My Caribbean Medical School Experience: June 2013

Welcome back to this thing I call a blog- where I update it exactly once a week (biweekly, and monthly). So here goes my latest attempt to tell you I'm still alive and kicking, and maybe even amuse you for a few solid minutes.

Me. Before Class.

Here goes something.

This is a med school blog so I'll maybe start with that. I recently took an exam that was the easiest med school exam I could have asked for and still managed to butcher it in my eyes. I got a 78, which is still a B. I know of a few questions I got wrong, but it was still really no excuse not to nab an A for once. I guess I'm going to have to avoid writing floculonodular lobe when it is clearly the floculus of the floculonodular lobe. I'm just dumb apparently. That exam was primarily identifying neurological structures, neuro pathways for controls of your limbs including the pain and sensory parts. That is just child's play. The fun ones include how your brain manages to coordinate your eyes with your head movements, your ears with your balance and how your brain processes two images and combines them into one. (hence when you cross your eyes, you have double vision.)

Those were all "fun" and all but after that exam, I went snorkeling with my friends Abhi and Brad. We snorkeled in 15-20 feet of water on the Eastern side of the island. (The Caribbean side) Although the waves were kicking up a bit and the visibility wasn't perfect, we still managed to see a small skate, a few sea-stars, an eel and plenty of tropical fish. The coral in places never seemed to end and many were surrounded with sea urchins of every size. The rocks on the ocean bottom made cliffs and craters covered with white and yellow coral. At one point I was brave enough to dive down about 15 feet to take a picture next to a sea-star, but I'm not sure if Brad managed to snap a shot.

After that hour and a half of relaxation, I went back to my apartment to wash the jolly sand from all the pockets in my bathing suit and my sandy buns. After the quick rinse and towel dry, I'd told my shower I'd be back in an hour for I had hockey to attend! For those who haven't seen, my team unveiled our bright orange jersey's for MS, Multiple Score-osis. I of course, had to go with the throwback to my childhood.

We won the game against a new team called the Mighty Ducks. They surprised us quite a bit with their speed and work ethic, but MS managed to make fewer mistakes and we won 8-3.

This week, we started the "Endocrine" block of med school where we are introduced to the many fan-dangled doo-hickeys that act on your whatcha-ma-call- it and make sure your body stays functional. Now, those are the exact scientific terms used in my lectures, and make about as much sense as the steps of making an ice cream cone. Wait a second, (you might be thinking), that doesn't seem that bad- does it? You simply grab a cone, pull a lever, a huge mixture of chocolate, vanilla, and maybe a mix comes out. You swirl it a few times and BAM! piece a' cake. (Ice cream) Well, thus far, it seems pretty easy! Just wait until next week when they add the sprinkles and Oreo's, and the Reese's pieces and the other countless toppings to make the subject more convoluted and unnecessarily ridiculous until you realize that the cone can't hold all the toppings and the next thing you know the neighbor's dog is licking the mountain of ice cream off the top of your foot. Yeah, that's med school. And kid's, that's also called a run-on sentence. (Which is way more fun than a normal sentence.) So do what your teacher's tell you to do until you learn the art of awesome.

Me. After beginning Endocrine.

The last few days have been my definition of a hot, stinking mess. For starter's I haven't slept well in over a week. I'll go to bed around 11pm or 12, roll around in bed for 2-3 hours before asking the lizard on my wall why I'm being tortured to stay awake, until my body decides it wants to shut down after a food induced coma once I've finished consuming the contents of my refrigerator. The end result is me waking up 11am or once at 1 pm after having some sort of dream that was entertaining enough to distract me as I swatted my snooze alarm 7 times. I swear, if my cleaning lady didn't wake me up on Thursday, I would have slept the day away (and she would have had to clean around me.) As you can see, I have been playing catch up the last few days. To top it all off, I had 3 alternative schooling tasks to complete besides being behind on 6 lectures. The first was my Small group learning, which is where we discuss a case, step by step and try and determine possible causes. As we receive test results, we narrow down our hypotheses to a few before we can determine what the actual problem is. It's quite interesting and fun, if only if didn't eat 2 precious hours of my day. That session was followed up by a Standard patient, where I got practice doing my first "fake" patient interview. Unfortunately, it really sucked because I had to work as a pair. It was back and forth, and unorganized and overall, I'd give myself the letter grade of "T." Yes. a "T" for you TRIED. I hope it goes better next time, but I just need to practice.

The next day, I had another session which taught us a crash course in how to place naso-pharyngeal tubes, oral-pharyngeal tubes, and laryngoscopes. Some people in my class worry me. I'll just make sure I don't need a breathing tube while I'm on the island...

After all the chaos, I managed to find a classroom on campus that truly appreciates me. The temperature is set at a constant 60 F , and most of the people have blankets, hoodies and scarves. I'm sitting there in my shorts and I'm as happy as a clam. Aside from that, I got to dress up for a few of my sessions the last few days and got to wear my Starry Night tie. BEST GIFT EVER. Thanks Sarah :-) The compliments made my day.

As I wrap up my night, sitting in my boxer shorts, taking in the cool 90 degrees and wiping the sweat from my brow, I hope you all enjoyed my blog. It may be a while before I feel spunky enough to write again.

Here's pictures, for the people that don't like words.

He's sleeping. On MY curtains.

NOM

I was coming home one night and went to open the door and BAM! just kidding.
OH, and the other door is locked. Thanks Mr. Slug. You picked a great hiding place.