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Here’s another video that I made. I warn you in advance, it doesn’t really have a purpose. I just felt like using some of the video footage that I had of a party we had many months ago. Plus, I really like the “Sway with Me” jingle. It’s only a few minutes long. Enjoy!
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I’m sitting on my bed right now bored out of my gourd. Yeah, I have stuff that I could be doing right now, but I’m not really motivated to do it. I don’t know if it’s the oh-dear-god-it’s-m-in-hot-as-hell heat outside, or the fact that this semester is going by about as quickly as Bush’s war in Iraq. But, man, time has sure been dragging on. Now, I know that as soon as I type these words, a space ship is going to land outside and shoot laser beams at me, which will speed time up to near the speed of light, but I’m going to say it anyway. Second year is so slow!! I don’t know if it’s the material, or the fact that I have one less class, but I have found myself with piles of extra time lately. For someone who is used to a packed schedule, with little time to breathe, it’s actually kind of scary. I know that I should be reveling in the fact that I actually have free time, but for some reason, I can’t seem to enjoy it. I don’t want to take my time. I want to get this party started!
I think a contributing factor is the Behavioral Science class that I’m taking. I was a psych and philosophy major in undergrad, and so far, everything that we’ve been taught in Behavioral is peanuts compared to what I’ve already learned. So, I don’t really have to study for that class at all. (Although since I just said that, I’m pretty sure I’ll end up failing the first mini and I’ll kick myself in the arse later.) When you consider that the Introduction to Clinical Medicine course takes up not all that much time, I’m only left with three classes: Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology, and Pharmacology. I wouldn’t say that these are really EASY classes, but so far (I know I’m going to get struck by lightning for saying this), they have been pretty manageable.
Okay, I think I just figured out what the problem is. The problem is me. I NEED to be challenged. No seriously, I NEED it. If I’m doing anything at all, and it’s not challenging, I get bored off my tookus. Now that I think about it, that’s been the story of my life. I got bored with high school, so I quit (that’s another long story). I was bored working for the AAMC, so I quit. If I’m not being challenged, I get insanely fidgety, and I feel like giving up and moving on to something more demanding. I know that right now, there are a million things that I could be doing to be preparing for my upcoming exams and practicals, yet I’m not doing them because I know that I can “get by” and twiddle my thumbs right now, and still end up with a decent grade in the class.
This sucks. I don’t want to be that type of person. Okay, people can change. I can change. I’m taking a vow right now. I’m going to cease looking towards other people to create challenging experiences for me. I need to start going out and finding them on my own. Hmmm, this should be interesting. Well, here goes nuttin.
PS: The two pics in this post were taken by my friend Mimi. You’re looking at the deck beside the Caribbean Sea, on our campus. A very nice lady (Rudy from Rainbow Yoga) teaches yoga classes on the deck three times a week, and I’ve just started going. If you EVER get the chance to do yoga on a deck beside the Sea, I beg of you to DO IT! I promise that it will be experience that you’ll savor to the last drop of sweat.
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Man, it’s been forever since I posted. My apologies to all. I will be posting a bunch more stuff soon, I promise. But in the meantime, please enjoy this very sweet video of my travels to the Carib Territory and Emerald Pool here in Dominica (shot many months ago). Also, since I now have a cool new player scene, you can view all my videos now here. A HUGE thanks to ma man Micah. He made this all possible. I love having a computer geek for a boyfriend. (It may take a few minutes to load, so please be patient.)
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I finally got what I asked for. I’ve entered into the clinical years of my medical education. Today, I started learning how to do a physical exam. We only began with the basics: learning how to greet the patient, do a general survey, and take vital signs. As my fellow students and I sat in a half circle around the patient, our professor talked about things we should be paying attention to, such as how the patient is sitting and even the clothes they’re wearing. We all sat around in our “professional” attire, white coats and black bags full of instruments, of which most of us barely even knew the names.
Up until this point in med school, I’ve had no reason to get dressed up. Since I live on a tropical island and the nicest restaurant I visit is a sub shop, I never have the occasion to wear anything more than a pair of shorts, a tank top, and some flip-flops. As I mentioned before, since I haven’t had any real patient interaction, my white coat has been collecting dust in my closet for eight months. I’ve opened my black bag to use my stethoscope and sphygmomanometer to take some innocent bystanders’ blood pressures, and I’ve smacked my boyfriend a few times with my reflex hammer (don’t even get him started about the time I decided to do caloric stimulation on him and poured cold water in his ear). But other than that, I haven’t really done much in the realm of what I’ll eventually be doing every day as a doctor.
So, today as I sat all dressed up in my white coat with my stethoscope hung proudly around my neck, I must admit that I felt pretty strange. I thought that doing real “doctor stuff” would make me feel like more of a real doctor. But oddly enough, it actually made me feel like more of a fake doctor. As I listened to the real doctor spout off every characteristic of the pulse that one is supposed to take note of when taking the vital signs, I felt a wave of inferiority wash over me. Right now, I can’t tell the difference between a bisferiens pulse and a pulsus alternans. Actually, I don’t even know how to correctly pronounce them!
When it was time for me to approach the patient, I felt like a little kid standing in front of my patient in a big white coat. I wasn’t a real doctor; I was just dressing up in my mom’s oversized doctor clothes. As I fumbled to find my patient’s carotid pulse, I imagined the sleeves of the coat dangling over my fingers and making me clumsy and incapable of finding the pulse.
I eventually made it through the exam without falling over or poking a hole in my innocent patient’s neck, but it certainly didn’t go as I had imagined it would. I sincerely hope that I only felt this way because I’m just beginning to actually learn about the hands-on side of being a doctor. I wonder if any of you med students or physicians out there has ever had this happen to you. Am I the only one who’s ever felt like they’re just playing doctor?
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I finally took my first trip to a hospital since I started med school. Several students and I went to a small hospital, located a few miles from our campus. It only had 11 beds, but almost all of them were filled with a variety of patients. I’ve spent many years in hospitals as a psychiatric technician, and as a volunteer, and even once or twice as a patient, but this was my first time in a hospital as a medical student. I actually wore my white coat and toured all the rooms with the doctor who ran the hospital. Now, I know for all you seasoned med students and physicians out there, this might not seem like a big deal, but it certainly was for me!
We first went around with the doctor from room to room, and he described each patient’s case and asked us various questions about the anatomy and pathology of their conditions. I was so thrilled to actually be applying the information that I’d previously only used to fill in multiple-choice answers on exams. I was surprised and elated to find that I could answer many of the questions that he asked! At one point, as we were examining a patient with a hydrocele of his testis, the doctor pulled out a cardboard box containing a few specimen containers. He nonchalantly opened the specimen container and pulled out a testicle that had been removed from a previous patient. As he pointed to the epididymis and described how enlarged the testicle had become, I was filled with enthusiasm! It might seem strange, but finally I could apply my knowledge of anatomy to answer real questions about real patients! Yes, I know that I am a huge dork. (But I have a suspicion that there are many of you out there that felt the same way the first time.)
After we toured the hospital, each of the students was assigned a patient to perform a full history on. This being the first time that I had taken a history from a real patient, I was a little nervous, but after introducing myself and talking to the patient for a few moments, I felt completely at ease. As I took the woman’s history, I tried to remember all the relevant questions that I had learned to ask. I found myself blanking a few times, but I remembered to ask most of the important questions.
After finishing the history, I re-joined the group, and our attending physician asked each of us to give a presentation of our patient. Since no one else would volunteer to go first, I agreed to begin. I wasn’t exactly sure how to present the case, or which order to go through the information. And I was surprised to find myself nervous when standing in front of the physician and fellow med students while giving my presentation. I know I made a million mistakes, but that was actually the point. The attending told me that I did a pretty good job, though I mixed up the order of a few items. I was so relieved once it was all over, even though I realized that I had missed a few questions that I should have asked the patient.
I’m beginning to see that my previous experience working in hospitals is quite advantageous, but I still have a lot to learn about being a good history taker. I’ve seen many histories performed, and I know all the questions to ask, but I now realize that once you’re faced with your patient, it’s easy to forget everything you know! I’m so delighted, though, about actually interacting with real patients and learning their stories. I still have very far to go, and a lot to learn, but I couldn’t be more excited about the long road ahead!
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Here’s a random pic that Micah took a while back. I’m encouraging Scope to be a male model. He has the looks, and the brains…. 
You Spin Me Around
Yeah I, I got to know your name
Well and I, could trace your private number baby
All I know is that to me
You look like you’re lots of fun
Open up your lovin’ arms
I want some
Well I…I set my sights on you
(and no one else will do)
Read more »
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This is for all you path lovers out there. And no, this was not from my fibroadeoma. I never got to see mine, but I bet it wasn’t as cool as this one!
A dog was discovered hiding in a fibroadenoma excised from the right breast of a 30-year-old woman. The dog is small (<0.1 cm), with a hematoxylin-eosin color coat, erect ears, and bushy tail. We are unsure if the dog has been spayed or neutered, but it is definitely fixed (play on the word "fix": fresh tissue of a surgical specimen must be "fixed" (usually overnight) in formalin before proceeding to paraffin embedding of the tissue and preparation of the glass microscope slide).
Thanks to Dr. Catroppo for sending this!
Credit: Weinrach DM and Laskin WB. Lost dog. Arch Pathol Lab Med 2003; 127(11): 1531
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I’ve now begun my second year of med school, and I feel energized once again. Unlike most U.S. schools, my school is based on a trimester system. Instead of taking the summer off, I’m already starting my second year classes. I consider this to be quite an advantage, because I’ll end up completing the equivalent of four years of med school in a little over three years. While this means that I have to give up the rest and recovery I’d get with a summer break, I like the fact that I don’t have to worry about losing momentum.
Second year is already way more fun than first. I spent the first two semesters here taking classes like anatomy and biochemistry which demonstrate how the body is “supposed” to work. With classes like pathology and microbiology, I’m finally starting to learn about what happens when stuff goes wrong.
As I look back on the last few weeks of my first year of med school, I realize that I was beginning to lose momentum. I stopped getting excited about watching lectures and my motivation to study was beginning to dwindle. Now that I’m taking new subjects and learning about various diseases, I am once again excited about learning and discovering what happens when things go wrong with the human body. I’ve also started an Introduction to Clinical Medicine course, so I will soon be learning how to perform physical exams, and I’ll actually get to have patient interaction.
So far, my favorite class is definitely pathology. The word pathology comes from the Greek word, “pathos,” meaning suffering. Being a doctor requires learning about the causes of suffering, and doing everything one can do to prevent the suffering of patients. Now that I’m beginning to understand the mechanisms involved with various diseases, and hence potential causes of suffering, I’m beginning to feel like more and more of a doctor-to-be.
I purchased a white coat to wear for our school’s induction ceremony nine months ago, but I haven’t worn it since then. Because I will finally get to wear it again this semester, I recently rummaged through my closet to make sure that it hadn’t been eaten by lizards or any of the other critters that live in my closet. As I pulled it out and wiped off the dust and sand, I found a piece of paper that I received during my white coat ceremony. Being the terribly cheesy and nostalgic person that I am, I re-read the inscribed words, and they reminded me of one line from the Hippocratic oath: “I will preserve the purity of my life and my arts.” Although there are parts of the oath that I disagree with, I think these are nice words to live by, and not just for physicians. Now that my motivation level is up again, I feel like I can actually begin living by those words again. With that in mind, here goes second year!
Click Here To View the Original Post on Medscape
My name is Kendra and I am a newly minted doctor about to begin my residency in Psychiatry at The State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. I attended Ross University School of Medicine, and went through my basic science training on the Nature Island of Dominica, hence the name of this blog. I am a life enthusiast. I talk to strangers, cut the tags off of my pillows, and I don’t carry an umbrella with me because I prefer to get wet.
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