You know you are in medical school when . . .

. . . you "enjoy" the excitement and unpredictability of databases. For some reason, the IT designed by the school of medicine seems to be less mac-friendly than PC-friendly. I love my mac, and think of it as my fourth child, after my cats.  Anybody who snubs my fourth child makes me a little sad. ;)

I am old enough to remember when uni research was done AT the university, manually searching through journals. Thankfully I am young enough that we had internet databases to find what articles to look for in the first place. While being more predictable, I will trade a little of the dependence of hard paper for the luxury of researching while my butt sits on my couch at home, paying the price of the occasional trip to the study to utilise the house PC.

You know you are at med school when you are at a party and the words, "Ask The Girl, she is a medical student!" make you bolt for the nearest exit, because chances are that the disease will be something completely obscure that you haven't covered yet, and potentially something somebody will think they know something about because they once watched an episode of Today Tonight/House/60 minutes. 

I have updated my links. Some blogs I just wasn't reading any more, and some I have added because they are very new and interesting. 

You know you are in medical school when the exam questions on drugs make the pharmacists cry. Captain Atopic has the pleasure of being both a pharmacist and a medical student.

You know you are in medical school when you are distracted from an autopsy by the inherent creepiness of the wannabe-pathologist in the same room as you, and wish that the glass was between you and the other student instead of being between you and the deceased. The Voice of Reason has decided to reveal how the psychological pathology being demonstrated several seats away can be more scary than the physical pathology that is being studied in the autopsy right in front of you. Fava beans and chianti, anyone?

Most offensive church sign ever . . . almost

I'm not going to criticise Christianity, just the stupid signs that get put up on their message boards by well-meaning people. There is one that has been put up recently in my local area that I happen to find particularly offensive:

"We're too blessed

To be depressed."

Lucky you. How unfortunate for those of your congregation who are probably being treated for clinical depression and are quite sensitive about the matter. 

I guess they will probably be less likely to be brave enough to reveal their diagnoses and personal struggles to you now that they know that they aren't blessed enough to escape their own personal pain.

I wish people would think more often before they opened their mouths. 

Medical school is like . . .

. . . waxing regularly. Sometimes you get to go to great places and meet wonderful people, but it still hurts like hell and feels like it takes FAR too long. Often the same things go wrong over and over and over again. Sometimes the pain isn't always the bad kind . . . (kidding!).

But seriously, I am having fun getting back into writing blog entries, so I thought I would try with a little free association.

You know you are in medical school when you spend nearly an hour researching your weekly PBL learning objective on the PBL room computer, and then find that it won't save, print, e-mail, cut or paste your work in ANY way, shape or form, resulting in the loss of all of your work. 

You know you have been in medical school for more than a year and a half when this does not particularly surprise you and leaves you only mildly annoyed, as opposed to the raging ball of Type-A fury that you would have been had this happened two years ago.

Groundhog Day!

You know you are in medical school when you have reverted to learning from textbooks because the databases provided by the university are too difficult or competitive to access, or just too unstable. The textbooks are in the corner of your room, won't drop out when you go out to get a coffee, and provide handy elbow rests or pillows when not in use.

You know you are in medical school when you can think of at least five other examples of similar things happening to you.

Oh, hello!

Hello again! If anybody is still reading this blog, I must apologise for my recent absence. There just doesn't seem to be a lot to blog about any more, or perhaps the things that I ponder these days wouldn't suit this site. 

I am going to be writing more as of now. However, I have to rug up and get warm and turn on another fifty heaters. I'll be back soon!

Tick-tock

It seems that I blinked and suddenly second-year is half over. Wow. Christmas and third-year will be here soon, and I am very excited about spending all of my time doing clinical work, but not so excited about leaving my jeans and t-shirts at home. I'm a happy dag. 

This year I have learned a lot, both scholastically and personally. The best thing that I have done so far is get into meditation and learn some perspective. Suddenly, exams aren't the be-all and end-all, they are just another hurdle to get out of the way and a slot to fill in in my diary. It is quite a refreshing change of view, and was quite a challenge to test it out recently!

I am getting to the age where I can tell how much time has passed by looking at how much the young children of friends and family have grown since I saw them last. At one recent party, I initially thought that a one-year-old was her older sister, as I hadn't seen any of them in over a year and the sibling resemblance was very strong! It was a confusing moment. :)

I am very much looking forward to earning money again and working as an intern, but in the meantime I think I will hang around in my jeans and t-shirt for a little while longer and enjoy the luxury of full-time study.

For everything else . . .

Climbing into a warm bed at the end of a hard day of study: precious.

Doing 20 minutes of guided relaxation to help switch off your brain: valuable.

Two minutes of dozing: lovely.

The sound of the cat throwing up his entire dinner (and then some) on the hallway carpet just outside the bedroom: inevitable, really.

Your half-asleep husband complaining and asking you when you are finally coming to bed and turning the lights off, while you are on your knees in the hallway cleaning cat puke out of the carpet: priceless.  

Thank the gods for the ability to laugh at life. :)

Random notes on revision and stuff

When you revise your notes and study for an exam, you realise which note compilations work, and which don't. Most of mine don't. When I write things down, I tend to be verbose and include lots of little details, which is how I think about things and learn. 

The down-side of this is that the notes aren't so good for revision, but the up-side is that I generally know the notes well enough to use diagrams and other sets of notes/books instead.

Have I mentioned that I am now 99% sure about the specialty that I want to pursue when I graduate? From the links to the right, it should be obvious. Looking back, it should have been clear all along. The nice thing is that the further I get, the more certain I am.  :)