Random facts about The Impostor - Med School edition

1. I often bath rather than shower before an exam. This is so I can study in the tub.

2. Even though almost everyone in my class thinks I'm intelligent, I'm barely making it through my exams.

3. Anatomy lab makes me HUNGRY. Which really grosses me out.

4. I'm addicted to having textbooks but rarely use them (though the Case Files series may convert me).

5. When my class chatters while we should be listening to a lecture, I'm ashamed of them.

6. I have consistently done poorer than the class average on all my exams and assignments but one.

7. I crave the approval of those around me. I worry what will happy when I move into my own practice and need to encourage myself - this is when the impostor part of me takes over.

8. I'm terrible at completing projects - I can have several going at once and never truly finish one of them.

9. Even though I know my school has a pass/fail system and that my potential residency programs won't see those marks, I worry that they will somehow find out that my marks aren't brilliant.

10. Drinking herbal tea with fun sounding names makes it easier to study for exams.

11. I watch TV while I'm studying. That likely explains my poor marks.

12. Every now and then I get these moments when I realise that I'm going to be a doctor - soonish. At first I go into this sense of awe and happiness, that is later replaced by abject terror. While I feel I can talk the talk, I'm not sure I'll be able to walk the walk. Maybe dermatology is the thing for me? I like raspberries in my water.

13. I want to specialize in everything.

14. Our class is incredibly charitable. We spend a great deal of time raising money for people overseas, kids who are chronically ill and friends who are fighting great battles. It makes me very proud of them.

15. My favourite block so far has been MSK. I like diseases and body systems that I can see.

16. I was drinking 8 cups of coffee a day. I'm down to 2 now because the hypertension and tachycardia caught up with me.

Do what you love and the rest will follow

'Do what you love and the rest will follow' is advice that I have passed on to anyone wishing to apply to Medical School. It really doesn't get more simple than that. I love swinging in the park, hanging out with my brother's kids, eating chocolate and drinking coffee, hitting the gym and cooking. I loved my jobs, the volunteering I did before I got here and the degree I was studying. That shone through on my essays and in my interview. If I had done everything by the book and volunteered in an emergency room or done a degree in biomedical sciences, I'm not sure I would have been admitted. That's the selfish side of doing what you love.

The practical side is that it makes everything you do easier. When we're little and have to go somewhere we don't want to, we dawdle. I'm sure it drove our parents nuts. It takes forever to get a kid that doesn't want to go somewhere out the door. Putting on shoes, finding coats and remembering to go pee can take an hour. I wonder if it's fair to assume that when I'm taking forever to get to my early morning meetings with faculty and administration if it's just that I don't want to go there. The days that we have early morning clinical methods however, I'm out the door like a shot.

I'll try to pay attention next year during clerkship to find out what gets my feet moving in the morning and what will make it easier to leave the house. That might finally let me know which specialty is calling my name!

Here is a set of links to advice from the women at 'Mothers in Medicine'. They are what these women would have wanted to know upon their acceptance to med school. Things like don't lose yourself, don't do it for the money, you will miss and love the classmates you currently want to throttle, the happiest med students are in their mid twenties, all the crap will be worth it, take a calcium supplement, don't let yourself get too fat, write in the school paper, it will all work out, you're never alone.

Don't mess with my coffee

Among my list of things to finish this summer before starting meds in the fall is a round of vaccinations, blood tests and titres. This week I had 4 titres read to see if I need the vaccination/booster or not, 1 vaccination, one booster and a TB skin test. Ow.

As I was leaving the office, the nurse told me that I couldn't drink coffee for the rest of the day. What?? That wasn't in the fine print she made me read before signing the papers.

It was her little joke because I had taken so many pin pricks. Ha. Ha.

Flying out of Boston last summer, I was hungover, grumpy and desperately low in caffeine. I picked up a Starbucks latte on my way into the airport and was barely through a couple of sips before I made it into the security line ups. The woman behind the X-ray machine told me I'd have to dump the coffee out, I couldn't bring it with me. I tried to keep myself composed, but clearly she had gotten the reaction she was looking for because she giggled and told me I could keep it. Grrrrrr.

I will not, do not, react well to those who insist on coming between me and my coffee.