Pre Op Checklist

Dear Cowboy Classmate, 

I listened respectfully to you describe all the pharmacokinetics of bisphosphonates, which was super. Can I make a suggestion though for next class? Maybe you can put your arrogant ego aside for one minute and think: hey, my classmate might have some important insights to offer the group too, especially if the topic is...pre-op checklists...since that classmate has probably done a thousand pre-op checklists, on real patients in a real hospital. Maybe you'd listen, because you see, pre-op checklists have to be done right. This isn't some hypothetical situation that will never arise once they unleash you from the PBL room and onto the wards in 6 months.

If it was me, I'd be happy to have a nurse mention that height, weight, and last-meal time are actually crucial pieces of information to gather as well as 'abc's and maybe an echo' . Oh and that forgetting to ascertain said information might result in a pissy post-op encounter with an anesthetist, or surgeon. Just trying to save you from the mistakes I've made, pal.

Go ahead and roll your eyes. Enjoy the new asshole you'll be given come ward-time.

Yours truly,

Someone Who Has Actually Worked in a Hospital

P.S The sooner you make friends with the nurses, the better your life will be.

It's Not You, G.I.T, it's Me...

I swear, I am still on 1/2 speed since my return to school (I won't say Christmas 'holidays' because it really wasn't much of a holiday at all, and I don't feel like sullying the term).

I just can't seem to get my thoughts together and concentrate, AT ALL.

Things are slowly starting to ramp up, study group is starting to meet again this week, USMLE prep course starts again next week, anatomy group is back at it, my own USMLE prep is *cough* ongoing, I am supposed to be playing music for this fundraiser thingy but have to dust off my vocal chords before the event, etc. etc. But I don't feel like my brain has checked in, just yet.

Our case last week was a patient with Graves' disease, this week it is inflammatory bowel disease.

Thyroid. Yawn.

Bowels. Double yawn.

I guess I can cross endocrinologist and gastroenterologist off my list of 'possible careers'. Sweet. Now I am down to only 47 options.

Maybe it isn't the gastrointestinal tract I hate so much. Maybe I am just getting a little burnt out by this whole PBL process (hence the new countdown screen on right margin). Apparently this is a common finding among medical students around this point in their studies.

I know, this too shall pass!

On the upside--I am going to see both Ray LaMontagne and Iron and Wine in Dublin! Very stoked! And also excited that my good friend Cathy Lee will soon be here visiting (in time for the Iron and Wine concert). So some things to look forward to.

December already?

So apparently it is December.

November seemed to whiz by, our cases were pretty interesting (but sad) overal. We had a homeless man with schizophrenia, a girl with bulimia, and now two kidney cases back to back. I wanted to write about our bulimia case (don't worry, these are fictional 'cases') because we did 2 weeks worth of learning about eating disorders, which was really, really depressing. Hopefully I will get a chance to jot some thoughts down soon before it is all gone from my brain.

Kidney. We meet again. And again. Yet this time I am strangely attracted to your complex mystique. There is so much going on there, I love and hate you now, when before I just hated you. There is something almost mathematical, but artistic about that loop of Henle. I am determined to get inside the mind of the nephron this time around. YOU WILL BE MINE, KIDNEY!!!

Ok, I've not been sleeping much, it's giddy-tired today. I decided I am taking my camera out with me today to do a "day in the life" montage for the blog.

We Meet Again

Starting to settle into my life back here in Ireland. In some ways, the summer was such a blur that it feels like I was only a way for a long weekend.

I found a receipt in my wallet last night.

It appears it must have been from right after the OCASE since I normally don't buy two bottles of wine before noon. Nor do I usually buy wines that aren't 2 for 1 Tesco specials.

I am certainly looking forward to the 2011 version of this receipt.

In many ways it is great to be back. I have a *much* better living situation this year. Turns out Tobie is a wonderful roommate, I have a spectacular view, a kitchen all to myself, two of my closest friends literally a stones throw from my balcony, and a bathtub.  Speaking of a kitchen all to myself--I discovered last night that if I put an apple crumble in the oven and then do yoga in the kitchen then I have my own home version of Hot Yoga! Sweeeeeet. So really, what more could a woman want in a domicile? (Ok, other than a sauna, numerous kitchen appliances, some art on the walls, a good stereo system, and some non-plastic furniture.) But I digress. 

I am finding it slightly hard to get into the groove again with PBL and the volume of reading that has already been put before me. This week is a hypertension case and I love cardiac physiology so I am enjoying the process but finding the wheels are turning a little slowly compared to June.

I have decided to think of medical school as two separate programs. Years 1 and 2 is the academic program and years 3 and 4 is the clinical program. If I think about it that way the road seems a little more bearable, in such that I am now more than halfway done the program. Ha! Hey, whatever gets me through 2 years of small group learning and not touching any patients.

I am still processing the summer and all the wild and wonderful experiences I had in the hospital. Hopefully some of that will help to pad the writing so I don't spiral into posts about stress levels, lack of sleep, and eating tuna out of the can. 

It's on year 2, it's on...