Nicotene

Short observation... walking down the street by the medical "complex" today, I noticed all these people standing outside smoking... No big surprise, people always stand outside of hospitals and smoke, right? But I was surprised and amused to see one guy had multiple cigarettes in his mouth all at one time.

In other news, the Barackalypse is upon us in the health-care world... just a suggestion: to cut health-care costs, maybe we should do better at getting people to quit smoking? Maybe not encourage tobacco growers? Do away with fast food?

Maybe people would see that as the man telling them what to do though.

Is it Friday already!?! Not only did this week go pretty fast, but I've got to say that I've completed the clinical part of my OB/GYN clerkship, and I can't believe its already over! That was fast. You might be wondering how I have time to write this on a Friday afternoon, being that that's a typical workday. Well, I was on call all last night, so I've got today off.

Anyways, all I've got now is a couple of tests, and an "Observed Structured Clinical Exam", and then I'll be moving on to Anesthesia/Orthopaedic Orthopedic Surgery for a few weeks.

In other news, I finally got my score back from Step 1! Now, my roommate and I found out that we were going to be getting our scores this past Wednesday. Naturally, there was a little bit of apprehension about how we had done, and we weren't sure whether this was going to be something to celebrate, or something to try to forget about. Not that it actually happened (partly because we're lazy, and partly because we're cheap, and partly because we're not alcoholics), but we had discussed waiting until that evening to check our scores online, and when doing so having ready at hand both a bottle of champagne and a bottle of whiskey, to drink accordingly and either celebrate or drown our sorrows...

At any rate, I think I had some Diet Coke or something, and spent the rest of the evening studying. But I did pass, which made me happy. So, thus far, I haven't done anything that will prevent me from getting my medical license. (Have I mentioned that that's sort of important to me?)

Just a few thoughts in closing... I haven't seen the new Harry Potter movie, but I haven't seen any of them. I heard it was like Twilight... I also haven't seen the new show called HawthoRNe, but I'm hoping that it's sort of the nurse version of House.

I'm just going to go with a little laundry list of what I've been up to recently (no Pulitzer prize for Matt--but I'm willing to accept that). Here we go!

Delivery! I finally did my first delivery, where I actually, physically caught the baby! I wouldn't say I've "found my calling" in OB/GYN, but I will say that was one of the most satisfying things I've done since starting med school.

24 hour call! In this context (OB/GYN) it means staying at the hospital for 24 hours waiting for pregnant women to come in for whatever reason. So, um, yeah, its not a ton of fun. But I guess it comes with the territory. That, and I feel like Jack Bauer.

I have to get up at ungodly hours of the morning... Not exactly my cup o' tea. But at least this means I have NO trouble falling asleep at night. Or the afternoon. Or mid-morning. Or exactly noon.

I've been regreting my lack of foreign-language skills, particularly spanish. Enough said. But I have learned a lot about using translators. Did you know that when you are talking to someone with a translator, you're not supposed to look at the translator at all?

I guess that's about all. I've got less than a week left of this clerkship, and then I move on to Anesthesia/Surgical subspecialty. I would tell you what surgical subspecialty, but I don't know yet. I did preference Orthopedics though.

FREEEEEEEEEDOM!!!!

I seriously considered making the words to "My Country 'Tis of Thee" the entirety of this post. But it seems that I may be a little late for that this year. Of course, there's always next year, or the year after, or the year after that, but not the year after that. 

On the bright side though, I've had a really great weekend, mostly filled with me catching up on sleep (although I've heard that's not actually possible, I'm willing to try anyway!), pretending to study, spending hours and hours watching tennis (a sport that I do not fully comprehend) with my roommate, and holding back the tears when I heard that the 4th of July fireworks were canceled due to rain.

Anyway, in case anyone's wondering, at press time, this OB/GYN clerkship has yet to convince Matt to be an obstetrician or a gynecologist.

I am still doing pretty much the same thing that I was doing the last time I wrote. That is, still making the rounds as a member of the gyn/onc team. You might say that I'm getting used to the hospital. I'm still getting used to my new role as an MS3, which I assume will take all the way until the end of the year to really get used to, at which time I will be a 4th year...

I'm also getting used to my alarm clocks going off at 4:50, 4:52, 4: 55, 4:57, 5:00 am, etc. Great fun.

That aside, I'm already working on figuring out what I want to be when I grow up. I hesitate to write about it for the world to see, but suffice it to say that I have top men working on it I'm working on it.

My one little anecdote for the day is what happened in the OR a couple of days ago... the surgeon removed a mass, and told me that I should "cut it open and look at it" before it was sent to pathology to be analyzed. Well, being the good med student that I am, I took said mass to a table in the room. While I was carrying it, I thought to myself, "Self, this feels like it's got some fluid in it". Unfortunately, that thought didn't prompt me to open it in some kind of container. I just decided to cut it open on the table. So, picture me cutting open a water balloon with a scalpel. Next, picture me cutting open a water balloon filled with bloody, serous fluid that went all over the place. Because that's about what happened. 

Wide receiver's gloves wanted!

Just a quick update... Here we go! I'm still doing the gynecology oncology service, and liking it for the most part. I'm enjoying the fact that I'm not reading books all day for sure. It's a bit depressing since everyone has cancer. But maybe I could write a song like this one except about cancer instead.

Probably the biggest adjustment to third year from my point of view is the fact that I have to get up at about 5am or earlier every day, which is quite the switch from the "night person" that I'd kind of become... I mean, it's not a huge deal, but it's definitely a change.

Anyway, I have my very first night of being "on call" tonight in the Labor and Delivery suite, which I'm sure will be a "learning" experience.

In other news, I'm still waiting to find out what my USMLE Step 1 score was. It's supposedly coming out in a couple of weeks... I guess I'd just like to see it, so I can see just how competitive I'll be in matching into a residency, and if my dreams of neurosurgery or orthopedics are plausible or if maybe I'd be better off having a dissociative fugue and trying again as if I was someone else.

I've started my first rotation! For the next month or so, I will be doing my Ob/Gyn rotation. More specifically, for the next two weeks or so, I'm on the gynecologic oncology team, and then the next couple of weeks after that I'm doing obstetrics.

But I found out yesterday that I've got the entire weekend off (i.e. no call until next week sometime), which was unexpected, and leaves me with really nothing to do all weekend. Which is entirely OK with me. For the record, the weekend started off with a bang, which consisted of me putting brand-new strings on my guitar for perhaps the first time in 2 or 3 years!