More Med Student Texting

Me: We just got SOOO lucky! Clinic flooded we are off next week!
Med Student: OMG FO REAL? Buying lotto ticket today!

Me: Hi Dr. Intern. I'm assigned to work with you tommorow. Where and when would you like me to meet you?
Intern: I don't know.
(Silence)
Me: Well I was only given your contact info. Is there an upper level I should contact?
Intern: I don't know. 
Me: Okay, well I guess I'll just show up at 6am and see whats going on?
Intern:( Silence)

Mean Surgeon Resident: lunch
Me: okay, cool. what time are we meeting back?
Her: office
Me: Will meet back at the office after. What time?
Her: lunch
Me: I'm sorry... I'm confused...?
Her: IM TRYING TO TELL YOU DR G BOUGHT US LUNCH AND ITS IN THE OFFICE! JESUS. 

Me: Dude where the eff are you? Resident is ready to kill you. You have the morning note in your pocket and she needs it...
Med Student: Tell her I'm getting Coffee
Me: Are you out of your mind? She's going to kill you. You better come up with a better excuse that that. No way I'm telling her you're getting coffee!
Him: Coffin! Damn I phone! I'm getting Coffin's note from the chart...
Me: You just saved your own ass....

New York City

NYC + Ella = LOVE

Yup, going to a (ah-hem) VERY nice medical school for an EM away rotation this fall. So excited! Plus, one in Northern California, North Carolina, and Arizona. Gonna be away from home till after Christmas. 

Ugh... now to find an apartment in Manhattan. I think I need a Xanax. And I don't take Xanax. 

Med School applications....Its that time....

If you are applying to med school this year, your application should be done or VERY close to it. Just a reminder.

But Ella.... the school says its deadline is Nov 30th. Or Dec 15th. Or whatever.

Yes, you are correct. The school will gladly accept your application all the way until Dec 15th. And your piping hot $150 application fee. And it goes right into a big pile of back up applications that they will look at right about a quarter to never.

Here's how it works. Schools start getting completed applications from students about now. If the application makes the "cut-off" (usually a preset formula determined by the school incorporating your MCAT and GPA)... then it goes to "review". Review is a scan by a committee member who decides if your application is worthy of an interview.

Then you are invited for an interview if you make the cut. Most interview invitations are at the very least decided (albeit privately) by September... some as late as October. Schools vary on when they actually send the invite out.  Now you might say I'm nuts because your best friend received an interview in November or January.... and you would be correct. Tons of people interview late in the year. But they were selected from a pool of candidates that was chosen very early in the game. Exceptions to this are rare. I promise. Unless you are the most stellar candidate on the planet or you have someone influential who has made a call on your behalf.

Most schools participate in rolling admissions... meaning that they admit continuously... AS they find applicants they like. They continue admitting until they have accepted their limit (usually 2 to 4 times the number of spots available in the class)... assuming a large amount of those students will matriculate elsewhere.

So once they admit enough... (which comes from the EARLY applicants)... they stop. And believe me.. they get plenty of qualified, complete applications right off the bat. By October they have so many they don't know WHAT to do with them. Short of all the best medical school candidates spontaneously combusting in a freak pre-med convention, they have absolutely NO REASON to look at applications that come in in December.

So yes, they will accept the application. Technically they say its not too late. But you must understand that admissions applications fees are a HUGE source of revenue (10,000 applications x $150 bucks a pop) for schools... so they will always SAY that October or November or December is not too late.

But it is.

So get your shit submitted. Now.

Went Hiking

It was lovely....

Surgeons

Ok, I figured surgeons out today. After presenting a patients age incorrectly as 54 instead of 56 (oops my bad) to my attending, I got a lecture and this life tip...

"Every person's goal is to be perfect at everything". 

Stated as if it were the most obvious and true thing ever.

And I'm thinking uh... my goals are more like this...

1. Don't kill anyone
2. Graduate med school
3. Catch a redfish this weekend
4. Find a hot pair of $900 Prada boots for $120
....etc.


Do any non-surgeons out there have the goal to "be perfect at everything"?

Lately....

1. Finished Anesthesiology. It was awesome. Tons of fun. But not for me. I did, however, get to intubate 4 patients... all successful on the first try. Yay!

2. Finished 2 weeks of Breast Surgery. Yuck.

3. Started OB today. Oh Dear. We'll see.

4. Got accepted for a couple of EM "away" rotations... So I'm going to New York City for a month, and California for a month.

5. ObamaCare - thrilled for progress... nervous as to what will happen. we will see.

A Little Bit O' Ella

Here... figured it's been a while... here's what I've been doing besides med school...

Cooking!

Baked Brie en Croute with Raspberry Jam

Rosemary Seared Lamb

Tuna and Fennel Salad with Rosemary Olive Bread

Green Lentil Salad with Lemon and Olives

Pretzel Hearts with Sweetened Peanut Butter and Milk Chocolate

Fruit Tart with Homemade Sweet Crust

Decorating My Apartment... no that isn't a real butterfly... relax...

Growing a Garden!!

Loot from my garden....

Jazz in the Neighborhood...

Top 10 Things Heard in the ED

10. Is he dead or DEAD dead?
9. Room Q has an hmm-hmm stuck in his hmm-hmm
8. I dont know who shot me! I was just standing around minding my own bizz-ness!!.
7. Stick your finger up Room C's butt then get yourself some breakfast.
6. Is that guy... Oh god really...yup... he's jerking off....
5. NURSEDOCTORLADY!!!!!!!!! My phone is ringing!!! Reach it for me!?!?!?
4. 210/122? I'm not worried about that.
3. I can't get no motherfucking sleep in this place!
2. Nurse Doctor Lady?? Please tell the po-lice I'm too sick to talk to them??
1. But I'm ALLERGIC to Tylenol, motrin, aspirin, mobic, toredol, Naproxen, celebrex, AND actron!

On Birthin'

Per my very wise brother "watching the birth of your child is like watching someone throw your very favorite toy off the top of the empire state building". Fact.

Pink Nails

Remember that day.... way back my first year of med school when I saw the cadaver with the pink nail polish and I kind of freaked out? Well my last shift was kind of the same. Only the pink nails were mine. And I could see them a tiny bit through my gloves. And I just kept looking at them. While they did CPR. For the first time. On a kid. That died. It was awful. Numbing. And awful. And I just kept remembering the pink fingernail thing. Weird how things sort of come full circle. When I got home I took a pic of my hands to remember the way I felt today.

More Bliss...

Started EM. It's also freaking ridiculously awesome. I'm at a Level I trauma center, and trauma there is. Last shift we got 6 trauma activations. 4 GSW's and 2 stabbings. I got to clean out bullet wounds with a battery powered supersoaker. How freaking cool is that? I can't believe people get paid to do this shit.

Best Moments on Family Medicine on da' Bayoo....

1. EVERY SINGLE patient talks about fishing!
2. EVERY SINGLE weekend I could go fishing! (YAY! See below)

3. I started calling my attending "Doc Awesome"... and it stuck
4. I got to suture, cut out basal cell carcinomas, catch babies, inject trigger fingers, scope, do INDs, drain hematomas, do prostate exams, hernia checks, steroid injections... yada yada. All the stuff somebody should have let me do by now but it hadn't happened until family medicine.
5. I got to see inpatients, outpatients, ICU patients, peeps in the ED, and patients in WalMart. Pretty awesome.
6. My attending is single... so the nurses feel sorry for him and cook for him several times a week. When they found out I am single too... They felt sorry for my by proxy. So I got all kinds of bayou food to take home.... catfish courtbouillon, fried trout, redfish dip, crawfish pasta, venison spaghetti, chicken with lima beans... oh man it was fabulouso!
7. No matter how many times I reminded my patients that I was a med student, they still called me Doc. As did everyone at the gas station, the grocery store, and at the one restaurant in town.

8. The clinic was a 'lil piece of heaven (see above)
9. We discussed making topwater bait just as much as we talked about medicine (example below)

10.  I said it before, and I'll say it again. Family Medicine... practiced rurally.. is the most romantic type of medicine there is. You see babies, peds, adults, and grandparents. ICU patients, mothers giving birth, emergencies, etc. You don't consult cards or psych unless you REALLY need help. You're a cowboy. I absolutely love it. 

More Confused Than Ever

So I'm more confused than ever. Loving Family Medicine. Loving Emergency Medicine. I have no idea what to do. I start my EM rotation next week... so hopefully that will put things into a little better perspective for me.

Here's my PROS/CONS list thus far

EM PROS:
1. Um, everything? It rocks
2. Shift work, flexible schedule, flexibility to pick up more or less shifts.
3. No "practice" to run
4. Fun, amazing, fast paced
5. Diverse pathology
6. No patient follow-up
7. Can move hospitals/cities easily
8. TRAUMA !!!!!
9. Procedures!!!
10. The residency process is awesome

EM CONS:
1. No patient followup... will that bother me eventually??
2. Will I get tired of shiftwork?
3. Possibly more difficult to practice rurally?
4. Only 1 program in the city I live in... so I may need to move... which I REALLY don't want to do.

FM PROS:
1. Diverse pathology
2. Treating all ages, lots of procedures, managing cards, psych, neuro, etc. cases... essentially everything!
3. Can do a general surgery fellowship
4. Continuity of care
5. Day to day life is pretty damn nice
6. Get to do inpatient medicine and be an intensivist
7. Tons of procedures

FM CONS:
1. Responsible for a practice/ difficult to get away, take vacation, etc
2. Might get tired of routine office visits... URIs and UTIs can get boring
3. I don't think I will enjoy the residency process... with tons of months on wards.


Thoughts from Y'all??

Time Flies....

When you are in med school, apparently. I'm officially a 4th year, folks.

Life is good

Perks of rural medicine... Getting greeted with "morning doc!" at the grocery store by people I've treated ♥

The World As I Know It....

Is totally upsidedown. I love EM. I have always loved EM. And its what I want to do. But.... who knew it? I love family medicine just as much. Enough to switch. Or add. I'm not sure. There are apparently 2 Fam Med/EM dual residency programs. One in Louisiana and one in Delaware. Delaware? Ugh. I'm looking into them. I'm so excited! The last 3 weeks have been BLISS! TONS of procedures. Small rural town. Nice people. OMG. I am so excited about work that I hate the weekends. Seriously. I swear.

Best 2 Days Of Med School Thus Far

I almost didn't write about it because I didn't want to jinx myself... but my first two days in family medicine may have been the best 2 days I've had in medicine thus far. In 2 days I saw 60+ patients. No lie. Me and my attending. Fast paced. Rural. Tons of cool stuff to see. I get to see my own patients. No residents. Its awesome.

Side story... I'm seeing a patient in a room, my attending knocks on the door, and he's like "Can you run in those shoes?" We ended up hauling ass across a huge field to the make it to the hospital to catch a baby from a section.

Incidentally, it also doesn't suck that my attending is 32, single, and uber hot.

Second thoughts....

So I'm having MAJOR doubts about moving. Might call the whole thing off. Yes, one neighbor sucks... but I really hate to leave my place. It's perfect y'all. And if you knew how hard it is to find a "perfect" place here. Ugh. Until I sign a lease aren't I legally entitled to my deposit back?


Update! Got my deposit back. Staying put for now.

Things Are Looking Up

I got a new apartment. Which means I'm moving from my lovely, perfect, historic cottage. But which also means there is no more neighbor boy. Which is good. Really good. Sad, however, very sad to leave my place and my other neighbors. And my neighborhood.

Good news is that my new place is pretty kick ass (almost as kick ass as here... but no jacuzzi tub and no gas range... sad face). It is, however almost 3 times the space and architecturally pretty sexy... and only a few blocks away.

Beat that

Got to see a case of Catel Manzke. Only 26 known cases in the world. Which made it a pretty effing cool day, considering my obsession with peds genetics.