I PASSED!!!!!

I am done with Step 1 forever!!!  Wahooooo!!!

M3

Officially a third year, as of yesterday.

Nastiest thing that happened today:  draining an abscess on a patient's kidney.  Think toothpaste the color of chocolate milk / infant puke, and that's what (barely, with the help of multiple saline flushes) came out of the draining catheter.

Most ironic sight of the day:  a person standing outside the hospital, wearing a shirt with the slogan "Let's all get together and fight/beat cancer" or something like that,....



...(wait for it)...



... smoking.

Don't think I'll ever use the phrase "Died Laughing" again...

"In a similar case (Anderson, 1936; Cited by Martin, 1950), a patient literally died laughing following the eruption of the posterior communicating artery which resulted in compression (via hemorrhage) of the hypothalamus. 'She was shaken by laughter and could not stop: short expirations followed each other in spasms, without the patient being able to make an adequate inspiration of air, she became cyanosed and nothing could stop the spasm of laughter which eventually became noiseless and little more than a grimace. After 24 hours of profound coma she died.'"

^The things I learn while studying neurology for Step 1.  Cannot WAIT until Friday is OVER!!

Summary

Wow, I just realized that I haven't posted anything in a *really* long time.

Quick summary of life events since I last posted:  took an exam, took a trip over Spring Break (which was AMAZING), came back and took another exam, got my bridesmaid dress for a friend's wedding, took another test, took another test the next week, had OSCE (I *really* hope I didn't fail.  I do so well with patient encounters unless I know I'm being video recorded, and then I just do stupid things like forget to wash hands before taking the patient's vitals, or forget to introduce myself, or forget to ask the patient's age, etc.), had another exam, and finally, had one more exam.

Then we had "shelf exam week."  The Pathology one went OK (I think), the Micro/Immunology one actually wasn't that bad except it made me realize I need to know viruses a LOT better than I currently do, and Pharm....  haha, well lets just not talk about the Pharm shelf!!

So now I'm in full-on Board-study-mode and haven't really been doing anything blog-worthy.

I'm super-excited about being done with 2nd year / classroom lecture based learning.  I cannot believe that I am almost halfway to an MD.  :-D

Endocrine and Reproductive

We're currently doing endocrine and reproductive.

This has me (slightly) depressed for two reasons:
1.  I really hate studying pictures of diseased genitalia for hours upon end.  (There's a REASON I know I will never be an OB/GYN!!)
2.  Facebook keeps informing me that a significant majority of the (non-medical) friends that I grew up with, cousins, classmates from undergrad, etc. are currently with child.  Then I have to study all the complications of "advanced maternal age" and it's frustrating to realize that's where I'm heading, because medical school is consuming all of my peak reproductive years.  Now, granted, I haven't yet found the male specimen with which I'd like to procreate.  Nor am I certain that I want to have children.  Neither of these facts really lessens the resentment I feel towards med school right now.

But really, all this may just be an excuse that I use to channel the resentment I already felt towards med school for other less tangible reasons.

I cannot wait for this post-test weekend.  I am way overdue for some relaxation!!