Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Day 2260: Ups and Downs

My weekend with my sister was glorious -- exactly what I needed, family time. However, the entire time my sister was here, I was stressed out beyond belief; thinking about all the things I should be or could be studying. Nevertheless, we had a helluva time and I love my sister to the moon and back. There are pictures below of our outings. What you don't see is a ton of eating my sister I did -- Cafe Centraal with Danny's family, a yumtastic breakfast/brunch at Danny's parents' home, Milwaukee Public Market -- the whole shebang.

My sister and I at a Brewers game!


My sister and I at Miller Brewery, getting ready for a tour!

Yesterday, Tuesday, was a sh!t-show. I was at school from 8:30am to 11pm, with probably an hour max of relaxation/hanging out on the internet/whatever, and I was so stressed about boards and finals and life that I cried twice (from sheer stress and panic) and called Danny to tell him I probably wouldn't be able to go on vacation with his family this summer (because I was so stressed out about boards). And then, to top it all off, I lost this earring that I just bought for my sister and I as a fun little sister-studs-thing. Sigh. What a bunch of crappy things at once, hey?

Today, I gave a little presentation at our class meeting regarding professional attire. It was (surprisingly) well received by students and staff and, if you have any interest in watching, I included the video below. If you have anything to say about the video, please comment below! I'd love to hear what you thought (good and bad).


All in all, it was a really nice start to the day given how craptastic yesterday (Tuesday) was. Oh. I also got my new iPad 4 (it's for clinic, not for fun...but I'll be using it for fun :P). My iPad 2 will be given to my parents/family in Taiwan so they can FaceTime.

As you can see, it's been a very up-and-down week. Off to study pathology (and everything else, sigh). See ya later alligator!

Friday, April 19, 2013

Day 2255: Extracurriculars galore

As Danny pointed out, apparently, I manage to do things without realizing I'm doing them. What I mean is. I am stressed. Beyond belief. This exam is so incredibly important and all I want is to load my brain up to the matrix and upload all the information I need to annihilate this exam. Instead, I am building my coffee addiction to avoid napping so that I can push through and learn.

Anyway, what was the point of this post? As you can see, I'm losing my mind. Oh yes. So, I ran for three positions on Student Assembly/school stuff and won two! Wowza, I know. I didn't think I would win, much less have people congratulate me (either in person or via text/email). The positions I will be holding next year are: Admissions Committee Representative (for my class) and track liaison. Admissions Committee is talking about and discussing admissions stuff with deans and whatnot. Track liaison is representing the sixteen other people in my rotations track to discuss any issues we have (with clerkship directors, residents, too many hours, etc) with deans.

I'm also doing a clinical continuity thing I told you all about in this post. So, I will be the primary caregiver of a patient with long-term medical issues. I'll be meeting my patient tomorrow morning for the first time.

I think that's it? I'm still going to do the politics/WMS thing for continuity's sake. And maybe the resolutions will be more interesting next year. And, I will most likely be interviewing med school applicants next year. Anything else? No. Oh yes. I will be doing some urology research next year to boost my urology application for the year after that. Oh. And I was on a committee this year to review student organizations to make sure they were following the guidelines to actually be an organization.

Dear sweet baby Jesus. Typing out what I'm doing makes me a) seem like I do more than I really do and b) is actually exhausting to think about.

My brain hurts.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Day 2254: Madison, practice boards and life

Hello everyone!

I am taking a little break from my sleepless life to tell you about said sleeplessness, ha.

My only picture of the Capitol.

This past weekend, I was in Madison for the Wisconsin Medical Society. And I have to tell you. Politics leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. During the "ref comms" (reference committees), I was surprised to see that physicians didn't use facts or experiences to determine why they, personally, disagreed with certain resolutions but it actually came down to "I don't want to do this, so I won't." I wasn't terribly passionate about anything (when am I passionate about anything that isn't enhancing my wardrobe?) but there was one resolution I cared about -- death with dignity. A female ENT (ear, nose, throat) physician has been trying for years to get a physician-assisted suicide resolution, similar to the one in Oregon, passed here in Wisconsin. I don't get what the fuss is about. Physicians are concerned about the possible avenues this could lead to (depressed people asking for fatal doses of drugs, etc) but I feel that since we never asked to be brought in to this world, the least we could provide ourselves is a way to leave it. And if it could be a little less painful and dramatic than a handful of whatever pills you can find or, worse, a gun to the head, I think we as physicians should be able to provide people with terminal, fatal illnesses that option. Do any of you have opinions you would like to share on death with dignity/physician-assisted suicide? Disagreements are welcome!

There was a Pokemon convention below our medical one.
Obviously I enjoyed this one wayyyy more.

Okay. Politics done. Yesterday, Wednesday April 17th, I took a four-hour practice Step 1/boards exam. It was fine. We don't get our scores for a few weeks so it's hard to gauge how it was. Some of the questions were more direct than I have seen (which is good), but it was still a lot of "dammit. I have seen this before and have narrowed down the choices but still don't know which one is right!" So, we'll see. I am shooting for passing (180) but at least a 200. (The national average is 225 and I will be getting a 240 to be able to coast into urology.)

Life. I went to a SF Giants versus Milwaukee Brewers game last night with some classmates to unwind from the four-hour exam. The Giants lost at the bottom of the 9th and everyone around me was surprisingly gracious about their loss. They were pumped the Brewers won, of course, but they did say "Sorry about your Giants" which was nice. They meaning everyone except Danny haha.

Let's go Giants!

Homemade Giants fan (my scarf made me way too hot so I made
it in to a turban, haha).

Our view from the field. Brewers player Aoki on the bottom left,
and Giants player Pence on the bottom right.


Consolation fries and custard at Kopp's after the game.

My sister comes to visit tomorrow/Friday! I couldn't be more excited to see family. I love my sister to pieces of death and GAH! Can't wait! She is, of course, the best sister on the planet and said "you know you have to study while I'm there right?" What a thoughtful one she is!

Okay, I'm going to listen to a few more boards-prep lectures and then shadow a urologist (my last time this year before finals/boards/rotations!). Then, more boards-prep and then I have to head to DSW to buy a pair of shoes for Sandy's wedding in July! So much to do!

Friday, April 12, 2013

Day 2248: I'm not a nurse

Let me clear the air, I have zero problem with nurses. What I do have a problem with is every graying-at-the-temples-white-male (and the ever so often female) asking me if I'm in school to be a nurse. No, I'm not. Do you exist in life to be sexist and close-minded?

Yesterday, I met up with an M3 at Starbucks to discuss our patient's transition. I volunteered to be a part of the Saturday Free Clinic's Clinical Continuity Track (CCT), a program that pairs an M3/M4 with a patient with chronic health problems (diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, etc) in order to help manage that patient's care. Well, the gentleman behind us says "Whoa! Are you girls nurses?" First of all, are you eavesdropping? Second of all, no. I'm going to a doctor.

This will be the third time this has happened to me in two years. This is easily replacing how often I get asked "how old are you? You look so young!" (Which, to clarify, has never happened to me once in medical school. I carry myself way too confidently to be even considered a youngun. That don't mean I got an old face though!)

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Day 2247: Politics

After a rousing back-and-forth email with my darling friend M, where I explicitly told her I'm not very political, I may or may not have forgotten to mention that I am going to the capital of Wisconsin to participate (vaguely) in some politics. I need a more ethnically apt saying for "pot calling the kettle black" ... how about "the soy sauce calling the soy paste, chunky"? Haha, no probably not.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Anyway, I am heading to Madison tomorrow (Friday) for the weekend to participate in the Wisconsin Medical Society (WMS) Annual meeting. The WMS is great and they allow medical students to participate in resolution voting and to be a part of the whole political process. I have to tell you, preparing for this trip has not been pleasant. A lot of back-and-forth at the student meetings has shown me how catty politics can be/can make people. However, I wanted to get more involved and I thought this would be an interesting venue. I'll let you know how it goes next week!

In other news, my second micro exam grade dropped compared to my first exam, but that's to be expected since I only studied the micro pertinent to my upcoming boards. Not looking at class notes is kind of detrimental haha. Don't worry, I passed and my average is still good and dandy.

Found via Google from here.

Want to hear something hilarious? I had a passing thought that perhaps Representative Paul Ryan might be at this meeting, but it's mainly for physicians so I won't hold my breath. I wonder how much ire I would engender in all my Democratic pals if I took a picture with him. Haha. My friends would die of betrayal and Danny (and his family) would die of joy. Life is so funny.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Day 2245: Ready for the end

Hey everyone,

Just a quick quick quick update to tell you...
  1. My pathology exam last Thursday (April 4th) went fine. I would have liked a better grade but when questions are phrased as such: "A 32-year-old woman comes in to your clinic with infertility issues. You do an extensive workup that comes back essentially negative. What is the MOST LIKELY diagnosis?" ...You pretty much do an eenie-meenie-miney-moe situation and hope for the best. I blame the lecturers because you know I knew my urology stuff (kidneys, bladders, genitalia).
  2. My micro exam is tomorrow morning at 7-bloody-45 in the morning. Look, I know a number of you get up that early or have to be at work at that time. However, how many of you are asked to take a freaking 60 question exam? Therein lies the terrible terrible rub.
  3. Can you believe it's already April 9th?! My M2 year is over on May 13th and then it's boardsboardsboards. I can't wait! Not for boards (well, I certainly cannot wait for boards to be over) but rather, I can't wait to stop learning new stuff. I want to "know" everything already so that I can review review review. I'm working on building myself up these next two months to remind myself that I have made it this far and I am my only obstacle for not doing well on boards. And let me tell you, I truly love the idea of being a urologist so I'm going to get passed this fear/self-doubt/whatever BS this is!
  4. Have you noticed my love of typing words out in threes today? Hmm, I wonder what that means.
Okay, off to keep all my bacteria straight before bed!