House, M3

I am finally, officially, an M3. You really aren't considered an M3 until you pass boards. Not just take but pass. Which means........I passed boards!!!! We got our scores back yesterday. After waiting for 6 weeks, I was starting to get more pessimistic about my performance. My original goal was 230 (average is 221, no one really knows the max, 185 is passing). As release day drew closer, I started thinking, "Oh, I'd be happy with 220." The next day "Oh, I'd be happy with 210." In my mind I kept picturing low scores. As I opened the PDF on my PDA yesterday at the hospital, the night I received my MCAT scores came rushing back to me. I felt I did okay on that, but my score didn't reflect it. I cried some that night. I panicked some. So I had full right to be anxious when opening this email. At first I planned to just wait til I got home because I didn't want it to ruin the rest of my day at work. I gave in though. My hands were shaking like no other. At first my mind read "fail," but that is because the small screen blurred it. Then as I zoomed, I thought it said 208. My heart sank a little. Then I kept zooming. Wait what? I scored higher than my original goal?!? Wait?!?!?! AHHHHHHHHHH! Happy day! I had a few joyful tears as I called my parents. Oh my goodness does it feel good to have that score done with. Other than maybe plastics, which I didn't want to do anyway, I haven't closed off any specialty due to the score. Woohoo!!!!

On Monday and Tuesday I became ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) certified. Basically I can "run" a code, shocker things and all. As it turns out, few places actually use paddles anymore. Sad. That is the only reason I became a doctor. They use the pads that you find in AEDs instead. Boring.

I watched 2 surgeries today: bilateral laproscopic tubal ligation and excision of some squamous cell dysplasia of the outer girly parts. I really have enjoyed the gyn surgery part of this rotation. Alas, on Monday I go to OB. Babies are cool. I have tomorrow off to travel to Bellingham!!!! Family wedding!!! Excited. I am in a very celebritory and non-workouty mood.

Scrubbin in!

I got to actually scrub in today and do stuff! It was great. Yesterday on gyn beeper I was more bored than I have been in a long time. Today, however, I scrubbed in on a total laproscopic hysterectomy (didn't end up total or fully laproscopic, but that is what it started as). It was me, 2 residents, and then a faculty gyn doc. It was great! Even with 4 of us in there (in addition to all the nurses and techs) I still got to do a few things. I will spare you the details (a little on the gross, girl-part side of things), but I am pretty sure I answered all the questions asked of me correctly. Well, most of them at least. Once my surgery was over (about 1130), I got to leave! Nice and short day for me. Then again, I did have to get up at 445. This will be a rough 2 months, but I think I'll survive. I have 2 surgeries tomorrow and clinic in the morning. I have no clue what exactly how clinic works. I think it is pretty much just regular well-woman checks, etc. Thing is I may be on the OB side of things tomorrow, but we will see. You know, I can do procedures and talk to patients, but when it comes to writing notes, I am pretty weak. I guess I know what I need to fix!

I am off this weekend and partly tempted to sleep in, but I know that will mess me up. I have ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) training on Monday and Tuesday, regular stuff on Wednesday, gyn beeper on Thursday (while being the only M3 on the floor), and gone on Friday!! Excited for the family wedding!

OB/GYN orientation

Talk about some of the most confusing hours of my life!! Yesterday I spent about 4 hours listening to how things work at CUMC (Creighton U Med Center) yet left feeling dumber than I did before. All these different schedules and responsibilities. Show up...pre-round...round...clinic...call...beeper. Ahhh! Bergan Mercy orientation today was a little simpler because they just throw OB and GYN together. CUMC does them separately. I got my ideal order (just by accident): CUMC Gyn then OB for the 1st month, Bergan for the 2nd. Bergan is busier, so I can get my feet a little "wet" (really, I didn't mean to make that pun) before heading there. I also get free food at Bergan. Yay! OB at CUMC and all of Bergan has 12 hour call shifts that you rotate through with your classmates. CUMC gyn (what I am doing right now) has "Gyn Beeper," which I am on tomorrow. Now, I really have no clue what this means. I know it means I don't get to go into previously schedule gyn surgeries. I know it means I can't leave until 430pm. Basically I carry it around in case there is a "Gyn-mergency" anywhere in the hospital (as in the ER or something). It rarely rarely rarely ever goes off, so I am not too worried. It also means though that I get to "assign" the gyn surgeries for the next day to my fellow CUMC gyn students. My first call on CUMC OB isn't til the 22nd. Of course it has to be the day Matt comes back. I am on day call though (7am to 7pm), which sucks a little bit because I don't get the next day off. In fact, I think all my night calls are on the weekends meaning I never get any week days off (you don't need to round on the weekends unless on call). Think you are confused? Well I am right there with ya. I am basically going to go until I get scolded and then change some things.

My 4th was pretty relaxed. Went over to a friends place and watched people around the neighborhood set off fireworks, something I never really experienced much growing up. It sounded what I imagine a war zone sounds like. Just without the fear.

The biggest development in my life: I have become slightly addicted to iced chai tea lattes. So much so that I have taken to making large, delicious batches and cooling them overnight so I can drink it the next day. This may or may not be a bad thing.

I will really try this year to keep y'all updated with the things I am doing. Some of it may be cool. Some of it may be lame. But you'll read it anyway.

PS: my 1st day of school photo from this year. Sorry it is a little foggy...weird

Hiatus

I think I have used that subject before. Sorry. I was enjoying my "summer" too much and being too lazy to write. Plus, not that much happened. A week at home. A few days in Olympia. Hiked around Rainier national park. Week at Camano (I swear pics will be up soon). Back home for a rockin Hoopfest. Back to Omaha. Lame M3 orientation. Speaking of which, I should change my profile on here. Some highlights

Home: I love my parents, my dog, and I guess my little brother. It sucks that none of my friends live there any more

Olympia/Seattle: Matt's parents' new kitchen is awesome, rode a lot of buses

Da Beach: 16lbs of bacon and a flat of fresh strawberries every day...need I say more?

Hoopfest: with Corrina only on our team, we managed to capture 2nd place!! Yay for new t-shirts. Mind you, this was only with 3 players since our 4th broke her nose in 4 places...during the first game. Ouch. We love you Mary

I am not back in Omaha highly unmotivated about life. I am both intensily excited and scared about what will come this year. So much more responsibility. So much less hand holding. I don't need to be spoon-fed, but I do need to know what is expected of me. Also, I need to eat pretty often, which may pose an issue this next year. I guess I need to train myself now to not eat as often. I start with ObGyn on Monday and am pumped. Even if this isn't my #1 area of choice, I am excited and (almost) confident in my abilities. I am very thankful for the clinic I had this past year because it really gave me a GREAT chance to get my feet wet. Gave shots, drew blood, assisted in pelvics, and did almost all the interviews, which is more than many got to do. Yay!

We have tomorrow and the weekend off. I hope everyone has a great 4th. I'll be back Monday (hopefully) with an update on the first day.

PS: the one advantage of living in Nebraska --> 10 ears of corn for a $1...even before July 4th

I'M BACK! AND I'M DONE!

Whoop! Done! First part of this will be my life...second part will be the test. I don't want to bore everyone with test info.

Life has been sweet. Now, in comparison to most people's lives, it may not be that awesome, but when looking back on the last....5 months....it has been pretty satisfying. I get up when I want. I don't have to open a book. I get to watch TV and movies. Awesome. After the test on Thursday I went home. Matt had bought champagne, so we drank some of that and went on a walk. We then mett Meghan and Kevin at Kona for their awesome happy hour. Between Matt and myself we got 2 sushi rolls, 5 margaritas, and a pizza for $20 plus tip. Awesome. We then went back to our place where I continued to forget. It was fun. Relaxed, but fun. Meghan and Kevin kept falling asleep, so they left right as JC showed up. Our tiredness kept him from staying long. 

Had to pack Friday morning. In my "recovery" mode, I forgot a swimsuit. Hope mom will buy me a new one :D. Matt and I were on the same flight to Minneapolis where we learned that Northwest charges $50 for standby. Really? Really people? Why does it cost money to do that? I understand that you are trying to get every last drop of money out of us, but charging for standby? Ridiculous. If I ever own an airline, I am not charging for that. They did give you a whole can of soda though, which is nice. We were on different flights to Seattle...only 40 minutes apart. Again...really? Matt got in only 10 minutes after me because we sat around for a while in Minneapolis. Good thing we didn't pay that $50. I then flew Alaska to Spokane. I forget how annoying it is to make 2 layovers.

Once in Spo, we went to Denny's. I got the "Grand Slam burrito." Turns out there is a pancake in it!!!!! While it may have taken 4 years off my life, it was worth it. Nothing much else has happened. Bo and I are going to do "On Demand" Yoga today. It sucks not having a gym.

THE TEST

Studied unitl 11am on Wednesday and then took the rest of the day as mental health. Did errands. Went to a baseball game. It was fun. Didn't have too hard of a time falling asleep.

Up at 6, shower, bfast, got to the test center early. As per usual. Checked in. Down for the test. In case I haven't told you: 7 sections of 48 questions. Newly added last year were A/V questions - basically murmurs. Newlly added in FRED v2 this year were sequential questions. My friends who took it on Tuesday have v1...I took it on Thurs and had v2. Weird. I only had 1 sequential question, which wasn't hard at all. In fact, I would say they are easier because they basically just "make you show your work" on how you made the 2nd or 3rd jump in thinking.

Blocks 1 and 2 were a little rough. Don't know if it was test jitters or actually they were harder, but they sort of took the wind out of my sails. I had 2 of the exact same question! Not just similar. EXACT same. On different blocks. Problem is....I didn't know it the first time. On these tests they do through in "experimental" questions that aren't actually scored, so here is to hoping that was one. Break after the first 2. Soda and nut time

Block 3 started pretty well, but I got mentally frustrated at the end and had to take an unplanned break before block 4. I think that one was fine. It is all a blur now. Lunch after 4. Then 5 and 6...break...7. All in all I would say I had 2-3 questions I had NO CLUE about per block. Another 7-10 that I had to make quite a few mental jumps that I was unsure about. The rest went fine? I was most nervous about stamina for this. I had only ever done 4 blocks in a day. 7 is a whole new ball game. We won't get our scores until mid July. Now to play the waiting game. I am pretty sure I passed. The actual score...we will see. Off to sit around on my butt!

1 week

1 week

You can start praying for me...now

No update until then

Adios

3 weeks

Wow, I am an awful person. I feel as if a lot has happened? Did I talk about taking the Basic Science Shelf? Well I did. Got a 77? Don't know if that is a percent or what, but it correlates w/ a 217.5 on Step 1. National average on the actual Step 1 (not practice 5 weeks beforehand) is 221. HOPEFULLY I will just keep going up. I am going to take another practice test tomorrow. Whoop. We also took the Pathology shelf. Got a 540? Again, who knows what that actually means. Using the scale for a different test (basically I am just searching for something to hold onto here), that is about a 228. Those tests were a week apart. 10 points in a week. I'll take it.

Why do I talk about studying so much? Because all I do is study right now. My last "break" from studying until the test was going to Denver. It was tons of fun. I put on weight. Imagine that. My family, eat a lot? Weird. Back now though...have been for a while. Sigh

Last Saturday was Matt's prom. He was in charge, so I got to go help set up and then actually go to the dance. I was actually quite helpful w/ ideas when setting up. It wasn't too bad. The dance part was...interesting. Nothing too bad happened. We found one girl almost passed out. Claimed she had "too many energy drinks." Uh...........I don't know if I believed that. I was hoping to hear some music I hadn't heard before. False. I swear they played some of those songs at my senior prom. They did play that sond "Sandstorm" or whatever. Oh. My. Goodness. I thought the floor was going to collapse. I could see the headlines, "Jumping teens injure beautiful med student...and her boyfriend :D" Really though, I was looking for something to hold onto just in case the floor gave way. I mean....1000 students jumping up and down. Scary. I got to wear a dress though. Yay! They played a fast song for the last song. How lame is that? Matt said he would have danced with me to the last slow one, but he didn't want all the students starring. They would have. That's okay though, we had a good time. Okay, off to bed?