Day 2405: My first grade of the year!

Okay. It's time for some honesty here Team Jess. Today, I received my first grade of my third year. And. It was good. So good, that I didn't even know what the letter meant when I received it (because apparently that's how little I do well in med school haha).

Background: My med school doesn't give As, Bs, or Cs. It gives Honors, High Pass, Pass. (So the same thing essentially.)

This is what I saw this afternoon:

What does this mean? Honors! High pass! THEY BOTH START WITH H!!! (Wheels turn in my brain. Wheels still turning. ...still turning (I am actually this slow people)) I THINK THIS IS AN HONORS!!! (back flip, forward flip, and now I am suddenly Ariel from Little Mermaid twirling through the ocean)

Then, four hours later, while texting a classmate, he informed me that they actually break down the grade for us. And, all you, my pretties, have to know is that I was on the low end of honors but I am pretty sure an honors is still an honors! Suckers!

In addition, we also got feedback. Here was mine:

Jessica was very self directed and was an obvious leader among her classmates. She always made herself available to see patients, participate in deliveries and surgeries. She demonstrated an increase in her knowledge base throughout the clerkship. She sought feedback and, importantly, listened to the feedback. Her questions reflected good insight into the topics at hand.

Very pleasant, enthusiastic, hard working smart student.

Look here Team Jess. I like myself. I think I'm pretty a-okay. Would I call myself a leader? Uh, no. I just ask questions that no one else wants to ask, because for lack of a better way to describe it, I don't really care how it reflects on me. Which makes me sound all James-Dean-too-cool-for-school, but all it really means is I don't care if I look dumb. My Dad told me this when I was in high school and it has always stuck with me. "Don't ever feel afraid to ask questions. How else are you going to learn things?" So. Here I am. On my clinical rotations, asking (probably dumb) questions, but how else am I going to learn? Apparently asking (dumb) questions is a pro on the clerkships.

Starting off the year strong! It's nice to know that what I was doing was (kind of/essentially) working. I have been so freaked out this past month because, at this point, I have gone through two clerkships and, until today, received zero grades. I could be passing or I could be honoring and not know it! I need to be getting honors, people! Luckily this fear has led me to study way more for my current psych clerkship (whose exam I heard is very nitpicky so I will be all ready in two weeks for those pesky details) and hopefully will motivate me to do well in all my future clerkships.

I have more stuff to blog about so look for it in the near future! Until then, friends ...yay me! ;)

Day 2370: With clinical learning comes less blog posts...

...apparently.

Okay, so this is going to be short and sweet. My Ob/Gyn rotation ended on Saturday, with my final 24-hour-call shift. It was nice to end it with the second-year resident I did my first call with.

Let's see...I have my Shelf exam (basically a test given by the same company/organization that created my Step 1/boards exam) tomorrow morning. Then, my classmates and I (whom I love and adore; I realize now how lucky we seven were to really like each other and get along!) are heading out to Lake Michigan to hang out on one of our classmate's dad's 30-foot fishing boat!

Memories from Ob/Gyn:

• I delivered a heroin baby in late July. The mother used heroin and cocaine throughout the pregnancy and her beautiful baby girl was delivered in our hospital. (Un?)Fortunately, the mother left her baby in the hospital and our hospital social workers got involved to get that sweet baby girl the home she deserves.
• My first c-section was for twins! At 26 weeks! (14 weeks before term, eep!) The mom was super sweet and those babies are slowly but surely getting bigger and better every day.
• I actually really enjoyed working with most of the Ob/Gyn residents. You hear the horror stories about these residents being b!tches and it was nice to see that that is just a fallacy. Or at least wasn't true on my rotation.
• I think surgery really bores me. I don't feel the desperate need to cut as other more surgery-friendly people do. I really enjoy procedures -- suturing, etc -- and maybe I like laparoscopy but I haven't seen enough laparoscopic procedures to know. I think this lack of love for surgery may slowly, but surely, close my urology door. We'll see though.

So, Shelf tomorrow then Neuro/Psych rotation on Wednesday. The learning never ends!

Day 2341: So much to talk about!

Hi hi,

I know. I know. It's been 16 days. With a life outside of school (sort of), you would think I would blog more, but there's actually very little time in the day once I get out of the hospital (again, sort of). Okay. Here are updates in my favorite form, bullets.

• I am on Ob/Gyn for 4 more weeks. I am on gynecology for the first three, and obstetrics for the last three. I have seen a few surgeries and many many return obstetrics patients in clinic. Also. I took call (call = 24 hour shift, 7am-7am) the first night ever (July 3rd) and I delivered a baby. NBD (no big deal). Except it was a giant deal. To answer everyone's burning questions...1) No, I didn't drop it. 2) No, the mom didn't poop on me.
• Boards scores are out. I passed! I got a lower score than I would have preferred, but it was probably the score I deserved. There are so many things I would do over about that exam, but I passed and I am just fine for family med and on the low (low) side for urology. Everything happens as it happens so whatever I will be, will be whatever I will be. (There was a lot of repetition in that, hope it made sense!)

Huh. I guess I didn't have that much to talk about, haha. I thought I did. Oh well. I should post pictures again soon, hey? These text posts are bo-ring.

Okay, if/when exciting things happen, I will let you all know!

Day 2176: Urology and unnecessary rudeness.

Hi! We had our elective lottery this week and I got urology, like I wanted! :) Hello full schedule of rotations!

This is the order: ob/gyn, psych/neuro, anesthesiology/emergency medicine, family med, urology, 1 week winter break, internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics.

Speaking of Ob/Gyn, I contacted the clerkship director (extremely early) to ask for time off in July for my friend's wedding (my third time as bridesmaid, much to the displeasure of my mother who believes I am now cursed/jinxed to never marry). Well, this is the "sweet" reply she sent:

Hi Jessica

We do not give time off from the clerkship for weddings.  However, you only need to report to your assigned hospital location on the weekends if you are on call.  Currently, we require two days of weekend call (separate weekends) and allow the students to create their own call schedules. I cannot promise you this policy will continue for the next academic year as we continue to review the clerkship, but I think you will most likely be able to work the call schedule out with your classmates to ensure you have that weekend off to attend the wedding.

Please contact me with any questions or concerns.

So, I think it means I will get the wedding weekend off. I think? I'll keep you all posted.

Tomorrow, I will shadow a urologist from 8:30am to lunchtime. Lunch with my friend L. Study time. Female physical exam (checking the cervix and uterus with a speculum, performing the bimanual exam). We had a little female exam demonstration/workshop last week and I showed my group how to do it since I was the resident expert (having done 4-5 this past summer; go me).

My new microbiology course starts on Friday, not fun. I am also giving a tour that day for med school interviewees (my aforementioned friend L is interviewing that day! Yay!) so that'll be fun (because I get free lunch and get to be my awesome self).

And! Jess might be working here in Milwaukee for 6ish weeks! Yayyyyy! Boo to the fact that she'll be here from May to June (the absolute worst month/six weeks of my life aka boards/Step 1 studying for 10 hours (no joke) a day). I'll make it work!