Roughly a month to go before my match...chomping at the bit.
Some new things.
- joined 2 volleyball intramural leagues. Now I'm coming home with sore shoulders and backs and thighs, oh my. It's good tho. Can't complain. I still need to lose the Christmas and pre-christmas weight.
- Finished my ED rotation today. My eval reads: all excellent except for the final grade - high pass. The preceptor doesn't give honors grades. Grrr. If I didn't like him so much I would've slapped him right then and there. Well, maybe not. But still, that's just messed up!
- Going home tomorrow to see the 'rents and the doggies. That should be fun!
- My check engine light needs to be addressed soon before my next inspection this month. Either I need a new catalytic converter or an O2 sensor or some sort of spacer, which could mean the difference between paying by the 10s, 100s, or 1000s. Vehicle upkeep is such an expensive pain in the ass.
- Found out a few days ago that some of the programs I applied for had never received my Step 2 scores...well thanks for letting me know sooner, Pa! I hope that doesn't affect my application, tho.
- I have developed a new affinity for shortbread cookies.
- I heart Netflix. Period.
- There are plenty of very ripe bananas in my fridge that require my immediate attention. Looks like it's banana nut bread for the weekend.
- Hearing things from nice people that presents are forthcoming. AWW YEAH! Those nice people are the bestest! Hope to see them, and you, soon =).
- Starting a new rotation come Valentine's day: Pain and Palliative Medicine. Woo. Hoo. Quite the depressing change of scenery. I'm already missing my strokes and CHFs and Lacerations =(.
- Too many friends are getting married. No, I'm not in a rush to get married myself. I just have a limited budget and so I can't exactly splurge on wedding presents as I'd like to. I like weddings. Weddings are cool.
OK, I think that's enough for now.
Song of the day: "Sugarfoot" - Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
ER and things
In the ED rotation now.
Long weekend (two 12-hr shifts).
Sutured 2 lacerations today. Need to be better, be more organized, more confident.
Went 0 for 2 on the venous sticks today. Quite the disappointment. There's still more veins out there.
Then lost 4 times on the Volleyball field today, despite a valiant and a very much improved effort by my team.
But I feel good.
In other news, Match is coming up. Yea. Cue ulcer.
For those of you who don't know what Match is, let me s'plain...
It is that fateful moment when all the medical programs we medical students applied to get to tell us that we are hired!
So as a med student, I apply to X number of programs. They, in turn, receive many med school applicants (myself and the thousands of others applying for a job) for interview. In the end, there can be only one!!! Wait, got movie side-tracked...
In the end, each medical program participating in the match ranks their medical applicants from 1 to whatever. And each one of us applicants get to rank the programs we applied to from 1 to whatever, as well. So, a match happens when a program and an applicant rank each other evenly. This is done by a big computer in the sky. Whatever. The rub is this, I'm competing against many (hundreds) medical students for a limited number of positions (it can be as low as 1 or as high as 60, mine is between 6-24) in my top ranked programs and each of my top ranked programs gets to generate their own rank list of applicants.
Now, I interviewed in 12 pediatric residency programs. I'm ranking all of them. It is my hope that my top ranked programs put me within their high rankings, so come match day, I get into a residency program that I like and of course, a job come June/July.
So there are multiple types of matches (military, San Francisco, ACGME, AOA, etc). I am going for the allopathic match despite me being a DO student. It affords me greater geographic range and more options for residency (not all residencies are the same). Disadvantages, both DO and MD students can apply in the allopathic match, so the competition gets larger and stiffer.
This is the ulcer part: Worst case scenario, I don't match and I have to scramble, meaning I get on the phone and call every program that has an available opening to see if they'll take me. It's not very pleasant, nor pretty, and it certainly puts you in a program that is not necessarily your specialty let alone choosing.
Allo match goes down some time in March (DO or AOA match happens in Feb). Until then, I cross my fingers, write my thank you letters, and pray to God I didn't screw up my interviews/rank list.
And that's the update.
Song of the day: "Kids" - MGMT
Long weekend (two 12-hr shifts).
Sutured 2 lacerations today. Need to be better, be more organized, more confident.
Went 0 for 2 on the venous sticks today. Quite the disappointment. There's still more veins out there.
Then lost 4 times on the Volleyball field today, despite a valiant and a very much improved effort by my team.
But I feel good.
In other news, Match is coming up. Yea. Cue ulcer.
For those of you who don't know what Match is, let me s'plain...
It is that fateful moment when all the medical programs we medical students applied to get to tell us that we are hired!
So as a med student, I apply to X number of programs. They, in turn, receive many med school applicants (myself and the thousands of others applying for a job) for interview. In the end, there can be only one!!! Wait, got movie side-tracked...
In the end, each medical program participating in the match ranks their medical applicants from 1 to whatever. And each one of us applicants get to rank the programs we applied to from 1 to whatever, as well. So, a match happens when a program and an applicant rank each other evenly. This is done by a big computer in the sky. Whatever. The rub is this, I'm competing against many (hundreds) medical students for a limited number of positions (it can be as low as 1 or as high as 60, mine is between 6-24) in my top ranked programs and each of my top ranked programs gets to generate their own rank list of applicants.
Now, I interviewed in 12 pediatric residency programs. I'm ranking all of them. It is my hope that my top ranked programs put me within their high rankings, so come match day, I get into a residency program that I like and of course, a job come June/July.
So there are multiple types of matches (military, San Francisco, ACGME, AOA, etc). I am going for the allopathic match despite me being a DO student. It affords me greater geographic range and more options for residency (not all residencies are the same). Disadvantages, both DO and MD students can apply in the allopathic match, so the competition gets larger and stiffer.
This is the ulcer part: Worst case scenario, I don't match and I have to scramble, meaning I get on the phone and call every program that has an available opening to see if they'll take me. It's not very pleasant, nor pretty, and it certainly puts you in a program that is not necessarily your specialty let alone choosing.
Allo match goes down some time in March (DO or AOA match happens in Feb). Until then, I cross my fingers, write my thank you letters, and pray to God I didn't screw up my interviews/rank list.
And that's the update.
Song of the day: "Kids" - MGMT
Saturday, January 15, 2011
2011, here we go!
Finished my ICU month, fairly unscathed. Learned a few things which were really good. Going to do an Emergency Medicine rotation month next. Wish me luck! The rest of my 2011 is also looking good so far. My last interview (Massachusetts) is in sight. The end of my interview road is near and I am really happy its close by. All this traveling and spending is really taking its toll on me and my car. I'm also in the process now of making my rank list of residency programs that I want to go into. Yet another stressor and source of headache for me, but it must be done. Match day is this coming March. Wish me luck!
In other news, I joined an intramural volleyball league that should help me be less sedentary. Lots of fun and makes my weekends less crazy. And also there are other new changes that are making me smile more nowadays, so that is always good.
That's all for now.
New Year's Resolution: Less procrastination. Seriously!
Song of the day: "Every Night Is Friday Night (Without You)" - The Old 97s
In other news, I joined an intramural volleyball league that should help me be less sedentary. Lots of fun and makes my weekends less crazy. And also there are other new changes that are making me smile more nowadays, so that is always good.
That's all for now.
New Year's Resolution: Less procrastination. Seriously!
Song of the day: "Every Night Is Friday Night (Without You)" - The Old 97s
Sunday, January 2, 2011
2011
Happy New Year!
Hope all is well with you and that this year will be better than the last!
P.S.
Keep those resolutions, eh? Cool!
SongS of the day (that's right boys and girls, you get a 2-fer!): "Mr. Sandman" and "If You Think You Need Some Lovin'" - Pomplamoose
If these nutters seem familiar to you, they're in the new Hyundai Holiday Commercials. I love them!
Hope all is well with you and that this year will be better than the last!
P.S.
Keep those resolutions, eh? Cool!
SongS of the day (that's right boys and girls, you get a 2-fer!): "Mr. Sandman" and "If You Think You Need Some Lovin'" - Pomplamoose
If these nutters seem familiar to you, they're in the new Hyundai Holiday Commercials. I love them!
Monday, December 27, 2010
I'm still alive
Yes, yes. I've been away too long.
But at the behest of certain readers out there (you know who you are), I have come back.
This month has been really busy and ridiculously hectic for me.
So I will try to sum up some of my insights from this past month in my usual list fashion (don't you just love it?):
1. I was on away rotation about a month ago in another state. I will not name said state, only that it was very cold there and I had a ridiculously hard time getting comfortable there. Needless to say, my performance suffered. But it was to my benefit that I have learned several things that I really needed to work on before my internship year begins, all from this one rotation. I can be thankful for that.
2. As much as I enjoy driving, I'm happy to be home. I was quite afraid I was going to get a DVT.
3. I spent way too much money on presents this year (but they all deserved it).
4. The lines this year were surprisingly short and bearable. And I didn't run into traffic at all (Except in Maryland. That just sucked).
5. Once again, Sears comes through for me. I <3 you!
6. Interviews are starting to wear me down. I hate taking time off from my current rotation so I can go for interviews. I wish my school gave us a month off for these things. And I'm not too keen on canceling any of them, but the more I look into it, I might just have to...ugh.
7. Still freaking out about matching into these residency programs.
8. The need to finish Thank You letters is mounting. Like, a lot! I have 3 schools to write for still!
9. Thank goodness, I finished all my bill-paying today. Now if the mailman will so kindly brave the blizzard, I will gladly hand him my posts.
10. My laundry doesn't seem to want to end. Where are all these dirty clothes coming from???
11. Seems like I'll be doing some flying as well in the next month. Miami and Houston, Yay!
12. I need a personal assistant. STAT!
13. Wow, this blizzard is really coming down like mad. This is seriously a white out! Not really looking forward to shoveling all of this crap tomorrow. But I suppose, it's a small price to pay for a snow day.
14. Nothing beats mom's home cookin'! Yum.
15. I seriously need to catch up on my TV. I'm making a Christmas request for next year: DVR, please.
16. It's amazing to see that Barnes and Noble has a whole section dedicated to teen vampires. What has the world come to?
17. It drives me up the wall when my school decides to do didactic teaching that is remotely relevant to our clinical learning. Why they insist on doing some humanities course now instead of something more useful like, oh developing assessment and plans or even being a more coherent/cohesive presenter of patient information, is really beyond me. My teeth hurt because of it. Wait, never mind. That's just the tin foil.
18. I have eczema. In my hands. And I want to peel the tar out of them because they itch so much. Nuff said.
19. And since I have hand eczema, I now have a new bane in my existence...the hospital hand sanitizer. When your hands are dry and cracking, dousing them with alcohol gel does not a happy med student make.
20. Is it spring yet?
Dun.
Song of the day: "Jupiter Or The Moon" - Los Lobos
Ok, that's all I got for now. I'm sure something amusing will
But at the behest of certain readers out there (you know who you are), I have come back.
This month has been really busy and ridiculously hectic for me.
So I will try to sum up some of my insights from this past month in my usual list fashion (don't you just love it?):
1. I was on away rotation about a month ago in another state. I will not name said state, only that it was very cold there and I had a ridiculously hard time getting comfortable there. Needless to say, my performance suffered. But it was to my benefit that I have learned several things that I really needed to work on before my internship year begins, all from this one rotation. I can be thankful for that.
2. As much as I enjoy driving, I'm happy to be home. I was quite afraid I was going to get a DVT.
3. I spent way too much money on presents this year (but they all deserved it).
4. The lines this year were surprisingly short and bearable. And I didn't run into traffic at all (Except in Maryland. That just sucked).
5. Once again, Sears comes through for me. I <3 you!
6. Interviews are starting to wear me down. I hate taking time off from my current rotation so I can go for interviews. I wish my school gave us a month off for these things. And I'm not too keen on canceling any of them, but the more I look into it, I might just have to...ugh.
7. Still freaking out about matching into these residency programs.
8. The need to finish Thank You letters is mounting. Like, a lot! I have 3 schools to write for still!
9. Thank goodness, I finished all my bill-paying today. Now if the mailman will so kindly brave the blizzard, I will gladly hand him my posts.
10. My laundry doesn't seem to want to end. Where are all these dirty clothes coming from???
11. Seems like I'll be doing some flying as well in the next month. Miami and Houston, Yay!
12. I need a personal assistant. STAT!
13. Wow, this blizzard is really coming down like mad. This is seriously a white out! Not really looking forward to shoveling all of this crap tomorrow. But I suppose, it's a small price to pay for a snow day.
14. Nothing beats mom's home cookin'! Yum.
15. I seriously need to catch up on my TV. I'm making a Christmas request for next year: DVR, please.
16. It's amazing to see that Barnes and Noble has a whole section dedicated to teen vampires. What has the world come to?
17. It drives me up the wall when my school decides to do didactic teaching that is remotely relevant to our clinical learning. Why they insist on doing some humanities course now instead of something more useful like, oh developing assessment and plans or even being a more coherent/cohesive presenter of patient information, is really beyond me. My teeth hurt because of it. Wait, never mind. That's just the tin foil.
18. I have eczema. In my hands. And I want to peel the tar out of them because they itch so much. Nuff said.
19. And since I have hand eczema, I now have a new bane in my existence...the hospital hand sanitizer. When your hands are dry and cracking, dousing them with alcohol gel does not a happy med student make.
20. Is it spring yet?
Dun.
Song of the day: "Jupiter Or The Moon" - Los Lobos
Ok, that's all I got for now. I'm sure something amusing will
Sunday, December 12, 2010
To the wire
Last week of my current rotation. And this time, it's a doozey. I have call on Monday and Thursday. That translates to two 30-hour in-hospital stays. Yuck. And Friday can't get here any sooner. God help me find the strength to endure and please help me not Fuck up.
It's snowing here and it's making everything look very Christmasy. Still, there's a sense of loneliness that comes with it, being away from home and from everything that's familiar to you and all. Thank goodness for friends. Especially ones that will put you up for the night or the month, or keep you company during the long hours, or cheer you up when things are rough.
This past month has certainly been challenging. It has for many a time, made me question my competence as a new physician. I bemoan much of my school's shortcomings during my training years, but that wouldn't be entirely fair. I have done my fair share of slacking off. So in a way, I am as much to blame for my misery now as my school. I suppose I'm really angry at myself for not being as stellar in this rotation as I thought I would be.
It really sucks when I know I'm right.
On another note, I need to get crackin' on my Christmas shopping. Yet another part of the season that I have been absolutely slack with. I owe lots of people good presents. They've been very good to me this year and I don't think I could have made it in one piece if it weren't for their help, love and supprot.
Thank goodness this rotation is the last of my away electives. I do enjoy the travel, but seriously, being a nomad is starting to take its toll on me. I miss my own bed and being in familiar surroundings. In a way, I can be thankful for the experience of what a bad residency can do to a person. It has shown me the importance of having family and loved ones nearby. It's nice knowing that other people have your back when the proverbial shit hits the fan. On that note, for this Christmas, I wish to find a residency that would suit me accordingly. One that will provide me with great training, but at the same time be supportive and forgiving of my foreseeable iniquities. Oh, and one with lots of cool and helpful new friends. Amen.
Song of the day: "I'll Be Home For Christmas" - Holly Conlan (Hotel Cafe Presents Winter Songs)
It's snowing here and it's making everything look very Christmasy. Still, there's a sense of loneliness that comes with it, being away from home and from everything that's familiar to you and all. Thank goodness for friends. Especially ones that will put you up for the night or the month, or keep you company during the long hours, or cheer you up when things are rough.
This past month has certainly been challenging. It has for many a time, made me question my competence as a new physician. I bemoan much of my school's shortcomings during my training years, but that wouldn't be entirely fair. I have done my fair share of slacking off. So in a way, I am as much to blame for my misery now as my school. I suppose I'm really angry at myself for not being as stellar in this rotation as I thought I would be.
It really sucks when I know I'm right.
On another note, I need to get crackin' on my Christmas shopping. Yet another part of the season that I have been absolutely slack with. I owe lots of people good presents. They've been very good to me this year and I don't think I could have made it in one piece if it weren't for their help, love and supprot.
Thank goodness this rotation is the last of my away electives. I do enjoy the travel, but seriously, being a nomad is starting to take its toll on me. I miss my own bed and being in familiar surroundings. In a way, I can be thankful for the experience of what a bad residency can do to a person. It has shown me the importance of having family and loved ones nearby. It's nice knowing that other people have your back when the proverbial shit hits the fan. On that note, for this Christmas, I wish to find a residency that would suit me accordingly. One that will provide me with great training, but at the same time be supportive and forgiving of my foreseeable iniquities. Oh, and one with lots of cool and helpful new friends. Amen.
Song of the day: "I'll Be Home For Christmas" - Holly Conlan (Hotel Cafe Presents Winter Songs)
Monday, December 6, 2010
Exercise in futility
I don't know why but my current rotation just leaves me feeling dumber than when I came in, especially on days when I am post-call.
There were other rotations I had done before that I think were just as rigorous and I was fine, but somehow this one really manages to suck the life out of me. I'm trying my best. I really am. It just seems never good enough for them. I'm not good enough.
The really sad part is just when I was feeling a little more comfortable about treating patients, now I've become more tentative and unsure of myself.
Song of the day: "Lost In My Mind" - The Head And The Heart
There were other rotations I had done before that I think were just as rigorous and I was fine, but somehow this one really manages to suck the life out of me. I'm trying my best. I really am. It just seems never good enough for them. I'm not good enough.
The really sad part is just when I was feeling a little more comfortable about treating patients, now I've become more tentative and unsure of myself.
Song of the day: "Lost In My Mind" - The Head And The Heart
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