Updates and Blog on the Move

WE HAVE MOVED TO: A Theory of Living        

Wow, I started this blog almost ten years ago now, and unfortunately it got lost in the shuffle along the way.  Given how hard medical school and residency were, I guess that's not a surprise.

What does surprise me is that this blog still actually receives a decent amount of traffic.  Maybe that tells you something about all the lost or scared pre-meds, medical students, and residents (or even attendings) there are out there.

In any event, I have moved over to A Theory of Living.  Check it out.  Let's continue this journey together.

Shelf Woes

WE HAVE MOVED TO: A Theory of Living  

As any third year medical student can tell you, shelf exams are a bummer.  You spend your 4-12 weeks learning all you can about the way Ob/IM/FM/Surgery/whatever is practiced in the real world, then at the end of it, in the last week or two, you're supposed to pour a book's worth of knowledge into your brain.  The incredibly frustrating thing is that what is done in practice vs what is done on a test doesn't always match up... but you're expected to know both versions.

All in all, though, I've found them largely easier than first and second year tests (except the Surgery shelf, that was hard).  That probably has something to do with the fact that, even if the above issue crops up from time to time, you've more or less run around a hospital for several weeks practicing what's on the shelf exam.  That's real time learning and experiential learning.

Anyway, I say all this to explain that I have a shelf exam on Friday and will be largely absent from here until then.  Good luck to other medical students with Shelfs.  And especially good luck to second years.  It hasn't quite hit yet, but second year starts to get a little dark some time in the next month or two.

Noncompliance

I think one of the most frustrating things to deal with in the medical profession is noncompliance amongst patients.

I can understand when patients are not compliant with diet and exercise regimens or with quitting smoking.  Even though, in many cases, those are the bigger problems and ones that most need getting fixed, I can appreciate that those aspects of a person's life are profoundly hard to change.  As someone who works hard to find time to exercise and hates the most vegetables but forces them down anyway, I find myself personally frustrated with patients that won't do the basics to improve their diet and exercise, but at least I get it.  Quitting smoking and losing weight are statistically two of the hardest things in the entire world to do.

Ophthalmology Rotation Review

I did an elective in Ophthalmology a while back.

Looking back, I know that I did it for a lot of the wrong reasons.  Fresh off my fantastic surgery rotation, I was essentially looking around for specialties that would allow me to be a surgeon without suffering through a miserable surgery residency.

Med School Stress and Survival Skills

WE HAVE MOVED TO: A Theory of Living  

Today I thought I'd write about stress in medical school.  We've all seen it.  We've all had it.  Even the rosiest and happiest people in school can still feel it from time to time. 

This article may come across dark, and that's okay.  It's not supposed to be an indictment of hospital life or anything like that.  I just want to recognize the stress, take a look at some sources, and reach out.  There are a lot of medical students and healthcare professionals that let it get to them, let it get them down.  This article is for them more than anyone else, to say that yes it's there.  And in future articles we'll explore some coping mechanisms.

Where Am I Now?

WE HAVE MOVED TO: A Theory of Living  

It's been a couple years since I've updated the blog with my current status.  I think it's time to remedy that.

For an update on me...

The Hiatus

I would like to issue a short apology to my readers, or at least the people who used to be my readers.  Looking back at the data, it appears that the blog was just starting to take off right around the time when I stopped writing it.  I wish I had kept it up, because I really wanted to produce something that would touch and affect like minded pre-meds or medical students or even healthcare practitioners.

I think writing is one of those things that I have to make a point to do every day, or I fall off the wagon hard.  If I skip one day because of life or whatever, then it's really easy for me to convince myself to skip the next day.  Because of life.  Or whatever.  Then the day after it's just whatever.

Well, I'm back into writing now.  I've written every day for a couple of months now.  I can't promise that'll turn into an article even every other day, but I can say that'll it will definitely turn into an article from time to time.

Also, as a related side note, if any of my older readers find their way back, I would love to post guest posts from you here.  One of the themes that will become apparent in the future of this blog is how my thoughts and feelings on medicine and being a medical student have evolved and matured since the time when I first started this blog as a pre-med.  I know many of you were pre-meds around the time I was, and I would love to include your perspectives.

Surgery Clerkship Review

I'm not going to lie.  I was dreading the Surgery Clerkship.

I don't particularly like being miserable - that sounds like an obvious statement for anyone to make, but I can assure you as you get to know medical students, you will find that some people not only love it but thrive on it.  Anyway, I don't particularly like being miserable, and I don't mean to be a drama queen, but I hate being tired.

Exam Week Thoughts

We have an exam coming up.  A big one.  I have been good and stressed out and overworked and in a generally foul mood.  I'm not sleeping well.

It happens.

But I was walking home from a review session today, and I went by the main hospital.  I looked in the window and saw this poor little girl who was about 5 or 6 years old sitting in a wheelchair.  She looked pretty sick.  I couldn't begin to guess what was wrong with her, but it looked bad.

Med School

Sorry I never post anymore.  Unfortunately, medical school really sucks.  To all the future medical students reading this, you have been warned!

Best,
The Med Student

Paleo Diet - Heart Health Success Story!

          Heart disease runs in my father's side of the family.  My grandfather has had a heart attack or two, and it seems all the males in that lineage have high cholesterol.  I probably wouldn't like my numbers, but I'm too busy refusing doctors attempts to check.

          However, there is some good news.  My father, after being put on a statin a few years ago, finally decided to come around and give my wacky Paleo/Track Your Plaque diet ideas a shot.  It took some tweaking and more than a few long phone calls, but he has had a pretty good handle on the diet for the last few months.

Education Bubble???

          I thought this was an interesting article that dealt with some ideas I have been toying with lately.  It in part deals with the idea of there being an education bubble in our country.  I'm sure many of you have heard the phrase or even joked to others that a college degree is the new high school degree (thus making a masters or higher degree the new college degree).  While we may joke about it, I tend to think that's actually becoming a reality.

          This evidence is definitely anecdotal, but a lot of the kids that went to my high school and went on to get a college degree are currently unemployed or at jobs you would consider to be far below their educational level (ex cashier at Borders with no other plans on the horizon).  Many of them are going back to school for masters degrees they don't particularly need or want.  Friends of mine have confirmed seeing similar results in their acquaintances.

Reflecting on the New iPad

          The new iPad has been here for a while now, so maybe this review is a little old.  I got mine on the first day of deliveries.  It arrived early, at 10 AM, but when the doorbell rang, I knew it could be nothing else.  I was still asleep (no, I wasn't working that Friday, and yes, I have been a bit of a bum this year), but I was so excited I lept out of bed and answered the door in my boxers.

          Yes, that happened.  The mail guy was actually pretty cool about it.

It's Here

          As I mentioned way back in this post, I have to determined, without any question, that I not only want an iPad... I need an iPad.

          Sure.  Maybe my reasoning was a little thin.  Maybe I made a few leaps of logic in a rather difficult attempt to justify a near $1000 luxury purchase... but I think I still managed to get there.  It's worth it.  I think.  Humor aside though, I do think I can make a convincing argument that an iPad will be very helpful in medical school.  I'm just not quite sure if it's a 700 dollar argument.

Robot Doctors In Our Future?

WE HAVE MOVED TO: A Theory of Living  

       I just read this article, concerned with the possibility of doctors one day being replaced by robots.  I thought it was very interesting.  I am a bit of a technophile, and the thought of an iRobot style world, with robots to help us with all the different aspects of our lives literally makes me giddy.  Seriously... how cool would that be?

Awesome, or scary?  Your call.

          So I was reading about iRobot (a robotics company, not the movie this time) and how they have put a 6 million dollar investment into the healthcare company InTouch Health.  iRobot recently developed Ava, a robot with a tablet (Android or Apple or whatever) for a head and a robots body.  They are hoping that this robot, the first step along the way towards personal robots, would be able to be used in a healthcare setting in the near future.  This could be something simple, such as following doctors to help them manage patients' information or vitals or whatever, to something more complex such as educating patients about their disease when other healthcare professionals are occupied.  I thought this was really cool!

Peyton

          Although it's been a long time in coming, Peyton Manning was officially released from the Colts today.  The press conference and his farewell speech were heartbreaking, upsetting enough that I can't actually recommend anyone watch it.   His voice was hoarse, and he was close to tears through the whole thing.  He was a stand up guy, though, and I really hope he does well on whatever team he ends up with in the next few weeks (hopefully not the Broncos or the Chiefs, two Raiders rivals that are apparently in the hunt).

Application Update - Two More Interviews

It's all about finding your fit.

          In the last month, I had two more interviews.  These were an interesting set, because they closely followed each other, and my feelings toward them were so different.

          Part of what has been interesting about this whole process is going to different schools and seeing what does and doesn't work for me.  Honestly, my way of thinking about schools has undergone a massive evolution over the course of this application cycle.  Now, I usually don't even bother asking about the things that were important to me at the first school or two I interviewed at, while I have discovered that a couple other key questions - that I originally never put much thought into - are extremely important.

Bora Wear

          My friend is starting a clothing company centered around African apparel.  Check out his website here.

          I think it's pretty ballsy for him to go straight from graduation to starting up his own company.  The shirts look pretty cool, so check it out!  I'll definitely be picking one out.

The Artist

          Last week, I saw The Artist with my girlfriend.  My mom and sister both raved about it to me and told me we absolutely had to see it.  I didn't know much about it, but I vaguely thought it might be the silent film.  On the way in we found out that not only was it a silent film, but it was also filmed in black and white.  I immediately assumed that anyone who liked it was being pretentious (now you know that neither my mom nor sister read my blog) and that it would be bad.

          And I was wrong.  This movie was very good.  My girlfriend and I both loved it, and we both went in there thinking that the silent film thing would be dumb.  We joked that we both wanted to dislike and came out as complete converts.   The story is great, and the silent film aspect adds a nice layer.  I felt like it caused the audience to be more engaged, as you had to make a little bit more of an effort to understand what was going on.  It was also just a nice change of pace, and some of the more dramatic moments came out really well with the actors "mugging" their emotions to us.

Rejection Season

WE HAVE MOVED TO: A Theory of Living  

 
       It would seem it's about that time of year for us pre-meds in our application cycles.  What time?  Yes.  Rejection season.  That time of the year when those 10 schools you haven't heard a peep from since they charged you 100+ dollars for their secondary (scam!), let you know that they aren't interested.

          I have been remarkably rejection free up until the last several weeks, having only received three until February (Georgetown, BU, and Cornell).  Yes.  Cornell was one of the first schools to reject me.  I have to make two admissions here.  First, I was never deeply interested in Cornell.  Second, it definitely still stung when they shot me down, since I went to undergrad there.