Med School Years 1 and 2, a recap

Okay, time for a little humor and reflection.

Acceptance Letter (some time in April)

My mom gets the certified letter and she's ecstatic.. for some reason it didn't hit me fully at the time... but I got progressively excited. (I think I was emotionally spent with my retaking the MCAT and getting the score I wanted and getting accepted to my first US school prior)

Orientation

Scope out brown people and people I know in undergrad, coincidentally who were brown. Orientation was like the first day of High School except in this High School, Middle Schools from all over Georgia sent students and they came in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors.  

Getting White coated was surreal. I didn't even grasp what a white coat means. It's a blessing and a reminder.  It tells your superiors that you're still a tool who knows very little because you're wearing a short coat  but it is the only real thing that distinguishes us as medical students. 

First Phase 

I learned that everyone is smart in medical school. Even the dopey looking kid is smart as is the hot girl who everyone seems to gravitate towards to at parties. Which makes for a nice segue:

Med School tunnel vision/ beer goggles/ Hardy-Weinberg in action:

In medical school , especially at a smaller school like mine that's not lecture based .. we get to know each other well. We see each other ALOT. Living in Middle Georgia also cuts down external interaction. So there is  a strong tendency to skew your perceptions of people, especially those of that opposite sex.  The cute girl with the quirky smile  turns into the supermodel with the come hither look. The non-Caucasian girl who talks to you every once in a while suddenly becomes the Exotic Girl with good listening skills.  Let's just say that somewhere between burying myself in books and trying to salvage some kind of social aptitude, I've fallen repeatedly  head over heels which isn't healthy... for them [wink]

[as an aside/afterthought.. I tried once to drop the line  "yeah, most anything is funny when you're in med school" at a barista at a Starbucks trying to be clever and indicate my medschooliness  and charm her .... FAIL]

My first year was all about learning how to study which really isn't all that interesting. Basically, I've come to the realization that I study best where there are people around but people who don't or are smart enough not to interact with me.   I learned how to play flip cup with Diet Dr. Pepper. Though I hear, it's strange to gulp down a carbonated beverage.  Another point, med students can party hard. I suppose when your life is dominated by studying and late nights studying and waking up to study.. when it's time to party, party big. I did research over the summer of my first year which was interesting material but mostly I learned that I hate being organized and keeping track of my results, most of which failed repeatedly.

Second year has been much more exciting. Some highlights:

Smoking Cessation

So they paired us up with another medical student, one person would be the intervener and the other would observe and provide feedback. Basically we went room to room meeting "patients" with different stories and we tried to intervene and try to get them to stop smoking. My best observation was watching a classmate say "you know sometimes, you just have to crank a heater" - i had to try real hard to keep character but we all laughed afterwards....  I also discovered that I can be remarkably stubborn. The patient I ended up with refused to say that he smoked which confused me since this was a smoking cessation lesson. I basically refused to back down and came short of calling him a liar ... only to find out he was "dipping" not smoking... you had to be there... 

Male GU/Rectal Exam

So I'm told to count as I slip my finger into "the receiving area" but I don't quite grasp this , being the first student to go  so I end up counting out loud with my gloved finger in the air much to the delight of my peers.[ we're supposed to insert on 2.. not hold your finger in the air like a jackass]  So every once in a while, one of my peers will go "1...2...3"

Female Exam

No comment. This was one of the best instructed exams but the most invasive and disturbing in the sense.. that you get "intimately familiar with the insides"  very UNLIKE a man.. who's junk is all up and outside... 

Anywho.. my memory is failing me right now.. so enjoy a song that I can't seem to  stop playing:

To My Son

This post is a bit more serious/sentimental that my other posts but I'll quickly return to humor in my next one.. called Med School Years I and II, a recap.

Basically, I'd like to write some thoughts, tips, anecdotes as if I were speaking to my son:

You can be too smart. I remember reading in my middle school yearbook. "Sometimes you're too smart for your own good." The key to being smart is being smart enough to keep quiet sometimes. Not every question needs to be answered or every mistake corrected. Relish the moments when someone asks you a question and you are fortunate enough to know the answer. This is one of the reasons I want to be a doctor. I'd like to be blessed enough to "know the answer" and help someone.

Nice guys finish last is the biggest bunch of crap ever. Listen, nice guys do just fine. Sure the alpha males and cocky guys will charm the ladies. But at the end of the day , we can take care of business and provide. Plus, it's not always about the return. Don't hold the door open for the girl or tell her to text you when she gets home because you hope she'll fall for you. Do it because you know it's right. Karma, God , whatever you call it, prevails. Your friends deserve an open door and occasional compliment and you'll get one too when you most need it.

Being a nice guy doesn't mean you fold easily or are a wimp. Stand for what you believe in and with conviction. Yeah, we work out too. Chivalry is about holding the door open but it's also about slaying the dragon.

There's always time for family and friends and most importantly , God. Work hard and be the best you can be but that is not a mutually exclusive ideal. I've been in school the better part of my life. I like to do well.. but I also like to make my family laugh, be there for my friends and be at peace with God.

Be able to laugh at most anything. Try to be able to make anybody laugh, it's a priceless talent.

"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure" - Motto of Ravenclaw and life. Wit is about delivery, content and timing. The right thing said at the right moment with right expression, priceless. It combines two important elements: humor and intelligence.

Learn to listen. Learn to listen. [yeah, I repeated it twice]. Two ears, one mouth kinda deal. Listening lets you learn more about a person, it also tells them you're willing to put them over you. People love a good listener. It also lets you be thoughtful when you incorporate things you've gleaned from listening. Alot of times, people need to hear what they say reflected back... my best friends are often those who listen to whatever I throw at them.

Learn to make a fool of yourself and not care. As long as you don't seriously hurt yourself or others. Making people laugh, and sacrificing some dignity is great. Not only do you entertain.. you make for a great story to tell later.

Write, draw, sing, play music. Express yourself in some manner, it helps to see what you feel and for others to appreciate your art.

Struggle to find the good in someone. Remember random things. We thrive off being cared for, so why not care for someone else. Simple gestures at the right time mean alot. I don't know how many times some days seem to plummet downhill or things just pile up and someone just says the right thing to keep you going or warm you up.

Be honest with yourself and with others. Honesty doesn't have to hurt. Honesty is best coupled with another virtue, diplomacy. Telling someone they're wrong is honest but suggesting that you remember seeing/reading something to the contrary but aren't sure is diplomatic.

Don't be self-deprecating. It's hard to do when you never seem to match up to the jock, look like Brad Pitt or can't quite pull of the John Nash genius. The fact is , you do have attributes that people like.. and you need to play to these strengths.

Lastly, remember you are blessed/fortunate. If you can read this post, breathe air, sit in a chair.. you are better off than someone else. God has made sure of that so appreciate it.. and when you do, God tends to give you more.

Like Day and Night

I'm not a morning person with rare exceptions to that rule.  So let's first define a morning person. A morning person in my world is someone who is able to function to some baseline extent in the morning and carry a demeanor that is either equal or greater than their average personality.  I am not that person. I am intellectually less-abled in the morning; I am quite angry/bitter; I'm definitely not myself. 

So why is this? There are many reasons but I'll examine a few. First, waking up and starting your day early is the mark of a efficient and task oriented person. They will accomplish something that day. While I certainly can be efficient , somewhere between my procrastination tendencies and my anger at being interrupted from some sort of slumber is not compatible with this M.O.

Mornings also signal the end of night. I like the night. While this presents and excellent opportunity to explore my fascination with vampires, I'll table that for some other time. See, take the weekend of example. A productive weekend for me would consist of a good amount of studying and play time. Most nights I'll make my way to my cocoon around 1 or 2am. Then comes Sunday night.. where I can't fall asleep to begin with . Subsequently I'm awakened sleep deprived and with the realization that the weekend has ended and so has my fun and free time. The opposite is true with the first morning of some break. I remember how glorious it was to wake up on the first day of summer break. To know that I don't have to go school or have to do much at all...was glorious. Even better, if I wanted to, I could go back to sleep. This is becoming an increasing rarity as medical school disfavors breaks.

Lastly, mornings go with productivity and being an "adult".  Part of me ... perhaps a significant part of me wants to remain a child. I like staying up really late playing video games, watching movies or reading a book. There's nothing like driving with your windows down with some friends around 1/2a  with the windows down and music playing and very few if any cars around. It's like you own the night. When I worked in the ER as a secretary, the overnight shift (7p-7a) was so fun to work. The directors were gone and we were mostly autonomous. We did and said what we wanted and still got work done.  

I suppose I wrote this article because I realize I have to play  by the rules these days. The rules say you wake up in the morning, drink your coffee and make your way through the day. In medical school, our tests are in the morning, we round in the morning... we do pretty much everything in the morning.  I look forward to those precious days and weekends.. where I can own the night and drive with the windows down...

Living in the Moment

Van Wilder: You shouldn't take life to seriously. You'll never get out alive. 

Sometimes we take those happy go lucky , funny people in our lives less seriously. It's an easy mistake to think that the guy/girl who seems to be always shooting the shit [a phrase that's fun to say but not nearly as fun to visualize.. unless you're one of those monkeys at the zoo... but that's more like flinging the poo] as not being ambitious or driven. 

Fact is, they don't forget that we don't know if we have tomorrow.. but by definition, we have now.  So that's my segue into some of my less serious moments in my past (you remember those Good Idea, Bad Idea  clips from Animaniacs? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8PhzrmBgMI)

The Bread Cart

So I worked at Publix at the end of high school and the end of college and it's just a  gold mine for "good ideas." One of the best was the bread cart incident. You see bread comes in bread carts , tall steel carts that you can place trays of bread into. All that's important to know about them is that they're metal and hollow in the inside forming a sort of cage. So Ricky, my frequent co conspirator (who shares my very same birthday, incidentally) and I decide that I'll  get into the middle of the bread cart and he'll push/roll me down the ramp off the loading dock. Ideally, I'd stay on path between the wall of the store and the rail the leads to the bottom. It was all fun and games until I  sped up and the rack slammed into the side of the wall. I almost hurled from the impact. There's probably still a dent in the duct that runs outside that took a blow from the cart.  However, I imagine seeing me going down a ramp in the middle of a bread cart must have been quite amusing.

The Volcano

During my second year at UGA, I worked through a program called FOCUS and basically, they placed undergrad science majors into various schools in Athens-Clarke county and Oconee and had us work with science teachers and their students. My teacher let me take over science class on the days I visited. So, I decided we'd do the volcano experiment. I had all the students fashion playdough volcanos and used little candle jars to form the magma chambers. Then I dyed a bunch of vinegar bottles and gave each group a bottle and baking soda. The goal was try to see what mixture gave the best eruptions. It was quite enjoyable and the kids loved doing this. So I had left over baking soda and dyed vinegar and I decided I'd show them how to make little baking soda rockets with the bottles. So the teacher had them get their lunches and join me outside on the blacktop. Simply, you add baking soda to the plastic bottles and shake it vigorously and flip it over on its lid. The CO2 formed will shoot out the back and the bottle will go flying into the air with a stream of red foam behind it. So on my last bottle, I shook the bottle a little too long... and it exploded in my face, it was amazing. The students all ran up and were concerned something bad had happened. The teacher asked the same.  I was, but it was priceless seeing my stained  khakis, face and shirt. 

**dedicated to my brother who reminds me that it always feels good to laugh, even when you're hunched over with abdominal pain and hyperventilating

First Post

It's been a while since I've blogged, I'm pretty sure there's an inactive livejournal account somewhere and even  a Blogger account. 

I suppose an introduction is in order. My name is Robert. I'm a second year medical student studying in GA.  My Blog title is a direct reference to my tendency to get the scribe position in group. Basically, for a lack of a better word, the scribe is the group bitch. Any issues that need to be types, emails that need to be sent out or diagrams that need to be pulled up/created is under the scribe role.  Our school is PBL - Problem Based Learning

I actually like being a med student, in a sort of sadomasochist kind of way. Usually I have to remember which is which, sadist being enjoying pain in others and masochist, pain on self but being a med student is both. You see.. we sacrifice the better part of our 20s or 30s for some of my peers  and tons of loan  money (I'm talking a house downpayment and a nice car in order to work our way up a totem pole to become a licensed physician at which point an untimely law suit or act of stupidity can result in you losing all of it). The pain on others is well what doctors do. Just the other day, my right index finger was knuckle deep in a man's rectum feeling around for a prostate. Thank God for video games, my finger pivoting abilities were quite sharp ;)

However, those precious few times where I know the answer to the question or I can help a patient in any way.. makes it all worth it. Scenarior: (pretty) Nurse asks doctor that I'm shadowing to tell her what a G6PD test is, she can't find it in the code book. Doctor turns to me and asks, what's G6PD? I answer Glucose 6 Phosphate Dehydrodenase Deficiency Test... He nods, and I get an incredulous look from aforementioned nurse. My day is made. It's the little things.

So that's it for now.  I'm also going to keep a boards study countdown going (when I begin studying): 9 weeks...