tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4612154443292086932024-03-12T23:30:31.365-07:00jen goes to med schoolUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-461215444329208693.post-71566575240412054342010-06-08T19:08:00.000-07:002010-06-08T19:24:07.728-07:00Hey BabySome awesome things that have at least a tenuous relation to my Obstetrics and Gynecology rotation:<br /><br />BBQ fritos: brought on by a severe salt craving at 4am. I decided that since I'd only have about half an hour to sleep, and would wake up feeling worse than before thanks to grogginess, I sat in my call room and read <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/health/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/health/30salt.html">this article</a>. And then raced to the ER vending machine. I think there's some sort of problem here, but I'm not sure whether it's my reading the NY times to stay awake, or my insane suggestibility. <br /><br />Not fainting at surgery: YAY! Thanks gyne surgery and c-sections! I'm over the evil faints. Also thanks to learning the mighty power of crossing my legs - all jokes aside, this is a good quick way to raise your BP a bit.<br /><br />Best patient t-shirt: At the antenatal clinic, one of our very pregnant patients was wearing a t-shirt reading "All I wanted was a backrub" right above her gigantic pregnant belly. Amazing. <br /><br />And, the streets of my town continue to amaze:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmq_nvMyCxVhV84r1eITRxSZVdmf67SfpQ0ELXpvoqJPvFeCGsIVJjcnazKLQEZtzgWnF3FXz9q49xUvzo4aW-xdqoCi_q8SbrvKKxZG5U6C88zK96pkxwzKcyep2DlH8ObARP1qPtNCA2/s1600/IMG_0807.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmq_nvMyCxVhV84r1eITRxSZVdmf67SfpQ0ELXpvoqJPvFeCGsIVJjcnazKLQEZtzgWnF3FXz9q49xUvzo4aW-xdqoCi_q8SbrvKKxZG5U6C88zK96pkxwzKcyep2DlH8ObARP1qPtNCA2/s320/IMG_0807.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480593813060093122" /></a><br /><br />All in all, this has been a pretty great rotation. Hopefully I'll still feel this way after next week's exam!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-461215444329208693.post-28739174511184184572010-03-19T13:04:00.000-07:002010-03-19T13:23:53.418-07:00I guess I've been busy?A clarification on the last post: patient breasts are annoying, not my own. <br /><br />Ok, to fill in the "little gap" between the last post and this one, I'll share a couple of stories.<br /><br />The first story isn't a story, it's just information. I'm now immersed in something called "clerkship," which is the phase of medicine where someone has decided you've talked enough and now it's time to actually see lots of patients and pretend to be a doctor. Except not at all a doctor, because I'm at a stage where I can't even give some dude with a sore toe an aspirin. Never mind that I'd probably give him ibuprofen instead, and not that he'd listen to me anyways because he's too busy yelling at me about his sore toe to listen. There may have some shouts of "GET ME A REAL DOCTOR." Wow, that did turn into a story. <br /><br />Other stories/informations: <br />I still like Family Practice a lot. <br /><br />Surprisingly, I LOVE Emerg. I like the pace, the rapid exams, the tests, the stitching, the FIXING. It's so nice to see a patient, wonder if an arm is broken, order an xray, see a fracture, and cast it. BOOM we're done. Granted I was working in a community ER rather than in a large, busy ER, but it was pretty great. Also: No fainting when I stitch!<br /><br />Lately, I've been dictating (yes, I'm now a dictator). By this I mean that I'm speaking into a phone about a patient I've seen, and this all gets recorded and typed up by professional transcriptionists and printed as a neat letter and sent to REAL DOCTORS. In this letter you have to give a concise, coherent story about a patient, what you think is wrong with them, and what you plan to do about it. For me it's actually been pretty nerve-wracking and I spend SO LONG deciding what to say and how I'm going to say it. I have some idea about what is really important and what might be going on, but I am nowhere near confident enough to make a diagnosis most of the time. I've only been doing it for about a week, and it has been getting easier, except for one letter today. I got about halfway done, and then tried to pause the recording. It's funny (not funny at all) how they put the 'pause' button directly beside the 'hang up' button. I ended up having to start again from the very beginning. AND THEN I DID IT AGAIN. So frustrating. <br /><br />Aside from medicine, I've actually been having a pretty good time in life. I've been trying to spend lots of time at home so the husband and the cat feel loved. I've been seeing family fairly regularly. I've been seeing friends nowhere near often enough. But I've been pretty happy, for the most part. And now that it's sunny and warming up, hopefully I'll keep the good stretch going. Although hopefully with more friends time.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-461215444329208693.post-64896337239322671312009-07-07T18:58:00.000-07:002009-07-07T19:27:42.929-07:00I <3 hearts.Frig, I love cardiology. Or rather, the fact that I'm starting to feel like I'm not a total idiot about it any more. My elective is going really well - GREAT preceptor, he's giving me so many opportunities to practice my clinical exams as well as teaching me a lot of new skills. I can now start ECG's, and have a pretty good understanding of at least basic interpretation. I'm learning some more about drugs, and common cardiac conditions. I've even tried to be extra heart-healthy: biking to the clinic every day, more salads, etc. Of course, there are still at least 100000 things I don't know about hearts yet, but this is a good start. Only three days left of this elective, hopefully this new knowledge will last into clerkship and beyond!<br /><br />On a related note: you know you're a med student when breasts become annoying lumps of tissue that just get in the way of doing a good exam.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-461215444329208693.post-41460751052597346512009-06-20T13:21:00.001-07:002009-06-20T13:27:53.651-07:00Would you like fries with that?As term is wrapping up, we've been lucky enough to be treated to a few dinners over the past few weeks. Most deliciously, we went to an amazing Brazilian grill place (more about the meal <a href="http://jenistranslucent.blogspot.com">here</a>). While at the restaurant, we were given a little gift - surgical hats (think hairnets made out of scrubs material). Everyone immediately tried them on, and the dude sitting next to me was remarking about how much my classmates looked like surgeons... and then turned to me, and said, "well, except for you. You look like a cafeteria lady!" <br /><br />Amazing.<br /><br />Honestly though, it was one of the best burns I've had in a long time... I can't even be offended. He followed it up with a quick "Oh it's just because you're too NICE to be a surgeon!" I hope I'll at least be able to fake the look through my surgery clerkship rotation!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-461215444329208693.post-22582453159687546512009-05-25T18:41:00.000-07:002009-05-25T18:43:23.422-07:00If only I were big Ed...A quick update on what we've been learning:<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/H7GtE0BZXJA&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/H7GtE0BZXJA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-461215444329208693.post-15448655797645702022009-02-12T11:29:00.000-08:002009-02-12T11:41:32.119-08:00Learning something after all...I'm at a school that is relatively (in)famous for its lack of formal evaluation. We do have 'tests' every once in a while that help us track our development and performance relative to the rest of the class. I just took one today, my first since the baseline evaluation during the first month of school. After THAT dismal performance, I was expecting to improve a bit, considering that it would be nearly impossible to go down from that score.<br /><br />My main thoughts during the first test was that there is SO MUCH to know, and how cool is it going to be to at one point, realize that I possess that knowledge. That point is a long way off, but slowly inching closer. I went through all of my old notes, trying to remember about the heart, the lungs, the blood... and realizing over the past day or so that I feel like I've forgotten about 95% of what I've learned about pretty big things (I keep telling myself not to worry because by the time I get to clerkship and residency, all of these things will be drilled into my head for good).<br /><br />BUT! I surprised myself by scoring TEN TIMES higher than last time. I was answering a lot of questions, and while I wasn't super confident, I managed to remember a lot of stuff. Please keep in mind that it isn't like me to gloat... I tend to feel that in my group of peers, I am on the very bottom rung of the knowledge ladder. I constantly feel like I am more 'lucky' than 'deserving' of my place in med school. But now, for this brief moment? I'm feeling pretty good, and am excited to get to the point where I can answer most of the questions, and be a good doctor.<br /><br />Now it's time to go get this new self-confidence smacked down with my practical 'evaluation'.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-461215444329208693.post-36336203877667345542009-01-21T11:43:00.000-08:002009-01-21T11:56:01.412-08:00Taking a cue from Saroja...a haiku, in lieu of a comprehensive update!<br /><br />morning in the morgue<br />avoiding thoughts of pain, death<br />hiding from disease<br /><br />(I have a funny relationship with anatomy and anatomy specimens. I find that I'm fine if I focus on the organ... what is this thing, where is it's location, what does it do. Mostly, I'm fine, I can separate myself. As soon as I think: 'what did this pathology do to this person,' I'm done. I need to sit, gather my thoughts and breathe... hard to do in a poorly ventilated, tiny room surrounded by formalin odors. I'm getting better though, it's a good place to learn how to remove myself from my emotions. I still have a long way to go.)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-461215444329208693.post-9263989351372745602008-12-07T18:35:00.001-08:002008-12-07T18:46:08.387-08:00New BeginningsTomorrow is the start of a brand new chapter in med school... Foundation #2: Energy and Metabolic Homeostasis, AND the beginning of the new campus. Lecture at 8:30 no longer means hitting the road by 7:30 and driving to another city, I can roll out of bed half and hour before class, and have time to get ready and walk! I am unbelievably excited by this: no more dependence on the car, and way more awesome people in my little city. <br /><br />We got a kick-start on the social aspect of the new campus: R (from here on in to be called Saroja, meaning born of a lake, which is a perfect name for her) had a little get together for movies and many many snacks that were too delicious and irresistible to resist (normally I wouldn't worry too much about their irresistiblity (is that a word? it should be) but damn it I have a wedding dress to fit into!!). AND LOTS OF PEOPLE CAME! This is pretty awesome, considering that a little more than three months ago, we didn't know anyone here. I already feel lucky to have met Saroja and the dudes... it definitely makes moving to a new city a lot less lonely. Now, there are fifteen of us, each an interesting, fun person that I look forward to getting to know over the next two and a half years (and hopefully much longer, too).<br /><br /><br />Also: rumour has it that we will have a coffee maker at the new campus!!! Hooray!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-461215444329208693.post-37483372921275159582008-12-03T20:43:00.000-08:002008-12-03T20:45:02.511-08:00Life before med school.......was not any less exciting, really.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBBUq-mEoyw">Mercer Report Does Zero G</a><br /><br />Been there, done that, threw up on my t-shirt.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-461215444329208693.post-34406018533226563472008-10-10T07:43:00.000-07:002008-10-10T08:04:06.121-07:00My challenge.Wow, the last two weeks have been really really busy (imagine that!). I've had something on campus every day, meaning that I've had to commute, losing about 10 hours/week. I used to think that 8 am lectures were bad - I had no idea then. Now, an 8 am lecture means leaving the house by 6:45, and hoping that traffic will be OK. Settling into our new campus - a 5 minute bike ride from my house - this winter will be like a wonderful dream!!<br /><br />While the commute is A challenge, it is not THE challenge. That challenge is figuring out what bugs my brain so much about seeing injury, and learning how to get over it. Last week, at my first family med experience, I had the opportunity to see my doc remove a small growth. This is a minor, minor, minor procedure - yet for some reason, it made me faint. Yup, full out faint. Luckily I recognized the feelings and left the room and sat down so that I just slumped into the chair. Breaking it down: I am not 'intellectually' grossed out by what I am watching, I simply see the injury and the 'drop heart rate/blood pressure' switch in my brain is thrown. I'm hoping that with increasing knowledge I'll be able to control it. But for now, I am preparing myself with:<br />-Compression socks (keeps blood from pooling in my legs - more in systemic circulation)<br />-Candy (insta-sugar rush)<br />-Caffeinated drinks (Caffeine raises blood pressure)<br />-Multivitamins (in hopes that boosting iron will help my blood carry more oxygen)<br /><br />I also bought a book on "overcoming Medical Phobias" - it has a section on how to not faint.<br /><br />I can't wait for the day when I can stay conscious around surgery. I think this will probably be one of the biggest challenges I have to face during med school - the sight of injury has always bothered me, whether it is cartoon or real. It is so strange to think that the injury I'm supposed to learn (like surgery) is actually a good thing for the patient. It isn't so much the blood, which doesn't really gross me out, but the sense that it is wrong to break through our body's natural protection (skin/tissue etc).<br /><br />Oh, and to make things worse: faint day was my first day shadowing this doc. What a great first impression. At least this week went way, way better. I even saw the patient again, their lesion was healing nicely and did not bother me at all (seems to not be bothering them either,which is more important!).<br /><br />In other news: we have finished studying the lungs!! We're on to the heart! And next week we get our white coats, apparently so we can feel good about ourselves (full of ourselves?) and spread tons of germs to our patients (they're not the cleanest of things...).Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-461215444329208693.post-85043049732921724612008-09-24T09:37:00.000-07:002008-09-24T10:33:52.263-07:00Secrets of the Medical Profession!Apparently, the only 'secret' I know so far is already out:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.qwantz.com//comics/comic2-503.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://www.qwantz.com//comics/comic2-503.png" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />... although sometimes, we are taking your pulse.<br /><br />So, continuing along on my medical journey, I have had real interactions with real patients! We've been learning how to take medical histories, and after practicing on each other, our clinical skills teachers took us to their emerg department and found us some patients who were kind enough to let us take their histories. Without any knowledge of what is and isn't relevant, these histories take a LONG time. Working in pairs, we spent about 45 minutes finding out about a patient, and then reported our findings back to the teachers who then helped us puzzle out the relevant details and guess at what might be happening. I lucked out with an amazingly patient (haha) and helpful patient - although we ended up having no clue about the diagnosis. Apparently, the "<a href="http://www.fox.com/house/">House</a>" of the hospital is on the case.<br /><br />Yesterday morning, we had another chance to practice interviewing - this time with standardized patients (aka actors). After the real patient, this was much less intimidating. The focus this time was also on rapport-building/communication skills rather than detailed history-gathering, and according to feedback from my patient and the teachers, I did a pretty good job of it. Yay! <br /><br />Yesterday was a really, really long day. We had to be on campus by 8 am (I had to leave home before 6:30! WOW!) for our first 'test' - questions that track how well we've been learning the main concepts during our tutorials. Of the three short-answer questions, I think I did pretty well on two of them, but mixed up obstructive and restrictive lung disease on the third (big oops there). Next was the patient, from 9-12, and the first 'exam' from 1-4. Everyone in the school writes the same 'exam,' whether they are in first or third year. As first years, we're expected to do poorly - but the 2% I got sill shocked and stung. Hearing about many others who got the same mark did help. Since I was only supposed to answer questions we've learned about, I was out of the exam after half an hour - giving me more time to read up for my tutorial 4-7 (and it went really well). <br /><br />Afterward, I headed over to the health professionals recruitment fair, where I was able to check out some communities where I could do my big elective next summer (I'm thinking rural family medicine, up North or possibly overseas). It was saddening to see how desperate some of the communities were to recruit doctors (and other health professionals), especially the rural communities. Sadness aside, North Bay seems pretty awesome - their slogan had me cracking up everytime I saw it: "Just North enough to be perfect!" I guess there is a longitudinal scale of perfection running up Ontario.<br /><br />All in all, yesterday was 12 hours on campus, and 15 hours away from home. My sleep-in today was the awesome-est ever.<br /><br />Just in case you are wondering what science/medicine I am learning, here is a list of cases/diseases I have studied to date (all relating to the respiratory system):<br /><br />-Opiod-induced respiratory failure<br />-Shallow-water blackout<br />-Effects of altitude/exercise on health<br />-Airway obstruction<br />-Croup<br />-Guillaum-Barre Syndrome<br />-Pneumonia<br />-Asthma<br />-and currently, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseaseUnknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-461215444329208693.post-31456830287988827482008-09-12T09:29:00.000-07:002008-09-12T11:26:08.227-07:00Sigh of reliefMed school is turning out to be everything I hoped it could be. Granted, I am very much in the "honeymoon" phase, but I am loving every minute of it. I'm pretty convinced that I've found the perfect program for me - all of my 'classes' are so interesting and so far, nothing has felt like work. I'm so lucky to have found a school where the emphasis is on self-directed learning, with topics interesting enough that self-motivation isn't an issue. <br /><br />I had my first 12-hour day on Wednesday, and I had been dreading it. So many things to do, so few breaks - I expected utter exhaustion. Instead, I found exhilaration. The day started off with learning some clinical skills - we were presented with a 'patient' (an actor/volunteer) and learned how to take vital signs such as blood pressure, heart rate and respiratory rate. Next, got my line of credit (and a free Tim Horton's gift card! woo! Take THAT, massive debt load!), and had about 20 minutes to grab a sandwich before my first ever Anatomy lecture. We seem to be blessed with the most amazing profs - I could imagine that Anatomy runs the risk of being an extremely dry topic, but this was fascinating. The lecture was followed by a more hands on application session - we looked at chest cavities and lungs (surprisingly, I'm not bothered by the cadavers). I definitely felt like I didn't know anything, as so many people in my class came from Physiology programs and are anatomy pros, but I think I'll be able to catch up.<br /><br />Next, a 20 minute break, and then another clinical skills session - this time with some first-year residents who, in their sleep-deprived states, will teach us the skills we need to not come across as ignorant fools when we first start dealing with patients. We talked about history-taking (apparently 95% of all diagnoses can be reached from an accurate patient history) and then got a tour of the emergency room! By the time we were done, it was 8:30 pm and I was not the slightest bit tired. Horray for exceeded hopes!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-461215444329208693.post-35135447893775275582008-09-03T11:26:00.000-07:002008-09-03T11:27:50.337-07:00Real work...I will not write a post until I've finished my first bit of research: today's topic is respiration, mechanics of breathing, CNS control of breathing and how analgesia can screw it up.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-461215444329208693.post-90564288126296945722008-08-31T16:53:00.001-07:002008-08-31T17:00:25.267-07:00O-week is done!I made it through my first week of school, though it was only orientation week so it doesn't really count. My feelings throughout the week went from overwhelmed to excited to nervous, but it was a good week and I feel like I've made some good friends and will hopefully be off to a good start. <br /><br />Some of the best things: my carpool group, and the people who'll be with me in Niagara. Being actually kinda OK at making sutures (in a pig foot, not a living thing). New backpack, new t-shirt, both of which are nice. The promise of a lab coat!<br /><br />I'm really looking forward to tutorials and classes starting on Tuesday - I can't wait to be a student again. As for now, I'm trying to enjoy my last truly free weekend and rest up for the week to come.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-461215444329208693.post-51262057598399205832008-08-22T08:35:00.000-07:002008-08-22T08:48:47.342-07:00The pre-blog, and freaking out.Alright, new blog, because I want to keep this separate from the main one (not that it has seen much action lately). <br /><br />It's pretty self-explanatory - I got into medical school (after three years of trying!!) and the whole thing starts next Monday. Well, that isn't completely true, what with me having to do a bunch of things over the summer: communicable disease testing, CPR/First Aid training, find an apartment etc. Oh yeah, and plan my wedding which is going to happen smack dab in the middle of my first year.<br /><br />Aside from the obvious elation, I've definitely had my moments where the main feeling borders more on 'how on Earth am I going to get through this?? What have I gotten myself into?' Now that Day One is almost here, I've been having more and more moments like that. I've been out of school for two years, and haven't written an exam in four. I've NEVER taken an anatomy class, and the only times that I've watched surgery, I've fainted. Lucky for me, I am surrounded my awesome people who work very hard to make me see that I can get through it. I also tell myself that if I'm good enough to get in, I'm good enough to get through - it won't be easy but I can do it. And now I have a place to vent.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5