OMS-1

Weekend 12

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 18:56:31 GMT

I can't seem to start doing anything today. I was so tired until about noon that I felt like I had this blanket of sleep pressing in on my from all directions. Strange strange. Anyway, SPOM exams are done!!! I would feel better about it if I think I did better. Definitely messed up a significant amount of things on the anatomy practical. This includes not being able to come up with the word "eminence" to put after the word "intercondylar." It was on the tip of my tounge (brain?) but it didn't come to me. I hate when things like that cost me points. Because I definitely know what the intercondylar eminence is. And I put sigmoid artery when I should have put superior rectal artery. I knew I should have changed it but all I could hear were the profs chanting "Don't change your answers, don't change your answers..." It was an obvious one too. The funny thing about the practical was that almost every body I got to I admired the dissection for a few seconds. I was just like "Wow, you can see everything!!" One body I was disoriented for like 30 seconds but I figured it out after that. Haha, always note which end the feet are attached to :)

Tomorrow starts Cell & Tissue. I am realllly going to like this. Everything I already know and love. Probably in more detail but at least I have an enourmous foundation. Micro this term was a lot of stuff I had heard of but at least half of the material was strictly histology. If I would have known better I would have tried to take histo and development in undergrad. Just so I had heard the words and seen the pictures before. My overall impression of SPOM was good though. At BU I definitely felt like my professors cared about their students. But this has taken it to a whole new level. They care so much and truly want us to succeed. It's evident in their lectures, availability outside class, attitudes during lab, etc. The support is almost overwhelming. I will miss them but we get a new batch of profs tomorrow - can't wait!

I had a second "I know what they're talking about" moment with Grey's this week. The woman with two uteruses: partial or total failure of the terminal paramesonephric ducts to fuse. Very very exciting. I'd like to hear you explain that, Sandra Oh and Ellen Pompeo.

I was thinking today how I could go to dance class every day and love it. I have to figure out what I'm doing for the Multicultural Extravaganza on Dec. 8. It's in the gym and I can't use my hard shoes because the 76ers like to keep their practice court nice. What's that about?

Maybe I should go read for OMM/ learn what to do for my SP. Jeffrey gets to have his nose and ears looked into...lucky him!

Week 12, Day 3

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 21:42:12 GMT

Because anatomy is over and i like to play the "my life is worse than yours" game, my schedule for the last 2 weeks:
10/19: Standardized patient
10/23: Case conference presentation
10/24: OMM practical
10/27: Case conference presentation
10/31: Written exam (Anatomy, Histology, Radiology, Development)
11/1: Final Anatomy practical
11/2: Final Histology practical
11/8: OMM exam
11/9: Standardized patient

It's a good thing they keep telling us that our grades don't matter because I'm certainly not going to have time to study anything. Or learn how to do all the exams for my SP's.

Week 10, Day 5

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 20:34:28 GMT

I always think of things to post about and then I forget them. Anyway, school is running me ragged. It all caught up to me this morning when I couldn't even stay awake on the ride to school. Then I struggled through radiology where I was studying for anatomy because I thought we would have a quiz today. In lab we worked well and fast and continued to amuse McGuinness and Coghlin. Table 39 brings the laughs, let me tell you.

I had my second SP (standardized patient) yesterday, which went really well. I was a teeny bit nervous but the only criticisim he gave me afterward was that I didn't use up all my time. I finished in 15 minutes and we had 35 minutes to complete the exam. All we had to do was history, general exam, and eye exam. There is no way I could have taken 35 minutes to do it. Maybe 20 but that would have been a stretch, I'm just a straight to the point kind of person.

Went over to Meg and Ashley's with Neerali to watch Grey's. Brought Fraknlin and he went crazy and ran all over there house like a madman. Haha, that sounds like how I write notes.

On a slightly more depressing note, i'm barely handling being a student and a wife and pet owner. I mean hanging on by my fingernails. Sometimes it's so overwhelming and I feel completely lost, especially weeks like these where I have patients, 2 presentations, an OMM practical, and studying for finals (anatomy practical, written, and histo practical) next week. I just feel like I can barely function as a human let alone a good one. I can't even plan past 1 or 2 days in advance because I just can't see myself even making it that far. There were interviewees here this morning. I kind of want to talk to them and make sure they are 150% sure they want to be doctors. Cause this is not worth it if you don't want to do it with all your heart. A sliver of a doubt will drive you insane. But from here on I just have to put my head down, plow on through, lean on Jeffrey, and make it through so I will become the doctor I know I was born to be.

Week 8, Day 1

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 18:03:29 GMT

In no particular order:

1. I had my first experience of knowing what they were talking about on Grey's last week. McDreamy was doing his neurosurgeon thing and said "I can't, it's too close to the cavernous sinus." Needless to say, I jumped off the couch, threw my hands in the air, and proclaimed to all present (Jeffrey and Franklin) that I knew what that was and where it was located. Having garnished strange looks from both parties, I sat back down on the couch and silently reviewed sinuses, cranial nerves, and foramen in my head, thus preparing me for....

2. ...the second gross practical and written exam. They went well, I think. The gross practical was OK, I think it was trickier because everything in the head and neck and mediastinum is just smaller than structures in the back/upper limb (ie levator scapulae vs. rami communicantes). I had an issue with a pin in one of the hearts (sinus venarum or fossa ovalis?) and I invented some nerves that come through the sacral foramen when I think the right answer was simply "dorsal rami." Geez. The written was long and I got realllllly bored after question 110 or so and had to literally FORCE myself to read and think about the answers. There were a few that I completely guessed on because I couldn't even come up with an educated guess. Most of the time I'm good with using information from all the filing cabinets in my brain at once and sometimes the drawers get stuck. And stuck they were for a good 15-20 questions. I pulled my act together for the last part though. I just need my passing grade.

3. We went back home this weekend so Jeffrey could hunt. Mom and I had a grand time trying to find me clothes to wear for case conferences, SP's, white coat ceremony, etc. It's hard to make people believe you're a doctor if you show up in sweatpants, sneakers, and a t-shirt. But that's just how society works. I look forward to the day when I can go to work in jeans and a t-shirt and change into scrubs.

That's all for now. I'm going to enjoy my lingering post-exam laziness and watch a movie/do some laundry.

Week 6, Day 3

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 20:48:21 GMT

This will be brief, due to the infinate complexity of the head and neck.

Have you ever felt antsy? Today I had that feeling that I couldn't wait to get on the the next step. The next trimester, the next region in anatomy, the next hour, the next second. I don't mean wanting to get it over with but I mean the excitement of learning new things. Like I was trying to absorb everything in the world through every pore on my body but it just wasn't happening fast enough. I thought I could describe it but the written word has never been my forte.

It's very overwhelming but at the same time fascinating and baffling that I can and will make it through this thing called medical school. I think I felt this way because we had PCS (Primary Care Skills) lab today. PCS lab is where we get to play doctor and practice things on each other. Today Ww did eye exams. PCS lab is set up so we're split into groups of 4 and each group has a PTA (Physician Training Assistant, I think) who is an SP (Standardized Patient) but who also knows how to teach us how to do exams. So we did the peripheral motion test, tested extraoccular muscles, etc. and got to use our opthalmoscopes. Just spending those couple minutes actually using an instrument on a "patient" and actually being able to "see" things reminded me that there is more than knowing muscle innervations and where to fined pseudostratified columnar epithelium with goblet cells and brush border. Walking home I realized that I actually like myself today. I liked who I was when I was examining Frank's eyes. It's strange but I can't recall a time when I conciously thought that I liked who I am. Everyone should do that at least once a day.

That's enough rainbows and sunshine for now. Back to suprahyoid muscles.

Week 6, Day 2

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 22:06:40 GMT

I had my OMM practical today and it couldn't have gone worse. Everyone coming out said it was laid back, easy, relaxing, even fun! I got partnered with this guy Chris who knew Anita so we were all talking out in the hallway before they called our names. He turned out to be really nice. So they call us, we go in, fill out our papers and wait "on deck." Of course, Dr. Z (aka Dr. 400 years old, I'm pretty sure he's actually the reincarnation of Andrew Taylor Still) finishes with his students and we're next. We give him our papers and he tells me to go first and do the cervical region. Cervical is second easiest (1-lumbar, 2-cervical, 3-thoracic) and I begin. However, after I say things, he doesn't even nod or BLINK or say "OK" or any other normal type of human reaction to someone performing something for you. So I look for the landmarks, determine symmetry, asymmetry and he says NOTHING. Then I say "Do you want me to go on to range of motion?" And he says "You're the doctor." And at this point I'm confused cause they're supposed to ask you questions about what might cause the asymmetries, whether they're consistent, muscle mass, etc. So instead of me making sure he didn't have any questions I look like the idiot who doesn't know what she's doing. So I start the range of motion testing on Chris, palpating the appropriate spinous and transverse processes with my index and middle finger, AS IT IS SHOWN IN THE LAB BOOK. Of course, he corrects this, has me palpate a different way, and tells me not to change sides, CONTRARY TO THE LAB BOOK. So at this point I am paranoid that I forgot everything I learned and studied or maybe read the wrong lab book or something. So I go to feel the heat on his neck and I have him lay down. Of course, that is not right, "Just do it with him sitting up," Dr. Z says. Of course! Of course I knew that since there was no mention of it in the lab book or lecture or lab. So that adds more to my feeling of idiocity. When I get to the layer by layer palpation part, I accidentally forgot to do ease/bind of fascia and started to do muscle first. He asked me why I was hurrying and I quickly realized and corrected my mistake. I felt some muscles, said they were fine and quickly passed the baton to Chris. Luckily, Dr. 400-years-old did the same thing to Chris (except for thoracic region).

I have to get an 85 or else I have to go to a remedial class and make up the practical. That would be probably the most humiliating thing ever. It's not that hard and I memorized all the angles for range of motion for all the tests for all the areas and I knew what I was doing. But apparently doing what the book says is wrong.

In other news, I haven't gotten anything school-related done yet today and Jeffrey and I are meeting friends at Houlihan's soon. Which is good cause I'm hungry.

Week 6, Day 1

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 19:18:45 GMT

This is me procrastinating learning OMM for my practical...tomorrow. It's deceivingly easy and I'm paranoid I'm going to have Dr. Nicholas who will grill me on everything and every muscle I'm touching and moving and why it feels a certain way, etc. I like how on the score sheet there is a category under "Deductions" that reads "Dangerous maneuver: -50 pts." Word to the wise: don't break anyone's neck, or back or anything for that matter.

We had our first histo practical today. It was a humbling experience. I hate histo to begin with which makes it hard to study but I thought I put in a solid effort. There were definitely 3ish slides that baffled me. I was talking to some people afterward and they were definitely tricky so at least I wasn't being stupid.

There were people interviewing today! Wow. I interviewed in Februrary for PCOM and these people were interviewing on THE FIRST DAY possible. They deserve a gold star for being so on the ball. Part of me wanted to go in there and tell them to run for their lives. That they wouldn't sleep anymore, they would be stressed out every second of every day, they would cease to see their significant others on a regular basis (even if you're married - it's true), and they would question every day whether they had what it takes. Then the rational part of me realized that a) that would be highly inappropriate and traumatizing and b) none of that matters when you're doing what you absolutely love. So I continued out the door and was glad that I already had that interview day even though so many more will follow.

Week 5 done

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 15:11:28 GMT

We had our first PCS (Primary Care Skills) lab today. We had to take blood pressure, pulse, respirations, etc. Lots of people were nervous, but it was easy because I've taken vitals for the past 2 summers on rheumatology patients. Piece of cake. POMA gave us all stethoscopes! Littmann cardiology III's! I got a 22-inch one and I really don't like how short it feels when I put it around my neck. I'm probably going to buy a new one before rotations.

In other news, we're dissection the head and neck and I couldn't be more confused. I feel like it looks different every time I'm in lab. Luckily, Ashley's group did an AMAZING job so I look at their body for most of the suprahyoid muscles, nerves, and arteries. Lectures have become tougher to stay awake during, since the lack of sleep has definitely caught up with me and we have 4 hours blocks of lectures. They range from slow-paced and coma-inducing to 100mph lectures by Miller and D'Angelo. We had our second surprise oral quiz in lab on Wednesday. I got all my questions right regardless of the fact that we hadn't actually dissected out the facial artery. He asked me about the mental foramen! Jon got some hard questions on things we hadn't studied yet, though. It's all luck. Our next exam is the 29th but for some reason I always feel like it's tomorrow. I panic that it's much sooner than I think. I guess that's good because then I learn the material before we are given more to know. I hope that's going to work out for me in the end.

This week's forecast:
Histo practical on Monday.
OMM practical on Tuesday.
SP (Standardized Patient) on Thursday.

Better get going on that.

Week 4, Day 3

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 02:15:13 GMT

Dear Boston University,
It would be so easy to hate you. It would be so easy to jump in with the rest of the students and say (while rolling my eyes), "Thanks for nothing, BU. I had a great time living in Boston for 4 years but it was a waste of tuition." That would be the easy way out, and that's never been the way I do things. Instead, I owe more to BU than I ever thought possible.
First of all, I would like to thank BU for putting me smack in the middle of a city. It's amazing how independent you learn to be while living in a city of 600,000 people. I made just as many friends inside BU as I did outside. It's also amazing how much you come to rely on your friends, so I also thank BU for accepting some of the most intelligent, responsible, and fun-loving people I know. We will undoubtedly remain friends for the rest of our lives.
I would also like to thank BU for making me work so hard. It sounds a little ridiculous but I wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't learn to use some elbow grease and deal with a little sacrafice. Many nights when my friends were out at bars and clubs I was stuck inside muddling through the Krebs Cycle. I couldn't be happier for that now. Medical school is not nearly as intimidating to me since I have already pushed myself nearer to my academic limit. I know exactly how to study, when to study, and where to study to make sure I understand everything by test time. Nothing has prepared me better for medical school than the sheer difficulty of the material and in-depth knowledge required of me during the past 4 years. Many of my peers are shocked by the depth and quantity of information we are required to know on a daily basis. While the quantity is definitely more than my undergraduate classes I can look through my anatomy atlas and know that I will master it, no matter what. BU has given me the confidence to attack any situation, academic or not. I may not have had a 4.0 at BU, but I fought long and hard for the GPA I had, which made me appreciate the hard work that went into every tenth of a point.
So thanks, BU, for not only giving me the most enjoyable 4 years of my life (so far), but the most rewarding. It takes a truly great university to make us realize what we have had inside ourselves all along.

Sincerly,
Alicia Meadows (Wolfe)
OMS-1, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

3 Weeks Down

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 17:48:55 GMT

The first SPOM exam is over! I was so tired of waiting and anticipating it, I was glad to be done more than anything. The practical wasn't bad at all. 30 questions, 4 or 5 "rest stops" to keep us from going insane. There were definitely 3 or 4 that I had no idea on but I made my best guest. (This included a ligament in the glenohumeral joint, a mystery nerve superior to the scapula - I guessed glenohumeral labrum and suprascapular nerve). We had 2.5 hours for the written (72 multiple guess) and I only took an hour. Lots of the anatomy questions were similar to past exams. I was surprised at the amount of histo questions on cartilage and bone. In previous exams, organelles and their structures were emphasized more. Development was of course crazy. The questions seem so simple but I can never choose the right answer. I only need to get 54 right to pass so I think I made it. I feel like I'm done with school for some reason. I took classes, I took a test, I (hopefully) passed and now I feel like I'm free. Ha. That will only last for a few more hours. I had the same feeling after first semester freshman year at BU. I remember walking out of the Gen. Chem final and feeling like that was it, I was done with college.

I was thinking about it, and dissecting a cadaver is unlinke any other experience. It's creepy and gross yet fascinating at the same time. I am almost surprised that everyone doesn't want to see what the body looks like on the inside. We begin facial dissection tomorrow and I'm pretty sure no one will want to do it. So at least they'll say out of my way :) I usually have a hard time watching facelifts/nose jobs on TV because the face is so personal. You can hide a scar on your arm or leg, but the face is what the world sees. A person's face is truly unique and gives them a visual identity. Despite my reservations about facial surgery, when I walk in that lab all the past fears dissolve for some reason and I become this person totally unafraid of laminectomy. Maybe curiosity trumps...I don't know, fear?

On a non-school note: I got to see B and K this weekend! I love them. There's something so nice about being with people who you are already comfortable with. I don't like adjusting to being myself around new people. Which supports my anti-social behavoirs :)

2 Weeks down

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 22:16:01 GMT

The whole med school thing is about prioratizing. Which do I need to spend more time on - back muscles or forearm muscles? Anatomy or development? I am trying to spend equal time on everything but of course anatomy is dominating my time. Luckily this will be beneficial on the practical but not on the SPOM written exam, which is split between anatomy, development, histo, and radiology. So prioritizing is my number one frustration.

I went to the gowning and gloving tutorial on Friday but I didn't learn anything new. It was much less nerve-racking then scrubbing in last summer because this was just pretend and there was no actual patient for me to contaminate. Since I am still wearing my glasses, though, there was a significant problem with fog. I guess the best part was meeting other people in surgery club. They all seem very understanding and I can't wait for more activities.

At first I was disappointed that we didn't have our white coat ceremony before classes started. It seems like such a spark for the rest of our lives. Our ceremony isn't until Oct. 7th but now I am glad because I will actually know people when they walk across the stage. It will mean more because we have, as a class, been through exams and labs and case conferences already. The class bond will be stronger and I know I will tear up when we read our class vision statement.

Now it's time to visit Agnes.

1 Week and 1 Day

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 19:19:50 GMT

I'm inspired by inked_caduceus to record my experiences as an osteopathic medical student. I feel like it will all go by in such a blur and I don't want to forget what was important to me and what my first impressions were. Since I love lists, here the the rundown:

1. The students: I learned that all my fellow students are kind, caring, compassionate, and above all, normal people with interests, backgrounds, and skills. I also learned that, as a class, we like to applaud at odd times. We are rowdy before lecture, even though it's 7:45 AM. Every single person has either a nalgene full of water or a coffee mug full of coffee in front of them AT ALL TIMES. Everyone genuinely wants everyone else to do well.

2. The professors (DO's and PhD's): Generally good. Some go very slow and follow their outlines verbatim. Others mix it up a little bit, and the anatomy professor talks so fast sometimes I wonder how smoke doesn't come out of his ears. Despite that, he deinitely wants us to understand the material and is very good at differentiating what is worth remembering and what is not.

3. Anatomy lab: I thought it would be strange at first, cutting into a dead body. But a cadaver isn't just a body. It's a person, with a family, with a history. Every single day I am so thankful for the 49 people who decided to give us their bodies so we could learn. To me, that is the definition of selflessness. I really love the dissecting part. I love making the cuts perfect and cleaning the muscles to you can see them perfectly. Our group started out a little rocky (note: huge holes in latissimus dorsi/trapezius/lots of other back muscles) but the pectoral region is going remarkably better.

4. Clubs: Two I am definitely joining so far. SOMA (note: free Netter's with dues) and Surgery Club. I think the Surgery Club is going to provide the best opportunities for me. They have tons of lectures and tutorials. The advisor, Dr. Serros, lets us come on rounds with him (6AM at Roxbourough Hospital), attend Grand Rounds, work on cases with him through email, and do STAN cases in small groups. We get suturing boards and T-shirts, which appeals to the hugely nerdy part of me. Ok, all of me is really nerdy but whatever.

That's all I have for now. I have some ideas for deep, thought-provoking posts for the future. But for now, I leave you with this: I suck at radiology.