Saturday, May 26, 2007

A Very True Facebook Group

You might be in med school if...

(Keep in mind, I only picked ones that directly applied to us 3 girls!)

When drinking, you and your friends think that the increase in your AST/ALT tomorrow is going to be hilarious!

You still do drugs, but at least you know what they do to you. And never fail to inform those you're doing them with.

You blame neurotransmitters for anything going wrong in your life

You can have a conversation about the abscess you drained today while eating cream of broccoli soup without any problem at all. Or for that matter, over any kind of meal.

You have named a dead person…and talked to them about your stresses while finding their lumbar plexus (Mine & Katie's was Fred)

You know that specialties are pre-defined by personality type.

The drama in your life now is worse than it ever was in high school.

When you go out with non-medical students, you're abnormally quiet, because you don't know what to talk about besides med school. (Actually no, we just bore them with med school stuff)

You can name the four people in your class who are the question-asker, the arguer, the bigshot doctor's son/daughter and the stoner/alkie/druggie who's never IN class. (guess which one I am!)

You know countless dirty mnemonics for parts of the body, but couldn't tell anyone what the front-page headline today is.

Your life consists of three parts: studying, drinking, and sleeping.

You consistently tell people that they just don't understand how bad it really is.

You know that, in theory, you have a family and friends, but you can't place the last time you saw them.

You constantly find yourself saying things like "I just have to get to spring break" or "I just have to get through Step 1." (We just want to pass the boards!)

You question every day if you should drop out and open a coffee shop, then realize that as soon as you were two semesters into med school, you were too far in debt to be anything but a doctor.

People assume you know something when you tell them you're in med school, but you know that you haven't learned anything. (well, anything useful)

You've dissected a penis and can explain the way Viagra works.

People constantly ask what med school is like, and all you can think of to say is "It really sucks."

You've never had problems before, but 6 months into med school you're on birth control, an anti-depressant, an anxiolytic and sleep medication. (hey! it was over a year thank you very much!)

You can name 3 specialties you're interested in, then immediately rule two of them out because they don't pay well enough to pay off your debt. (or the residency is too long or hellish)

Half your class is Asian of some sort. The other half is Jewish. All of us are completely nuts. (actually here, the other half is mormon)

A "study group" is you, your syllabus, and your red bull. (Jesse!)

You've done physical exams on your roommate, boyfriend, girlfriend, and any close friends. (except for pap smears and rectals, and thats only b/c they said no)

You think "AWESOME!" if someone keels over in front of you.

You're still excited to see "real patients."

You speak only in acronyms and abbreviations; HIV, CMV, USMLE, Dx, Px.

Advisors tell you that you have to balance your life with med school, and then are baffled when you ask them how to do it.

You've been told by at least 2 mentors that you really don't want to go into medicine.

You've thought something like "what's another $10,000 in loans?"

You're really frightened by the thought of some of your classmates becoming doctors.

Grey's Anatomy, House, Scrubs, Dr. 90210, Nip/Tuck and ER are your favorite shows, but you point out all the wrong things in them all the time.

You have diagnosed yourself or others with at least 5 rare diseases ie PML, Kaposi's sarcoma, Measles, Rheumatic Heart Disease, etc.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Type B Exam Tip #4

Stop studying at least 2 hours before bed or else you'll be dreaming about Qbank.

And after a full day of Qbank already, you might go crazy and try to papercut your eye.

(One of these days! I'm gonna do it!)

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Type B Exam Tip #3

For optimal productivity, maybe try getting up BEFORE noon.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Being a Type B is good for your heart

p.185 Psychologic Health and Testing

1) Type A Behavior (see Coronary Prone Behavior Pattern)
a) cluster of traits with increased incidence of coronary heart disease
b) traits: impatient, competitive, preoccupied with deadlines, highly involved with jobs
c) One major prospective study has shown that the Type A behavior pattern is associated with a twofold increase of coronary heart disease, even after controlling risk factors like smoking
d) Following the first heart attack, Type A's who survived had a lower chance of a second attack than did Type B's

I think Katie wrote this portion of the Comlex Review

p.176 Defense Mechanisms

4) Mature defenses-these defenses distort reality less than the other defenses and are thus considered more mature.
a)
Humor-permits the overt expression of feelings and thoughts without personal discomfort
i. Example: A student smiles when he realizes that a particularly intimidating professor looks like a penguin.

See Katie- giggling everytime you think of penguins is actually very mature!


Monday, May 21, 2007

Jesse's Boards Plan

So here's my equation for boards, we'll see how it works out.

Great success!

And Qbank, but there's no good pic of that. How lame.

Sidenote: while searching around for pics, I came across this blog: Mike's High Yield Blog forW the USMLE Step 1. What do you think? Discuss amongst yourselves.)


Future Type B Surgeon?

So this is the convo I had with my dad and my little brother last night.

DAD (to little bro): Tell Katie what you decided you want to be.

LITTLE BRO: a cardiothoracic surgeon

ME: Awesome! But you'll need to work on being more of a dick.

DAD: Yeah, way more.

LITTLE BRO: What do you mean? To the patients or to everybody?

ME: Well, to the patients a little, but they won't care quite so much because, well, they need cariothoracic surgery, and they really just want to get it over with. But the staff will probably hate you.

LITTLE BRO: hmmm...

DAD: Think Dr. Cox on Scrubs

LITTLE BRO: So am I required to be a dick?

DAD: No, it's just a stereotype.

ME: Yeah, it really is just a stereotype. But it happens a lot. I think it's because in the OR the surgeon is looked at as the most important member of the medical staff and people just stay out of his way and don't really care as much if he's rude to them. But then when he leaves the OR, he still thinks he's the most important person, and everyone else is rolling their eyes.

LITTLE BRO: So how old will I be before I'm actually a cariothoracic surgeon?

ME: Early to mid 30's is my guess.

LITTLE BRO: But then when do I get married and have kids?

DAD: When you're a cariothoracic surgeon.

ME: Well, here's the thing about marriage in med school-

DAD (interrupts): You at least need to be done with your residency.

ME: (sigh) So here's the thing about marriage in med school, the people in med school who are married can't imagine not having a spouse arond to help out with the things like cooking a taking care of the house. The people who are not married, like me, are like "Ahhhhhhhh marriage! No!". As far as kids go, you get it a little bit easier because you at least don't have to deal with being pregnant, but you will never spend as much time with your kids as you wish you could, no matter what stage of your education or career you have them.

DAD: That's with any career though. I remember when I was in SWAT.

LITTLE BRO: So who wants to watch Scrubs?

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Type B Exam Tip #2

Don't study on your bed.

I fell sleep at some point, dreaming that I was still studying. But then Neil Patrick Harris showed up and as awesome as Doogie helping me study for boards was, he wasn't very helpful on the OMM sections.

Type B Exam Tip #1

Don't read the "exam tips" section on studentconsult.com because all it will do is panic you at the fact that its 3 weeks till the big day and you should've started studying like 4 months ago.

(No dis to studentconsult.com, its otherwise awesome)