Thanks of a different kind

So we had a body donor service for those that gave the gift of their bodies for our anatomy lab. Any of my classmates who missed it (and there were a bunch that I know) truly missed out. We had some great speakers and music. But most importantly of all, we had time to ponder. Not a lot of people pause to ponder, but it is one of the most physically, emotionally, and mentally rejuvenating things people can do, especially when it was focused like it was at the body donor service.
Here is my thanks to all those that made the donor service great--especially the individuals who donated their bodies!

Weeks like 8 to 12

So the weeks have been blurring together, and I have been studying and learning and yet I still do not feel like I know anything about being a doctor more than I did when I started. I'm sure the change is gradual, but except for knowing anatomy terms and a few facts about congenital heart diseases and diabetes, there hasn't been a big difference. I do have a better understanding of academic medicine, since we get told a lot about how great MD/PhD's fare in university medical centers. This school has more MD/PhD students that take the track this program was designed for than the national average--that is more of the MSTP students actually become medical scientists rather than family practitioners that know way too much about the gene-gene interactions from protein products of locus 12p7 from studying it full time for 3 or 4 years. I am spoiled in the MSTP by getting to hear from the dean or chief of medicine in small group settings (and getting to eat out 3 times a week during interviewing season as a host).
I do have a few more stories though that I should put up. We have a medical interviewing class where actors and actresses come and give us a pitch on how they are sick. The first day of that class, no one knew what to expect. I felt bad for the 1st person to interview, especially because this person wants to do path, which has minimal patient interaction. The fake patient came in acting like they were going to die from back pain unless someone did something fast, and this poor pathologist-to-be was not at all prepared for such an act. He had to call time outs every other question to make sure he wasn't hurting the patient with his words. I hope I don't get that actress when I interview, because she went almost overboard with her back pain.
Sad story--a girl from Nebraska was talking to a fellow student from California, and the Californian was like "Isn't it cold there? " She was like "Nebraska? No, Nebraska isn't much different than here." The Californian, "But isn't it like up there bordering Canada?" She was dumbfounded that a student that people will call doctor in a few short years didn't know a little bit about US geography. Or maybe I should be ashamed to have wanted to live in California. I don't know, but I think if I ever have a chance to interview potential medical students, I'll ask them to point out a state or 2 on a blank map before I give my approval.

ugh

This past Friday we had a big lab testing blood glucose after different meals. We had to fast before coming to school, but they gave us food. I, unfortunately, didn't realize to ask ahead for a high carb or high fat meal, so I went with the Atkin's diet. My blood sugar stayed at 70 throughout the entire lab, and let's just say I need my sugary cereal in the morning or I am not a happy camper. Then in between finger-poking sessions, I checked the results from the previous week's tests, and it was a bummer. Also, I brought lunch and it had spilled a little in my bag. It was one of those days...
So I got my test results back from our 2nd big block of exams, and all I can say is ugh. I knew I wasn't going to be getting top in the class since I wasn't putting in all my effort (life outside of school is busy--that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!), but why do people have to make a big deal out of grades? I keep telling myself that good ol' Al as I like to call him (Albert Einstein) wasn't the highest scorer in the class. In other words, I did horrible on at least one of the tests (and the grades for Biochemistry aren't out yet, so I'm not looking forward to finding out what I did on that, either).
Ugh.
Well, at least there's always next test to redeem myself.

Sample med school question

For anyone interested in going to med school, be prepared for questions similar to this.

Preganglionic parasympathetic fibers from the superior salivatory nucleus facilitate lacrimation. These fibers synapse with postganglionic parasympathetic fibers in which ganglion?

I know I should have learned what those words mean, but by the end of the day when I've been studying for too long, I couldn't tell you what half those words mean.
I wonder what PA school is like...

Week 5: Let the blurring begin

So all the weeks are starting to blur together--so much that I am combining last week with this week (wk #5).
We finished our first big block of exams last week, so it was nice not to have to be a study-zombie like the few days before the test. Unfortunately, I booked myself with other activities (like going back to the lab I was in over the summer and do an eight-hour day worth of experiments just after finishing the human anatomy test--oh and it was totally worth it, just check out the data!!!).
That was last week; this week actually stood out because of a few things. We get to where our white coats for a lecture on Biochem (not too big a deal). Also, we got a few big blocks of time off, and I decided to use them--I shadowed 2 docs this week, one the afternoon after having to wear our white coats, the other was Friday morning. The first one was a radiation oncologist, the second was a pediatric oncologist. Not that there was anything bad about radiation oncology, it just didn't have the same mood or atmosphere as the pediatric oncology clinic did. I guess I'm a sucker for kids, but that makes me wonder if it'll be harder to work with sick kids...
So if I had to decide what my speacialty will be today, I would say ped onc, but we'll see how much that changes in the next few years as I actually have to start making that desicion.

Round 1 of tests

Week 3 of med school went by ok. I woke up late one morning and decided to... skip class (gasp!). I don't know if playing hookie is for me--I learn through all my senses, so just sitting there, listening to MP3's afterwards doesn't work as well. Plus the school is paying me, so I can at least go and revel in that fact, thinking "I just made a quarter getting confused about that last sentence... hmm..."
Anyways, I could almost touch the tension in the air it was so thick that afternoon of the first quiz. Last week, people had mellowed out a little going into the quiz. But after 2 minutes when people found that the link to the calculator pop-up was broken for 2 of the questions, the tension in the air was like the humidity on a rainy day. What was so funny was that in order to do the problems, you had to divide 1/500 by 2 to end up with 1/1000. Another problem was that you had to multiply 1/2 and 1/2 to get 25% as the answer. It is sad how mathophobic people are. We all got credit for one of the questions because enough people whined. I feel that it's slightly absurd.
This next week, we have our first block of exams, and I can't wait to get these out of the way so I can start shadowing doctors without having that persistent nudging of my conscience to keep me studying for exams. Plus, it will be nice to not have to be around all the med students who still have pre-med syndrome. I regularly talk with another MD/Phd student who is 2 years ahead of me, and I like his outlook. He and some of the other MD/Phds pointed out how for us, getting into the residency we want is more a function of how good our research is, not how well we did on the second genetics exam. So just having that calm outlook I think has kept my blood pressure at a better range than it was right before the MCAT.
Other than that, med school is great. I was in the lab looking at how many muscles there are in the human hand, and how they work together, and I just said to a lab partner "Our bodies are amazing." He looked over, smiled and said, "They are, aren't they?" I love life.

2nd week of schooooool

SO today is Labor Day, for which I am grateful for despite having no idea what it's about. (I assume we are celebrating labor unions or something, but why should they get their own holiday and sports teams, the Lions Clubs International, or even policemen and women be left out?)
Anyways, this past 2nd week of school was good--we took a quiz on Monday covering some of the material we had the previous week, and it being the 1st week, everyone was stressing out because they didn't know what to expect. I think one huge difference I noted in me (and one other MD/PhD student) was that our attitude was like who cares as long as we pass, we'll have letters of recommendation, journal articles, and... a PhD when we try for residencies, so unless we are trying to get into Derm at UCSF or something like that, why stress out from day 1? So I didn't stress and still studied and had fun learning the material and did fine.
This past week in anatomy lab, another Mudphud came over and took me aside and said we are meeting in the room next to the lab in the middle of class. I didn't know what to expect, but it turned out that a course instructor or director was an MD/PhD student in the same school 30 years ago, and he had a special project for us that would keep us interested in anatomy (he brought up the good point that we need a little more scholarly stimulation other than memorizing body parts using dumb mnemonics.) So we have an extra project and may get extra credit for our extra work. I like being treated special...
Speaking of anatomy lab, since this was the 2nd week, everyone in our group was less timid or outgoing as they showed that 1st week, and it was fun to see the very polite attitude reserved for strangers slip a little and hear group members argue over the identification of a structure. Some students' conceitedness is slightly annoying, especially when we all agree that a structure in the body is one thing but they can't be wrong or else their ego will suffer. Oh well... That's enough griping for now. Really, med school is great because I get to learn and get paid to do it!

1st wk of school

This past week was my first week of classes at medical school. It was fun to meet a few new people (although I find myself gravitating back to the people I already met over the summer) and start learning more about our bodies. I am amazed daily at how incredibly complex our bodies are! That's why I'm doing what I'm doing!

Classes are good because they are mostly review (for now, at least). I am really glad I took genetics and cell biology as an undergrad, because if all this material (plus anatomy, which I did NOT take) was new, I'd pretty much be a basket case. I sat next to one guy that found out I was MD/PhD, and when the lecturer made a slightly confusing analogy, the med student said "So MD-PhD, explain that to us MD's in terms we understand." I like the sciencey aspect of the material, but I can already tell that most of these future clinicians are usually thinking "So what?" to most of what the PhD's have to say. Or maybe it's all in my mind. The fact is we could all be a little more integrative in our thought process, but how do you teach that in a classroom setting?

There are a ton of clubs, interest groups, organizations and associations, and most of them support worthwhile causes, but there are just too many to count. Luckily, every day this past week and next week, five or six orgs/clubs each day provide us free lunch and give a little presentation about what they do. I've been pretty well-fed this past week, and even after the organization intro's end next week, there still seem to be plenty of "free lunches" on the horizon. I am planning on doing a few, but it'll be sad not to be able to do 'em all.

Maybe it's just because it's the first week of class, but I think I will really enjoy my time learning here.

Oh and an interesting thing happened. I didn't want to fork over $150 bucks for a stethoscope, so I bought one off of ebay for $30. I got an email from the company a few days later saying that their warehouse got struck by lightning, so they will take a little longer shipping it to me. A day or two after that, PayPal sent me a message saying the company refunded me $5.50 for late service. I'll make sure to leave an update on whether or not the lightning did something to the acoustics of the stethoscope:)

Orientation Week

So this past week was orientation. Having been around the campus and obtaining an email account, an ID, etc. the summer before being told about the campus and IDs and emails was slightly... boring. Plus half of the first day was about financial aid, and so had no application to me.
So I skipped part of orientation so that I could work in the lab some more to do more experiments. It was slightly depressing that our second round of experiments didn't yield as good data as the first, but that's science, right?'
I've been excited to start school this past few weeks, but now that it is actually here, I'm wishing I had a few more weeks of summer. Especially because the data didn't turn out as we'd hoped, and because my brain is not geared up for sitting in class for hours and hours.
One thing that I noticed about being and MD/PhD student was that I mentally was apart from everyone else. For example, 90% of the speakers during orientation week made some comment about how in 4 years we'd be all MDs, or how 4 years from now we'd all be ready to see patients or whatever. They were great talks, though.
We'll see how much my classmates set me apart coming up--I hope that people don't think that I think that I'm all that just because I'm doing research

Last (official) week of rotation 1

So I just finished the last official week of my first lab, but I've enjoyed it so much (and am hoping to help the lab get a paper published) and so I am going to continue to come in to the lab when I can, at least during orientation week for medical school. The PI I'm working with is more than happy to have an extra set of hands around the lab, especially because he likes to be busy--there were times during my rotation that 3 experiments were being carried out simultaneously by the 5 of us (it's a small lab by the way, which I think is good for more focused mentoring).
Speaking of orientation week, I skipped out on the financial aid part of the first day of orientation so that we could get some lab work done. I also am rearranging my schedule so that I can maximize my time in the lab and minimize my time in orientation, which I will be sure to whine about in my next blog. There was some useful information presented today (the first day of orientation), but there was also plenty of less-informative (ok, mind-numbingly boring) stuff as well. Oh well, I guess every apple has its core.
It is good that we are getting started with school, because the closer it got to orientation week, the more new students were around and more social events going on.
I can't wait for the challenge of classes starting next week though...

Week 4, only 1 more :(

Just as I am feeling comfortable with the lab I am in and with the techniques involved in my little research project, I am hit with the realization that I only have one more week left before I start orientation for med school... kinda sad, especially because I really, really am enjoying my lab rotation. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that my PI is very clinically oriented and wants to give me a taste of translational science. In fact, he set up a little meeting with a clinician in the hospital next door to go over data we collected, and to see what we could do more and what journals we might submit a paper to. (By the way, my PI is a "junior" faculty member and so he is kinda new, and I actually like that aspect--it feels like we are all learning together as a lab.)
So that's how it is--4 out of 5 weeks into my first experience in the MD/PhD program, and I am loving it and sad to see the end of this phase...

Weeks 2 and 3: In the swing of things

This last week has been fun--I feel like I am actually contributing to the lab. I am rotating through the lab with another grad student (she's from Jamaica and is really nice. Our lab is pretty interesting with all the different accents going around sometimes) We both started in this lab the same day and both felt like we pretty much would have got more done sitting at home watching soaps all day those first couple of days. But now, we are both more confident in what is expected of us and what we can do. In fact we are getting really good at collecting cell samples. The first day we collected data, it took about 4 or 5 hours. Today, we got all we needed in about an hour and a half.
If you haven't noticed, I'm being just a little incredibly vague in talking about what I actually do. You can guess at the reasons why I am doing so, but really, this blog is to help future MD/PhD students out, and the more vague I am, the better that the sciencey, abstract-thinking nerds like myself will be able to understand and relate.
So anyways, I am out of stuff to talk about, and seeing as how this post was pretty dry, I'd better stop before it gets worse.

Week 1

Week 1: Getting to Know You

My first week in Wisconsin was pretty good once it actually started. My wife and I took who knows how many days to pack up all our stuff, and on Monday, June 30^th, we started our cross-country road trip to Wisconsin. Too many hours and gallons of gas later, we arrived at our apartment. Luckily, I had made contact with some friends I met previously and members of the church I attend here in Wisconsin, so we had plenty of help unloading the truck the night of July 2^rd.

The next day, I met with the program administrator and went over paperwork (can’t get enough of that fun stuff) as well as the researcher I would be working for in my first lab rotation. Both the administrator and researcher are just as friendly as they were during interviews, so that’s a good sign that they really are as happy here as they said they were during interview season. It was incredibly exciting to get a description of the project I would be working on, although I had a slight case of imposter syndrome. Luckily, it was a 3-day weekend with Independence Day, so we were able to get our apartment in some sort of order before I headed out for my first day in the lab.

The first day was just about what I expected—I watched the researcher and grad students doing cool-looking stuff and listened to them explain a lot. I had a decent idea of what was going on, but only a slight clue as to why. I didn’t do much because the rats that I’d be working with weren’t scheduled to arrive until later in the week. So, the second and third days had more of the same—lots of reading and getting more excited thinking about my project, my classmates, my future…

Last thoughts before Week 1

A six hour test covering every topic from three years of college science classes. A primary application requiring letters of recommendations, essays, summaries of up to 15 learning experiences, a list of every college course taken including the grades received. 17 Secondary applications, many requiring more letters of recommendation and different essays to be written. 11 letters of rejection from schools unwilling to grant an interview. 6 trips to prospective schools for interviews, some of which had 6 interviews lasting an hour each, tours, speakers, lab visits, and question/answer sessions. 3 letters of rejection from schools that granted the interview, 2 letters indicating I was “on hold.” 1 acceptance letter. Years of anticipation finally over.

These are just the formal things required to get into the medical scientist training program—a 7-year (minimum) long program designed to train future physician-scientists. The list does not include the hours of volunteering in hospitals, the years working in labs, studying for exams or doing papers for classes to get good grades—all the things vital to make an application shine. It does not include researching potential schools, pouring through pamphlets or websites, emailing faculty and students about their institutions, and the long days of soul searching.

Why then, did I put myself through this mess? Why not? It was a chance to fulfill a life-long ambition to do something great with my time here using my talents and abilities. It was a chance to do medical research and hopefully improve the way doctors save lives. It was a chance for me to make the world a little more pleasant in my own way.

Finally, I arrived, and am going to start my first lab rotation! All that anticipation was worth it!

Pre-lab rotations

I start lab rotations in about a week. I am getting pretty excited!!! I remember trying to figure out who I wanted to rotate with a few months ago after I found out that I was accepted to the MD/PhD program at the Medical College of Wisconsin. The problem with choosing a lab was that I had no experience with any type of medical research throughout my undergrad experience, so my first list was over 30 labs long.
All throughout the interview and 2nd-look days, other students said not to worry, and that they were no different when it came to choosing labs--they just decided on one because it looked interesting to them, not because they had experience in the field.
In fact, during the interviews, I ran into a student who had just started the PhD portion, and as an undergrad, he had spent all four years in one lab doing medically-relevant research. But when he had to choose a PhD lab and advisor, he went with something totally unrelated to what he had done before.
I wish I could remember exactly how I finally decided on my first lab. I do remember just going on a gut feeling, which is not very methodic and scientific, but who cares?

Actually, 2 weeks and a few days

I am so excited to be done with my degree. I am VERY glad I did what a bunch of med students told me to do when I was interviewing--take non-science classes and do what you can pass/fail. After 3 and a half years of going all out to get good grades, I am maintaining my sanity because a few of my courses are pass/fail. I can learn as much or little as I want and not worry about bombing tests. I am also glad I took a few non-science courses because now I am more excited to get back into science classes and I am not as clueless as other science and engineering people usually are (especially engineers;) .
Well, I have to go enjoy the last part of my weekend.

Three weeks and counting...

Three weeks until I am done with my first degree! Yahoo!
So I ran into some old friends today who told me about how they found a blog by a girl about her journey through med school. Most entertainment and media today has been copied from other sources, so I figure if I copy her, I can be entertaining too! But my post will be slightly different, since I am not only doing the med school thing, but I am doing a PhD as well. I'll eventually be what's called a 'physician-scientist,' and the director of the program I am in said "There is a national shortage of physician-scientists who can care for patients and conduct state-of-the-art research." So that's what I'll be doing for the next (who knows how many) few years.
I've been accepted, but getting here was a journey and I'll write more on that later.

El Posto Primera

I blog, therefore I am.
Ok so that was not too philosophical, but anyone that knows me, I'm not philosophical--I'm practical and principled, but not philosophical.
Anyways, the purpose of this blog is to hopefully up communication between me and anyone that cares enough to post on my blogspot. I figure since I'll be in Milwaukee for seven or eight years, I'll need to have a few more ways to communicate with all the cool people I've associated with over the past few years, but facebook can be too much sometimes. For example, if I don't check my facebook account for a week, then when I do I have a few friend requests, updates on how my friends joined some random group, or requests to see what kind of cereal I am most like. And don't get me started on MySpace.
Well I have to go communicate with my beautiful wife, but I will post more to let you know what is going on in my life and mind (hence the title).
Thanks for you time, and please, feel free to post.