Island Med Student

Tina Alexander from Lifeline Ministries here in Dominica just shared with me the story of Stanley, a five year old accident victim who is currently in the ICU at Princess Margaret Hospital.

“He desperately needs to be moved to Martinique, because no one can underwrite the EC$68,000 needed to provide a bank draft, which must be presented in advance. This only covers 8 days in the ICU. They hope that the man who hit him on Sunday will be able to get the money reimbursed from his insurance (they only pay after they see how much it is going to cost in total!) but there are no guarantees.”

If you can help in any way, please contact Tina Alexander at lifeline@cwdom.dm.

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I took my pathology lab exam today. I kicked myself in the butt because I remembered the right answer to one of the questions when I got home, but I think I probably did okay.

As a follow up to yesterday’s post, the owner of the goat ended up picking her up and taking her into their house. I gave them some antiseptic wash to use. I think she’s going to be just fine. They buried the other goaty. Thanks Maci, for your offer! Don’t be surprised if I end up having to take you up on it in the future.

When I finished my exam, I came home and started studying for pharm. My motivation to study level right now is about a 1 on a 1-10 scale. I hate memorizing drug names. It’s pretty much the most un-fun thing to study. Why does the human body have to have so many damn channels? It’s like memorizing all the channels on TV, and which shows come on at which time. I just don’t care.

Anyway, I’m sitting here forcing myself to do it. It reminds me of drinking cough medicine. I turn into the biggest wimp of all time. I simply HATE swallowing disgusting medicine. I’m a little baby about it. I have to bribe myself with candy or juice to get the job done. Maybe I should make some juice, and use it to swallow all this pharm. A succinylcholine grapefruit blend!

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Check out my post on Medscape about me discovering an octopus in a vagina while doing a pelvic exam.

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What do they all have in common? Nothing, other than the fact that they’ve been my life for the past 24 hours. Do let me explain.

I made it through my clinical skills exam yesterday. I’ll be writing a whole article about the experience for Medscape, but let’s just say that it was interesting. I was nervous as all hell. I ended up getting “examine the pupillary reflexes” and “do a pelvic exam” as tasks. I then had to do a cardiac exam and diagnose mitral regurg on a mannequin with a heart beat, and perform an entire exam for someone presenting with angina.

After the exam, I celebrated with my friends. Neha, Manny and I all decided to dye our hair. I have almost two months until I have to be “professional” again (aka, in the hospital), so I decided to celebrate by changing my hair color. It’s a funtastic shade of bright pink right now!

When we returned home last night, I suddenly heard the sounds of a goat crying in distress. Micah and I were horrified to discover several dogs attacking two goats across the street from us. One of the goats was barely hanging on, and we realized that his wounds were fatal (deep neck puncture wound). The other goat was severely shaken up, but her wounds were less severe. I ended up carrying her in a towel to the fenced in yard of a neighbor, to keep the dogs away. Today, I cleaned her wounds and got her to drink some water and eat some grass. I think she’s going to be okay, but I am so scared to return her to her home. Unfortunately, her owners don’t have a fence, so they keep her tied to a tree. This means she’s basically bait for the neighborhood dogs. I don’t know what to do. I want to kidnap her and import her back to the States to live on my parents’ goat farm, but Micah doesn’t seem to agree with this idea (nor did he like the “let’s adopt her and house train her” idea).

If that wasn’t enough excitement for the day, a few minutes ago the house started shaking. A cup fell off the table, and I thought the world was coming to an end for a moment. Our dutch neighbor ran out into the street in his underwear, waving a kitchen knife around and mumbling something in Dutch. It turns out that I just experienced the biggest earthquake of my life. It was rated a 7.3 on the Richter scale. It was pretty freakin cool. I hope no one on the island was injured.

Anyway, today is “study for the path lab tomorrow” day, so I have to get back to mitotic figures and glomerulonephritis. But first, I’m going to go check on the goaty. I think I will name her Jasmine.

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MGK commented on my last blog entry and asked me how I plan to tackle my upcoming exams. Of course, being the huge geek and OCD having person that I am, I have an extensive plan. Here’s the abbreviated version, to avoid boring you all to tears (actually, it probably will anyway).

Tuesday, November 27
Study pathology from Mini 3 / practice ICM techniques

Wednesday, November 28
Introduction to Clinical Medicine Practical Exam

Thursday, November 29
Study pathology from Mini 1 and 2

Friday, November 30
Pathology Lab Final Exam

Saturday, December 1
Review high yield path / do USMLE practice questions for path

Sunday, December 2
Study Pharmacology from mini 3

Monday, December 3
Pathology Shelf Exam
Review Pharm Mini 2 and 3

Tuesday, December 4
Review high yield pharm / do USMLE practice questions for pharm

Wednesday, December 5
Pharmacology Shelf Exam
Review Micro Minis 1-3

Thursday, December 6
Review high yield micro / do USMLE practice questions for micro

Friday, December 7
Microbiology Shelf Exam

Saturday, December 8
Review ICM Minis 1-3

Sunday, December 9
Review high yield ICM / do USMLE practice questions for ICM

Monday, December 10
ICM Shelf Exam

Tuesday, December 11 - Thursday, December 13
Review all Mini 3 material / do USMLE practice questions for all

Friday, December 14
Mini 3 Exam

Saturday, December 15 - Wednesday, December 19
Study ALL subjects (yes, ALL, including from previous classes) / do USMLE practice questions

Thursday, December 20
Comprehensive Basic Science Exam

Friday, December 21
Recover from hangover / get on a plane to Washington DC

I’ve actually been reviewing / doing questions for the USMLE Step 1 for months now, so I feel like I’m in pretty good shape. But I still have a lot that I’m fuzzy on.

Bet you wished you hadn’t asked, eh?

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It’s official. I have received all of the basic sciences formal instruction for my medical education! I have no more lectures in basic sciences. For the next three weeks, I will be studying and reviewing all the material that I have learned over the past 15 months. I have 8 exams to take, including a huge exam that will cover all of the basic sciences and allow me to sit for the USLME Step 1. It’s been a long road. I still have so much to review. I definitely don’t know everything, but I sure do know a helluvalot more than I did 15 months ago. Body, grant me the strength to make it through the upcoming marathon exams.

On an unrelated note, Micah managed to surprise me and acquire mussels for dinner tonight. Mussels are one of my very most favorite foods. They don’t exist in Dominica (that I know of). He managed to smuggle them into the country and cook them for dinner tonight. MMMMMM, mussels! They shall give me the strength to divide and conquer! Carpe diem!

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Check out my post on Medscape (written on Friday) regarding celebrating black friday here in Dominica.

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I always have lots of ideas of ways to give back to the community. Unfortunately, due to my busy schedule, I often feel like I don’t have enough time to really make a difference. Today, I got to live out a dream. I had the idea to provide a meal and party to the residents of the Grange, an elderly home in Portsmouth. After a lot of planning, we had the event today. I’m so grateful to everyone who volunteered to make food and/or serve. You all made it possible! Everyone had so much fun. Micah, thank you so much for your help! We made little turkey decorations for each of the residents. I found lots of old calypso music, which the residents absolutely loved. The food was amazing. I had many students come up to me and thank me for having the event. That, combined with the thanks from the residents and staff, and all the smiles, is what really made it all worthwhile. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Thanksgiving when so far away from family. Today was one of those days that makes happiness tangible.

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This is my second Thanksgiving in Dominica. Once again, it feels nothing like Thanksgiving. It’s in the 80’s here. I don’t get the day off. My family is no where to be seen. I will probably not be eating turkey (or tofurkey).

But I still do have so much to be thankful for. I am in good health. I have a loving family that I will be seeing soon. I have a loving partner, Micah. I’m living my dream of going to medical school. There is a beach less than five minutes away.

Anyway, happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Note: The pic was taken several years ago around this time of the year. It’s the street outside my house in Arlington, Virginia. It seems so many miles away!

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I’m in a strange mood right now. I had one of those days that starts out really fabulous, then gets better, and then suddenly gets worse. I had my second visit to the hospital of this semester. It was awesome. I went to a geriatric clinic (I have a million things to write about that) and then we got to see two really neat clinical cases. One was a healthy 27-year old male who had a severe ventricular septal defect. He had a thrill that you could literally feel by just hovering your hand over his chest. Yet, he somehow had absolutely no symptoms. The second case was a man with an upper motor neuron lesion. I never truly understood what “hyperreflexivity” or “lead pipe rigidity” meant until today. It was amazing. And he still managed to drive his car!

Then, when I came home, things started going down hill. I realized how behind I am with my studying, and found out that all the clinical rooms are booked until my exam. How am I supposed to study? Anyway, I don’t want to go off into a rant.

The point? I had an amazing day today, and learned a lot, but I’m so busy and frustrated that I might explode. More to come….

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