Geez - where has all the time gone? Only a year and a half ago I started on this journey and I've only got half a year left of actual school to go. And to think I haven't written anything here for a good 7 months - it's really inexcusable, but what can I say? Things have been better than ever before - hence my lack of any ranting on this blog!
To start out, see the resemblance?
I've been waiting to share that ever since we learned what a uterine leiomyoma was (while being shown that exact picture to the left). Anyways, where to begin? Last year finished uneventfully (thankfully) and this year is almost halfway over. In between I was here over the Summer doing research. Lets start there:
Summer in New York city is like the buffet at a strip club - nobody goes to there specifically for it, but it's a damn nice bonus. The trees are full with leaves, the grass is green, NYU ships beautiful women in from all over the world as "interns", and everyone is just happier. I spent a very long time trying to figure out exactly what I was going to do for the Summer, trying to find a balance between being productive because I had to be, travelling, and wanting to just waste away at home playing video games. Well, in the end I decided on doing research here at Sinai with the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring Program. It was essentially a LOT of Excel work each day I went in but I really ended up enjoying what I was doing a lot. And hey, I even made a poster out of it. On top of things I had my girlfriend in town for a few weeks, and a good chunk of the other people in my class stayed here as well. Translation = spending way too much money and getting way too little sleep while trying to fend off a constant hangover. Overall a success, I'd say.
The start of this school year came on way to quickly. It felt like I was hit by a train. Everything I learned about studying and discipline last year just went out the window. Last year was hard because the material was challenging to understand. This year is hard because of the volume of material we have to understand. I fought the urge to sleep through class and tried to wake up at the right time like everyone else and eventually I found that all I do in class is gchat people, go on stumbleupon.com (check it out, you'll be hooked immediately), or screw around on my iphone. By the end of the day I end up leaving class exhausted, take a nap, wake up around 7, curse myself for taking a nap, eat dinner, study for maybe 30 minutes, then watch tv or something.
So now I stopped going to class as well as stopped watching lectures. Pharmacology began which brought on a mess of new things I had to learn with so little time in the day. Overall a good decision since now I can make my own schedule and sleep in till whenever I want without feeling guilty. Apparently professors don't like hearing their students aren't going to class, though. When I was talking to someone in the elevator about how there's no required class tomorrow the professor teaching the class the following day stopped me and said, "well I'll make sure to make class worth-while for those who attend if that's the way you see it!" I find out during that lecture that they shut the camera off during some of the time the professor was giving tips for the final exam. Nevertheless, no class is the best class for me. We'll see how it pans out for me by the end of the semester in 2 weeks!
I'll leave you with a funny story I experienced:
I recently had an encounter with a standardized patient (an actor who is paid to pretend to be a patient for us to practice on - youtube - kramer at mount sinai as a standardized patient). During the encounter I was asked to do a full cardiovascular physical exam. Part of this exam requires for us to check for a femoral pulse. This is the creepy exam the doctors do when they stick their hands down your underwear when you go to the pediatrician. Needless to say, I didn't feel the necessity to go for the gold with my standardized patient because there was nothing wrong with her and since she was about 70 years old, I didn't feel it was entirely proper to go as far down into the underwear as they had instructed us to.
Patient: Excuse me doctor, is the pulse supposed to be felt on the hip?
Doctor: No
Patient: I didn't think so.
Doctor: Eric, did you feel a pulse?
Me: Not really, but I didn't think it was necessary...
Doctor: Mrs. so and so, can you please lift up your gown?
The patient proceded to lift up her gown to show me specifically where I needed to put my hand to feel her femoral pulse (which was right on her junk) and the doctor waited until I went to feel it personally. A good friend of mine was watching the entire time and was mortified.
To give you a good visual, here's where you're supposed to feel the femoral pulse:
I'll try not to take this long next time to write another entry, but no promises.
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