Real Doctor Stuff
Today was our first day doing what I like to refer to as "real doctor stuff." Basically this means we had Clinical Medicine and Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine classes (with a lengthy and complex lecture on medical genetics in between - LONG ASS DAY). So it was all about learning the first stages of conducting a complete physical exam and starting to palpate structures on patients (= classmates) which will be really useful in the future if we're any good at it.
I had the pleasure of working with a very sweet and adorable, yet LARGE guy in OMM lab. By "large," I do not mean fat at all. He's just really tall and broad shouldered and all of his bones are probably easily twice the diameter of mine, but he's generally harder to palpate (like I can feel shit on myself better that I could on him and we're repeatedly told that we probably won't be able to feel our own). So next lab I think I pretty much need to jockey for one of the skinny asian chicks whose boney protuberances are easily recognized.
Did I mention that we had two quizzes and a skills check (which is basically a mini practical exam at the end of OMM lab)? Yeah, med school likes to test the shit out of us. The info is coming at an insanely fast pace. I think it's actually part of the point that they want to make sure we never feel completely confident or like we have time to fully get a handle on any one thing - keeps us engaged and working hard, I guess. If that is indeed the point, it's working for me. I've never spent this much time studying for anything in my life EVER. And as it is, I still feel like I'm probably studying only a fraction of the amount of time that my classmates are. However, today showed me that's not necessarily putting me at a disadvantage.
After classes today, we had a drop-in tutoring session with some of the upperclass students who are paid to work as tutors by the Center for Academic Performance. Well, I stayed for about half an hour b/c I didn't go to the last session and some of my classmates said they found it helpful. Unfortunately, what led me to eventually just get up and walk out was that the info the tutors were putting up was in total conflict with info provided by the professor in his lecture and slides (not to mention I'd gone over that particular lecture the night before and even looked up these points in one of my biochem books to be sure I had it right). I quickly realized that I am too much of a sponge for what people are telling me to be exposed to bad information b/c I will absorb and remember that shit which does me no good at all if it's WRONG.
I'm simultaneously drowning and floating along just fine. I suppose time will tell when we have our first Cell Science exam next week. It's a biggie and apparently it's been common in all of the first year classes of recent memory for a large percentage of students to fail. In order for that to not happen to me, I should probably stop writing this and get back to it. Somehow I just think this is a time in my life that deserves to be documented b/c it will be worth looking back on later as my perspective continues to change.
Many spanks,
BBC ;)
I had the pleasure of working with a very sweet and adorable, yet LARGE guy in OMM lab. By "large," I do not mean fat at all. He's just really tall and broad shouldered and all of his bones are probably easily twice the diameter of mine, but he's generally harder to palpate (like I can feel shit on myself better that I could on him and we're repeatedly told that we probably won't be able to feel our own). So next lab I think I pretty much need to jockey for one of the skinny asian chicks whose boney protuberances are easily recognized.
Did I mention that we had two quizzes and a skills check (which is basically a mini practical exam at the end of OMM lab)? Yeah, med school likes to test the shit out of us. The info is coming at an insanely fast pace. I think it's actually part of the point that they want to make sure we never feel completely confident or like we have time to fully get a handle on any one thing - keeps us engaged and working hard, I guess. If that is indeed the point, it's working for me. I've never spent this much time studying for anything in my life EVER. And as it is, I still feel like I'm probably studying only a fraction of the amount of time that my classmates are. However, today showed me that's not necessarily putting me at a disadvantage.
After classes today, we had a drop-in tutoring session with some of the upperclass students who are paid to work as tutors by the Center for Academic Performance. Well, I stayed for about half an hour b/c I didn't go to the last session and some of my classmates said they found it helpful. Unfortunately, what led me to eventually just get up and walk out was that the info the tutors were putting up was in total conflict with info provided by the professor in his lecture and slides (not to mention I'd gone over that particular lecture the night before and even looked up these points in one of my biochem books to be sure I had it right). I quickly realized that I am too much of a sponge for what people are telling me to be exposed to bad information b/c I will absorb and remember that shit which does me no good at all if it's WRONG.
I'm simultaneously drowning and floating along just fine. I suppose time will tell when we have our first Cell Science exam next week. It's a biggie and apparently it's been common in all of the first year classes of recent memory for a large percentage of students to fail. In order for that to not happen to me, I should probably stop writing this and get back to it. Somehow I just think this is a time in my life that deserves to be documented b/c it will be worth looking back on later as my perspective continues to change.
Many spanks,
BBC ;)