Songs, Hospitals, and Intestines

I bid neurology and osteoporosis adieu, and prepare myself to be buried in GI. Yes - it really is as disgusting as it sounds. We spent all morning -- four straight hours -- in lectures about diarrhea. Really makes it difficult to choose something for lunch.

Last week was pretty crazy simply because of the final exam on Friday. Didn't get a whole lot of sleep throughout the entire week. I passed, with a narrow margin of error. Luckily, due to what was described as an "error in statistics" and a "bimodal peak" formation (translation: half the class failed), I gained a good 4%!

Studying for the USMLE Step 1 is well underway... Not well underway exactly, but it is in progress. I ordered Doctors In Training -- a program that helps you review all the material from the past two years. They email me fifteen questions on Mondays and Thursdays... But since I didn't sign up until last week, they sent me all of January's questions at one time. And with the craziness last week, I didn't actually do many questions.... Suffice it to say, I'm a little behind. Like, 150 questions behind. But it's hard to balance along with regular class work.

Why would they save hematology & oncology until the end of the year? March may be a bit rough for me...

Bought a guitar on Monday. It's decently good quality, especially for the price! I can already feel calluses forming on the fingertips of my left hand... which is good, because I'll be able to practice a lot better if it doesn't hurt! I think Kitty's a bit jealous of the attention it's getting.

I think guitar is one of those things that I've thought about (or even attempted) doing before, but I never got very far because I was fairly sure it was too difficult for me. Kind of like graduate school. It seemed like such a difficult task, and I either didn't know how or didn't put forth the effort to find the resources to help me. Lack of motivation? Excessive self-doubt? I'm not too sure what it was, but I figure there's no time like the present to overcome it.

Besides, I need an intermittent distraction from mucosal membranes, serous antibodies, and bacterial exotoxins -- something that has NOTHING to do with medicine.

Speaking of - the Transplantations (our school's a capella group) is performing at a concert on the 26th to benefit CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia). A capella groups from Philadelphia med schools get together for it every year -- U Penn, PCOM, Drexel... I'm thrilled, because I have a solo in the song "Rabies" about being bitten by a fuzzy little friend, and Alisha will be rapping -- it'll be a blast! As long as my throat doesn't close up when I get nervous... I seem to have a slight bit of performance anxiety...

This week has been rather busy, mostly due to Doctoring events. Monday I had an OSCE (basically, a history and physical on a standardized patient), and today I had the follow-up OSCE -- both in preparation for my end-of-year OSCE. (Everyone gets points deducted for something - doing a maneuver incorrectly, not determining the full history of illness, etc., so I don't exacly expect to be perfect. I just expect to pass. And if today's was any indication, I should be okay.) Tomorrow afternoon will be spent in the pediatric hospital, again practicing H&P skills. Last hospital session of the year!! And Friday... Friday will be intense.

For possibly the first time in my life, I'm in a lottery. Your number determines your priority, and the entire afternoon Friday will be devoted to setting up the order of our rotations throughout our third year. I've been having trouble nailing down my preferences... I could see myself ending up in Peds, OB, Psych, or Family Med, and I have to do one of them first. (They typically recommend not doing your area of interest first - since your skills won't be as well-established and you need the doctors' recommendations for residency - nor doing it last - since you'll have already determined your fourth-year schedule by then, and if you end up hating your area of interest you'll be in a jam.) The second semester, I want to do: Internal Med, Surgery, and Neuro -- in that order. I doubt I'll have an interest in Neuro (plus, I think I'll be doing research for my elective... blech). I don't really know yet whether I'll like Med or Surgery, so I want to have them early in case I do!

Being undecided makes all this so much harder . . . . Plus some rotations are at different campuses -- in Reading, Upland, Lehigh Valley, even as far as Pittsburgh! I definitely want to have a rotation at Geisinger, since it's a more rural environment, but moving to another town for 6 weeks seems like such a hassle!!

Sometimes, I feel as though I have to make a conscious effort to keep my head from exploding. I promise I'll try to delay it as long as possible.