Post First Year Musings

I wanted to write a few things now that I have a little more time on my hands living in my post-apocalyptical-- uh I mean post finals world. I thought I would get things started off with a haiku used as caption for a wonderful picture of me in my current state:

I'm a Med Student.

All Finals Passed; Completed.

Derelict is me.

All things considered I am actually feeling pretty good about life. And I must be a glutton for punishment because, today, when I was in Ross--Dress for less-- (of all places) it dawned on me that I felt ready and excited for

my next year and all of the newness and deeper knowledge that it promises to bring. I have loved being a medical student and feel honored and truly blessed that I have been able to take advantage of an opportunity to fulfill a dream I've had since I was 14 years old in Mr. Webb's Physiology and Anatomy class in the sci

ence wing of Provo High School. It was then, under the inspiration of a true educator, that I first imagined that I could make of myself something like a physician. Here I sit, now 1/4 of the way through and I am so happy with my situation. I've got a wonderful wife, a nice dog, I am at a school I like, studying something that I love--what more could a guy ask for?

That being said I wanted to make a few (hopefully humorous) observations about my first year in medicine and those people, like me, who are dedicated to it. Wanted to share just a few points that I feel might provided illumination into the world I am now immersed in: (If there is any jargon that I didn't clarify I apologize, I am finding it comes with the territory these days.)

• No matter how clever a teaching tool you think you have invented, answering a question with a question is simply not helpful. You are not the first person to think of it, I promise. Active learning is great and all that but generally if you just come up with the question on the spot, it will, more often than not, make you sound like a jerk. Generally when someone asks a question they are looking for information, not a trite response rephrasing what you said. I mean seriously when I ask, "Why can't you do a spinal tap with a patient with increased ICP?" I don't want to the response, "Why can't you do a spinal tap with a patient with increased ICP?" When you LITERALLY repeat the question it isn't helpful. End of story.
• The medical degree is a professional degree. It just doesn't seem right that you would come to school wearing--pajamas. I am not talking about those kind of pajamas that look simply like extremely casual clothing items. I am referring to flannel, Hello-Kitty print pajama pants. Seriously, how hard would it have been to throw on a pair of jeans or even pseudo-respectable looking sweatpants before coming to school? I don't think there are many patients that would be filled with confidence if their oncologist showed up to their first round of chemotherapy with bed-head with Team Jacob flannel pants. I'm just saying...
• For some people no matter how times they hear anatomical terms, they will always be funny. I am sad to say it, but it is true. I am not one to talk however; there are plenty of words in medicine that mean something inconsequential that sound funny. Scrofula, mastication and.
• I wish that Jessie Spano would have gone to my school that way during finals I could have seen her freak out with her "addictions" to caffeine pills as well as her obsession with the Pointer Sister's Classic "I'm so excited". Instead I had to witness mini-nervous breakdowns and freak-outs of a much less entertaining variety. No one even sang whilst freaking out. Lame.
• My last observation for now is that brilliant medical scientists come from all over the world. Their minds are on the forefront of medical innovations and discoveries. I admire their courage and excellence that they show by coming to the US and adding to my and other's medical educations. They are, however, not always the most easy people to understand. In the case with one of my wonderful professors, one of my Cantonese-speaking classmates put it best when she said, "I wish Dr. ______ would lecture in Cantonese, that way at least two people in the class would understand him, instead of no one in the class understanding him." Another case led to an aforementioned "freak out" when a student didn't understand that a professor was talking about fructose when he kept pronouncing it FRUCK-tose.