Who SAYS you can’t cram for med school?

*Edit, 11:45 AM*: I do.

Ok, I know I’ve been out of commission for 2 weeks or so, and I apologize. Jeez, you people are like rabid hyenas. Kind of like Whoopi in the lion king*.

Anyhow, I’ve decided that studying is overrated. I do too much of it, get burnt out, and then have trouble focusing the day before the test.

Also, I ordered a new power cord from Bosity, as my old one broke (don’t click on that link, they suck. I did it for proper blog/html etiquette only). Another excellent reason why I haven’t been posting, might I add. The power cord came today, and I must say, I am completely underwhelmed. It doesn’t have a grounding wire, is shorter than the old one, and looks like I could snap it in two just by staring at it too hard. One of the reasons it took 7 days to get here? They shipped it from CHINA. That’s almost as far as Australia!. The things they say about shoddy chinese knockoffs of decent quality products?

ALL TRUE. I stand firmly behind this blanket statement.

Crappy chinese crappy crap. Blah! Lets hope the damn thing doesn’t short circuit my laptop. THEN I’m gonna be pissed. Shoulda gone with Newegg.

*mufasa Mufasa MUFASAAAA!

1) Both of my grandmothers died of breast cancer, and my mother is very high risk.
2) Our med school team is the #1 fundraising team in town!
3) Our team leader is the #1 fundraising individual in town!

I’m walking to help fight breast cancer. If you want to donate, please visit my donation page. To entice you to donate $10 or more, I’ll send you an email with no less than 3 (three!) personalized reasons why I think that you are awesome. Trust me- no matter who you are I will find 3 things. Furthermore, this email will include a picture of me giving you two thumbs up, and a sound clip of me saying “*your name here*, I’m so proud of you for helping to fight breast cancer!” Trust me- I’ve got a microphone hooked up to my computer, ready to go.

I also guarantee that you will immediately feel like a better person upon having donated. Because guess what? You WILL be a better person. Do the right thing. Donate to help fight breast cancer.

(oh… and check our team’s page to see how much we’ve raised! This means YOU, dear reader. You. Donate Right now).

P.S. $20 or more will change the picture from two thumbs up to me in a… compromising position. We’ll not go into any more detail here.

This is one of my most vivid memories from working in the ER- I think I should record it before I forget. I was a hospital scribe; I wrote on charts for the docs so that their hands were free and they could see patients more quickly.

A woman had come in, and the triage note was that she was here for a “leg infection”. The attending was busy, so he asked me to go in first and document. Every chart has a cartoon person on it, where you can draw lacerations, infections, etc.

When I walked in the room, the nurse leaving handed me a face mask and told me I’d be needing it. The woman was lying on the bed in a pale blue patient gown, with a sterile hospital sheet covering everything below her hips. She was old and thin, with white hair and wrinkled skin. More than anything, I remember that her eyes looked sad. I asked about the infection, and she started to tell me her story.

She cried softly as she told me that her husband of 30 years had died months earlier. Her kids didn’t want to speak to her. She didn’t know how to cope, and so without any sort of support, she sunk into a deep depression. She would lie in bed for days at a time, not eating, drinking, showering, or changing her clothes. Unfortunately, she wore compression socks. She was so depressed she hadn’t changed them in weeks, until she started to notice that her legs hurt.

I peeled away the sheet to the most revolting smell I have ever known. There was yellow, cheesy, raw pus covering the entirety of her legs up to her knees. Her feet and toes were gangrenous, bloody, and blackened. The smell of rotting flesh was so powerful it knocked me back a step. In some odd, detached way, I noticed that I could make out the pattern that the sock stitching had imprinted on her legs.

She broke down sobbing, ashamed, horrified, depressed, hopeless. I didn’t know what to do- it was just so overwhelming. I quickly sketched out a crosshatched area over the legs on her chart, and ducked out of the room with the excuse of coming back later. I never did.

I think she did ok in terms of the infection, though I’m not sure. I saw them wheeling an IV with an antibiotic drip into her room as they prepared her for admission into the hospital. I doubt curing the infection helped her all that much though- I can’t shake the thought that she was just waiting to die. I wonder where she is now.

Sometimes I find drafts sitting around that I never finished editing. Usually, I’m past the point where I want to edit it to make a legit post. Anyhow, this entry isn’t really a coherent whole, but I might as well put it up. Funny too, because recent POPS have been much better.

We had our first microbiology POPS today (Patient-Oriented Problem-Solving). A few thoughts.

1) Apparently our school stole the entire POPS program from Oregon U’s Dental school. I’d like to think that med school and dental school have a different approach to microbiology. For instance… cavities vs. SUDDEN DEATH due to bacterial sepsis.*

2) When they stole the POPS, they failed to realize that Oregon U posts ALL OF THE ANSWERS. Not, of course, that I looked. Though, if I had, it would have essentially negated all need for group discussion over which one we thought was the “right answer”. Because we would have known. Ahead of time.

3) Due to recent renovations, they are no longer able to perform the POPS in small study rooms. So, instead, all 105 of us (+ grad students) were crammed into a single auditorium. This was rather… unfortunate. Large, noisy auditoriums aren’t really conducive to small group study.

4) POPS are required… but they are all scheduled for Mondays and Friday afternoons. And we can’t get excused from them unless there is some overly dangerous life-threatening emergency (not even the girl who’s getting married next week is excused)!

In summary, POPS were pretty poorly run. The material was interesting… but the presentation was lacking. Thank god we don’t have an entire curriculum based around small groups *cough* first years *cough*.

*Of course dentists see lots of dangerous tooth infections and such. I mean no disrespect to our periodontical brethren… I’m just pointing out that the focus is slightly different.

So, the surgery club president just forwarded me this email:

I understand that the meeting tomorrow is extremely important but I will be unable to make it on time. I have class in the PAS until 5:05 and refuse to miss the class because every minute is actually filled with valuable material. I would appreciate a succinct report of the important details and will still try to make it to the meeting.

Thank you,
-Jim

Just for a quick bit of background- this is some undergrad that none of us know, who wanted to come to a surgery club (read: medical school) meeting. Now, I think we all want to punch this kid in the face as much as I do. So, to make myself feel better, I wrote him back this email.

Hi Jim-

Sorry I didn’t get back to you earlier about the meeting- I heard you didn’t get a chance to make it. I believe this falls under my jurisdiction as the education coordinator- how can I get you the summary of the meeting? Email would be easiest for me, though I could probably fax or hand-deliver it to you at a time that would work better for you (obviously you have many important classes that can’t be missed). I’m a little busy, but I should be able to get it to you somewhere in between our week of 4-hour long tests, 5 hours of class a day, clinic volunteering, coordinator responsibilities, and doctor shadowing.

Also, how succinct is “succinct”? I could keep it to one page with bullet points if that would work best for you.

Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do- I’m glad to see you’ve got your sense of entitlement all squared away even before you get to medical school. Best of luck impressing your interviewers!

-Zac, MSII
Education Coordinator, Surgery Club
TotShots Coordinator
Education Coordinator, MSFC
Medical School Nominating Committee
Curriculum Electives Committee
Certified BLS CPR Instructor
AMA Member

Unfortunately, I can’t actually bring myself to send this. I may be an asshole, but even I’m not that big of a jerk. Oh, and by the way- I give you my permission to shoot me if I ever use a signature like that. Ever.