Archive for the 'Medicine' Category
Medical School: Day 1
August 11th, 2003Today was the first day of medical school. Well not quite…it was the first day we had to be present on campus, because our week of orientation started today. How was it? Pretty boring.
My day included the usual series of beginning-of-the-year administrative activities…standing in line, picking up packets, making chit-chat with other first-year students, standing in more lines, getting student ID photos taken, making more small talk with others, and finally getting assigned to my MDL (multidisciplinary lab), a room of 24 first-year students, each with a cubicle, with the goal of making our medical school class of 160 seem a little more personal. Apparently we’ll get to know these 24 people well over the year. We’ll also get to know our ICM of 6 even better, since we’ll be going to ICM together (Intro to Clinical Medicine, where we go to a hospital once a week). This group will also be my dissection group for Gross Anatomy. Can’t wait for that to start…
Anyway it was a pretty uneventful day, except for the countless welcome lectures. That’s about it. Let’s see how the first real day of med school goes next week.
Gross
August 29th, 2003Today was the first day of Gross Anatomy, the (in)famous course all first year med students have to take. A few days ago we had lengthy lecture telling us what to do and what not to do (to or with our cadaver), and the sorts punishment we’d get if, for example, we took parts out of the lab or brought visitors into the lab…so we figured we’d head down to the Gross lab immediately.
But no. Before we headed down, we had a Donor Recognition Presentation, which was like an “opening ceremony” of sorts to show respects to those who donated bodies to this program. It would have been a good idea had it been short and not religious, but it turned to be the complete opposite. Organizing and leading this 1 hour long (!) ceremony were two deans of religious affairs (who knew there was such a position anyway?) who passed out handouts filled with ridiculous poems, songs, and other essays. We then followed along as they chanted these words with such strange voice inflections that I felt as if I were in some sort of cult…a cult that honored the legs of cadavers for helping them “run fast” in life. At one point, they read through a creepy ass poem (in the loosest sense of the word) and we had to chant back after them, call-and-response style.
Anyway, not only did this ceremony probably not achieve what it intended to, but it actually made it hard to keep a straight face. As much as I didn’t want to smirk during a ceremony like this, I know I didn’t suppress all of it. What a shame…it was really a cheesy hour.
We finally headed off to the Gross lab for our first dissection, and seeing our cadaver for the first time was a little strange. We slowly took off all the layers of shrouds, sheets, and covers, and finally saw her body. We didn’t even take the cloth off her face, but it still caught me off-guard more than I expected. A few girls actually fainted (I’m sure it was a result of that ceremony, as it probably made them overly anxious).
The next three hours were spent dissecting the back. And I don’t exaggerate when I say we spent the vast majority of those hours skinning the body and trying to remove all the fat from the back. Fat, in case you are curious, is disgusting. Alive or dead. If nothing else, at least Gross Anatomy has already taught me to not get fat.
Also, at my request we named our cadaver Eleanor, in honor of a girl that I “liked” back in Baltimore. BTW, in case you’re thinking of commenting on this, don’t.
ICM
September 2nd, 2003Today was our first day of Introduction to Clinical Medicine. In ICM we get to slap on our white coats and go to a hospital once a week to practice our interviewing skills with real patients…not just standardized patients (actors).
At first I was excited because it would be a new experience, but then I was worried that it might turn into the same useless chit-chat with patients that I’ve done tons of while volunteering in hospitals in the past. It’s funny because everyone (adults and students) always says how valuable volunteers are and how much they help out the patients…but in reality, all you do is act as the doctor’s and nurse’s bitch for a few hours and make small talk with the patients. Now I know that small gestures like that actually can be valuable to the patients’ hospital experience, but it shouldn’t be over-exaggerated by the volunteer coordinators.
Oops, didn’t mean to digress there. Anyway it turned out to be kind of cool, because while I was speaking with my patient, her phone rang, and she said that she couldn’t talk because the “doctor” was in the room. That was cool and definitely enough to make my day.
Brain Dead
April 30th, 2004Neuro is finally DONE! This has been a long and (sort of) miserable 9 weeks, and I’m not sad one bit to see this neuro unit over. As annoying and time-consuming as this unit was, however, I did find it interesting overall.
It’s funny because until now, the one topic in biology/physiology that I hated the most was neuroscience. It used to be that the slightest mention of the word “cerebellum” or “medulla” made my own brain shut down and stop caring; or if a professor was lecturing about neuroscience related topics, my ears only heard “blah blah blah blah blah”…but now I actually find some topics in this field fascinating.
My explanation is that the brain and nervous system are so complex that you need to learn all aspects of it at once to get a feel for the entire system. In the past I’d only been taught selected topics so I couldn’t understand how they fit into the bigger picture. Having it taught all at once (like we just did) made it all make sense, and now I have some appreciation for it all.
With that said, I don’t want to see that material again for a long time.
Final Unit
May 3rd, 2004Today was the first day of our Muskuloskeletal unit…the last unit of the year. Which means neuro is done. Which also means year one of medical school is almost done. This seems like it will be a quick and relatively easy unit, although we are tripling up on the number of gross anatomy dissections we do per week.
On a sort of related note, it seems that when it comes to the words “abduct” and “adduct” all physicians can’t just pronounce them as would normal people. Instead, to avoid confusion between these similar sounding words, they distinctly say the first two letters of each word in an attempt to distinguish it. So…instead of pronouncing the whole words, they say “A-B-duct” or “A-D-duct”. Personally, I find that retarded. Or should I say “R-E-tarded”.
Hocus Pocus?
May 11th, 2004Today for ICM we went to the Emperor’s College, which is both a school and clinic that practices alternative/Eastern medicine, and it was like entering into a weird new world. Even though their goal is to heal people, the language and explanations they used were just bizarre. Heartbeats were wiry or slippery. Illness and stress were the result of unbalanced energies or channels. Patients’ tongues represented their livers. Their knees affected their shoulders. Their fires inside are weak. And if your yin doesn’t match your yang…well, good luck.
Overall it was a very interesting experience. We also got to observe some accupuncture sessions. Even though I am convinced it’s a good complement to modern/normal/western medicine, I don’t “believe” enough for it to work, so I’m not sure if I’ll ever resort to it…that, and I don’t like needles in my head.
Gross No More
May 14th, 2004Today was our last dissection for Gross Anatomy…and not a day too soon, either. What started out as an identifiable, intact, human-like cadaver was turned into, over 10 long and smelly months, a messy pile of small scraps. There is no piece larger than a few inches, and no body part has been untouched.
Don’t get me wrong…I am grateful to our cadaver for having donated herself to our program in order for us to learn human anatomy in detail (finally I know where the liver is). But, after many hours crowding around the table staring at her — not to mention all the time spent inside that glowing white dissection room, wearing our once-white-now-yellow lab coats, and absorbing all the unavoidable smells the room has to offer — I’m relieved that Gross is done.
“Hands-on” Clinical Correlation
May 21st, 2004I got a first-hand view of the hand muscles we happen to be learning about in school right now. Had another one of my panic attacks last night — my biggest one yet, actually. I woke up about an hour after falling asleep, and next thing I knew I was awake, arms flinging, and my fist through the window! At first I didn’t realize where I was, what had happened, or even that my fist had shattered through the glass, but after feeling blood dripping on my knee I quickly had an idea of what was up.
After spending the next few hours in the Cedars-Sinai ER getting stitches, I returned home to find my bedroom looking like someone had delivered a baby in there it was so bloody. This was all definitely a scary and unwanted situation, but at least now I’ll never forget where the palmaris longus muscle is.
Wait Till It’s My Turn
May 25th, 2004In preparation for my upcoming trip to Thailand and India, I had a doctor’s appointment today with a travel doctor. I made my appointment for 12 noon, so that I’d have plenty of time for the appointment and then to make it to my 1pm class.
But did I make it? No…of course not. Stupid goddamn doctor (like ALL doctors) showed up not 15 minutes, not half an hour, not 45 minutes, but an entire hour late! He showed up at 1pm for our 30 minute appointment.
After all the nonsense we’ve been fed this past year in school about respecting your patients opinions and valueing their time as much as yours, I have yet to see a doctor do either. That’s why almost all us med students do not take any of those “Professionalism” courses in school seriously.
I so want to return the “favor” to my patients once I’m in practice. People keep saying it’s wrong to perpetuate this lousy behavior and practice, but forget that. As a patient I’ve suffered enough through many doctors’ arrogance. I’m keeping my patients in the waiting room for as long as it takes, until I’m ready to see them.
Don’t think I took this all sitting down…I had to get a few vaccines, and the punk made me go to the receptionist’s window and pay first (out of pocket, by the way, since insurance doesn’t cover preventive travel medicine…ha, wait till I get malaria, then they’ll shell out 100X the money to keep me alive!), and only then could I get my vaccines. Little did he know that I went out, walked around in circles a few times, and walked right back into his office without having paid. Screw him.
One More Week…
May 31st, 2004…until this school year drags to an end.
Year One Done!
June 14th, 2004’nuff said.
Almost. I’m heading off in one week for a nice 6 week tour of parts of Asia…Thailand and India specifically. Check back for possible photos and journal entries as I travel.
See you in August!
Back for Round 2
August 2nd, 2004After a brief summer vacation, which included my incredible 6-week trip to Thailand and India, the second year of med school began today…and it felt as if we didn’t even have a break. Summer vacation was so short (eight weeks of summer is hardly a “vacation”) that when returning to the lecture hall today and seeing everyone again, it seemed as if it was only a long weekend separating last year and this year. Same people, same ICM groups, same lectures halls (almost…by moving up in the seniority, we’ve moved down one floor!)
And what do they do to welcome us back from vacation? Nothing — except give us the most boring 2-hour microanatomy lecture that had people walking out just 15 minutes into the lecture. After half an hour, I then fell asleep…some things will definitely never change.
Kid’s Play
August 5th, 2004In our lecture on blood flow today, we learned what flows, pressures, and resistances were, and also how they’re related to each other according to physics law called Poiseuille’s law. Our professor was spending forever trying to detail step-by-step what this equation and all its variables meant.
And the whole time I was thinking — in addition to how SLOW this guy was teaching — that this topic sounds very familiar. I then realized that I had taught this very same material back at Hopkins to the freshmen in the BME department, for the Models for Life class. Pouiseuille’s Law, pressures, flows, diameters, fourth powers, tubes, viscosity, all that good stuff…and now here I am having it taught back to me. How sad and funny.
Just goes to show you a little something about the minds of medical students and how if you even mention the concept of a math variable, they freak out and need to be spoon fed. It’s pretty strange considering pre-med requirements included a year of calculus and a year of physics. I guess if learning something new doesn’t involve pure memorization, most med students can’t handle it. That’s it…
Stripper, M.D.
August 10th, 2004For today’s ICM workshop, which was on “Surface Anatomy”, they brought in artist models (models that normally pose for artists) to help us out. ..by getting topless and letting us touch them as much as we needed. We got to palpate, percuss, and auscultate as much as we wanted, and actually I still don’t really know the difference between percussing and palpating . We also were told to draw all over them, outlining the general locations of organs such as the lungs and heart.
It was definitely not an ordinary day at school, since they demonstrated to us in the lecture hall first what we would be doing…and one of the younger female models stripped right in front of us. And that’s about as hot as this story gets, since our group ended up getting assigned an older man, who was helpful. It was actually a pretty valuable learning experience. Damn it…this entry wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be.
Dr. DRE
September 21st, 2004As part of our continuing process of preparing to become doctors, we learned how to perform a male genital exam tonight. No, not from books, not on plastic models, but from the real thing…on “standardized patients”, of sorts (I think they were called HHA — human health advocates. These were trained people who at medical schools conduct sessions like these to teach med students learn how to perform various parts of the physical exam…in tonight’s case it was the male genital exam, which included the testicular exam, hernia exam, and finally the digital rectal exam (DRE).
As much as I want to act completely grossed out by what I had to do tonight, it was again actually a very educational and well-run session. These people were very knowledgeable, and they were excellent teachers. They taught us how to do the exam (first by way of demonstration and then by doing it ourselves), and I’m glad my first time doing this was on a healthy volunteer and not a grumpy patient, where I’d be fumbling around trying to feel for the vas deferens.
With that said, I still get disgusted when I think back to the few seconds that the DRE lasted.
Back From the Dead
March 3rd, 2005I know…it’s been months since I last posted. But what better a way to return from the “dead” than to describe my sobering morning at the coroner.
As part of another ICM focus experience, we had the opportunity to visit the LA County Coroner’s Office and watch the coroners there perform one or more autopsies.
All of us met in the lobby and were taken down to the basement of the building, where we were fitted with masks, gowns, booties, and gloves. As they led us into the hallway with the autopsy rooms, I was mentally preparing myself for my first ever encounter with a dead body (ones that weren’t embalmed, as in gross anatomy) — but little did I realize that once I walked through those double doors, bodies were strewn about the hallway worse than an overcrowded ER. And the first bodies I caught a gruesome glimpse of were not what I was prepared to see.
One woman clearly had had her autopsy already and was crudely sewn back up with some rope that looked like it was bought from a hardware store. The next one was an emaciated man with his knees bent up to his chest and a ghastly look on his face. And I couldn’t even tell whether the last body was of a man or woman since it had been so badly burned. It was a scene directly out of a gory hollywood movie, with so many mangled bodies and their cold blue flesh and eyes permanently closed. I almost felt that they’d soon get up and start moaning and limping around, kinda like the movie Shawn of the Dead. (I guess I should commend hollywood make-up directors for their ability to make the living look dead.)
We rounded a corner, and at this point our group — 3 guys and 3 girls — was just 3 guys now, as all the girls were too shocked to make it past the first few steps into the hallway. So we went and helped them along.
Once we were inside the autopsy room, a room where five autopsies were being carried out. An uninterested pathologist with no emotion on his face at all led us to the table we’d be at, and he started gave us a brief history on this middle aged black women he was about to do an autopsy on. He started and for the next 10 minutes slashed into the woman’s chest with the classic “inverted Y” strokes, and he began digging in and throwing around her organs like it was a chop shop. This was far from careful, precise surgery. There was no fine dissection here, just big circular saws cutting through peoples’ skulls. In the end what was left was just a hollowed out cage of a body with half a head.
After about 2 hours the smell was getting to me, and so I left. It wasn’t exactly a sight I wanted to see, but I did appreciate the opportunity to learn that I never want to be a pathologist. And after visiting the gift shop (!)…I did end the day with a LA County Coroner’s t-shirt!
Let the Boards Begin
March 29th, 2005Medical school is finally over.
Sort of. The first two years — the “pre-clinical years” — are now essentially over (except for one final cumulative exam, which is no reason to worry).
And now that our Skin test is over, which in reality was more of a microbiology test, it’s time to focus exclusively on studying for the boards (USMLE step 1). Not quite exclusively actually…we still have Integrated Cases for 4 hours/day for 3 days of the week, ICM on Thursday mornings still, and a full day of review sessions on Friday. Add to that several absurd ICM workshops on “Ethics” (haven’t we had this topic shoved down our throats for the past 2 years already?) and mandatory Basic Life Support training (aka CPR), and I think it’s safe to say that the school is trying to make sure we don’t have any time to study.
Anyway…12 weeks until the boards.
One week to go
June 14th, 2005Title says it all…one more week until this slow, boring suffering is over.
Year 2: passed
June 20th, 2005Wow, the (almost) unthinkable happened: I passed our Year 2 comprehensive exam. I was almost sure I’d failed and was already making tentative plans how to accomodate the make up exam into my schedule for the next 2 weeks, which required shuffling around a trip to Hawaii.
But no need, since I passed…with plenty of room to spare too. I guess I’m now half a doctor. Just call me Amir Schricker, M.
I guess I should be thinking about tomorrow’s boards, though…just 24 hours away.
Boards are over!
June 21st, 2005Yup…after 2 months of 60-hour study weeks, 7 days a week, boards are done!
Luckily there weren’t too many topics on the exam that were completely new to me (but there were definitely a few) I still don’t see why we should be required to memorize so many random basic science facts, but luckily First Aid made it clear what we had to know.
Anyway, now that the USMLE is over, it’s time to come out of hiding and rejoin the world. It’s about time I cleaned the house, updated this site, and took care of my poor fish. Oh…and pack for my Hawaii trip on Thursday.