M2 year in a nutshell

I’ve obviously neglected this blog…I mean, are blogs even the “cool” thing to do anymore? Seems like video blogs are taking over. Regardless, thanks to Austin reminding me that my life is not all that boring, I’ve decided to start blogging again.

From the top, M2 year began too early (in July) with pharm and path. We then moved on to “systems” starting with derm and ended in April with musculoskeletal. Throughout the year, I shadowed a pediatrician and can honestly say that my negative views on dealing with kids have changed. For example, dealing with a 3 y/o boy that is flipping out, screaming and crying about an impending shot is no longer a defying feat. In fact, my physician mentor taught me that there is no need to deal with “child-like” tantrums, and calmly tell the child and accompanying legal guardian that either that boy needs to stop fussing or we will not administer the shot. That being said, the job of calming down the child has been handed rightfully to the legal guardian and you are no longer left to deal with it. If anyone knows of a better method in dealing with crying kids, please let me know, but this one is fine by me 🙂 Even better are the kiddies that are sick, they’re usually to tired and lethargic to fuss.

Back to school, I had my OSCE’s which is a standardized patient exam. This 3 hour exam consists of 6 stations. 5 are patients and one is a diagnostic lab. With the patients, we had 15 min to interview/examine  (H&P) the pt and 10 minutes to do the write-up which included labs and differential diagnoses. The diagnostic lab station included lab values, ekgs, and urine analysis results that we were supposed to analyze and diagnose. Overall, this was probably one of the most exhausting and stressful exams I’ve experienced. The 3 hours flew by, but there was always that one antagonizing minute that they you give you for a break in between patients that just made you suffer.

Over spring break I had the opportunity to go to Ecuador on a medical mission. I feel that in itself is worthy of a separate post..with pics! So I’ll be sure to do that soon.

At the present, we’re done with school. It’s board studying time!! I’m taking the COMLEX June 24th and have signed up for the USMLE but am unsure if I’m taking that yet.

As for personal me, I’m living with three other amazing chicas that make the apt life enjoyable. However, I’ll be moving out at the end of June for an apt in Miami, ughh, i know… I’m currently in a relationship that was wonderful but is now slowly and heart wrenchingly spiraling downwards. I’m not sure if the change was because of the stress of impending boards or he just stopped caring. Either way, I’ve learned making relationships work with zero time and 100% stress is hard. I guess it just comes down to whether you think it’s impt enough to make sacrifices for.

That being said, my 2nd year officially ends this Friday and I’m “officially” 1/2 a doc! Craziness… Having summarized the year, I guess I’ll be focusing and writing more about the present and daunting future. For those that still tune in (austin), thanks!

Feminist Rant

A break…ahhh! I will now cater to my much neglected blog.

“smart women become doctors, smarter women marry them”

Last semester, our class was split into groups and assigned to random middle schools throughout Broward County to spread the news that cigarettes are bad! This was a for our Tobacco Cessation course and in order to pass the class, we had to do a 50 minute presentation with videos and games on the dangers of tobacco use. My group included two others and we were stuck in a ghetto middle school with a grumpy old lady that obviously hated her job/life for 5 class periods/the entire day! So there’s the setting, here’s the rant.

In one particular class period, we ended our presentation about 15 min early and decided to open up the floor to these rowdy group of 7th graders on any general questions. I began by asking, “So how many of you all want to grow up to be doctors?” To which a perky girl that obviously hit puberty way to early in her life, replied, “I don’t want to be a doctor, but I want to marry one!” I shouldn’t have been shocked, but I was, so here I was trying to pull my thoughts together to tell her she was a pathetic excuse for a young woman give her encouraging words on how women shouldn’t have to rely on men for financial stability in their future, etc, when another chick pipes up with, “Yeah, I’m definitely marrying rich.” Jarod, my med school buddy/partner is loving this, as he replies, “That’s my girl!” The teacher takes over at this point and asks bimbo girl #1 what she plans to do with her life while her doctor hubby is at work saving lives. Bimbo girl #1 replies with, “Well, somebody has to spend all the money he makes, I’ll stay at home and decorate the house.” Which then turns into a full blown discussion on interior decorating between bimbo girls #1, #2, and friends. Jarod turns to me and remarks, “They start goldiggers young these days.” The bell rings, everyone leaves. I’m appalled. A.) The teacher did nothing to remedy the situation, to explain or empower these young impressionable minds. B.) That girls this young are still in that “male provider” mindset. I really believed that upcoming generations would be over this antiquated way of thinking and it’s sad to see it still exists. I didn’t have this experience with any of the other 4 classes, but one experience in itself was enough. I went back home and hung out with the girls as we traded stories on whose “tobacco cessation” experience was the worst. I brought up my story and the girls were startled, but not to my point of shock. Ingrid provided the point that maybe the financial setting may have had something to do with it, in that, these girls’ mothers, unhappy with their current status/way of life bring their girls up to look for something better, embedding them with ideas on marrying rich. Not gonna lie, yes, that’s an easy way out, but what about doing something for yourself, getting an education, working hard, striving to succeed, doing what you want to do and whatever makes you happy. But then again, who I am to judge, as long as these girls know they have an option. If they are educated on these options and they still want to marry rich, more power to them. Male docs beware!

One hour till obliteration

I have no excuse for not updating other than the fact that I have been ridiculously busy like outta my mind, what the hell was i thinking going into this field, kind of busy. We’ve had about ten finals to end this semester. I’m currently sitting with my friend Mary in a study room in the annex one hour before our final exam (histo lab) for the semester. I’m posting on my blog while she “facebooks”. Yeah, we’re over it… I would try to describe this experience with some sort of funny analogy, but I think i’ve lost my sense of humor, along with my social skills and any personality I may have had at one point in my life. We are so getting trashed tonight.

Black October

I haven’t written in FOREVER and I promise I have a good excuse. October blows! We have a test scheduled every monday throughout the month and not only that, but we continue with the grind of 8-4 classes monday through friday. Every spare moment is spent studying (minus those crazy post-exam nights, but that’s another story). Med school has definitely started to take its toll on us. I truly understand what people mean when they say they have no lives, because I am one of those people! On a side note, Sven has got quite the funky stench on him these days, worse than before. Oh, and Mollz and I both did well on our simulated patient exams. I guess we’re cut out to be doctors after all! Speaking of, I’m currently shadowing a physician who has just recently switched her practice to something they call “boutique medicine”. Basically, she cuts down her patient list from what she had (about 3,000) to a group of 300 that pay her on a yearly basis, and believe me it is not cheap! By paying her this lump sum, she is now their on-call doctor. She gives them her house phone, cell phone, will schedule appts with them whenever they need it and is pretty much there for them 24/7. There’s a lot of controversy regarding this practice of medicine. Many feel that they are selling out for the dough and perks. I mean, she does have kids, perhaps doing boutique medicine would allow her to spend more time with the fam? Others feel that it may benefit these patients to receive such constant care and attention. My concern is that, obviously, many people do not have the monetary means to afford such privileged care. On the last day of her practice being non-boutique, she saw several patients that weren’t joining her “elite” group for the last time and it was soo sad to see them say goodbye to the physician that they had had for the last 10+ years. It was hard to understand how she could just drop these people and not feel any guilt. Oh well, to each their own. On that note, it is sooo past my bedtime right now, i’m off, night!

Sex and Medicine

I’ve found that med students are all uber huge pervs. We hide it well, because we are now professionals and that is what professionals do. In classes, professors use the penis as a metaphor for mitosis, specifically during the step of anaphase where the separating chromosomes are “erect like tiny happy penises” and then eventually “become limp and tired” during telophase. Our anatomy professor, during a lecture on breasts, slipped us something about the “bounce factor” of breasts which can be used to tell if they are real or have been surgically enhanced. (That didn’t go over well with some of the females in our class. I, personally, thought it was kind of funny.) In our Osteopathic Principles and Practice Lab, we are paired up with a person and in one particular lab we had to feel the skeletal bony landmarks of our partner. We had to palpate the pubic symphysis. Don’t know where that is? Let’s just say you’d have to buy me dinner and drinks before you could ever come near mine. Luckily, I had a female partner so it wasn’t as awkward. In anatomy lab, I noticed that my group is now more comfortable not only with each other, but with our cadaver, Sven. Comfortable to the point of being able to make some racy jokes…I won’t get into it, but it’s just interesting how our attitudes have changed. I wonder if we are all pervs at heart and then the desensitization of body parts allows us to be comfortable and therefore express our inner pervs. Does that make sense at all? Well, you can analyze this yourselves and get back to me. I have to continue studying for my SPEs (simulated patient exam), where we have 35 minutes to perform a full history and physical to a patient actor while a facilitator grades us. Mine is on Sept 20th, Molly’s is Oct 4th. Wish us luck!

To all my Jupiter buddies…

I was LAME last night. There I said it. Instead of getting crunked with y’all, I spent the night on the couch at my apartment watching made-for-tv movies and eating leftover Cold Stone.

Some pics from Sona’s bday party

Birthday Madness

I turned 22. Kind of depressing, because what fun is aging after 21? You just get older and older until you get wrinkles and cooper’s droopers (anatomical expression for saggy boobs). What better way to forget this depressing event than to throw a party! We’ll start from the top. Tropical Storm Ernesto came, so we had two days off from school, very unnecessary, but a nice break. On Monday afternoon, Molly and I went shopping for birthday outfits at Aventura, I got a cute bday outfit from school from Zara and a hot dress for my bday party Fri night. Birthday outfits are a necessity!! Tuesday night there was a hurricane party at Perle’s place and my bff 4 lyfe, Alexis came into town!! ohh, it was sooo good to see her. Thur was the day of my birth. Steve-o, Molly, and I celebrated with lunch at Tijuana Flats and that night we went out to Niki Marina in Ft. Lauddy. I was expecting a square grouper type atmosphere, but I got something straight out of South Beach. There were beds to chill out on outside, which is where we spent most of the evening. Friday was the day of my birthday bash, and my god was I under-prepared! I had to do everything last minute, from buying the keg to making jello shots. yeah, i was stressing, but thank goodness I have such awesome friends who helped me out like woah. We had a huge anatomy review session at 7am the next day (sat morning) so I didn’t expect too many of my M1 friends to show up. 2 hours before the party was supposed to start, I was crunk. All my fab HC friends came, as well as the hardcore M1s that are down for some partying. Friends+ beer pong + tons of liquor + yuengling keg + jello shots + cops= a good party!! Yes, the cops came, but it was nothing serious at all, just the noise level. After people started leaving, my fab friends helped to clean up and at around 5ish, we called it a night. You can check out some pics from the party on luke’s website: Sona’s Birthday Party – a photoset on Flickr or Perle’s website: THC Home. The next day was Bnall’s bday bash. Ali, Trin, and I spent the day together and later went up to Boca for the partay. It was like a mini reunion of our clique, even Puerto Rican came down from G-ville (sigh) Good Times!!! Now that birthday madness is over, I return to the stresses of med school and the reality that I just might fail our anatomy test on wednesday. Eek! Oh well. My study break was over 30 minutes ago, so this post has gotta end now.Today, I say goodbye to Trinster who leaves us for japan on sept 12th…I love you and I am going to miss you sooooooo friggin much, good luck in Japan and drink lots of sake for me. LOVE YOU TONS! p.s.s.- here’s her blog, it will be awesome- Sakura

Exam Time

Our first biochem exam was this past Monday…needless to say the weekend was spent at the library downing red bulls and going over amino acids. On test day, it was mandatory to wear our white coats. I, knowing I would forget, left mine on my chair so that I would remember it when I left in the morning. Of course I forgot it anyway, but luckily my roomate hadn’t left the house yet, so she brought it to school for me. The test was fine, although they the profs tended to ask questions on things they had never mentioned/taught in class. Overall, I had this blase attitude on how I performed. I have yet to check my test results. That night, there was an event at the Park at the Hardrock for the M1s and M2s. The thing I like about our med school class is that they always seem to throw some sort of party/event the same night after one our tests. I feel that the balance between academics and a social life is quite necessary. There was some Mr. NSU contest that night, kinda like our Mr. Honors College, which we pretty much missed since we were so fashionably late. We pre-gamed at chili’s with some of our M1 friends and dental students. Perle and Bnall came out that night as well and later, we all got crunk at the Park. Funny thought: As I was looking out at the crowd that night, full of crazy, drunken students with lit cigs, drinks in hand, dancing up on poles, I was like, “wow, they’re going to be someone’s doctor one day.”  Kinda scary, huh?  Overall, my mission was to get Molly “very happy” again and my mission was accomplished. What a great way to celebrate the completion of our first test.

Sona’s Schedule of Studying

(or lack thereof)

Consists of:

8am-5pm- Class, and how can you study while in class? You should be paying attention….So no studying done here.

5pm-6pm-Errands, errands, there are ALWAYS fricking errands

6pm-7pm- Eat…so impt..While on the subject of eating… I am lazy and I can’t cook. I can try to cook, but I am lazy. I really miss Ali, Trin, Meg, Bryan, and the various others who would cook/feed me amazing meals back at the HC. I now realize how lucky/spoiled I was. This may shock you, but I have actually resorted to frozen TV dinners!!!!!!!! i know, i know, so sad. But the convenience of popping a $3 boxed meal into the microwave for 5 minutes for instant nourishment is hard to beat. I’m trying to stay “healthy” by buying the south beach diet, lean cuisine meals, etc. Sadly, I see this being the norm for a while…

7pm- Study, chill w/hicks or molly or by myself

Slightly idealized schedule to my day, but I honestly understand what people mean when they say there aren’t enough hours in the day. I come home exhausted and worn out every night (and this is just from being at school, lab days are worse) and all I want to do is have a glass of wine and sleep.

The pics Molly posted below were taken this friday at our little wine and cheese soire, which turned into an impromptu house party…let’s just say the guest list was very ethnic! We had a good time! Molly and I, being the nerds we are, came up with a medical “gang sign”…ya, no scoffing. We can cut you up, bitches! FYI, my bday is coming up and I’m throwing a house partay fri night, sept 1st. All and more are welcome!
Back to the present…we are currently sitting in class, learning the art of taking vital signs, we will be needing volunteers to practice on 🙂 Our first major test (biochem) is coming up on Monday, so needless to say, we will be hardcore cramming until then. In the meantime, here’s a fun fact we just learned…ATLEAST 40% of Americans are overweight…so get your big butt off that computer chair and hop on the treadmill, son!

Sona & Molly: the authors of this blog

Me and Sona doing the Triangular Interval gang sign