I'll be the one not paying attention

Third year is rapidly coming to an end. Now on the latter half of my OB/Gyn rotation and staring peds in the face, I'm happy to say that soon and VERY soon I'll be an M4.

Unfortunately M4 year means CV, personal statement, applications, airlines, suits, pantyhose, smiling, and an overall level of baseline stress. I'm excited to get to that point so I can get past it and once again breathe easy. I'm also excited to start doing my path rotations and apprehensive about the fact that I'm staring down the end of the barrel so to speak.

I'm very excited to be on the OB section of my rotation. Gyn was a bunch of surgery, which is just NOT for me. This is a little more tolerable. I have more of an opportunity to hide in the background and not do much. Although there is this one resident that I don't appreciate, and a  balls-to-the-wall attending that has captured my admiration. All in all it's overwhelming to think that I'm almost at the end of this journey. And I will try by all means to avoid delivering ANYONE's baby. ::shudder:: I'll be hiding and  hoping that if i can't see you, you can't see me.

So now that my attention has shifted to STEP2 studying and preparation for residency applications, I'm spending less and less time giving a crap about my current rotation. which can be good or bad. Hopefully it's just entertaining (some people have found that my filter has become nonexistent as witnessed by HemeOnc doc and the Flash).

I now will regress back into my nerdhole. Goodnight.

Give Me a Break

Four glorious days of not going into the hospital, no pagers beeping, and no 4 ams with pre-ops. Glorious. Too bad I'm spending the four glorious days studying. But at least it'll relieve some of the guilt associated with lack of Step2 studying. I really want to pack up and go on a road trip, but alas I am without the moneys. I will be doing an epic room clean sweep and napping whenever the heck I feel like it. Ahh, bliss. AND! I have my first massage on Tuesday! I'm P.U.M.P.E.D woo!

I'm currently going through one of those "i want a dog real bad right now". So I just keep researching different breeds. It'll be nice to adopt from a shelter, but unfortunately I think it would be easier to adopt a child than a dog. I'll at least try I suppose.

I've also had the random urge to dress up as the mullet-flaunting grand chola herself for halloween. Unfortunately, I don't have a guy that's willing to dress up with me. So, I guess I'll give the couples out there a great Halloween costume idea: Dog the Bounty Hunter (okay, so I saw a commercial for the show. don't get the finger of accusation out just yet).

Here's just a little eye candy for you readers out there:

 How is that not the best idea ever?

A Dialogue of Sorts

Resident:So we have 3 cases today!
Me in my head: Dear God in Heaven help me
Me out loud: okay.

Resident: This patient has Hep C so med students usually don't scrub in
Me in my head: YES!! THANK YOU SWEET BABY JESUS
Me out loud: okay.

Resident: You need to scrub in on this one
Me in my head: DAMNIT!! ugh.
Me out loud: okay.

Resident: The next case should be here soon.
Me in my head: Dear God if I don't get out of here I'm going to go Mt. Vesuvius  in here
Me out loud: Do I have time for the bathroom?

Attending: Surgery is a contact sport! be involved!
Me in my head: Dear God are you serious? I have a hard enough time trying to look  interested in this shit.
Me out loud: okay.

Attending: That looks like a parasite fibroid
Me in my head: OMG just grab the scalpel and cut it open it could be a teratoma! This hell on earth could be SAVED!
Me out loud: can I touch it?

Resident: This ovary doesn't feel benign
Me in my head: good God, is it a tumor???? What if I get to take it to path? OMG TUMOR!!!
Me out loud: can I touch it?

Scrub nurse: Keep your hands on the table
Me in my head: yeah, I've already had surgery. Obviously. Since my hands were already resting on the field.
Me out loud:  okay.

Resident: You'll need to write notes on 2 pts in the morning and we'll round and write notes later
Me in my head: good. If I have to be in this OR for one more minute I'll try to pop your head like a zit due to my rage
Me out loud: okay.

T minus 12 weeks

Just after 3 days on Ob/Gyn I've realized a couple of things:
1. BY GOD I HATE THE OR
2. there are people out there who are A. having babies or B. want to have babies and both groups really just shouldn't be having babies. Let's think of infertility as the 21st century natural selection. Because MVA's and other random acts of stupidity are easily fixed with modern medicine and no longer effective
3. Ob/Gyn's are just like surgeons, except with dangly earrings and makeup

So....I'm ready for 4th year. Honestly, I'm ready for my time on L&D where I want to deliver ONE baby and then call it a day. Unfortunately that doesn't seem like it'll be happening. What seems likely is me losing my filter between Attitude Avenue and Anal Retentive Lane and completely going off on someone. Let's hope that doesn't happen. All I have to say is thank the sweet Lord baby Jesus for awesome partners because otherwise I may need heroin to numb myself in order to get through this rotation. I always thought Ob/Gyn would be the one rotation that would take me away from Path (I wanted to be an Ob/Gyn as a child) but that has definitely been beaten out of my system already. Pathology Dept, here I come!

I turned in my list o'classes for next year. It's heavy on the front end with path and then ends with family med and peds. Hopefully the schedule I end up with will resemble my desired year plans. Hopefully I can get some research under my belt because honestly I have no idea how pathology does research. Probably need to figure that out soon. Also going to talk to one of the Seniors who decided to do path and see if he has any good pointers. All in all I'm pretty stoked about the prospect of finally graduating, having a job, and moving the hell out of my parent's house.

Here's to everyone getting their schedules, finishing up the last 12 weeks of M3 year, and the large amounts of senioritis that have already begun to set in.

Planning Ahead

The end of medicine. Ahhhhh. Granted, it was better than surgery, but a 12 week rotation is just not cool. My attention span is definitely not long enough for that. Plus, it leaves me utterly exhausted. Next year's M3's will have a better time. They will only get 8 weeks of medicine and surgery, then 6 weeks of electives. But I guess the good thing is that if all goes according to plan I'll be an M4!!!! Tomorrow is senior planning day and I.CAN'T.WAIT. I've officially decided to not to an away rotation and will try to get the 4th year over with as soon as possible. It's not a residency strategy, just more of a I-need-to-move-out-of-the-house-asap-in-order-to-preserve-any-sanity-I-have-left. I want to take the least painful rotations and get the required stuff done. That's the one downside of picking pathology: all of the M4 courses are electives. But I'll manage, it'll be awesome. I'm so excited about tomorrow. Mainly because I don't have clinical duties and get to see some of my friends that have been on opposite rotations.

Oh, and may I mention that i'm PUMPED about my ob/gyn group? I think the only thing that could make it better if my medicine partner was in Group 5 as well. But I've got HemeOnc Doc and Speed Demon on my team. Bomb-diggity. We start on REI which I heard is super easy. I'll be interested to see the rotation schedule I get, esp. when I have L&D nights. But I don't have much going on in march so it'll be more for my own info than anything else. I hope I get to see some wicked tumors. And if I get to TOUCH a teratoma, omg I may just pee myself!

The thing that got under my skin the most was the whole "you should REALLY consider medicine" statements. I know it's odd for someone to be so decided on something so early in 3rd year, but honestly I'm a person that knows what I like and knows what I want. So as flattering as it SHOULD be, I just get defensive and put off. I like the basic science behind diseases. I like the disease states. I don't like treatment plans. Or what study should I order. Or what complication will I need to look out for with this medication. Just not my cup of tea. I'm so pumped that people want to do that. but not me. I don't think anyone will try to get me on Ob/Gyn or Peds. They'll be like "go away". haha.

But all in all, I enjoyed medicine okay. I think if I didn't like path, I could do medicine. It would be a job, and not something I LOVED. But I could do it.

well, since I have been on Q4 call, have had no social life, and my love life is drier than the Mohave desert, I think that's all I have to talk about. I've started wading my way through USMLE world qbank and hopefully will get some good study time during L&D.My Step 2 CK date is June 24 so I'll have to get some serious knowledge into my head!

Ok, I'll Say It...Who dat.

So I watched the superbowl, and all I have to say is that I wish I could have seen my brother's face when the Saints won the 44th superbowl. He has been a Saints fan all his life and I know he must have been so excited. Although the fact that the Saints made it to the superbowl and WON makes me a little leery of the apocalypse.

I was however very disappointed by the superbowl commercials. I think budgets must really have been that bad this year. I think the winner will be Doritos. My favorite is the guy telling the dog he has to speak for a dorito, and the dog goes up behind the man, puts on the shock collar, barks so the guy gets shocked, and then gets the whole bag for himself. I really laughed at that one. And Bud Light had just...confusing ones. I just didn't get them. And the google one was full out cheesy and sappy.

I have a little under 3 weeks until I finish my internal medicine rotation and I.AM.PUMPED. It really does not float my boat as a medical specialty. I however LOVE my team (well, the scutting  isn't my favorite, but the intern who does it is really nice so I'll just look over that part). The M4's are hilarious and my partner makes my day. Even though I don't think she knows how to take me half the time, I've really enjoyed working with her and she puts up with my little temper tantrums throughout the day.

So tomorrow will be my first day off since starting my rotation on the first. I need it like woah, but unfortunately it also comes with a test. Alas. Also, I'm starting to really think about 4th year schedules and away rotations. I'm still wavering, but I'm leaning toward not going on any away rotations merely for the fact that trying to plan one gives me a migraine.

Well, on that note I'm going to procrastinate and then go to Saigon for some pho!

Spare Me

*Begin Rant*
Before I came to medical school, I spent 32 hours shadowing at UMC. At the end of those 32 hours, I realized 3 things: 1. cardiology is for the birds 2. Ob/Gyn seemed like fun 3. I LOVE AUTOPSIES

After I was accepted into medical school and started my first two years of the perpetual hot dog eating contest for the brain, I figured out 3 things: 1. neuroanatomy is used in hell as torture 2. I hate pharmacology 3. I LOVE PATHOLOGY AND HISTOLOGY

Then I started my 3rd year. So far I have endured surgery, family medicine, psychiatry, internal medicine, neurology. I learned 3 things: 1. crazy people are only fun while they are crazy 2. patients make me feel awkward and uncomfortable ESPECIALLY if they are crying 3. I like diagnosing and learning disease processes, but I don't do treatments, treatment plans, and medication bingo.

I've banked a good amount of shadow time in the path dept using my own time. Yes people, when I have a day off I go RUNNING to the gross room and spend ALL.DAY. there. With a smile on my face. ALL.DAY. I love it there. So no, no I don't want you to tell me I'm "wasting great interpersonal skills" or that I'm "too upbeat to be a pathologist" or that I'd "have a very promising career in ::insert specialty here::".

Let me clue you in on 3 things:
1. Interpersonal skill is needed in a pathologist because I will be telling YOU what the biopsy showed. I kinda need good skills to get the message across. Also, I want to stay in academics so me wanting to teach future doctors kinda requires me to have good interpersonal skills. Don't you think?
2. I know I would have a promising career in ::whatever the hell you envision for me::. I'm in medical school. I'm smart enough to get here, pass the first two years, get through Step 1, and then spend my time doing scut work for various specialties. I know I'll have a promising career in ANYTHING I choose to go into. It just happens to be pathology.
3. Yes, I'm a happy person (most of the time). That doesn't mean I need to do medicine, or peds, or ob, or whatever. Pathologists are happy people too. We're even ::gasp:: social! You know, we have to interact with other pathologists, the secretaries, the techs and EVEN OTHER DOCTORS.

So, yes. Interpersonal skills, broad knowledge base, and personality are all important qualities of your neighborhood pathologist. As is for an internal medicine doc, a pediatrician, or whatever you may be.

So spare me. I don't need your opinions, suggestions, or thoughts on the matter.

*End Rant*