Thursday, December 11, 2008

The Resurrection of a Blog

It's been some time, guys. I probably lost my audience now because intermission lasted for about 3 months. A lot has gone on in that time. I'll do a quick summary and get you guys up to date on what's new and what's good.

When I last wrote, we were in the midst of Block 2, which focused on genetics, development, reproduction, endocrinology and oncology. The block was kind of grueling and took a lot out of me, especially towards the end. Going through the block was kind of frustrating since it seemed like all the topics in the block were random and didn't really connect. My opinion of the block changed towards the end when everything just seemed to click. Going through clinical immersion in the week towards the end was kind of cool because I got to see some of the principles I learned put into practice in gynecologic oncology.

Block 2 officially ended on Halloween night. Exam week consisted of three tests: a 4 hour essay exam with 5 questions (each with 3-5 parts), a structure test considering of an anatomy practical with prosections and a 30 min histology test with virtual slides, and a mock Step 1 test. Five weeks later, (this past week), I received my report card. As far as I'm concerned, I still get to keep my allowance. I love going to a school that's pass-fail with no ranking. Apparently I "met expectations" and I did well on the structure exam (anatomy practical + histology). The NBME (practice step 1 test) went well too. I was a bit disappointed though because my lowest sub-scores were in epi/biostats and pharmacology, which is totally messed up since I'm an MPH student and I love pharm.

Speaking of MPH, one of my MPH classes which I thought would be cool (and was kind of cool), turned out to be a complete time-sink. When I saw that mental health epidemiology was being offered this past semester, I thought-cool! Well, it turned out it had less to do with epidemiology and more to do with community based research, research ethics and law. All in all, I ended up writing about a grand total of 30 single-spaced pages for this class, as well as reading two 250 page textbooks. Here's the cherry to top the cake: I was the only person in the class. Oh, and it wasn't any other class--it was a 3-hour discussion-based class.

My other MPH class, a 1.5 hour seminar classs ended up being another time-sink. I'm sorry, but any class that requires you to write 4, 2 page single-spaced papers, and one 5 page single-spaced paper, along with putting together a website, should not be a 1.5 credit hour class. I'm glad it's over. By the way, here's a link to my website if you're curious.

Currently we are in Block 3 which is titled "Food To Fuel." Unlike Block 2, Block 3 is very focused and more predictable than Block 2. Namely, half the block is spent on biochemistry and the other half on GI. We just finished the biochem part and are moving on the GI stuff. So far, so good. My IQ group is solid, and things have been ok for the most part. Biochem has mostly been review from my Rice days. GI is somewhat time consuming but is pretty doable.

For some reason, I feel like things in Block 3 are more clinically relevant than they were in block 2. I shadowed an internal medicine resident a couple weeks ago and I got to see some Block 3 work put into practice when we saw a patient with liver cirrhosis. It was kind of cool to study the liver in biochem and then see what you learned present in the clinic as a real-live patient.

I'm starting to get a taste for what internal medicine has to offer. I like to think through problems and use my basic science knowledge to figure out what's going on. I knew all along that I was definitely more into the medicine side of things than the surgical side of things, but I think Block 3 has only supported my initial feelings. It's obviously too early to tell exactly what works for me and what doesn't, seeing as I haven't really seen any patients on my own yet, but you can get an idea of what you like judging from the subjects that interest you. For instance, I despire pretty much anything relating to anatomy or histology and I liked endocrine and biochem. The dial is definitely leaning towards medicine as opposed to surgery, radiology, etc. (you know...all the fields that can make you rich).

Speaking of anatomy, this block we started dissections. Here at Case we have 4 students to a cadaver and we do dissections in two hour sessions about 6 times the entire block. Our cadaver is named Burt. He's a pretty cool guy, except for the fact that he's ridiculously skinny and finding structures such as vessels in him is a pain since they're so tiny and I lack the fine motor skills (and anatamoical knowlege) to identify and tease things apart.

Let's see...what else...the election season was also kind of intense. This was the first time I have ever been active in the political process and it was rewarding. It's crazy how politics can be so polarizing. The political season was draining. In the end, I think we elected the right guy, but only time will tell.

We had a nice week long Thanksgiving break. I turned another year older. The Cavs season started. Anyone who knows me knows that the only thing that gets me through the dreaded winter is watching the Cavs. What's great is that they are awesome this year. I'm finally getting to go to my first game of the season tomorrow. Lower bowl seats...I'm pumped!

Also, recently Case Med put on their Doc Opera show. Doc Opera is a variety show where students get to display their talents through live songs and filmed skits. If you want to get a taste for some of the work done in Doc Opera, go to youtube and type in "doc opera." For the show, I worked with my Block 1 IQ group (the best group ever) to produce a 4 minute skit based off of the TV show "Survivor." It took some time editing the film, but man was it worth it. I'm looking forward to next year already!

To wrap up, we have a week left before we get out for Winter Break. It'll be a good time to catch up on videogames (err...I mean work...) and relax. Seriously though, I'll be sticking around school for a bit to make some more progress on my MPH resarch capstone. I'll also need to work on a research proposal for the summer. It looks like my research mentor from Cincinnati will help to set me up with someone to work with over the summer, but I'll need to do some work to figure out exactly what I want to study over 8 weeks. I have a bunch of ideas in mind...I'll have to figure out what I can get done that will still leave me a decent amout of time to golf and sleep.

I'll update this blog periodically on random events and things that are going on. This entry was kind of bland, I know. I'll mix it up to keep things interesting. Adios.

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