Rude, Hard Awakening

Well, ladies and gents, today I was thrown back into the swing of med school so hard that I have no clue what hit me. In a mere 13 hours, every hope and dream that I had of keeping my room clean, having a really awesome social life, and attempting to relax on a daily basis was thrown out the window. 

For one glorious week in med school, I was able to make my bed every day, whip up some spaghetti or go grocery shopping whenever I wanted, do multiple loads of laundry, and at least think about working out. 

And now, as I look out over my room that is in complete shambles, I know that I will never be able to cook, clean my clothes, work out or bathe again. I mean.... I will try to remember to bathe. That's probably an important one. 

Anyway, I woke up around 10am, allowing myself to sleep in and recover from the epic Toga party we had last night (Yes, when we get the chance, we really do Party Like Med Students). I showered, made breakfast, and relaxed until my tutor group at noon, innocently thinking that today would be like the past week - relatively care-free and full of studying "for fun," rather than out of necessity. I went to my pathology tutor group and felt pretty good about the material. Two hours of studying necrosis and apoptosis flew by, and I was pysched to get a good room at school to finish what I thought would be a really fun and educational assignment. Boy, was I wrong. 

As a part of pathology (the study and diagnosis of disease), we have weekly small group sessions. We are assigned cases and we have to act as both the clinician and the pathologist for each case, and specialize as an expert in an assigned case. I was so excited about this course component, because it is the first time we get to make differential diagnoses on our own and analyze pathological histology (microscopic slides of disease). In fact, I was so excited about small groups, that I acted like a total gunner and started researching each case last Wednesday, in my "free time," "for fun." I spent three hours looking up various diseases that I know nothing about (we haven't learned about them in class, yet) and getting excited about "being a doctor." So, today, I set up in my study room with a couple of good friends, and we started really working on the assignment. After an hour, none of us were past step ONE (there are at least three steps to each case) of case ONE (there are four cases). 

All of a sudden, I realize that I am famished and run over to the hospital to get food. Then I realize - Oh, God! It's started! I'm forgetting to eat! I'm forgetting to take care of myself! 

I run back to school, attend another tutor group, only to have more of my hopes and dreams shattered with the phrases "you only have to study pharmacology for two hours every day. One in the morning before class. One at night before bed. Basically, you need to make flashcards and be able to rattle off 900 drugs and their mechanisms, implications, and side effects in 20 minutes."

Whoa, now, back it up here. 

1. Class starts at 8:30. That auditorium is lucky if I grace it with my presence. No way will I be studying for an hour before that. 

2. One hour at night before bed? Nope. Don't see that a-happenin' either. 

3. At least 3600 facts in 20 minutes? Disgusting. 

After tutor group, I practiced physical exam skills for an hour, then came home and promptly began working on my path cases again. I made it through case one, and I had spent a solid hour on case two, when I clicked on a picture, and BOOM! The program deleted everything I had submitted for case two and I had the wonderful pleasure of restarting it. Technology, oh, how I love thee. That was four hours ago. Since then, I have completed case three and half of case four. I began to see double, my butt started hurting, and I actually had to google the definition of "carcinoma" just to make sure it still meant "cancer." That was the final breaking point. 

Today, I have officially spent: 

3 hours in tutor groups

1 hour in the physical exam suite

8 hours on path cases

...for a grand total of 12 hours on med school. I did not work out (or even think about it today). I did not make my bed. I did not fold my laundry. I did not pack my stuff up for my storage unit. I did not complete my lab quiz, or my pre-reading, or half of the other things on my personal and school to-do lists.

In six hours, I will be waking up to attend:

8 hours of class

1 hour of meetings

2 hour of physical exam skills

and at least 3 hours of homework (not even studying, just assignments)

...for a grand total of 14 hours on med school. 

Overall, that will be:

3 gunner hours on path

8 frustrating hours on path

and probably 1 hour on path tomorrow because that's all I will have time for before small group

...for a total of 12 hours on one assignment.

Nothing says "Welcome back to med school" more than the complete feeling of exhaustion and the fact that every time I close my eyes I see histology slides.

http://www.medicalschoolsuccess.com/images/medical-school-introduction.jpg

 

 

M2 Year: BEGIN!

After a glorious two months of attempting to pretend that I am not a medical student, I have officially began my second year of medical school. Therefore, I can no longer avoid reality, sleep in, cook real meals, watch TV on a regular basis, and actually have a real life. As a result, I shall return to blogging the chronicles of life as a medical student. 

Let me compare the beginning of medical school as a first year to the beginning of medical school as a second year. Side note: Today was my 21st first day of school. How 'bout that?

M1 Year: 

Hello, children! Welcome to Orientation Week! You have five days to get to know each other, go out and have some fun downtown, go on tours of the school and hospital, and be excited to finally begin the exciting journey towards becoming a physician.

First day of M1 class: 

8:30: Let's go get our badges!

9:30: Intro to clinical course: Physicians need to be good people. Be a professional. Don't do drugs. Don't get arrested.

10:30: First anatomy lecture! This is anatomical position. This is the front of the body, but we can't just say that, so we are going to call it the ventral aspect. Say goodbye to left, right, above, below, middle, side, top, bottom. Say hello to ventral, dorsal. Anterior, posterior. Lateral, medial. Proximal, distal. Superior, inferior.

12:30: Get confused about where to go for free lunch. Show up late and miss the pizza. Don't get to eat. But, it's okay, because the day is over and you're going home!

http://d3j7fudf8o8iuo.cloudfront.net/var/ezwebin_site/storage/images/media/images/e-anatomy/anatomical-terms-of-location-position-motion/standard-anatomical-position-anatomical-terms-of-location-en/2511109-1-eng-GB/Standard-anatomical-position-Anatomical-terms-of-location-en_medical512.jpg

M2 Year:

First Day of M2 Class:

7:00: Wake up, get ready for school.

8:00: Take my car to get fixed, since I know I won't have time to do it in the foreseeable future.

8:00-8:30: Read the first few pages of BRS Anatomy while I am at the car garage. Figure I might as well prepare for school. Immediately close the book when I realize I know nothing. Hate myself for taking summer off. Love myself for taking summer off. Decide to worry about it later.

8:30 - 9:00: Go home, make my bed, eat breakfast, RE-CURL my hair. Why? Because I am well rested and have time to kill (this will probably never happen again). I enjoy it immensely.

9:00: Hitch a ride to school. Enter building feeling like a bad ass M2. Immediately get taken down five pegs when they hand me a three-inch note packet for my clinical course, and it contains only the first six lectures. Knocked down three more pegs as I am handed seven more inches of notes.

9:30: Go to first class, which is basically the intro to my clinical course, where the director tries to convince us that the PA's did the entire first year of medical school in 3 months, so they deserve to be in class with us. Hmm.

9:45: Get punched in the ribs for falling asleep. Attempt to stay awake for rest of class. Actually succeed. Win.

10:30: Refresher on a little something known as Evidenced-Based Medicine (EBM). Basically, get thoroughly confused as a librarian shows me for the fifth time how to run a real search on medical databases. One of those things that you never want to learn, but really need to know. We all suppose we will learn it on the wards when we have no choice. Fingers crossed.

11:30: Intro to pharmacology, where I find out this beautiful 212 page packet I received only covers the first exam's material. I have three weeks to learn these 212 pages. Each page has three slides. 636 slides to memorize in three weeks. For one class...

12:30: Bolt into a meeting to get free food. Beat all of the M1s because I have special tactics to get to the food first. I ain't a rookie.

1:30: An hour on taking sexual histories. This was actually a very entertaining lecture, as you can imagine. My favorite slide read something like: "Sex is common. Many patients have sex. Many patients think about sex. A lot. A whole lot. Doctors are sexual experts." I also learned that 50% of marriages and 70% of non-marriages have a third party enter the picture at some point. Way to refuel my commitment phobia! Other take home facts included: 40% of 18-22 year-olds get chlamydia (at least here), and spontaneous orgasms are often triggered by certain pitches.

2:30 - 4:30: Pathology small group. This was definitely the best few hours of the day. We finally get to do some awesome thinkin' like doctahs. We are given a few cases that we must prepare for every week. Each case has clinical symptoms, and we have to create a list of possible diagnoses, aka a differential diagnosis. We then have to review labs and pathology to narrow down the list and reach (hopefully) the correct diagnosis. Probably going to be one of my favorite aspects of the semester.

4:30 - 5:00: Have a half hour to kill before a board meeting. Get out notes to study. Get on facebook instead.

5:00-6:15: Longest meeting ever.

6:15 - 8:00: Meet friends for dinner and drinks, because we still have time to do this! YAY!

8:00 - 9:15: Get home, realize I am exhausted, immediately pass out. 

Moral of the story: It feels great to be back. Even though I can already tell this year will be a lot more demanding and challenging than the first year, I missed the structure and organization that medical school provides. A small part of me is terrified and already missing the laziness of summer, but most of me is bored and ready to dive head first into the bottomless pit that is medical school. I wouldn't have it any other way. BRING IT ON!!!!!!!