later in the week!!!
OK, back to leukemias, lymphomas, chemotherapy drugs, anemias etc etc etc
Thursday, February 25, 2010
a funny
A quote my professor put into a hematology/oncology lecture,
"A Blood transfusion is like marriage; it should not be entered upon lightly, unadvisedly or wantonly, or more often than is absolutely necessary"
"A Blood transfusion is like marriage; it should not be entered upon lightly, unadvisedly or wantonly, or more often than is absolutely necessary"
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Rough times call for more...rough times?
School has been pretty ridiculous and if i tried writing every week my blogs would be pretty boring and monotonous. Sadly, things are a little rough right now but with the help of my classmates, we are still having fun in the spare nights/moments that we can. We ended IDIT and have now gotten into our first system's based class. From now on, we will be learning everything possible about each system in the human body- from now until the end of my second year....which couldnt come fast enough.
Our schedule has been very hectic with lots of exams and this is a little sample of what i would like to call 'Hell MonthSSSSS'
IDIT Exam 1 Tues,
2 weeks [not to bad]
IDIT Exam 2 Mon
2 weeks [still, not to bad]
IDIT ENDS on Wed 2/10
Blood and Lymph Starts Thurs 2/11
IDIT Exam 3 Tues 2/16 [keep in mind we have already started blood and lymph]
1 week
Blood and Lymph Midterm-Mond
1 week
Blood and Lymph Final- Tuesday
1 week
Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine Structural Midterm -mon
2 weeks of class and the friday of the second week isssss,
Neurology Exam 1!
Does that make sense? if not, then you might feel a little bit like i do. BUUUUT, as much as i complain i do ENJOY what i am learning. Especially blood and lymph. We are learning how things SHOULD work, what happens when a disease process sets in and how to FIX it. yes thats right, i am learning how to fix things. a bazillion drugs and OMM techniques at a time :)
Id like to end this with some facebook chat from tonight:
Laura wrote to Kelsea:
where have been?! we're getting brewskis tonight at 10:30. i will be calling you non-stop if you are not there. love, love.
and the rest of us replied:
Laura: p.s. gonna be in the brary until then if you want to "study"
Me: where are we going? ;)
Laura:i don't know, but you're coming!
Shana: HEY!! Don't forget me!
me: shana I would have dragged you out of the library dont worry!
Kelsea: whoa whoa whoa, don't worry. LJ and I strictly believe in the no student left behind policy....
Sarah: this is really breaking my no booze no caffeine policy. ugh.
Shana: Ha ha thanks Kelsea, I was worried for a minute! And I knew I could count on you Dorothy ;)
See, we keep each other alive and sane, and give ourselves something to look forward to :)
Our schedule has been very hectic with lots of exams and this is a little sample of what i would like to call 'Hell MonthSSSSS'
IDIT Exam 1 Tues,
2 weeks [not to bad]
IDIT Exam 2 Mon
2 weeks [still, not to bad]
IDIT ENDS on Wed 2/10
Blood and Lymph Starts Thurs 2/11
IDIT Exam 3 Tues 2/16 [keep in mind we have already started blood and lymph]
1 week
Blood and Lymph Midterm-Mond
1 week
Blood and Lymph Final- Tuesday
1 week
Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine Structural Midterm -mon
2 weeks of class and the friday of the second week isssss,
Neurology Exam 1!
Does that make sense? if not, then you might feel a little bit like i do. BUUUUT, as much as i complain i do ENJOY what i am learning. Especially blood and lymph. We are learning how things SHOULD work, what happens when a disease process sets in and how to FIX it. yes thats right, i am learning how to fix things. a bazillion drugs and OMM techniques at a time :)
Id like to end this with some facebook chat from tonight:
Laura wrote to Kelsea:
where have been?! we're getting brewskis tonight at 10:30. i will be calling you non-stop if you are not there. love, love.
and the rest of us replied:
Laura: p.s. gonna be in the brary until then if you want to "study"
Me: where are we going? ;)
Laura:i don't know, but you're coming!
Shana: HEY!! Don't forget me!
me: shana I would have dragged you out of the library dont worry!
Kelsea: whoa whoa whoa, don't worry. LJ and I strictly believe in the no student left behind policy....
Sarah: this is really breaking my no booze no caffeine policy. ugh.
Shana: Ha ha thanks Kelsea, I was worried for a minute! And I knew I could count on you Dorothy ;)
See, we keep each other alive and sane, and give ourselves something to look forward to :)
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
still studying bugs and drugs
We are in the process of learning all the bacteria that can cause diseases. we are also starting to learn about all the drugs we should use in each case. its pretty overwhelming. as one of my classmates put it
"I Never knew there were SOOOOO many different types of diarrhea till I got to med school!!"
-JV
We had our second IDIT exam this Monday and I can honestly say it was the hardest test I have taken yet. The scores were released on Monday night but I didnt check until I got home last night because I was worried, so many of my classmates did terribly and even the smart ones didnt do very well. I looked at my score and was pleasantly surprised that I got above the average. I got to celebrate for a couple days but its back to work for the next test. I have a patient encounter tomorrow and we are starting to do focused exams. Before every patient came in saying they were there for a 'routine physical.' Now we have patients with symptoms so we are learning about what questions to ask and what physical exams to do that are pertinent to those symptoms. Its pretty cool.
ok, back to work
"I Never knew there were SOOOOO many different types of diarrhea till I got to med school!!"
-JV
We had our second IDIT exam this Monday and I can honestly say it was the hardest test I have taken yet. The scores were released on Monday night but I didnt check until I got home last night because I was worried, so many of my classmates did terribly and even the smart ones didnt do very well. I looked at my score and was pleasantly surprised that I got above the average. I got to celebrate for a couple days but its back to work for the next test. I have a patient encounter tomorrow and we are starting to do focused exams. Before every patient came in saying they were there for a 'routine physical.' Now we have patients with symptoms so we are learning about what questions to ask and what physical exams to do that are pertinent to those symptoms. Its pretty cool.
ok, back to work
Sunday, January 31, 2010
IDIT Exam 2 tomorrow...
"Everytime I take an exam I realize I have never learned so much material for one exam, until the next exam comes around where there is more material on it than the previous one!"
-JS
-JS
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