Category: med school

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Site upgrade and an interesting anecdote

Well, I’ve almost worked out all the upgrade bugs and just need to wait for the final version of PivotX 2.1 to be released.  The old RSS and Atom feeds are now working again and all I have left are a few template upgrades which shouldn’t take to much of my time.  

An interesting aside, I must be doing a good impersonation of an MD.  Yesterday, when I was leaving LeBonheur Children’s Hospital I was stopped by a mother walking with her child who asked, “May I ask you a question?”  Naturally, I replied, “Sure.”  I guess I need to start expecting what came next, especially when wearing my white coat out of the hospital when she asked, “What can make my feet feel numb and tingly?”

I was taken back by the question, especially because of the context.  We were on the sidewalk, I was a total stranger and she had just finished smoking a cigarette.  I stopped for a moment with many diagnoses swirling in my head and replied, “There are a lot of things that can cause that, you should talk to your doctor.”

This happened to me one other time, in my 2nd year, when I was walking down Madison Ave. after a SPED (more on that later).  A man stopped me and asked, “Is a temperature of 106 high?”  After a few quick questions I found out his son had been taken to the ED at St. Jude’s Hospital and he received a phone call telling him to come because of the high temperature.  I assured him it was high and made certain to emphasize he should get there as quick as possible because it sounded like he wanted to decide if he had time to make a stop on the way.

I often marvel at  how a white coat garners so much trust from complete strangers.  But that is a topic for another post . . . after I get everything done I need to today.

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How Blessed am I

Often I find myself seeing life from only one perspective, one set of eyes, one viewpoint. It is so difficult to step back and see our lives through the eyes of others. To realize our lives are not everything we think of them. That our trials and tribulations are really not as bad as we might make them out when talking to someone else.

Driving back to Memphis this past weekend, I was struck with an odd sensation. One I’ve not experienced in a long time. I really saw my life from another’s viewpoint. All of the sudden I realized how many exciting adventures I’ve had over the last three years. I realized I’ve taken so much for granted. I’ve seen so many things, visited so many places and met so many new people but have never taken a step back to enjoying the journey.

Well, on my drive back last weekend I looked out my window across the barren fields. At the beautiful sunset and the majestic views only to think, “I’ve seen this before.” Yes, I’ve seen it many times, but not because of my several trips to Memphis. No, I’ve seen it in the opening scene of many movies as the main character rides a bus across this great country. Yes, I’ve seen it setting-up the main character’s big adventure over and over. All of the sudden I realized that I am that “main character” living that “big adventure.”

As those thoughts swept over me, I was very humbled to think of all those times I was jealous of other’s lives. To think of the impatience I’ve often felt when praying or studying or just plain dreaming. I wanted so much more even while in medical school, the greatest adventure of my life so far. Yes, I found myself covetous of others dissatisfied with my life.

I have written all this to say, all of us are blessed. We live in the best country in the world. We not only have life and breath but most importantly freedom. We have everything we need to live the greatest adventure of our lives if we only allow ourselves and recognize it. Yes, I’ve had an amazing 3.5 years so far and look forward to sharing many of the amazing experiences as I recount all the blessings poured on me in the upcoming year.. So stay tuned to read about the greatest adventures of my life.

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Amazingly Enough

Ever have one of those experiences where you find yourself saying, “Yep, that is what I’m supposed to do.” Well, I’m just now finishing my family medicine rotation and have had one of those such experiences. So much for the surgery thinking I had going into medical school. I love doing everything and all the other specialties are too limiting in their scope for me. I’ll have to say, it is a great feeling finally knowing for sure. Now here’s hoping I get accepted to the student elective offered by the Wilderness Medical Society next February.

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Ob/Gyn – the unexpected specialty

It has been a while since I posted here and I thought I would catch up really quick. It has been a long few months, with lots of soul searching and questions. Finally it came to an end with the start of my rotation on Ob/Gyn. I am now at the end of it and can say that it was nothing like I expected. I know I went in to medical school thinking there is no way I could do Ob/Gyn but now I would have to say it isn’t on the bottom any more, it has jumped past Medicine, Peds, Psych, Surgery, etc. That isn’t saying much but I could definitely see a fellowship in Ob fitting in my plans. Wow, never figured on saying that. Oh well, minds change and my rotation has been filled with a bunch of great residents and attendings. I have a new respect for what they do and will say that delivering babies never gets old.

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Specializing in Disappearing

Well, it has been a long, long year and one that didn’t give me much to blog about but one that will give me a great story to tell. I’ve sorta disappeared this past year and it has been a good thing in getting thing done. I’ll be posting more often now that I’m in my 3rd year and have gotten other things worked out. I’ve started a new website since I’ve had some downtime with some great contributors. Check it out, I called it Galloping Galapagos. Anyway, starting my OB/Gyn rotation so I look forward to learning in a great environment here at UT Medical Center in Knoxville. More about my weird year later

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Alive, but swamped

For all my friends and family that haven’t heard from me in a while, I am still alive. Just a tad bit busy with med school. Nothing much interesting to post about right now. Just lots and lots of studying i.e. get up study and then go to bed. I really don’t do anything else right now (except I made a DVD for the M4 class as a graduation gift). I’ll post more about that later. First order of business is passing all my classes.

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A break

It has been a long year that it is now coming to an end. With that in mind, I want to write a quick summary of what has taken place this last year.

End of M1 Year

January was the beginning of the end of my M1 year in medical school. I had just finished my first semester and completing gross anatomy. It was something very rewarding but I was glad to finish. The extraordinary amount of work required in lab was nice to leave. Histology was added and MBOD and Physiology picked up speed. Added in place of anatomy was the first class of my second year, Immunology (a subcomponent of Micro). It was an interesting class but was slightly overshadowed by my first year classes.

Beginning of M2 Year

After finishing my first year in March, we started four of our five M2 classes in April making up the first of three blocks. Half of my summer, starting in June, was spent in RI fulfilling my summer commitment to the Navy and the second half with family in PA and TN. My second year restarted in Aug with the second block and essentially went through the end of November when we had our second block exam. December marked the beginning of the third block in our second year with one assessment filling December ending on the 21st.

A look forward

Honestly, the farthest forward I look is the next assessment. Each one is composed of so much material that I dare not look to far forward. The only thing I do have scheduled in 2008 is Assessments 11-14, block 3 exam and step 1 of the USMLE. Lord willing they will all go ok allowing me to start my M3 year.

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Assessments, Quizzes and Exams

In keeping with my new tradition of posting to my blog every once in a while, I’m posting about medical school, er should I say my life. Well, really I’m posting about what is in store for the next 2 months. First, official time off in medical school is a rarity but fortunately with our testing schedule we get every other weekend “off.” As I posted last time, since August every two weeks we have 60 question assessments and then every fifth week we have a “PCC/DRS” class week (more about PCC/DRS in another post). The major part of our second year examination come from block exams. We have 14 assessments split up into 3 blocks (each with an exam at the end of it).

The block exams are comprehensive and composed of 200 questions covering all the material covered since the beginning of that block. So, in the next 3 weeks, I’m gonna have the last assessment of this block and the block exam. So this Thanksgiving, I’ll be giving thanks by studying for my block exam on Nov. 30th. That is followed by an unusual three week long assessment (on Dec. 21st). If this seems confusing, as it was to me when I first started my second year, then looking at UT’s exams schedule might help.

I would like to post about something other then school and hopefully will in my next post. But other then singing in choir at church and running, I don’t seem to be doing anything other then school affiliated activities. I’ll have to see what I can come up with to post.

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Med School, the second year (Cont . . .)

It is incredible how much difference a year can make. I am enjoying medical school so much more then last year. Everything we are studying is clinically relevant. This past Wednesday we learned how to do a spinal tap. Every week there is so much cool stuff to learn. We studied Dermatology this week and the previous three weeks we mainly studied the respiratory system. Before that we studies rheumatology, cardiology and something else I can’t think of right at the moment. It has been really

interesting to say the least.

Every two weeks this year we have a test over the material from the last two weeks. We have comprehensive exams with one in the end of Nov. and the other in March before we take the first step of the USMLE. It was weird already scheduling the exam. Just one year ago I was like a deer staring into an oncoming headlights and now am registering to take the first step of the USMLE. One doctor told me before I started medical school that it is like a treadmill and that it doesn’t stop until You come out the other end as a MD.

One thing I’ve come to understand is how differently the same thing can look to two different people. I’ve heard the medical school is like trying to take a sip of water out of a fire-hydrant. I’ve also heard it equated to your favorite dessert except you have to eat 10 helpings at every meal. Well, I found a video on You Tube that illustrates the point really well. If you haven’t seen “Finding Nemo” then you might not understand. But this video takes a really nice children’s movie and makes it seem like an action packed thriller.

All I can say, is I can’t imagine being anywhere else right now. Right life is med school and med school is life. What an incredible life.

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Second Year – M2

So, now that I’ve been in the second year for 2 months, life has gone from really busy to insane. All perception of time has vanished. World events have become none existent. About the only thing I’ve been keeping up on is sports, especially baseball. Can’t believe the Rockies have made it to the playoffs, let alone won the first 2 games. I had almost given up hope for Todd Helton to make the playoffs with the Rockies.

I’ll post more this weekend about school (Micro, Pharm, Neuro, Path & Pathophys), schedule and what it is like as a 2nd year medical student. I’ll have to say, though, it is much more interesting then my M1 year.