Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Day 2748: The end of RPM

Today was my last day on the anesthesiology service. I have a day scheduled at the pain clinic tomorrow, and then I am done with my RPM rotation. It's been quite a whirlwind of crazy early hours, procedures galore (intubations, IVs, masking), and meeting a bunch of really great people. My attending was a bit of a hard-ass but she taught me a lot and I think she liked me so I am hoping for positive evaluations from her and the residents I worked with.

I enjoyed my time on anesthesiology. Procedures galore, but no clinic time whatsoever. I enjoyed clinic from Ob/Gyn so I'm not sure if anesthesia is for me. What I did learn was that anesthesiologists don't just sit around and read magazines, they actually pay attention to vitals (blood pressure, oxygen saturation, end-tidal CO2, etc) to make sure the patient is actually asleep and very very unaware.

I move to rural Wisconsin this weekend for my family medicine rotation. I will be moving 3.5 hours north of Milwaukee to work in a town with a population of 3600 people. Different, much?

Friday, October 18, 2013

Day 2437: Broke Back Mountain


Meet my patient's spine. This teenager was born with scoliosis and it has gotten so bad that his spine now looks like this. You don't have to be in the medical field to recognize a spine gone awry. This kid actually had a hump (or mountain if you will) in the middle of his back from his malformed spine!

The body is amazing when it's created "correctly" and it is equally amazing (if not infinitely more shocking) when it is created "incorrectly."

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Day 2436: Birthdays and funny stuff?

Happy birthday to my darling Nicki! (Kind of like that Prince song except Nikki is spelled 'ck' rather than 'kk' and by "kind of like" I mean not at all because that song is creepy-trashy.)

So, funny stuff? It has a question mark because after making the mistake of telling my Pathways (vague description in this post (wow! So long ago!)) advisor that I write a blog, he told me to send him the link. I told him it was pretty boring stuff, wouldn't you agree? I just update you on boring stuff. Med school = boring stuff. I'm not even my ever-so-funny self. Well, this is me attempting to be funny so that my advisor has something remotely entertaining to read (if he chooses to even read it. No pressure Mike. I'll only hate you forever if you don't. kloveyou). If I even choose to email him the link, that is.

Anyway, I am blogging to tell you all I am pretty much over anesthesiology. I have to wake up before sunrise to get to these lectures that I only somewhat learn from. Then, I stand around a lot and either get P.I.M.P.ed (Put In My Place questions that make me feel oh-so-valuable) or talked my ear off and I don't really learn much from either. Well, I learn from getting pimped but that's mainly because I am sweating half-a-bucket of sodium-chloride and am reminded at how dumb I am. GEEZ. Welcome to medicine, right?

I am slowly weaning myself off of surgery as a future career (and by surgery, I am referring to urology). As I am coming upon this realization through non-urology rotations, my pathways advisor told me that another doctor we work with has been "telling everyone" I want to do urology. Oh. Crap. Now, I not only have to impress the urology department during my December rotation (that was already on my To Do List), but now I actually have to... you know... impress them.

However, as a bonus, I get to figure out my life by 2014. I will have my family medicine rotation in November. Then urology in December. Then Jessica's life is figured out before 2014 is upon us. Yayyy! :\

Monday, October 14, 2013

Day 2433: Weekends of fun

These past two weekends in October have been filled with guests and sightseeing and catching up and general merriment.

Nicki and her man came (back) to Milwaukee!

Corn maze shenanigans.

My first (gigantic!) Halloween pumpkin (EVER)

#TeamJess'Pumpkin -- can you tell what it is?

Enjoying some jazz with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Day 2422: Psychological Trauma

Okay team. I probably got a high pass/B in Psych. Why, you ask? Because I bombed the Psych Shelf exam.

I don't remember if I have explained this to any of you, but a Shelf is an NBME exam. An NBME exam is the same company/people that wrote my USMLE Step 1/my first (of three) boards I have to take to get my MD.

Okay, definitions out of the way. After getting the lowest possible pass ever on that exam, I panicked. I emailed the rotation coordinator right away and asked her a) did I even pass the exam? b) if they could regrade the exam, because there is no way I could have done that badly. Well, the coordinator was very helpful and assuaged my fears, even if she didn't regrade my exam. The coordinator emailed me a few days later telling me she received my clinical grade and it was an honors/A. Go me. Unfortunately, because I got the lowest possible pass on that exam, my A will probably fall to a B. Poop.

Oh well. This just goes to show you that I really am an awful test-taker. And this isn't a Jess-trying-to-be-humble statement. It's more of matter-of-fact statement.

It also doesn't help that everyone (except me) says that the Psych Shelf is one of the most difficult Shelf exams. Mainly because what we're supposed to know for the exam (i.e., what drugs do you treat someone with generalized anxiety disorder?) are not how things are done clinically. So, even though my classmate told me outright to study all the drugs, I was all questioned out (I did between 400-500 questions in the span of 10 days) and thought I was prepared for the exam. Well. I should have reviewed all the drugs.

Oh well. Now I know. It's pretty clear sailing from here. No more Shelf exams until next semester. I am on RPM (resuscitative and perioperative medicine), which is an anesthesiology, trauma and emergency medicine rotation. I just had my oral trauma exam this morning and it seemed to go okay. ABCDE! Airway! Breathing! Circulation! Disability! Exposure!

Okay, enough shouting. Talk to you all soon. I have a very exciting October ahead, filled with lots of friends and family visits! Yahoo! :D