IKE!!!

Another week, another test to study for... that's bascially my life though :(. (I've embraced "emoticons" starting about 1 week ago; get excited!) So, yeah, I'm in the middle of studying for a pathology exam tomorrow morning. Nothing like studying. It never gets old.

Anyway, enough complaining. Its not THAT bad. I mean, I COULD have gone to med school in Galveston, TX (the other school that accepted me is located there--the head director there even called me up on the phone and tried to convince me to come) and had to evacuate due to a hurricaine! So I guess it could be a lot worse.

So yeah, I was back in the hospital today for more physical diagnosis... which was pretty much awesome, both because I wasn't studying, but also because it feels more like we're doing medicine when we're in the hospital seeing patients (imagine that!). Which is good, since I signed up to do medicine.

Anyway, I've recently added another possible career path to my differential diagnosis... its called Preventive Medicine. I was doing some research about it about a month ago (Bill I beat you to it!) Anyway, it sounds pretty cool, at least what I've read about it. If you want to read more about it, go ahead, but its more about keeping people from getting sick, injured, etc., than it is about getting people better afterwards. Which is really where lots of the gains modern medicine has made in the last few hudred years have come from (think: immunization and sterile technique).

And now, back to studying...

Paediatrics

Right now, I am smack-dab in the middle of studying for an exam. Surprise, surprise, right? Well, this time its Pediatrics, and let me tell you, I used to like kids a lot more than I do right now... just kidding! (get it?) I'm probably just a little bored with studying. Anyway, to be honest, I kind of like what we're learning about. I don't think I'll be a pediatrician, but its good stuff nonetheless (that's right I used 'nonetheless' in a sentence!).

So, after all of that rain we had (thank you, Ike!), this week has had really nice weather, which has made it a little disappointing to study all the time. I could be utilizing this weather to do something. Such as... well, I don't know, but something.

Anyway, I think my quest to have a life outside of medical school has come up to a roadblock. Which is too bad. Not to worry though, I'm still working at it. I'm just not sure how...

Poll!!!

I've got a real quick update on life... and a poll!

I had my Emergency medicine exam this morning... after which, I finally got my parking permit from Notre Dame Lame. After that, We had some lectures about otorhinolaryngology (AKA ENT). After that, the two family medicine residencies here in town continued to try to get us to do primary care, by buying us dinner and telling us how great it is to be a primary care provider...

Now for the poll...

Las Drogas

Here's the quick update. I've got a pharmacology exam tomorrow at 1:00pm. That's ~12 hours from now. So, for the next 12 hours, I am declaring a war on drugs! Maybe I should go undercover.

Or maybe a War on Ter...azosin. Please don't hate me!!!

If I had a helicopter, I would name it Pylori

 

Yesterday was quite the day. As you can see from the picture above, there was a helicopter involved. We had a pretty normal morning, just lecture (during which I successfully stayed awake!!) about well-child exams (read: boring...), but in the afternoon we had a big talk about EMS (emergency medical services), which includes a lot of people, but the talk was mostly about EMT's and paramedics and what they do out in "the field" before people come in to the hospital. It also includes flight paramedics. Hence the helicopter. 

 

So after the talking was over, they brought the Medflight helicopter and an ambulance over to the medical school, and we got to see those, so that was cool. They also wanted to make sure everybody knew what happened when they put someone on a back-board, so they wanted a volunteer for that... I guess I kind of had to do it. So I got "backboarded" (like waterboarding... its not fun!). I hope I never have to have that happen again. It was one of the most uncomfortable experiences I've ever had where I wasn't actually in any pain, it was just that bad it other ways (so, maybe a little bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea).

 

Anyway, the helicopter was pretty awesome. I mean, who doesn't love helicopters? After that was all over, I went home and studied for awhile...

 

But (remember that epiphany I talked about?), in my quest to have a life outside of medical school, I didn't study all night. I went to the Bethel College (stone temple!!) Pilots soccer game. They lost, but that was OK, because I wasn't studying. And to further my quest, I'm going to the home opener for Notre Dame football this afternoon versus San Diego State. Maybe the Irish can win more than a couple games this year...?

DING DING DING DING DING DING DING!

This has been an eventful day so far. Nothing like a good 6 hours of lecture to put you in the mood for a good study session... of course we did have a lecture about pediatric cardiology, so that kind of made it ok. I mean, what's cooler than the Tetralogy of Fallot? (ice cold, if you're wondering...) Coming up tomorrow is the first of many pathology examinations, and I cannot wait. In fact, you might say that I've been waiting for this moment for all my life. (of course you could say that about any moment, but I digress--and I don't even know what that means!!!)

That's about it. I'm still holding down the fort in South Bend, trying to keep the crazy people from taking over... I think I'm losing, but that's another story.

Anyway, this is a very big day! This right here is the 100th post to this blog-a-thon! Of course I started over a year ago, which means I'm averaging less than 1 post for every 3 days... Not too worry though, I plan to keep going for at least another 100.