Day 2163: Lots of cool stuff.

I had such a great week, let me tell you about it!

Monday: I worked in the pediatric emergency department, where I do research, and actually, finally, enrolled a patient without something wonky happening. For whatever reason, I have the strangest luck when I go in to do research and a patient will have to be un-enrolled in our Spanish Interpretive Services study. Not only did I enroll one, but I also got to speak Spanish! He was very sweet and said I didn't need the interpreter and I told him that I like having him/her there to make sure I don't mess anything up. Also, one of the doctors on the study was working that night so we got to catch up and shoot the sh!t and all that fun stuff. It's cool to be friendly with the ED staff. Hopefully I can get a few days in there on my pediatrics rotation next year and impress them with all my actually (wannabe) doctor-ing!

Tuesday: The male exam. An examination of the penis, testicles, feeling for the vas deferens and checking for hernias. Probably one of the most awkward moments in medical school for many students. Not for me! I loved it! It went too quickly! Maybe it's because I like awkward things or maybe it's because I don't care, but I am really digging urology. After my path exam on Monday (which, for all intents and purposes, I plan on pwning (aka kicking butt on), I am going to contact a urology resident and get some more information on it. It's competitive as all get out so I am starting to get insanely stressed about boards. (What's new there though?)

Wednesday: My jeans that I bought (aka split with Danny) off eBay arrived and they are gorgeous!

Paige Porcelain Leaf Skinnies

Only I would love such an outgoing print. And wear it with pride no less. I plan to hem these bad boys on Monday after my exam. Or maybe before since I am so bored of studying blood disorders and leukemias and lymphomas. Have I told you all that I am a sewing machine? (Thanks to Danny for that pun!) I have blind hemmed a bunch of slacks, finally hemmed a bunch of my jeans to my teeny tiny leg length and twerked some bootcut jeans into skinny jeans! However, I screwed up one of the legs of my skinny jeans (the fade between the front and back of the jeans is awkward) and feel uncomfortable in them so I plan on converting those babies in to shorts.

School-wise on Wednesday, I had a boards study group where we reviewed stuff for our exam on Monday and that was helpful. Showed that I knew stuff, but still need to get it locked down. Motivating stuff.

Today/Thursday: Hung out at home. Became obsessed with clothes again (have I told you? I am attempting to save money and/or buy investment pieces (like this silk blouse for rotations next year/interview season the year after that). I am also planning a major closet clean out over spring break.) Purchased my question bank for boards today. Fell asleep for no good reason from 4-6pm. Listened to Pathoma for 2 hours because I was sick of actual reading/writing/learning studying so listening seemed more exciting.

Okay. This little study break/update for you has been fun but it's time to go back to our regularly scheduled pathology studying. Snooze fest. Catch y'all later!

PS! Did you know this is my 400th post?! Crazy!

Day 1897: The last shadow...ing.

Oh hi. This is way belated.

However. I wanted to talk about my last shadowing session.

As a review, the mentor that my medical assigned me is an ophthalmologist. It was the usual shadowing session -- lots of wet/dry macular degeneration (macular degeneration is when the center part of your vision (where you see most everything) begins to deteriorate. The difference between wet and dry is, wet means you develop new blood vessels in that area which hurts your vision more. With dry macular degeneration, that means you are developing things under a layer of cells and the only thing to do with dry macular degeneration is to prevent it from becoming "wet"). However, there were some cool interesting cases but all in all, a pretty standard day.

My mentor and I chit-chatted at the end of the session and she asked if she had convinced me to go into ophthalmology. I told her I find it interesting and her lifestyle seems like a good deal but I was still unsure. Then she asked about my summer plans and I told her about an upcoming family vacation (I know, I know, I haven't told any of you about it yet), a possible externship I am applying for (basically a paid internship away from my medical school) and anything not research related. She was very nice and supportive but told me that if I did ever get truly interested in ophthalmology, I should do research. "Ophthalmology is a competitive field and it will give you an edge."

... uh... thanks? Can someone explain to me, how is it that if 100 (out of 200) of my peers are doing research, that me doing research will somehow give me an edge? Either way, I have my post-undergrad research and if anything ever comes of it (hard to say if a paper with my name will ever arise, to be frank), then all the power to me. If not, I'm going to be a doctor either way so I'm not terribly worried about whether or not I have research on my resume/CV.

Day 489: Oh the humanity!

Don't be fooled by the subject title. This is going to a serious-ish post.

This looks just like the one we use at the lab.

Today, I returned to guillotining rats and cracking their skulls open. It's been a while since I've guillotined a rat myself and it was incredibly disconcerting. It didn't help that this certain rat was not given the best treatment -- it was definitely alive and somewhat conscious while it's heart was being drained of blood, and it's liver and lung were being cut out; it was thrashing about in it's semi-alive state. Then, I get the joy of cutting it's head off only to have its eyes bug out as I sever his head from the rest of his body. It was not a pleasant image.

Then, I have to crack the skull and do other unpleasant things and the moral of this story is, it's hard to completely distance myself from the inhumanity of it all. I'm not a fan of rats. However, I think it's good to be grateful for their lives because they are contributing to the big picture.

I'm going to warn you right now. If you don't want to read about teeth and skull-cracking and brain-removing, skip ahead until you see this "@#$"...

As I was cracking the rat's skull open, I could feel its teeth jabbing into my finger. I had to cut its skin away from the skull and pull at the muscle and I was trying somewhat desperately not to gag at the idea that it's eye sockets were just about gone and its teeth were still jabbing my freaking finger.

@#$

Anyway, all in all, rats are rats. It's easy to feel bad for what we do to them (or so I think) but it's also surprisingly easy to dull one's senses to both the injustice and plain old creepyness of what I/we have to do.

Classes start tomorrow. And the new routine begins.