I guess this med school thing is for reals now...

Doomsday. June 5th. Just scheduled Step 1. Eeeek!

And winter has come to Chicago...

The high on Thursday is going to be 13 degrees. But with wind chill it might feel like 10 to 20 below. Awesome.

Things that make you go hmmm...

A friend of mine is doing his preceptorship at a doctor's office nearby. Apparently there are also nursing students from other schools doing their nursing preceptorship at the same office. My friend told me when they introduce themselves to patients, they introduce themselves as medical students. To me this is highly misleading. They are not in medical school, they are in nursing school. They are therefore nursing students. It seems wrong to make patients think otherwise.

Any thoughts? Am I just being overly sensitive?

Money money money, must be funny, in a rich man's world

I just spent $505 to register for Step 1 of the Boards. Ugh. If I'm gonna drop money like that I want something to show for it besides intense feelings of anxiety and a desire to vomit.

You know you're tired and pressed for time when...

Making coffee takes too long, so you just chug Coke straight out of the 2 liter bottle at 7am.

You know you're tired when...

You check the clock to see when you put dinner in the oven, wait the time specified for it to cook, go back to take it out of the oven, and find out you never put it in the oven in the first place.

Another Halloween spent in the library

Me to my friend N at 9:15pm in the library: "You have two things of coffee and a coke."

N: "I thought that was normal."


Gotta love cumulative finals.

Finals

Last year I remember a term (don't ask which one, they all blend together) when we had 7 finals in a span of 14 days. Not. Fun. By the last one we were so loopy we could barely stop giggling long enough to take the exam, and we really didn't care how we did.

Looking back I don't know how I got through that with my sanity intact (okay, maybe not totally intact).

And then I realized that next week we start a stretch of 10 days in which we have 7 finals. Oh joy.

So Mom, Dad, don't get pissed if I don't return calls or emails right away, okay?

Rain

So it actually rains quite a bit here. Or maybe it just seems that way because it is pouring out right now. Plus, you get really wet. Way wetter than in the Pacific NW, probably because it's so windy here, too. So you can imagine my surprise when the other week, on a particularly chilly and drizzly day, before making a trip to the local amusement park to ride some coasters, everyone seemed baffled that I was bringing rain pants. "Rain pants? What are rain pants?" they asked. No one from the area had ever heard of waterproof pants before. Which boggles my mind because when you're outside and its raining, you get drenched. Most of the time umbrellas just don't cut it here because the rain kind of comes at you sideways.

So is this unusual? Are rain pants something only used in the Northwest?

An interesting post from The Happy Hospitalist

Check it out here.

I saw a cervix!

For reals! Today was the first day of my preceptorship. Over the course of the year I'll spend 7 (well 6 now) afternoons with a physician, shadowing him, talking with patients, and hopefully getting to do some HPIs (history of present illness for you non-medical folk) and some physicals. Well, that is what I'm supposed to do. But I'm working with an OB/Gyn doc, so I really don't know how much of the physicals stuff I'll be doing. But whatevs. I will have to learn how to do a pelvic exam in the spring so maybe the doc will let me jump in then. Hmm. Probably still no.

Anyhoo, I was really nervous today, but it was really interesting. I have to say, I think I learn much better when there is an actual person involved. It makes everything so much more real. And yes, I did see a cervix. I witnessed my first annual exam. Kind of gross, but also interesting from this end. Now I'll be able to picture exactly what is going on when I get mine!

Okay, off to read up on endometriosis, fibroids, and PID, oh my!

I'm in a coat!

This is exactly what med school is like.




And the original.

And the list keeps on growin'....

Now I can add deer to my list of wildlife sightings around school. I saw two crossing the road not even half a mile south of here. Yay for nature!

My Summer In Pictures (so far)

Dad and I were causin' a ruckus...

...at the Lane County Museum.

Off to the Newport tide pools with Dad...

And the Oregon Coast Aquarium...

And of course a stop at Rogue Brewery for a taste of Sig's Northwestern...

Off to Bend for Jenn and Casey's wedding....

The Portland Classical Chinese Garden with Mom...

The Waffle Window and Saturday Market with Athena...

Fourth of July Parade in Lake Bluff and fireworks over Kenosha Harbor with Alyssa and Derek...

A Yacht Rock themed party with Monica...

And off to Cleveland for a conference with Alyssa...

We'll see what the next week and a half brings before school starts up again!

Pepe Le Pew

Oh Pepe, you handsome devil!
No copyright infringement intended, obviously.

For the past couple of nights I have seen a skunk feeding in the grassy area behind my apartment building. I had the windows open last night and heard a strange scratchy noise, like one of those plastic grocery bags blowing in the wind. So I looked outside, and saw some white moving around on the ground. I assumed I was correct in thinking it was a plastic bag (the dumpsters are also on the back side of the building and it is not uncommon for the wind to blow up some lighter pieces of trash if the dumpsters get too full), until my eyes started to adjust and I could see the black form encompassing the white stripes. A little skunky! And he (or she) was back tonight. I'll have to keep a look out and see if my little Pepe keeps coming back.

Coding

So in addition to learning all this medicine stuff, at some point I have to learn all the coding. Awesome.

Check out Happy's post for a glimpse into the medical coding system and RVUs (relative value units).

Facebook

How cute is it that my dad updated his Facebook status to say he was excited I am coming home soon?! That is just too precious!

And I am now an M2! Our grades were finally posted, and I'm pretty happy with the results. Time to enjoy my last summer!

Wildlife

I think I just saw a fox in the parking lot while walking back from the library. It was definitely not a dog. I don't know - are foxes typically found around here?

Finals Week

This is me, but with my Biochem binder.



Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it.

Same &^%$, Different Day

My life, as well as a Lyrics Born album.

Anyway, so yeah, it's just been more of the same for the last few months. Get up, go to class, go study in the library. Pretty boring, but I guess it's good to get into that rhythm. Even though I only have one more week of classes. And not even a full week - only 4 days! I can't believe this first year is almost over. I'm still in shock at even being here, let alone being almost done with my first year.

Okay, back to the books so I don't flunk out and have to retake anything over the summer. My summer plans consist of hanging out, sleeping in, working out, reading for fun, and exploring Chicagoland. Bring on the summer!

PS...Happy Mother's Day Mom! Only 19 more days!

Oda a la urea

Another reason to brush up on my Spanish.

Laughter is the best medicine

My neighbors must think I am crazy because all they could hear this morning was my hysterical laughing as I read this story.

http://www.drunkrepublic.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=97%3Awhen-your-credit-card-signature-fun-backfires&catid=34%3Ahumor&Itemid=60

I don't know how I survived today

First I had my Biochemistry midterm. I realized this morning at 5:30am that there were a few pages of practice problems I had forgotten to do. Oops. Worked on those for a couple of hours before the exam. I got a B though, so everything worked out okay.

Then our Physiology professor, in his lecture about the male sexual response, proceeded to tell us how penile rings work. Mind you, this man is probably near 75 years old. And this was his lecture. On a sex toy. Innnnteresting.

Then, in the afternoon, this same professor lectured us on various things that can go wrong developmentally, like girls who turn out to be boys and boys who later turn out to be girls, complete with pictures. Of course being the perpetual 12 year old that I am, I couldn't stop humming Aerosmith's "Dude Looks Like a Lady". Thank goodness I sit near the back, so our professor couldn't see the tears streaming down my face as I tried to stop laughing and pull myself together. I think I was just punchy from lack of sleep and extreme stress. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Heat Wave

It's supposed to get up to 47 degrees on Saturday! I am so excited! A day with temperatures above freezing! Yay! Exclamation points!!!!!

EDIT: It actually got up to 51 degrees today, and in celebration I kept my windows open all day. It was fabulous! Bring on Spring!

Feel your doctor doesn't listen to you?

It's probably for your own good.

Check out this post over at The Happy Hospitalist. Happy has a lot to say about the dwindling trust in doctors as well as the dwindling paychecks for primary care physicians. I definitely recommend checking out his site whenever you can if you want to find out what I will be up against in a few more short years.

Wow.

Just wow.

So sorry

I know I haven't posted in a while. I've been a bit preoccupied with midterms, and my whole car debacle. I'll fill you in. First, I came back from break to find that someone had stolen my hubcaps. But only from one side of the car. Who steals hubcaps? Seriously? I guess I should be glad no one stole my car, but still, the tires on the driver's side just look butt ugly now without hubcaps. Then, my car died. I know, I know, it's a Subaru. It was built for this kind of crazy -15 degree weather (that was the temperature it was when I went to class today. Crah-hey-zy!). So after several days of getting it jump started by the roadside assistant guys (after a lengthy wait, of course), I made it into the Subie dealership in town to have the service guys take a look at it. Apparently the battery was so close to dead that it was just not starting in this freaky cold weather. So now Subie has a new battery and is happy. And I'm happy because it was still under warranty. And I now know not to go a week without starting my car in this kind of cold weather. It's a win-win-win!

PS...I survived midterms and am still passing all my classes. Yippee! And, I only have one more Anatomy lecture and two Anatomy labs left before the class is over. That's crazy! I am so excited to never come home again smelling like formaldehyde and having to shower before I study because the smell is so overwhelming I can't concentrate.

Check these out

I don't think I have ever seen icicles this big before, at least not in real life.

You've only got one

We need more commercials like this in the US.