Island Med Student

Well, it’s Halloween today. Unfortunately, I won’t be partaking in any fun activities. I have a day full of studying for my upcoming exam, meetings, and listening to fake heart and lung sounds on fake men with leg amputations. The locals don’t celebrate Halloween on the island, but the kids who go to the day school on campus do. They’ll be looking all cute today in their costumes and walking around campus giving out candy. (Isn’t it sad that you have to GIVE candy to med students instead of getting it FROM them?) Anyway, I’m trying to keep my eye on the prize. Only 6 more days until my exam. And then I’m taking a well deserved break to visit a neighboring island. The pic above was taken on Halloween, 2005 in NYC. It’s me and my bestest bud Circus Boy, on his rooftop overlooking Chinatown. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

My world is very bizarre. As I’ve mentioned before, I live in a very small town on a small island in the Caribbean. The country is not very developed. The closest grocery store to me is not what I would actually call a grocery store. There are no fast food restaurants (except for a Subway on campus). There is no Starbucks or Target or Barnes and Nobles. I live on the top of a trail, surrounded by other med students, cows, goats, and the occasional chicken. I don’t have a car, a dishwasher, a toaster, a stereo, or really much of anything besides my laptop. These are all things I once owned.

Don’t get me wrong; I really do love living minimally. It’s a refreshing change from how I once lived in the States (not that I lived in excess, but I definitely had a lot more). But there are times when all I want to do is go out to a nice sushi restaurant, or go see a movie at a theatre, or play some billiards at the local pool hall.

I also miss my friends and family. I haven’t seen them in about six months. I want to be able to call up a friend and have dinner with them, or go to my parents’ farm and drink good coffee in the garden.

Because I live in such an isolated area, with nothing but med students as far as the eye can see, I don’t really ever feel like a med student. It’s difficult to explain, but imagine if the only people you knew were med students or doctors. You’d never form a real identity. You’d just be like everyone else.

I’m wondering how different things will be when I come back to the States in a few months. I’ll be finishing my third and fourth years of med school in U.S. hospitals. That means I’ll be living in the “real world” again. I’ll be able to see my friends, drink Starbucks coffee, and perhaps I’ll even get my old car to work again.

But most importantly, I’ll suddenly be a med student surrounded by thousands of other people who have nothing to do with med school. I’m hoping that I’ll actually be able to form some type of identity. I’ll be different. I’ll be able to taste life on the other side.

I know that I will miss this island for so many reasons. The beauty all around me here is magnificent. And I’ll miss not having a car, or a toaster, or 5,000 different restaurant options. (Hey, at least here you never have to choose where you’re going to eat!) I guess I have somewhat mixed feelings about everything. I want to step back into reality, but at the same time, I know that I’m going to miss my little piece of paradise here.

I’m looking forward to having an actual identity, though. At least I’m hoping that is what will happen. I might find out that I’m just as confused surrounded by lawyers and politicians and police officers as I am surrounded by hundreds of med students everyday. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Click Here To View the Original Post on Medscape

I’m over half way through this semester and I’m definitely starting to feel the burn. I have my second big exam in 9 days. I still have so much to do!

I went to a halloween party on the island last night. I wasn’t going to go (given my huge study load), but I finally decided that I earned a little break. Since I’m in Dominica with limited access to costumes or costume materials, I had to improvise. I came up with my costume in about 5 minutes. I decided to go as a frat boy. If you’ve seen Aqua Teen Hunger Force’s rendition of alien frat boys, then you can understand how much fun it was for me to get into character. (I’m not too fond of frat boys.) I can’t remember how many times I said, “dude, she’s like a moped—fun to ride until your friends see” and “dude, this party is a total sausage fest.”

I just read an article about a company making treadmill desktops. All I can say is IT’S ABOUT TIME!! Probably the WORST thing about my last job was that I had to sit at a desk the entire day. It was absolute torture! Ask anyone who knew me. I was constantly complaining about having restless legs (no, not the syndrome), and I had to go on frequent walks just to maintain my sanity. It’s NOT NATURAL! I’d go as far to say that the two largest influences causing obesity and sedentary lifestyles in the US are television and desk jobs. (Of course the Internet is up there as well.) I had talked about inventing little stand alone bicycle pedals that you cut put under your desk, but of course I never did. I’m so glad someone finally invented something that might work. I expect that they won’t sell all that well, but I’d like to think they will. If I were still at a desk job, you can bet I’d get one of them suckers. Obviously I don’t care how stupid they look, but other people might. But what looks more stupid? Walking on a treadmill and working at the same time? Or sitting on your big ass everyday until it ultimately kills you? (Pardon my hostility, but I really do loathe desk jobs.)

• Heart Sounds
  More heart sounds!
  (tags: clinical)
• The Auscultation Assistant
  A good way to learn heart sounds
  (tags: clinical)
• WebPath: The Internet Pathology Laboratory
  This is a gold standard for path!
  (tags: pathology)

Every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you’ll never get back…

Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you smile.

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we’re here we should dance…

First let me say that I have been slacking with my blog lately. I haven’t been posting as often as I’d like. I promise to remedy that soon.

In the meantime, please check out my doggy bondage pic. I have become the person I swore I never would become. My dogs are wearing shock collars. I have always been adamantly opposed to the things. I thought it was cruel to the poor little doggies. But now that I have puppies who are literally out of control (involved in a goat killing, barking at little kids, tearing apart my house), I’ve decided that they need to be trained better. And it was just not working without the collars. They had their first training session today. I think this is really going to help turn them into well behaved doggies. I still feel guilty about it, but I did first try the collar on myself, and it really doesn’t hurt at all.

But they look so funny in their little collars. Like they’re going to a doggy bondage show.

I woke up this morning with a headache and sore neck. I immediately concluded that I had meningitis. Of course, there’s no way that my symptoms could have been related to the fact that I slept with my neck in a strange position and that I was a bit dehydrated.

This isn’t the first time that I’ve had medical issues since I started med school. In the past year I’ve diagnosed myself with scoliosis, infectious mononucleosis, breast cancer, hyperthyroidism, a diphyllobothrium latum infestation, bacterial endocarditis, and leptospirosis. I guess that does seem like a tad bit much, don’t you think?

I have been struck with a nasty case of med student syndrome. Whenever I learn about a new condition or disease in school, I immediately begin exhibiting the symptoms. This is actually a pretty common occurrence amongst medical students. When we become ill, we hear hoof beats and think it’s the zebra.

I guess I could handle just diagnosing myself with all these illnesses and leaving it at that. Unfortunately, though, the med student syndrome is starting to spread. My poor partner has been devastated to find out from me that he has squamous cell carcinoma, irritable bowel syndrome, hepatosplenomegaly, complete left lung atelectasis, myasthenia gravis, and congestive heart failure. I think that it’s been quite devastating to him, especially considering that he’s only 33 years old (and he also had the audacity to question how he could be walking around with a collapsed lung and not know about it!).

Not only have I diagnosed myself with a myriad of problems, but I’m also convinced that I’ll likely be dying in the near future. I’ve been taking microbiology and pathology for the past five months, and I’ve learned about hundreds of ways the body can malfunction or be attacked. I’m scared to death that I’m going to get salmonella from my morning eggs, and I know that it’s only a matter of time before I get diagnosed with some type of cancer.

I haven’t figured out how to come to terms with the hundreds of diseases that I’ve learned about in the past year. I mean, if you sit back and think about all the possible things that can go wrong with the human body, it’s amazing that people aren’t hospitalized their whole lives. Okay, so I know that I should actually wise up and focus on the beauty of the human body, and the miracle that it works as well as it does. I guess I should use the knowledge that I have not to worry about what could possibly go wrong, but instead to appreciate the fact that I am currently in pretty good health (except, of course, for the meningitis).

Click Here To View the Original Post on Medscape

As I was walking home from campus today I was reminded of all the things that I enjoy on a regular basis. I always wave to the groundskeeper lady, and ask her how her day was. I greet the security guards. I say hello to the lady who sells fruits, vegetables and bread. I sometimes stop at the other lady who sells fruits and veggies and buy some fruit or incense. I look up at Tomatoes and wave to anyone who happens to be eating on the balcony or drinking a Kubuli. I stop at the Ren Brothers house and play with the Ren brothers for a few minutes. They always ask me if we’re still going to the beach on Sunday, and I always tell them yes. I say hello to Ashton Alexander, the nice old gentleman with only a few teeth left who still works building apartments in the hot sun every day. I wave to my laundry man Augustus, and say hello to the ladies who work there, Sandra and Latoya. I stare at the beautiful sun as it sets against the palm and coconut trees. I stop and say hello to the construction workers who are building a huge apartment across from me and always listen to Reggae music very loudly.

And then I open my apartment door, and wait for my puppies to charge me and try to knock me down. They jump on me and lick me while I try to put on their leashes.

All these things make me smile. They happen every day. I guess it’s sort of comforting. I’m comforted knowing that people know who I am. They know that I will always wave and say hello. I feel secure knowing that the sun will always set, and that it will always bring me joy.

But then, as I enter into my apartment, I’m suddenly filled with sadness. I know that the next hours to come will involve me sitting in the same spot, studying the same way, using the same highlighters. My apartment didn’t get any cleaner while I was gone. The dishes still need to be done and I’ll have to prepare something for dinner. Most likely it will be one of the three dishes that I cook, or I’ll order from one of the same three restaurants.

It never really gets exciting. Usually the highlight of my evening is a cool picture from pathology or the occasional nice email from a friend.

But the monotony can be depressing. It makes me realize how boring my life really is most of the time.

However, take a look at the sunset above. That was from a few nights ago. How can I be depressed when there is beauty such as that all around me?

I think I need to remember the things that make me smile. Perhaps I can find comfort in the fact that some of the good things never change, and that I have the ability to change the things that really matter.

Here’s the recipe:

1 cup Kendra who has way too much studying that she actually should be doing
2 1/2 cups Kendra missing her friend Laura very much
2 teaspoons of Krumpin
2 puppies who are always down for dancin
5 1/2 cups of Kendra who never minds making a fool of herself in living color

= Clownin Out – The Music Video