Before I croak and donate my body to science, I'm gonna get a tattoo list of all the stuff that is wrong with me so 1st year med students can go on a treasure hunt. It'll also tell them that if they desecrate my body I'll haunt their children.
-CP
The medical school course load is like being given a tank of gatorade to drink in 10 min. you start out parched but after maybe 1 L you're no longer thirsty and you still have to keep drinking and you know you'll never finish it.
-MY
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
renal is officially over! the lungs cant be that complicated can they??
I just learned that I passed my renal final and I did well enough to bring my grade up. I passed the course and now dont have to worry about failing out of medical school. i guess i can throw out the McDonald's job application i filled out this weekend...
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
I have a slight concern that with the amount of hate i am building for each organ system i have to study, I will begin to hate the entire human body. by the end of medical school, i might want to quit and help animals or plants instead... I started off the year loathing the pituitary glad, then i started to resent the heart for its electrical complications, and now i just down right cant stand the kidneys for the million different things they do (and that can go wrong with them). Out of these I still dont mind the heart to much though. Lets hope the lungs are nice and uncomplicated...
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
First Fail--10/25/10
We have been in the Renal system for about 2 weeks and had a midterm yesterday. I found out today that I failed it. This is my first exam I have failed in medical school. I told Alissa this and her response was "You should be proud it took this long!"
Though that did make me feel better, what makes me feel even better is knowing 4 out of 5 people I have spoken to also failed. They school has not sent out the class average so i dont know how bad of a situation i am in until they do. We only have 2 exams for this system so i am going to have to do very well on the final. but like i said, i wont know how bad of a situation i am in until i see the class average because this will help predict the curve of the class. If enough of us failed they will either make the final a lot easier or they will curve up to make sure only a small amount of people fail and have to remediate the class.
As bad as it is to see this terrible grade i got, i cant say i am surprised. I mean i still studied all freaking weekend long and its not like i slacked off, its just they gave us so much to learn on our own and it was terribly organized. I probably could have studied for 2 more days and still failed. The information was never explained to us well enough so what do they expect? Another curriculum fail on their part. but, i will try to move past this and talk about other things
I worked at the Montclair clinic again on Tuesday the 19th and had a really good time. I knew it was going to be a good night when the resident that is in charge of us walked in and i recognized him because i worked with him the last time i was there. There are a lot of resident doctors who work at the clinic and it is always random who will be there. The resident who i worked with last time and then this night is a 30something year old guy who is from Brooklyn new york. he has a heavy accent and def has the east coast swagger. oh, and hes pretty good looking too. When we first met i made the mistake of assuming he was from new jersey and his reaction was 'from WHERE?' He pretended to be offended and then for the rest of the night we had a very good joking banter. I always like being able to joke around with people in charge because it takes pressure off of the situation. instead of being nervous and intimidated, I am able to relax and enjoy being a student doctor while also learning a lot. But in this particular situation, intimidation has been replaced with a slight nervousness since hes a very cute and funny doctor. Maybe i should ask him out next time i work with him...haha
In seriousness, this is one major reason I really like working at the clinic--not that they are cute, the fact that I dont have to fear them. It helps me to be comfortable in the learning situation and I know i will be much more confident and at ease when i start rotations in hospitals. Sadly, I wont be able to prepare myself for the times when the doctor i am working with is a complete asshole or when i am getting 'pimped' in anatomy during my surgery rotations...no, there is no preparing for that amount of stress and nervousness. i guess im just going to have to learn how to not break down crying (at least in front of people...i will be sure to do it in the comfort of my own home)
So this night at the clinic I saw two patients. One was a 20 year old man who was following up from his previous visit in which he presented with hematuria (blood in his urine). He was put on antibiotics and was doing find now (we would call that an unremarkable recovery). The other patient was a 40something year old female complaining of upper quadrant pain that was constant. This was the first time I had a patient with a new symptom that I got to do the detective work on it and was great! I started by asking her all about her symptoms (the HPI- history of present illness). This includes the onset, location, durtation, etc etc and then we went into associated symptoms. I may not have known what was causing the pain but i damn well narrowed down exactly when she started getting pain, when it gets better/worse, and all that jazz. After i asked the patient a million questions and was kinda sorta starting to think of some possibilities, i went back to the resident and presented the case to him. Within 1 minute (no joke) of reading the HPI to him, he knew exactly what it was....gallstones. We have not had our gastrointestinal system yet but apparently there is a very common presentation of gallstones...the 4 Fs: Female, Forty, Fat and Fertile. Well, this patient was pretty much a gallstones diagnosis wrapped in a bow because she was all of these things. At least i will remember this when we get to the section or if i ever see a similar patient!
well, i guess thats about it for now. im getting tired and need to be at school tomorrow at 8am. I am one of 8 volunteers from my class that are on a Q&A panel for the first year students. its basically a bunch of us talking about our experiences and study strategies. now that anatomy is over and the real medical school science classes have begun its a hard transition to adapt your study habits too. hearing how other students did it is really helpful. we had some 2nd years talk to us before MCBM last year and it was really helpful so I am hoping we can help out other students this year.
They have ended Anatomy and are moving on to MCBM (Molecular and Cellular Basis of Medicine). It is still very scary to think it has been a full year since i went through that. i cant believe i am 1 and a half years into my medical education. Almost half way there!!! (just need to make sure i pass renal....)
Though that did make me feel better, what makes me feel even better is knowing 4 out of 5 people I have spoken to also failed. They school has not sent out the class average so i dont know how bad of a situation i am in until they do. We only have 2 exams for this system so i am going to have to do very well on the final. but like i said, i wont know how bad of a situation i am in until i see the class average because this will help predict the curve of the class. If enough of us failed they will either make the final a lot easier or they will curve up to make sure only a small amount of people fail and have to remediate the class.
As bad as it is to see this terrible grade i got, i cant say i am surprised. I mean i still studied all freaking weekend long and its not like i slacked off, its just they gave us so much to learn on our own and it was terribly organized. I probably could have studied for 2 more days and still failed. The information was never explained to us well enough so what do they expect? Another curriculum fail on their part. but, i will try to move past this and talk about other things
I worked at the Montclair clinic again on Tuesday the 19th and had a really good time. I knew it was going to be a good night when the resident that is in charge of us walked in and i recognized him because i worked with him the last time i was there. There are a lot of resident doctors who work at the clinic and it is always random who will be there. The resident who i worked with last time and then this night is a 30something year old guy who is from Brooklyn new york. he has a heavy accent and def has the east coast swagger. oh, and hes pretty good looking too. When we first met i made the mistake of assuming he was from new jersey and his reaction was 'from WHERE?' He pretended to be offended and then for the rest of the night we had a very good joking banter. I always like being able to joke around with people in charge because it takes pressure off of the situation. instead of being nervous and intimidated, I am able to relax and enjoy being a student doctor while also learning a lot. But in this particular situation, intimidation has been replaced with a slight nervousness since hes a very cute and funny doctor. Maybe i should ask him out next time i work with him...haha
In seriousness, this is one major reason I really like working at the clinic--not that they are cute, the fact that I dont have to fear them. It helps me to be comfortable in the learning situation and I know i will be much more confident and at ease when i start rotations in hospitals. Sadly, I wont be able to prepare myself for the times when the doctor i am working with is a complete asshole or when i am getting 'pimped' in anatomy during my surgery rotations...no, there is no preparing for that amount of stress and nervousness. i guess im just going to have to learn how to not break down crying (at least in front of people...i will be sure to do it in the comfort of my own home)
So this night at the clinic I saw two patients. One was a 20 year old man who was following up from his previous visit in which he presented with hematuria (blood in his urine). He was put on antibiotics and was doing find now (we would call that an unremarkable recovery). The other patient was a 40something year old female complaining of upper quadrant pain that was constant. This was the first time I had a patient with a new symptom that I got to do the detective work on it and was great! I started by asking her all about her symptoms (the HPI- history of present illness). This includes the onset, location, durtation, etc etc and then we went into associated symptoms. I may not have known what was causing the pain but i damn well narrowed down exactly when she started getting pain, when it gets better/worse, and all that jazz. After i asked the patient a million questions and was kinda sorta starting to think of some possibilities, i went back to the resident and presented the case to him. Within 1 minute (no joke) of reading the HPI to him, he knew exactly what it was....gallstones. We have not had our gastrointestinal system yet but apparently there is a very common presentation of gallstones...the 4 Fs: Female, Forty, Fat and Fertile. Well, this patient was pretty much a gallstones diagnosis wrapped in a bow because she was all of these things. At least i will remember this when we get to the section or if i ever see a similar patient!
well, i guess thats about it for now. im getting tired and need to be at school tomorrow at 8am. I am one of 8 volunteers from my class that are on a Q&A panel for the first year students. its basically a bunch of us talking about our experiences and study strategies. now that anatomy is over and the real medical school science classes have begun its a hard transition to adapt your study habits too. hearing how other students did it is really helpful. we had some 2nd years talk to us before MCBM last year and it was really helpful so I am hoping we can help out other students this year.
They have ended Anatomy and are moving on to MCBM (Molecular and Cellular Basis of Medicine). It is still very scary to think it has been a full year since i went through that. i cant believe i am 1 and a half years into my medical education. Almost half way there!!! (just need to make sure i pass renal....)
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Raging Saturday night
My text to my roommate at 8:30pm having left the house at 9am to go to the library: I'm spending the night at my parents so I wont be coming home tonight. Didn't want you to think i feel asleep in the library
Roomate: haha ok thanks. I was wondering what time they closed or if you were just hiding in the shelves to get a good table in the morning
Roomate: haha ok thanks. I was wondering what time they closed or if you were just hiding in the shelves to get a good table in the morning
Monday, October 18, 2010
the kidneys are waaaaaay to complicated
Cardio is over, Renal has begun (i'll fill in the details later). Buuuuut, taking a weekend off and not studying (since it was a non test weekend) has resulted in a 12 hour study day on Monday. renal sucks, i miss cardio!
lots has happened between now and the last post but i have to get back to teaching myself renal physiology... no big deal.
lots has happened between now and the last post but i have to get back to teaching myself renal physiology... no big deal.
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