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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.

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The tractor is on fire!

Yes, if you want to get someone’s attention run into the house and calmly state like my dad, “Come quick! The tractor is on fire!” I know he said something other then that, but all I remember is “the tractor is on fire!”

One of the things I was able to do at ODS last month was fire fighting training. I never thought I would use it so soon though. It really proved useful knowing what type of fire it was and how to fight it. Only problem was we didn’t have enough of the right fire extinguisher. I would highly suggest everyone take some time this weekend and get their fire extinguishers charged and make sure you have the right ones. Anyway, I posted some pictures and a slide show of the little tractor that couldn’t any more.

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5 weeks

What can happen in 5 weeks? In my case, I spent the last 5 weeks at Navy Officer Development School (ODS). It was very similar to the time I spent at Maxwell Air Force base when I was in Civil Air Patrol. I don’t know how to explain my time there other then a very regimented schedule with very little personal time built in. There was always something to do and if you were creative you could make some. I was able to fit in my 5 week a deep sea fishing trip, visiting the RI National Guard Air Show and visiting the Tall Ships in Newport. At the air show, I was taken to the VIP tent of the Blue Angels/Navy and had a great seat for the show. I’ll post some pics later and more info. But, I’m back if anyone wants to talk or e-mail, I can set my own schedule and I can wear a watch and use my cell phone anytime I want 🙂

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Endocrine Presentation

So, I finally got around to posting the powerpoint my group used to make our final presentation for Physiology. I had a lot of fun making it. Just click on the slide to advance it. Please note, if you are a current M1 at the University of Tennessee it is an honor code violation to view this before you have made your presentation. We only had five minutes for this presentation and the slide supported the presenter (not a replacement).

download the presentation

download flash file

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Studying

Just so you know I’m still around, I’m just a bit disconnected right now through the end May. Have a 60 question “Assessment” (i.e. combined quiz in all four of the classes) tomorrow and another one a week from Monday or the 21st. Then two weeks (29th) from next Tuesday we have our first block exam of the second year (200 question, four hours to complete it). After that, then I can start thinking about the summer. Until then must learn – Amoxicillin, Pipercillin, Imipenem and many more.

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What a year

Well, it is official. Finished my first year in medical school. We are still considered M1s by the school until end of May but we started our new classes last Monday. I think this year is going to be much better in terms of interesting material. Everything we are learning now is clinically relevant making it much easier to study. The only problem is the quantity of material covered. We started four new classes for this block Pathology (9 hrs), Neurology (7 hrs), Pharmacology (6 hrs) and Microbiology (6 hrs) for a total of 28 credits. When we come back next fall we will add another class Pathophysiology (12 hrs) for a total of 40 credit hours. With all the book work, it is hard sometimes to remember why I came to medical school. It is hard to remember that there are stories of patients on the other end of every question, case and lecture. To not disconnect all the information from the thought that someone is affected by this or that disease. I guess the time will come for connecting and remembering why, right now the task is to learn it.

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Welcome IE 7 users

It took a while to get it working, but my site now looks the same under IE 7, 6, Firefox and Safari. Turns out it was one line of code that needed to be fixed, but since I didn’t have IE7 on my computer, I had to install windows which is what took so long. Anyway, I’ll update next week sometime about my first year in med school and the up-coming second year.

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Last week

Brief post today. This week is the last week of block classes for my M1 year only 2 and 1/2 weeks left. Gotta hit the books!

Hum, just noticed something weird with my archives, all my old posts have the wrong year. Oh well, no time to figure out why.

Anyway, I was going to say something about school, but forgot what I was going to say. Hope that doesn’t happen next week during exams. Maybe I’ll post my physiology groups powerpoint after all presentations Thursday, only problem is next years class isn’t allow to look at it since it would be an honor code violation for them to look at it I’ll have to check with my group but ya’ll might find it interesting plus I really think the PPT looks cool. Maybe if I remove the conclusions. . .

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Friendly Advice

If you ever need to get a Hep B vaccination make sure you don’t do it right after you spend a day with your preceptor. Two weeks ago, after spending the day with my preceptor and seeing several patients with the flu and colds, the next day I got the last shot in the Hep B vaccination series. Didn’t think anything about it until Sunday morning when I woke-up with the flu. To compound things, I drove home for my mother’s birthday that weekend and wasn’t in any condition to drive back until the following week. At that point I didn’t want to miss a day of studying so I waited until yesterday to drive back (only two lectures that day).

Definitely made for an interesting first week of the block. Now to catchup on all of this weeks material after getting a slow start last week.

Good thing spring break is just a week away (extra week to study without classes).