Temporary Shower

Yay I am finally done studying for Step 2 ck!!! Because I regretted not documenting my thoughts after Step 1, I thought I should hurry and document my thoughts for Step 2. Overall,  I think I was WAY less stressed about Step 2. Maybe this is because I have literally been prepping for it this whole year or maybe I was just so burned out, I couldn't bring myself to care. Either way, I am really glad I allotted 6 weeks for this. My school only recommends 4 weeks and some people find that 2 weeks is enough but for me, it was nice to leisurely work through UWorld and have my evenings off. Resources used: UWorld: definitely the best resource. In fact, I think you can do quite well on the test if you really know and understand everything in world. Master the Boards: very sparse on details but good in the week leading up to the test as a final review Kaplan qbank: I did like 500 question from it but didn't find it all that helpful. Their explanations were definitely not as good...

Now that I am done with third year, I feel like I can share some wisdom on what to do for each rotation. Coming back from a 4 year leave of absence, I was definitely at a disadvantage knowledge-wise but I managed to honor 4/7 clerkships, high pass 2/7, and sadly only pass surgery. That said, I don't regret any of the resources I used and think anyone can get honors with the right mindset and the right study material. I hope some of you find this useful. General Advice You always have to try your best in clinic. It sucks when people ignore you or doesn't like you but swallow your pride and try to please them. At most schools, evals from your residents/attendings make up a good portion of your clerkship grade so do not overlook the importance of showing up early, being prepared, and being eager to learn. That said, don't play "the game". Go home when they tell you to go home. Don't try to outshine everyone around you. Instead, spend your free time at w...

I did it! I am officially done with MSIII forever!!!! We just got our grades back for Family Medicine so now I can breath a sign of relief that I passed everything. YAY! Reflections: Things I liked: - The hours!!! My attending worked 6am-6pm because he liked to get in early and review his patient's charts. I only worked 8-5 but having nights and weekends is wonderful! - The breadth. I like seeing kids and adults Things I disliked - The monotony. It seemed like we saw the same things every day: diabetes diabetes diabetes! - The patients. I am sorry to say this but I learned I am just NOT interested in outpatient. I first thought this might be because I had been shadowing too much before so if I saw and worked up patients on my own, it would be more fun but I was wrong. I find it all really boring and tiring and I find it hard relating to patients who aren't really sick, who are not compliant with their meds, and who always just wants more meds. 

Happy New Year! It has been so nice coming home to family/friends after a vacation away. I have decided nobody should come home from a vacation just to start working right away! Dave and I celebrated Christmas with my family and his. We had several game nights (one more to come tonight) and we ate a lot. In the words of my sister, we have gained a “layer of winter fat”. Here are some pictures from Costa Rica So much eating every day!!! Weirdo and her boyfriend Too fat for a two-piece haha Sad to leave I have slowly started to study again but I really have very little motivation. After getting some rest and reflecting back on the last few weeks, I think I was definitely burned out. I really am not doing too bad overall but I think I could afford the break I talked about in my last post. Haha….the competitive side of me still wants to regain my motivation and try for honors in surgery but I think for my mental health in the long run, I should probably slow ...

I can’t believe I am done with IM! It was a beast! I have never studied so hard in my life! I actually finished last Wednesday since last Thursday was Thanksgiving, It was nice that they gave us some time off because I am pretty burned out. Haha. I had a checklist of things I wanted to do during those 4 days from doing my laundry to pre-studying for Surgery but with all the family parties, birthdays, baby showers, etc, I didn’t even make it half-way down the list. The important things are done though and I feel refreshed from having a few days off. I seriously think I need a week off between every rotation! Here are some pictures: I was going to update the blog sooner but to be honest, I hadn’t gotten my shelf scores yet and I was scared I had failed. I talked before about how internal medicine covers 80% of what we need to know this year and to be honest, even with all my studying, I didn’t feel great coming out of the exam. The question prompts were long and I fe...

Happy Monday!  So I am on Opthalmology rotation right now and it is Sooooo nice because there is no test at the end. This is technically part of my elective month so I am signed up for 2 weeks of opthalmology and 2 weeks of research. Last week, I was at the VA and it was great. I got to work with one of my closest friends who is currently an optho resident and I got to scrub in on some eye surgeries. This week, I am suppose to be working at another clinic but the coordinator informed me this morning that she hasn't heard back from the attending I am suppose to working with so now I am just chilling at home waiting for someone to call and tell me what to do. Though I would love to see more optho, this gives me a chance to hang out and I am super excited because I haven't had "me" time in awhile. Since I don't have an exam for opthalmology and my next rotation is just research, I am currently studying for Medicine. To be honest, Internal Medicine rotation is...

Two unrelated topics. First, I am sick of being judged by PhDs to be incompetent because I am  also getting an MD! No, the PhD is not easier for me then it is for you. Yes, I don't have to take the same number of classes as you but I am SORRY if my 2 years of med school classes = your 1 year of PhD classes. And if I don't know something, it is not because I am a med student. It is because I actually don't know it! You didn't at one point either! I swear the arrogant wanna-be researchers who ARE MDs give us a bad rep. And the arrogant MD/PhDs just add fuel to the fire. Case in point...there is a fellow down the hall from me who is making everyone mad because he thinks he knows everything. Yet he can't get any data. It doesn't matter that everyone else can do the exact same procedure with favorable results...he just can't do it and he thinks it's not his fault. Then, I went to another MD/PhD's defense and she had nothing. NOTHING! No papers, no co-a...

Today was fairly hectic. I woke up early for TDS (a version of journal club but for my lab only). Then, I planned out my experiments for the day. I managed to accomplish all but one of the experiments I had planned because it was just too hard to inject dye into baby mice. Don't worry. It doesn't hurt the mice but it does give me a nice permeability readout (if it had worked). One of the perks of moving up in the grad school world is that I have my own minions (undergrads). I am fortunate enough to have two and both have worked with me for almost a year now. They want to apply for medical school and I want their hands so I can get things done at a faster rate. So far, this has been working out with some lessons along the way: 1) Never assume someone you are training knows anything 2) Give them opportunities to answer questions and think through experiments but help if they are stuck (undergrad are like scared deer...they need to be pushed but not over the edge) 3) Be V...

This is going to be a somewhat depressing entry on humanity and science. I think we all enter med school with notions like "we are going to help"...."we will save lives" etc. but to get there is somewhat of a struggle. Up to this point, we are supported by our parents, our peers and deep down, each of us believes we can do this....whether we want to be a doctor or engineer or any type of high functioning members of society. Yet it is ironic that as we advance, we start getting pushed down. It has been my observation that the weak get trampled. If you are not emotionally strong, a bit selfish, or a bit uncaring, comments from resident/attendings/PIs can really eat away at you. What hurts the most is not just going through this "higher education" system myself but also watching it destroy someone close to me. Do I say something? Do I stand by and do nothing because I've worked so hard to get to this point? I have resolved to say something but so far, co...

So I finally took the beast today and I guess it wasn't as epic as I though it would be. In my mind, it had been a life or death situation. I literally dreamed about it countless times last week. All in all, I have to say that I'm feeling pretty shitty right now. I just hope I passed and with a decent enough score to get into residency. Yuck. I keep thinking about all the questions I missed. Things I should of known (and did at one point) like the difference between positive sensing and negative sensing RNAs etc. I "lucked" out with a ton of pelvic anatomy questions and a ton of repro questions but luckily, I had studied for repro using pathoma. I do think I failed every anatomy question though....sigh...here's to praying that it all works out in the end... I guess I have never felt good after standardized exams. I'm not particularly good at them...SAT gave me nightmares, MCATs made me cry...at least I didn't cry after the test today lol. My family la...

With three more days till the exam, I'm getting more and more anxious. I guess I'm mostly scared to fail this thing. It's not like the MCATs where you get to try again. Of course, if you fail Step 1, you can retake it but it just looks really bad... after all,it is what a lot of residencies use to determine whether you are "interview material" whatever that means. Ha! Today, I got up to go to lab meeting at 7am....but didn't go to bed last night till 4am so I was super tired. I thought I could pull a full 16 hour day of studying but instead, I got home, studied for an hour, and napped for 3. Needless to say, my plan of 16-18hr study days have not been going well...thank god this will all end soon (for better or worse). I also decided today that I can't get through 800 more world questions and finish BRS physiology, pathoma, and First Aid. Since I've gone through world once already, I decided to just scrape it. I'm 3 chapters away from finishin...

So I had a blog....till the Chinese Government blocked it while I was in China (more on that later) and I thought to myself...what better time to start another one. I mean, my Step 1 board exam is 4 days away and instead of studying, I've decided to procrastinate here. The truth is, sometimes I wonder how much I'm actually learning and why any of it is important. It seems like like years before I will use any of this "knowledge" and by that time, maybe ACE inhibitors won't be the go to drug for diabetics with hypertension and IL-1 will be called by another name. Lol. Just the other day, I went to the pharmacist to pick up my prescription for back pain and he preceded to warn me about the side effects of Tramadol for 15min. When I informed him I had just studied the drug, he looked at me and laughed....a) he didn't believe that I was in med school and b) he didn't believe I wouldn't abuse the drug....so much for this education of mine.