New York Bound!!!!!!!!!

Guess who got a freaking amazing orthopedic research internship in NYC this summer!

ME!

Okay, so it's actually in Greenwich, CT, but it's close enough to NYC that I'm just going to keep saying NYC. I'm not a New Yorker, so sue me.

I'm pretty geeked - I will be doing a combination of research (hopefully getting published to boot) and general shadowing/clinical work in orthopedics. I don't know what project in particular I'm working on  yet, but everything the program director told me about sounds really cool.

This foundation has worked with various Olympic sports teams and does FDA trial research, as well as a decent amount of community service (including working with vets), so I'm sure I'll be able to do something really amazing.

There's also the added bonus of living in a billionaire's house this summer. I won't have ANY fun with that...

:)

Clinical Skillz

I am officially done with Clinical Skills II, and am "certified" to do a complete head to toe exam on a patient. Of course, I don't know how to actually interpret anything (except blood pressure), but hey, it's a start, right?

It's kind of a relief. I actually like being able to do a full physical exam, but the exam portion of it was kind of annoying, as we had to articulate everything we were doing to our preceptor.

"I am now inspecting your skin."
"I am now looking in all four quadrants of your eyes."

I now just have neurology, and all the excitement for Med Ball! Just a few more weeks until the semester is over.....crazy!

March Updates

Sorry for the lack of posting...things have been either been super busy with no time to write, or actually very quiet with not much to update on.

I'm officially done with Physiology and Epidemiology (biostats), which means I only have Neurology and Clinical Skills to worry about through the end of the semester. Grade-wise I'm doing much better this semester, mastering nearly all of my classes - not sure if it's the lighter class load, the lack of biochemistry, just getting used to the work load, or some combination thereof. Probably the combination - the lighter class load certainly helps me not feel overwhelmed in general, but I'm finding I'm learning a lot more with the same amount or even less studying.

Spring break was a much needed and very fun break - check out brittneytakesontheworld.blogspot.com for my updates on that. It was my first trip with all just friends, and I had a really good time :)

I found out I didn't get accepted into the Auschwitz fellowship, which is pretty disappointing. I knew it would be a long shot, but I had heard good feedback from Dr. Walker, and I guess I was really hoping for that tangible, "this-is-why-I'm-extended, so I experience this" moment. Getting into that fellowship was going to be the moment I was officially okay with failing biochemistry and having to extend. Now that it's not, I just feel kind of lost.

Other things are going well though. A and I are looking at apartments for next year, and I'm having super fun planning Med Ball and creating follies with everyone. Now I'm just trying to figure out what I'm going to do  this summer - I kind of got the traveling bug from spring break and I'd like to do something out of the country, but I'm not sure if that's going to be best, or if I should save some money, stay at home, and maybe get some more physical experience working at a clinic.

Harrumph.

Suturing!

As part of the Surgery Interest Group e-board, I'm unofficially taking the surgery elective this semester. We've just had two sessions so far: basic knot tying and basic suturing. This is my first real suturing experience. Not too shabby, eh? It's very similar to embroidery, just, you know, with pig skin instead of fabric.

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.....