Listening to: Every other freckle - altJ (I'm obsessed with emphasis on the 'sessed')
On to block two!
We're two days in and I'm feeling like I've got a good handle on the material. Don't worry, it will fade.
The most exciting part of my day occurred while I stood brushing my teeth this morning. I noticed that my feet were wet and, having some powerful observation skills, brushed it off as the shower spraying outside of the curtain. About five minutes later I remembered that I hadn't taken a shower and quickly scrubbed my feet raw when I realized I had been standing in toilet water. Before you judge me, this all played out at 6 a.m and my brain doesn't have to function until 8. Naturally, I e-mailed facilities and have been walking to campus to pee. Huzzah.
We had our first clinical medicine class today which, in the grand scheme of things is more important than a leaking toilet, but when you have to decide if you'd rather hold it or march uphill to campus to pee that would be the more interesting thing in your life. Segway- I learned how to take a blood pressure! While wearing a white coat, pants that weren't stretchy, and shoes that weren't flip flops. Needless to say, I felt like a regular ol' professional. Until the standardized patient reminded me that I never used her name. Whoops. A small break down of ICM: AUC has a pretty tech fancy clinical skills lab that looks a lot like a doctor's office in Russia in that they have like 3 cameras pointing at you. Get it? Russia spies on everyone! Anyways... we were split into three student doctors per patient and each person got a turn to take vitals and chat with the patient. It was a little intimidating to have your peers watch you fumble with the blood pressure cuff (I maintain that it requires AT LEAST three hands) but I was fortunate to be scheduled to go last in the group of three and could learn from their mistakes. (Thanks Alec and Kunal), no, they did very well, but it was our first time and a very intimidating experience. One surprising thing was that multiplying pulse and respiratory rate while maintaining a conversation is no easy feat. I was convinced I could quickly multiply beats per minute and respirations per minute all while becoming BFF's with my standardized patient. Needless to say, I picked multiplying and did my trademark math face of "stare at the ceiling with your mouth open". I instill the utmost confidence in my "patients".
I read a list today of 10 things that happen to you in med school and my personal favorite was: "Realizing it takes a long time for you to actually know anything and in the interim standing as still as possible when someone asks you a question until they forget what they asked and walk away". It's effective, trust me. Or make my mental math face, also a proven winner.
L'shana tovah to all! Services are tomorrow at 7 a.m. I'm happy they exist but would be happier if the "a.m" part of that sentence was "p.m". But I've been promised free breakfast. I mean... I'm going for the religious experience... not the free food...
Maybe both.
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