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Test Week 1

September 21, 2007 by 4 Comments

Test week 1 is finally over! Our exams were scheduled over a 4 day period and so we had Friday off. I woke up around 11 AM. It felt really weird waking up and not knowing what to do. I kinda felt lost. All week I’d wake up and be worried about the 8:30 AM exam. I tried to review a little before the exam. Afterwards, I’d have lunch and then back to study.

They had a pretty quick turnaround for the exam scores. All the scores were emailed to us. Most of them were emailed to us within a couple hours after turning them in. It was pretty nice. I did contemplate not opening any of the emails until after test week. But I caved and started reading them as soon as I saw one in my mailbox.

Overall it was a good week. All passing scores. I’m just glad it’s all over. And now, I get to do it all over again ! 🙂

Filed Under: Medical School, My Life
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How to Become a Doctor

September 14, 2007 by 4 Comments

I was browsing some medical blogs and found a link to an article at HowStuffWorks.com. Dr. Carl Bianco, MD, has written a pretty good overview of the traditional path to earning the two initials.

I didn’t get a chance to read through the entire thing, but from the looks of the contents listing, it covers a lot. Dr. Bianco discusses everything from high school, college, medical school, residency, and the licensing exams.

Here’s the link to the article: Howstuffworks “How Becoming a Doctor Works”

Filed Under: GUIDE
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Medical Humor – Rats, Matches, and Motorcycles

September 13, 2007 by Leave a Comment

“In retrospect, lighting the match was my mistake. But I was only trying to retrieve my son’s rat.” Dick Stone told doctors in the severe burns unit of San Francisco City Hospital. Admitted for emergency treatment after an attempt to retrieve the rat had gone seriously wrong, he explained, “My son left the cage door open, so his rat, Vermin, escaped into the garage. As usual, it looked for a good place to hide, and ran up the exhaust pipe of my motorcycle. I tried to retrieve Vermin by offering him food attached to a string, but he wouldn’t come out again, so I peered into the pipe and struck a match, thinking the light might attract him.”

At a hushed press conference, a hospital spokesman described what had happened next. “The flame ignited a pocket of residual gas and a flame shot out the pipe igniting Mr. Stone’s mustache and severely burned his face. It also set fire to the pet rat’s fur and whiskers which, in turn, ignited a larger pocket of gas further up the exhaust pipe which propelled the rodent out like a cannonball.” Stone suffered second- degree burns, and a broken nose from the impact of the pet rat. His son was grounded for 6 weeks.

– Another true story brought to you by the medical community.

Filed Under: Humor Tagged With: , , ,
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Choosing Your Residency/Specialty

September 12, 2007 by 6 Comments

Are you trying to decide what residency/specialty to go into? It can be a very difficult decision. And often its not entirely up to medical students. After all, we do have to gain an acceptance into the program we want. Anyways, someone sent this to me a while back. Click on the thumbnail for a larger view. Enjoy.

Specialty Guide

Filed Under: Humor Tagged With: , , ,
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Medical Humor – Deep Thoughts

September 11, 2007 by Leave a Comment
  • One of life’s mysteries is how a two pound box of candy can make A person gain five pounds.
  • Brain cells come and go but fat cells live forever.
  • Life not only begins at forty, it begins to show.
  • I had to give up jogging for my health. My thighs kept rubbing together and setting my pants on fire.
  • Amazing! You just hang something in your closet for a while and it shrinks two sizes.
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Sleep Sleep Sleep

August 31, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Earlier this month someone sent me an email about sleep deprivation. Here is a quote from the article (from About.com): “Poll results show that while many Americans enjoy the benefits of sufficient sleep, as many as 47 million adults may be putting themselves at risk for injury, health and behavior problems because they aren’t meeting their minimum sleep need in order to be fully alert the next day.”

Let’s face the facts. Medical students are not your average American. So while most Americans find that they have sufficient sleep (although I seriously doubt this… or maybe I just need to meet more “average” Americans), I’m sure that the percentage of medical students who received sufficient sleep is far less. This might be true for residents as well. Maybe I’ll write about that in 5 years….

I think my sleep cycle is messed up. During the first week of school there were two nights that I got to bed by 10 PM. I woke up at around 5:45, exercised, showered, ate breakfast and then got to class by 8:00. On those days I thought that I was much more alert and focused during the lectures. I think I really need to get back to that schedule instead of sitting at the computer after I finish studying till midnight.

Filed Under: Medical School, My Life
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Pre-Med Humor – Preventive Measures

August 14, 2007 by Leave a Comment

A physics professor was explaining a complicated concept when a premed
student interrupted him.
“Why do we have to learn this stuff?” the young man blurted out.
“To save lives,” the professor replied.
“How does physics save lives?” the smartass student asked.
“Physics saves lives,” the professor said, “because it keeps certain people out of medical school.”

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