Preparing for our first test-week...

Once upon a time, at midnight on a Saturday night, a girl sent out a study guide when she should have been out with her friends. This is the beginning of the story of a medical student, tonight = me. :P

The past two weeks have been some of the biggest roller coaster days of my life, and that's saying a LOT! I go between being stressed, impressed, intimidated, and confident at the drop of a hat (where does that phrase come from???) and can't quite keep up with it all! Each day has more up time than the last, however, so I'm counting on the pattern continuing!

As the title of this post suggests, we have our first test next week. But, before I get to that, I want to update on a few things from the past two!

The short week after Labor Day ended up being a total life-saver for our sanity. We were gasping for a break and so it happened. Somehow, just like in undergrad, I managed to fill up my time. Monday Tuesday was a full day of class with my first clerkship in the afternoon. I think we must have chosen the wrong time to come, however, because we ended up not seeing any patients... I have spoken with the course director, but more on this later.  After an evening anatomy lecture on shoulder surgery, in which I answered a question (this is a big deal :) ), came a speech by the President-Elect of the AMA, Dr. Peter Carmel. He was a good speaker, but not having been back to my room since 8:15 in the morning meant that I left a bit early -- around 8pm!

Wednesday passed rather unnoticed, which solidified my love for Wednesdays, but Thursday was another long day, with class in the morning and anatomy lab in the afternoon. I learned the name of my favorite muscle -- the brachioradialis -- sometimes called the "beer drinking muscle"! Just kidding! But my professor sure thought he was funny when he told us that. I was delirious from all the phenol stench and laughed hysterically so that he thought I was suffering from overuse of my brachioradialis... :P He then launched into some description of the arm muscles based on Greek mythology, after which my whole group turned to each other and asked if anyone knew what he was talking about... Oh well, at least one thing stuck! My anatomy group is great and many other groups have expressed jealously that we're always laughing and having fun during lab. Hopefully we're learning something, too! Oh! And my  professor ordered some nice step stools for me, and kindly suggested I carry one with me during practical exams... ces't la vie! That night I attended a lecture on opthalmology and vascular surgery, for two different interest groups. I wanted to check them all out. I ended the night with an audition for the Bard Hall Players show Crazy For You. I got the part of "Sheila", who is one of the chorus of "Follies Girls", and part of a trio. I just found out that I will be singing the low part of my trio, when I've only ever been a soprano 1 or 2... This should be interesting! It's already been fun and we've had a read-through. The two male leads are played by people in my class, one who was on Broadway, and another who is a big-time opera star! WOW!

Friday night I branched out from my normal group and made some new friends. It was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to planning some Halloween festivities with a few of them for our class in Bard Hall! Saturday I studied, found out I had been nominated for Class President and Curriculum Chair, and attended two different parties! One was in the Towers, which is where I will be living next year (hopefully!) and the other ended up at Canal Room. It was fun, but really crowded and a younger, rowdier crowd than I was prepared for. They were playing 80s rock, so that was fun! Sunday was spent recovering, studying, and obsessing about whether to run for student government positions...

This week was VERY busy. It started out with a bang, too! On Monday night, I attended the cocktail party of one of the admission's interviewers, Dr. George Lazarus -- he did not interview me, but he is the father of a guy I graduated with. He and his wife, Shelly Lazarus, provided me with one of the most glamorous experiences ever! The fancy cocktail party on the Upper East Side was attended by a majority of his interviewees that attend Columbia across the years. His house is GORGEOUS and he and his wife were so welcoming and sincere. They assured all of the first-years that they would be a resource for us if we ever needed them! I became closer with one of the girls in my class and even met a third year from Milwaukee, though he plans to stay out east.

Tuesday was highlighted by the visit of one of my best friends, Jennifer Landau! She was my mentor and idol all through undergrad, but now we've switched positions; she is applying to medical school right now. She was in NYC for two interviews, though neither for Columbia. It was SO nice to see her, despite having to duck out for a few meetings. I just found out that she will be visiting again soon because she has received an interview here at P&S! She left early Wednesday morning from Bard to attend another interview, but I feel like she shouldn't bother. She will definitely be here with me next year!!! :P

Thursday was another long, 12-hour day. It was supposed to end with "Beerchus" the beer equivelant of "Bacchus", the wine tasting club I attended the first week, but I ended up feeling like I needed to get some work done instead. There's always next time, and I wasn't the only first year to back out. Before that, however, I attended a meeting for "Student as Patient as Professor", an initiative by a second year student which has been carried over since last year, to have a few first years share their personal stories of being a patient or caregiver. I told them I didn't feel like I had many lessons to teach my classmates, but they though that was interesting in itself, so I will be participating. I also met another girl who had lymphoma, which was cool. She had T-cell with only 4 months of treatment, but found out while she was studying for the MCAT. I thought mono was bad!!!

Friday was a final, long day again. I didn't return to my room from 8am to 8pm, only this time it was unplanned. I stayed out for lunch so we could get an early start on non-dissecting session for anatomy, and then went straight to Clerkship. Again, this was a less-than-ideal experience. I saw my first patient with him after a total of 6 hours watching reports being entered between last time and this time. finally at 5:30 we saw a patient which lasted until 7:45pm! I learned what he expected me to learn from that experience, but it was too little, too late. I am in discussions with my course leader now to try to figure out how to find a more... fulfilling experience. The highlight of yesterday was getting a letter from my friend Sammy from home. I feel terrible because I've been so out of touch, but she's always there when I need her, or True Blood - Season 1.

Today was spent doing laundry, cooking, and studying. I'm getting the rhythm down and, despite having a test on Thursday, am not freaking out... yet! I try to keep in perspective that everything is pass/fail and I only need to get a 70% at most on an exam to pass. I feel a bit like a slacker when others talk about how they are learning this stuff so that they can be great doctors, but I know that a great doctor comes from compassion and the ability to think, not a mass of knowledge with little relevance to the topic at hand. I doubt my dad, as an ophthomologist, thinks much about what nerve innervates the quadriceps muscle (the femoral nerve, by the way). Keeping perspective is the only way I keep sane, so I'll have to deal with feeling like a slacker every once in a while.

My friend Ryan, who encouraged me to relax and not study so much in undergrad -- some of the best advice I got -- somehow managed to do the same today by incessantly texting my score of the Wisconsin game until I gave in and watched the second half upstairs. I was VERY glad I did, because it turned out to be a VERY exciting game! I had to fight (not really) with some BYU kids for the channel rights, but luckily I was the first one there and had control of the clicker -- er... remote.

As far as student government goes, I have decided to run for Class President against my better judgement. Rumor is that 7 people are running, so I probably won't get elected anyway, but I think it would be a really great way to meet new people and become involved here at P&S. Well, in addition to the musical... and tour guide... and interest groups... and Bacchus... and Beerchus... Oh well, if you want something done, ask a busy person!

Next week starts the meal plan -- 3 dinners a week -- so I won't have to spend so much time cooking (aka. won't have any excuse to procrastinate studying). We'll see how it is!

Let me know how everything is going in your lives!

Hayley

EDIT:
Please glaze over the awkward phrasing/grammar in this post. It was LATE when I wrote it and I wanted to be sure to fit it in this weekend. Next weekend will be busy studying for our first anatomy exam, so I won't probably be able to update!
Hayley