Monday, March 29, 2010

Well that was interesting

So I finally completed the female exam this past weekend. I have to say, it wasn't nearly as good as the male exam. Not that I am passing judgement on anybody's parts or anything, it's just that this time I had to go in with a couple of guys I didn't know, it took a lot longer, and there was no "Yay!"-ing after we completed different portions of the exam. No, this time we had a standardized patient who was really tired and kept telling us to wake her up if she fell asleep, and a hippy-ish older woman directing us on how to perform the exam. She totally seemed like she would of been at home in a pair of birkenstocks, and when one of the guys asked her about painkillers during childbirth, I could tell it was a struggle for her not to go off on a tangent about how it was bad for the baby, and not natural, and so on (not that I have a problem with childbirth either way - I say do whatever you're comfortable with - it just wasn't an appropriate time to discuss it, what with the standardized patient falling asleep in the stirrups and all). Add to that a couple of guys who seemed really nervous, and one who was practicing his bi-manual exam technique in the corner, and it was an interesting morning.

It's weird though. I talked to someone afterwards, and we both agreed that you go in, you try to act as professional as possible, you immediately get over seeing some stranger's naughty bits, you do your thing, and then you leave,and it's not until after you leave that you look back and think, "I just DID that? I just did THAT! What the hell?!"

Monday, March 15, 2010

Wow.

That actually wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Even thinking about it now is worse than the actual event. It helped that our standardized patient was the same guy in all the online videos we watched last year to learn the head-to-toe exam, so it was kind of like learning with an old friend! And old friend who is now in the flesh, and in the buff!

It also helped that we worked in groups of three, and I got to go in with some pretty kick ass girls, A and N. There were lots of "yays!" and "oh, that's what it feels like!" and there may have even been some happy dancing when we each completed the exam. Our standardized patient cheered right along with us, and was totally awesome at making us feel comfortable and at ease, even when his cell phone alarm went off right as A was about to start the prostate exam. That was slightly awkward, but we all laughed it off and joked that it was actually a buzzer because A failed.

Now on to the female exam in a couple of weeks!

Friday, March 12, 2010

Pray for me

Because tomorrow morning I will have to do what I have been dreading all year long. The male exam.

That's right. Testicle, hernia, rectal, and prostate, bright and early tomorrow morning. All on a kindly standardized patient who gets paid to have med students touch his junk.

Stay tuned...horror stories to follow.

Monday, March 1, 2010

All Dogs Go To Heaven


RIP my sweet Maxie. I already miss you terribly.

What's going on with this Medicare cut?

Check out Happy's post here.