Psych Call Saturday

I’m currently on an 8am Saturday to 8am Sunday call for my psychiatry rotation. So far, I have seen one patient and my partner in crime (another third year medical student) has seen another.

At 8:30am, I went to see a woman with a substance abuse history regarding her suicidal/homocidal ideation, but she was so snowed (likely from the combination of cocaine withdrawal and administration of Ativan) that she couldn’t provide much information. I went back to re-evaluate her at 11:30 and she had a little more to say, but still had to be constantly stimulated in order to stay awake. When my resident went to see her at 4pm, she was much the same.Most likely, she will not be awake enough to discuss her situation coherently for at least another day.

Otherwise, I’m working on my SPPAAM (Students Presenting on Psychiatric Aspects of Medicine) project. I’m covering alcoholism and it’s correlation with traumatic injury.

Psych!

Psychiatry Clerkship Starts Tomorrow… AKA Crazies at Christmas (my clerkship also covers Turkey Day)

I’m not exactly looking forward to this rotation. It’s very slow moving and you don’t do very much. However, since I’m assigned to a consultation service, we have to be there all day to wait with bated breath for someone to become demented or something. On the upside, we will apparently have our own office in which to study, etc. (read = knit). I also have several papers I’d like to finish soon, so I’m planning on using my time for that as well. Who knows, maybe I’ll even blog more. We will see where this crazy train takes us.

I know that my current attitude will not help the situation, but I also know me – this is my way of preparing myself for the worst so that later I can be relieved that my expectations were left unmet. I also know that because I have dealt with person with mental illness many times during my life that I’m not interested in doing it on purpose.

USMLE practice exam tomorrow morning

I am taking a practice USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Exam) Step 1 exam tomorrow morning. The score I get tomorrow will give me an idea of which subjects hold my strengths and weaknesses. It will also tell me what score I would get if I took the real test tomorrow. It’s scary because I haven’t started studying yet (not in the hard core way). Our education specialist at school says to expect a low score since we haven’t really prepared yet. This is supposed to help us gauge where to spend the most time on our studying. I start my hard-core, 10-hour-per-day study schedule on May 5. I take the real exam on June 5.

Anyhow, I’m scared. I’m scared that I won’t do well. I don’t know what kind of doctor I want to be, but the score I get on the exam will make a huge impact on my chances of getting into something competitive. I’m scared that I will get tired and have a difficult time adhering to my iron clad schedule – which would be disasterous. I’m also scared that I won’t be a good doctor. Each thing I don’t know on this exam is information that might save someone’s life. Of course, there will also be plenty of obscure things that I may never see. One never knows what’s coming around the bend…

I’m looking for strength. I’m looking for peace. I’m looking for confidence. I’m looking for memory.

I’m looking at an uncertain future.

It is scary, but exciting too.

Big Tests Tomorrow

I have three tests tomorrow in pharmacology (drugs), pathology (diseases), and behavioral medicine (mental illness). This is a bit overwhelming, so I am pleased to say that tomorrow evening, it will be over. Then I can get back to life – like finally picking up my contact lenses, sending off packages, cleaning my house, etc.

For now, however, I must study my brains out.  There are over 50 drugs to learn, but there will only be 14 questions on that exam. There are also hundreds of bacteria, parasites, and helminths (worms), but only three questions on each topic. There are tons of abdominal diseases to remember and symptoms to associate. This is all somewhat disconcerting, but I hope my efforts will pay off.
Also, let me tell you that intestinal worms are gross. I know that that should be intuitive, but believe me, ignorance is bliss, because it is worse than you might think. I’m not even going to post a picture because I don’t want to spoil your next meal. There’s lots of things wrong in America, but God bless our sanitation system. Seriously, the next time you look at your toilet, I want you to thank it for helping to prevent fecal-oral transmission of disease. Then go wash your hands.

(N.B. If you’re into gross stuff, do a Google image search for “ascaris”)

Fun fact: Giardia (which hikers can get from drinking unpurified stream water) is kind of funny because it looks like a face with a mustache: