by Stefanie | May 10, 2015
The Infectious Disease sequence has officially been conquered! I’ve got to send much love out to the best lab partner that ever was, dearest Daniel who was an incredibly good sport about my, er… neurotic tendencies. (No point sugar-coating it this far into the game.) I couldn’t have done it without him.
In spite of aforementioned neurotic tendencies, this was actually a really enjoyable sequence. There was oodles of case-based learning and, while the cases were almost always straight-forward (we are new here, after all), it still pushed us to legitimately think like doctors. Our instructors were all fantastic and how on earth do they know so much. It also reminded us what it’s like to be students in the real world where you’re expected to show up to class every day (awkward cough). Having the option to stream lectures from home is incredibly freeing, but it does kind of skew your perception of reality. I fussed with the best of them about having to be there every morning, but I actually believe it was a good thing that we were held accountable for attending small group every day and it definitely contributed to my learning. (Don’t tell on me; can’t afford to lose my street cred.)
One of my classmates found this piece of glory and splendor: the love child of Pokemon and the ID sequence. Quite possibly the best thing ever.
The next two weeks are going to be highly unusual for us. They’re dubbed CFM, Clinical Foundations of Medicine, and consist of relatively few events scheduled sporadically across the coming days. The formally scheduled events include presentations on topics such as interpersonal violence, LGBTQ concerns, and patient decision making. There are also opportunities for us to demonstrate our history-taking and physical exam skills to our instructors and get feedback. The abundance of available time in our schedule is largely to practice those skills leading up to our demonstrations, but it also allows us time to pursue other things such as shadowing, taking care of logistical preparations for summer projects, and the ever popular Taking a Break. I plan on dabbling in all of the above.
Speaking of taking a break, something I’ve really worked on throughout the ID sequence is making it a bigger priority to leave some time for myself every day. As you may have picked up on from previous posts, this generally equates to video game time. I honestly kind of shocked myself in terms of how successful I was. Not quite so shocking, it made a big difference in my general state of mind. There’s so much to learn in our courses and so many cool things outside of class that you can get involved with, but yikes! You can’t be “on” all the time. I certainly learned my lesson. I hereby grant you permission to hit me with something if I appear to have forgotten it at some point in the future.
At the conclusion of our two CFM weeks, we only have one more week of M1 year. Our final sequence is Human Growth and Development and then we’re officially into the summer. How is that possible…? As is my wont, I call shenanigans.
by Stefanie | Apr 4, 2015
I’m a baddie for not having written in so long, forgive me! Extra-long post to make up for it? I hope? The primary culprit for my absence is a much beloved, but much time om-nom-nomming Umich Medical School tradition: the Smoker.
The Smoker is a comedic (or so we like to think) musical production put on entirely by medical students that pokes gentle/occasionally not-so-gentle fun at the faculty and culture of our school. It is insane. It is ridiculous. It can take over your life if you’re not careful. It is awesome. I had a fairly hefty role and, consequently, spent oodles of time in rehearsal. I also managed to make my costuming endeavors dramatically more complex than they had any right to be. The short version: Played professor with mustache. My skin reacts to everything(!). Needed fancy hypoallergenic mustache glue. Aforementioned mustache glue only sold by select retailers. Mustache glue useless if freezes. Despite really expensive express shipping, mustache glue froze (of course). Classmate (aka Saint Sara the Super) procured second batch of mustache glue in person while en route to weekend destination. Success. (And yes, that is the short version.) Making things difficult is a skill, truly.
In case you missed it, I'm the one with the mustache.
Anyway – enough of that! Being in the Smoker was an awesome way to meet upperclassmen I otherwise may not have ever really interacted with. This made the recent extravaganza of Match Day, where M4s find out where they will be doing their residency, much more exciting: I KNOW a lot of these people now!! (Facebook was blowing up that day, for real.) It’s literally impossible to wrap my mind around the fact that I will be in that position in only 3 years. What.
Post-Smoker I had lots of things to get caught up with: the OCD research I’ve mentioned previously, a new (and rather challenging) sequence on the central nervous system, and a disturbing amount of real life stuff like, you know, taking out the trash. Laundry. Oops…? In fact, I’m still working on getting caught up with a lot of that stuff, so thank goodness it’s…
Wait for it…
…SPRING BREAK!
I’m a giant goober so I’m spending most of my “break” doing lame things like getting my oil changed, finally seeing a doctor about my back (#oldladyproblems, #itoldher”notsciaticalol”, #defsciatica, #diagnosisfail), and playing with broken pottery. (There will be an explanation for that, I promise, but not today.) However, MY MOMMY IS HERE! Being a goober is much less boring with one’s mommy. We’re eating up a storm (Zingerman’s <3) and being generally dorky: the usual. There are also video games, clearly, but not as much as I would like. Boo for being responsible. Even so, it is really nice to have a brief respite from school.
Next week we’ll be jumping into the infectious disease sequence, infamous both for being “the best” and an M2 sequence cloaked in an M1 sequence disguise. In other words, not to be taken lightly. Truthfully, I’m a little nervous. I’m, shall we say, not terribly fond of contagious stuff/parasites/yucky yuckers. They give me the heeber jeebs. This may or may not be fueling my efforts to take care of everything ever this week so that it’s out of the way.
This I could handle. The fact that it's a lunchbox is a nice touch.
One major thing that will not be vying for my time is anatomy. CNS is the last M1 sequence that has an anatomy component so our final practical exam was last Friday. Far more importantly in my case is that our last practice practical exam was last Thursday. He fessed up that he reads these things, so HI JOOOOOEEEEEEEY!!!! Joey is my anatomy BFFL and we concocted a beast of a final practice practical together for our classmates. We were also table buddies (stood next to each other/walked through together) for the actual practical and got many an “Aw, cute!” from bystanders, ‘cause BFFLs. My partner-in-crime and I were gifted with ADORABLE thank you posters from our classmates for our work throughout the year after we finished the exam. I cried. Joey didn’t. I yelled at him. The whole thing was just precious. The responsibility of being in charge of the practice exams involved TONS of work, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
by Stefanie | Feb 1, 2015
Wowzers, no time was wasted once we got back from our break. We immediately launched into the biochem-heavy GI sequence with a vengeance. Many of us (myself included) were simultaneously scrambling to finish up and submit out research proposals for the Summer Biomedical Research Program (fondly dubbed SBRP). I pretty much lived in Fursty, the student study center, for a couple weeks. (Some might argue that I still live there, but there are subtle differences in the hours previously versus currently spent in those hallowed halls, I assure you.) I’m SUPER excited about the project that I’ll be doing and it was absolutely worth the extra stress of dealing with the dynamic duo of GI and proposal at the same time. I’ll be working in a lab that’s examining potential treatments for glioblastoma multiforme (the rudest and crudest of brain tumors) that utilize the body’s natural immune defenses. Totally boss.
Artistic rendering of glioblastoma multiforme; not a nice guy. Ready to kick some GBM butt!
Just in case I had too much free time accumulating (/awkward cough), I’ve managed to find myself involved in another research project that’s currently active. It’s not the most elegant work: I’m essentially double-checking the accuracy of a computer’s attempts to properly delineate brain regions on MRIs. What it’s being used for, however, is pretty sweet. We’re looking at structural differences in the brains of pediatric OCD patients in an effort to further elucidate exactly how this disorder wreaks havoc. This is a topic that’s near and dear to my heart as I suffer from OCD myself. In fact, that’s what prompted me to send out a random email to a faculty member, someone I’d never met before and knew nothing about aside from the fact that he’d done work on OCD in the past (discovered thanks to the power of Google). This in turn prompted a frenzy of further emails, first between himself and a colleague, and then between the three of us that culminated in my becoming involved with this project. It was, in a word, adorable. People here are so stinkin’ eager to educate and to help; all you have to do is ask.
I’m reeeeeally busy, but I’m loving everything that I’m doing. I haven’t even mentioned rehearsals for The Smoker(!); I’ll talk about that in a future post!
by Stefanie | Dec 31, 2014
I seriously can’t even handle the fact that tomorrow is January 1st. Where on earth has the time gone?!? My classmates and I are already halfway through our first year of medical school and I still haven’t completely accepted the fact that I’m even in medical school, let alone that I’ve actually started classes. (What can I say, I’m a little slow on the uptake.)
It’s been both refreshing and eye-opening to take a step back and get away from school for a while. In the grand scheme of things, we’re just babies on the timeline of becoming People Who Know What They’re Doing. All the same, I’ve been shocked time and time again over the holidays at just how much I’ve already learned. I’m able to chime in at the most random times with bits of wisdom I’ve picked up in my months at Michigan. On the way home from the airport, my mother and I had a rousing conversation about the mechanism of action of her osteoporosis medication. (In our defense, it was nearly 2 AM. We can’t be held responsible for the cool factor of our conversations at such an hour.) I schooled the fam on why suddenly stopping beta blockers is an epic no-no. (This one was actually relevant to discussion and not initially brought up by me, I swear.) There’s obviously oodles and oodles of stuff about which I’m completely clueless, but I’ve accomplished far more already than I realized.
We’ve tackled three big chunks of the full physical exam: cardiovascular, respiratory, and musculoskeletal. Several wonderful people gave up their time to allow us to learn from their medical maladies and experience ‘abnormal findings’ firsthand. We’ve practiced taking patient histories (spoiler: I’m still super awkward at it) and learned the absolute must-ask questions for a variety of conditions. I’ve shadowed a number of awesome and generous doctors who welcomed me with open arms and gave me the opportunity to see some incredible things. On top of all that is the obvious: we’ve learned. We’ve learned an insane amount of things and we’re just getting started. Holy moly.
I can’t wait to see what 2015 has in store. If it’s anything like 2014, it’s going to be BOSS.
by Stefanie | Nov 27, 2014
Happy Thanksgiving!! Warning: dorky thankfulness post incoming.
Things I’m thankful for:
- SNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!! Snoooooooooow.
This is the entrance to my building. WHAT.
I’ve lived my whole life in Florida and I’m finally, FINALLY getting to experience real weather. I’m in love. Seriously. Everything looks cuter with snow. Snow is squishy. I can wear my hair down and not risk death by heat stroke. It’s AMAZING. I was, of course, not at all prepared in terms of wardrobe for this sort of thing, so I had to make a day-long shopping excursion to outfit myself. The fact that I actually had the time for said excursion takes me to my second point…
- The people who I collectively refer to as the grown-ups of the medical school (faculty and administration types) are the best ever. We recently had some issues with our renal sequence because several changes were made for this year’s iteration and let’s just say they weren’t all clear winners. Immediately after we expressed our concerns, significant changes were made to alleviate our stress levels (and, in my case, provide a much-needed window for procuring winter necessities). In addition, our dean instituted regularly scheduled opportunities for our class to meet with him and discuss anything we so desire. The people here are so communicative and receptive it’s honestly hard to believe at times.
- I’ve only been here a few months and I’ve already made so many incredible new friends. We can deftly maneuver between intellectual hoity-toitiness (I may have made that word up) and being completely moronic and have epic amounts of fun throughout. These are the best people with which to: have lunch, whine about having too much to study, get schooled about winter apparel, Hallelujah-chorus (yes that’s a verb) through the hallways, make borderline inappropriate medical jokes, watch ridiculous youtube videos, and simply be.
- So you know that I’m keeping it real: it’s almost winter break!!!! <3!
