Exciting News!

I just found out my stained glass mosaic "All Heart" is going to be published on the cover of the Medical Student Research Journal!!!!!!

This is one of my unfinished pictures, and of course the published photo will be sans laundry on the floor, but this gives a pretty decent overview of the art.

Basically, this piece represents the heart of the physician: we take all of our experiences, good and bad, and use those to connect to our patients.

Study Buddies

File this under the random fun things at CHM.

Our histology lab is all computer based - rather than staining cells ourselves or looking at tissue samples under a microscope, we have pre-selected images on a computer program that we use to learn the difference between Kupffer cells and Ito cells, for example.

Because the things we are identifying can be quite tiny, and because CHM doesn't want fingerprints all over the computer screen, we use these little pointers.

We also have stuffed turtles, so if anyone has a question, they can simply place the turtle on top of the computer and continue on with the lab, rather than waiting forever with a hand up for a professor to come over and help.

This inevitably leads to my lab partner and I posing the turtles in various positions throughout lab.

January Updates

Wow, it's been a while since my last post. Considering I pretty much hibernated for most of winter break, I guess it's not too surprising, but still.

Some updates:

I am now extended. Biochemistry, once again, was my death knell. I did great in all of my other classes (was JUUUST shy of mastering Genetics and Anatomy), but biochemistry continues to haunt me, and will continue to haunt me for another year. I blame my parents: I have the same initials as the class, BMB. Thanks a bunch, mum and dad! Ah well.

So what does extension mean? It means I will be taking five years to complete my medical degree -spreading classes from the two pre-clinical years into three and then I'm back on track for the rest of my education. It's not all bad. Right now it means I'm not taking three exams a week and generally have more time to do non-medical school things. Except for me that means I'm filling it up with more medical school things, which brings me to my next update....

I just got elected to the Emergency Medicine Interest Group e-board! This means I'm now on three committees...four if you count my unofficial-but-official involvement with Health and Wellness. It's fun though. Rumor has is that EMIG board members get to apply to the ride-along program for Aero Med. Whatever happens, it means I'll get to help set up fun activities like suture clinics, casting clinics, and intubation labs.

I'm also applying to some great summer programs: ethics fellowship at Auschwitz, clinical skills in Turkey, Orthopedic clinics in NY...the possibilities are endless. I'll keep you all posted as I find out!

We've also started "real" clinical skills this semester. Last week I learned how to take a blood pressure and perform a basic eye/ear exam. Right now we're just focusing on how to use the equipment and connect with our patient; we'll learn how to actually utilize the knowledge we gain next year and the years beyond. It was pretty fun. Thankfully my partner is very patient with me, so I was able to get a good look in her eyes, by far the most difficult part of the exam.

We also had a one-day patient education exam, where we were assigned a subject that we had to educate a simulated patient on. I had to teach this adorable older gentleman how to use an epi pen. Mine was relatively straight-forward and allowed me lots of time to just talk with my patient, but a lot of my classmates had more involved subjects (low-sodium diets, TLC diets, etc) that were much more complicated to teach in 15 minutes or less. When we got together as a group to review them, it was interesting to see the different reactions from all the actors. It kind of puts it back in to perspective: we can learn all we want, but if we can't teach it to our patients in a way that they will understand, we can't really help anybody.

Last quick update: I'm the GR committee chair for Med Ball, and we just picked our theme: James Bond! I'm super excited to start planning it :)

Back to the books.....

Spiffy Christmas Presents

I feel very official now, with my grandpa's old medical bag and my brand new Litmann Cardiology III.

Half the fun of anatomy....

is learning how it all correlates to your family's injuries.

I'm still THAT girl....

I had to laugh a bit today.

Not that I'm complaining, but I'm once again "the artsy scientist".

See, when I was in undergrad, I was a pre-med Human Biology major who also enjoyed theatre and costuming. My science friends didn't always understand art, and my artsy/theatre friends didn't always understand science. It put me a rather unique, and sometimes lonely, situation. I never felt like I really belonged in either group. I was sometimes treated like a pet, or a project, or "Oooh, look at what SHE can do!", but I was always too dramatic for the scientists, and too logical for the artists.

(That's not to say I didn't find very good friends who were also like me, at least in some aspects. You know who you are and I love all of you!)

I have to laugh, because even though medical school was supposed to be my fresh start, I am STILL that person. I am the artsy med student.

I had my last clinical skills small group session on Monday, and my preceptor, who is very much a "man's man" and somewhat stereotypical trauma surgeon, gave me a rather interesting compliment. "You're definitely not the traditional medical student. You need to embrace that."

Then we had a student council meeting and were talking about medical school personality types, and how traditionally most student council members are very organization, linear A-types..."except now then an artsy fartsy student sneaks in". I sort of shrugged and then everyone started laughing because, hey, I'm apparently that student.

Shortly after though, everyone was complimenting me on my Teslacon costumes and wanting to know how I did it, and what should be we plan for Med Ball, and WE SHOULD TOTALLY GO ALL OUT SO WE CAN ALL WEAR COSTUMES.

The difference from undergrad is, my difference is regarded as a strength. The difference is, the other artsy medical students are easy to identify. The difference is, I feel like I belong.

Almost!

Sorry that I haven't been really communicative on this blog the past few...months. Medical school has been really, really insane. So, some quick updates:

I am 9 days away from completing my first semester of medical school. It's been kind of crazy looking back at all the notes I've taken over the semester because even though I have learned A LOT, I still don't feel like I know anything.

What I can do: CPR. Ask you about your feelings and how your medical condition is affecting your life. Pretend to listen to things with my stethoscope. Look professional in my white coat. Diagnosis shingles (and that was mainly by accident).

Oh yeah! I bought all of my medical equipment! I now have a super cool stethoscope and diagnostic set, plus a bunch of other goodies I really haven't gotten to play with yet. I'll actually learn how to use them next semester.

I was elected to student council!

I was also elected to the Surgical Interest Group e-board!

I took a tour of Aeromed.













I rocked out my IPPR art project about the doctor-patient relationship.

I also drank copious amounts of tea.












So there you have it. In 9 days, I will be 1/8th of a doctor. Now I just have to pass all of my finals...wish me luck!