August 2009
24 posts
Day 21
From hosted
Day 20
Day 19
Last night I prayed for understanding in the lectures I would have this morning and guess what? God came through, of course! They were pretty darn good and I understood nearly everything.
Also, Dan and Aiden and I spent the afternoon setting things on fire! What things you ask??? Well, you’ll see soon enough…
Looks like a full day of studying tomorrow but I should mention one...
Day 18
Today’s activities included drowning in the sea of infinite complexity that is genomics. It was slightly terrifying. But tonight I hosted a quesadilla making going away party for my friends Daniel and Danielle! Danielle is moving to England for a year to be an intern at a church there and Daniel is moving to New York to attend NYU as a member of their Tisch program. Also, Danielle is...
Day 17
This day was much better. I had my first real histology lesson and thoroughly enjoyed it.
In a histology lab, scientists have to cut a slice of tissue acurately, stain it, place it on a slide plate, put it under a microscope and take a good photo of it.
Conclusion:
Histology is an art.
I had lunch with Dan, Joyce and Valerie at the first CMA (Christian Medical Association) meeting. And...
Day 16
Today it hit me. It was the first day in a long while that I spent the majority of it doing things I rather not be doing. It’s funny because it’s almost like they trick you a little bit. They let you have your white coat, learn how to interact with patients and check vital signs and then the next thing you know you’re in a classroom again up to your neck in science that you...
“The Ocean Is Inside (Kathleen)...
Day 15
This is what I did on the first day of molecular medicine:
We started at 8am and got out at 10:30. Pretty fantastic. I had the rest of the day to hang out with Dan Nguyen, Zahra, Daniel Wang, Joyce, and Sarah Wilson at Kaleisia, buy a watch from the Swatch store for my physical diagnosis class, and record a brand new demo for a song I wrote in 20 minutes yestrerday! Also, I wrote an email...
Day 14
The song below this post is the first demo for The Culprit Life. For every year I’m in medical school I will release an EP under that name. Each one will be made up of songs that I will demo throughout the year and post on the blog. Not all the songs I demo will end up as a part of the EP but they will all remain up here if you ever want to listen to them again.
“The Proper...
“The Proper Way To Raise The Dead...
Day 13
I finished recording all of the audio for Outwatch the Bear today!
Much thanks goes to Emily Lenck for stopping by and lending her beautiful violin to the project. We actually ended up tracking more than I anticipated due to Emily’s enthusiasm and my own amazement at her skills.
Afterward, I recorded the last bit of percussion and headed off to Laura Tomlinson’s house to take...
Day 12
I swore an oath.
I put on a white coat.
And now, I will spend the rest of my life trying to remember what it feels like to be the one who isn’t wearing the white coat; the one who sits on that bed, in that little room and listens to my voice telling them they have cancer, they’re going to be fine, they’ll need another round of antibiotics, I’m not sure about the best...
Day 11
I am positive that today was the easiest day of medical school I will ever have.
I got to the college at 12 and was given a free lunch as I sat and listened to one of the most fun and engaging faculty members talk about the history of medical education and our curriculum. Then we had a quick rehearsal for tomorrow’s white coat ceremony.
Tonight I played the new song I wrote at the...
Day 10
Whoa, double digits!
I almost can’t believe it. Except I can. Wait till I get to triple digits and then quadruple digits! Then we’ll have a party.
There are so many things I could say about today, but I wont because I want to try to keep these short. I finally got to use my stethoscope for the first time!!! We checked vital signs and blood pressure on four patients. We also...
Day 9
I had lectures all afternoon today and they were utterly boring and not worth mentioning except for this one incredible moment when a fellow student got up on the mic and told everyone his role model for professionalism in medicine was Bear Grylls from the show Man vs. Wild!!!! Absolutely hilarious. And the best part was that he remained serious even when the doctor who was lecturing us kept...
Day 8
We learned how to take vitals this morning and also to check blood pressure using a cuff and our stethoscope. A lot of our discussion was centered around diabetes which is great because I’m very interested in transplant surgery and how the kidneys work and diabetes is intertwined with those. Dr. Schrot even brought in a patient with the disease who couldn’t feel anything below his...
Day 7
After a riveting morning at church in which our series (based on the idea that living life centered around yourself and not others is ridiculous) was concluded, I went out to an under-appreciated corner of USF and shot a brief scene for Outwatch the Bear with my dear friend Laura Tomlinson. Her brother, Trey, tagged along and took some production photos.
Photo by Trey Tomlinson
Later, Ali...
Day 6
There was an med school, 80’s party today that I didn’t go to because I came home late and couldn’t find what I was gonna wear. Poop.
How am I ever gonna to get to know the other people in my class if I’m not dressed up in ridiculous 80’s garb???
Day 5
The last day of the first week passed quietly without drawing attention to itself. We only had morning lecture sessions (some of which were panel discussions), and then we had a short presentation group meeting. The only thing I found interesting in the morning was the panel on inter-professionalism. About 8 medical professionals from different fields went through case studies and told what...
Day 4
Day four was very interesting and powerful. The morning was was filled with somewhat boring seminars on substance abuse (physicians have a fairly high rate of suicide) but in the afternoon, my group made “rounds” on four standardized patients. We were paired off and sent into these rooms with hardly any coaching and expected to take a social and nutritional history of the patients...
Day 3
I did a ropes course this morning for three hours with my intelligent team of future doctors. It was surprisingly fun and our guide was cool and insightful. As corny as it sounds, it really was a great teambuilding/leadership experience.
I had the rest of the day off so i finished up tracking percussion on one of the Outwatch the Bear songs.
Also, late last night (when I should have been...
Day 2
All of today was spent attending seminars in the same auditorium. From 8am to 5pm.
And 70% of the subject matter was common sense. Needless to say, it was long and quite boring.
The redeeming part is that there were brief moments when it hit me that I was in medical school because the things we were talking about were focused directly on healthcare. In undergrad, we only talked directly...
Day 1
The first day of medical school didn’t really feel like the first day at all. It was basically a big orientation. Here’s the breakdown:
-Before 8am: Breakfast/meeting new people from my class
-8am-12pm: Introductions to faculty then running around to fill out and turn in certain forms and then getting a photo taken (yes, just like high school yearbook pictures, except you have a tie and a...
Preface
A few days ago, I was encouraged by some of my closest friends to start a blog detailing my journey through medical school. While reluctant to commit to anything that will hijack a portion of time I could be devoting to my education, I have come to the realization that this is something worth undertaking for the reason that it may provide some nostalgic or practical benefits to my future self...
