Apropos of nothing

Best death scene ever.

Lemming

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

We've been looking at getting me a smart phone so I'm ready for clerkship. I'm really drawn to the the iPhone because the screen is a good size. There is a similarly sized screen for a PC smart phone but after getting many many demonstrations over the holidays, it really seems like this is the way to go. But I still feel like I'm jumping on a bandwagon and going for something I think is sexy not something that is perfect for my needs as a clinical clerk.

And yes, 2 posts, one day. I decided that I needed to take tonight off. I've been watching Buffy and generally doing nothing. It's glorious.

How could anyone possibly study?

There is simply far too much to snuggle, far too little motivation and far too many calories consumed over the holidays. How could I possibly study repro? I'm excited to learn more about the reproductive bits of us humans, but it involves holding still and not playing. I like playing.

Repro certainly has it's moments. The erectile dysfunction talk was the most exciting of my med school experience. My favourite quote (with respect to the male arousal cycle)
"A few years ago I asked the class what the difference is between the arousal cycle in males and females. One student put up her hand and replied 'women don't have orgasms'. While this is my personal experience, the literature tends to disagree."

Perspective

23 more days until Christmas.
3 more weeks until the end of finals.
13 more days until the start of finals.
9 more days of class.
4 more sleeps until the baking extravaganza with my cousins.
Just a few more hours until the gingerbread house competition.

9 more months until I start clerkship and need to know all this material.

A few months until Niece's second birthday.

The world will manage if I need to take a day to myself.

Perspective is a brilliant thing.

I'm a terrible patient

I've had the flu and a cold for the past 7 days. I hate it. I'm crabby and taking it out on everyone around me. Why we didn't think of feeding me DayQuil until yesterday is beyond me. It bothers me that when I meet patients in observerships who are crabby because they are unwell, I am patient and kind, but with myself, I am impatient and unkind.

And you've been warned - stay away from me when I'm ill!

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.

Game Face

My GI exam is coming up. I have a lot of studying left to do. I still love this block and I'm still not going to be a gastro enterologist.

I took a mental health day today and it was fantastic. Most of the day was watching "How I met your mother". Not exactly ideal study conditions, but wonderful for making me smile and lose track of my stresses. And there was chocolate. Far too much chocolate. Tasty tasty chocolate.

But I digress.

There are many students in my class who are focusing on studies alone, leaving all the organization and advocacy to other people. That's fine, I respect that. I just wish they wouldn't rub my nose in it.

I know that I am just as smart and able to succeed in school as well as advocate for my fellow students.

I am currently giving myself a pep talk. One that will allow me to get to work and learn everything I could ever want to know about the pancreas and liver (and more). I'm putting on my game face and being the strong woman I know I can be.