Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Turning Into My Mother

I just heard a phone ring on tv and wondered if Kris had somehow installed a house phone while I was away shopping today...

Sunday, July 25, 2010

What's Been Going On

Here's a LONG overview of what's been going on lately. It's mostly for myself, so I can remember what the heck I've been doing the last 2 months. When I'm not at the hospital all the days just run together.

I finished up my M3 year sometime in June. It was painful and tiring most of the time, but I learned a lot and had some fun thrown in there too.

My best friend got married in the middle of June. Here's proof:


I spent most of the month of June prepping for Step 2 CK (clinical knowledge. They ask us pertinent questions about patient care - diagnosis, treatment, what test to order next, etc... It was an all day test which I took on June 28th. June 28th also happened to be my 25th birthday. I came home to find this:


I wish I'd thought to take pictures but I was a little brain dead due to the 9 hour long test and surprise waiting for me when I got home. There was quite a spread. Most of my immediate family was there plus a few friends from school. It was a great way to spend a birthday. Kris worked really hard on this one.

About a week after that Kris and I journeyed to Houston, TX so I could take the 2nd part of Step 2. It's called Step 2 CS (clinical skills) and judges how we work in a clinic situation. There's actors who act like patients. We have 15 minutes with them to talk, get the history, do a physical exam and a little counseling. Then we write a note in standard format summing up the visit, what tests we want to order, and our top 5 diagnoses. The test is very expensive $1100 and is only given in 5 major cities in the USA. I'm really hoping I passed for all of these reasons.

Unfortunately the test isn't given in a nice area of Houston. Fortunately our hotel was very nice. Kris and I spent 3 nights there. The first night we just settled in and I studied a bit for my test the next day.

Day 2 = Test day. It was long and short at the same time, nerve wracking at first, then just monotonous. Spent the night unwinding with room service, beer, and hot tubbing it.

Day 3 = the Aquarium, the Galleria, and the Improv. The Aquarium was surprisingly small and for some unexplained reason featured a white tiger. It was huge. I managed to piss it off by pretending to pet it through 6" glass and it lunged and tried to attack Kris. We scared several children.

The Galleria is huge! We spent a lot of time looking, but I didn't even buy anything! Pathetic I know.

As for the Improv - I highly recommend it if you like comedy. It was open mic night when we went so the tickets were FREE. Even when they have well known headliners the tickets are $22 which is a great deal for several hours of guaranteed entertainment. Even though it was open mic night I only had to break out my pity laugh for 2 of the comics. Fortunately they were on stage 2-3 minutes each so the misery doesn't last long.

Day 4 = Time to leave. Before we left we toured the National Museum of Funeral History. Sounds weird, but it was one of my favorite things we did. Tickets were cheap. It was a large open space, and most of the time we were the only 2 people there. They had tons of gorgeous old hearses, the Pope mobile, funeral programs, and lots of interesting coffins.

As for the rest of July I've been taking a course called Computers in Medicine. This consists of searching for journal articles pertinent to your future profession on a topic of your choice, creating a Powerpoint, and writing a 3 page paper. Sounds simple enough, but as the teacher is out of town until August 2nd, I have no idea if the assignments I've turned in so far are up to snuff. Just going to keep turning things in. Hopefully when he gets back he'll be so overwhelmed with his inbox he'll just give me a pass. I HATE writing papers. That's one of the reasons I chose medicine as a career.

I still haven't written my C.V. (resume) or Personal Statement. I meet with the dean on August 4th to review these things. I'm planning on tackling one or the other tonight.

Our air hasn't been working for the last 2.5 weeks. After 4 maintenance calls, 3 box fans, 2 personal fans, and many sleepless nights our home insurance company has agreed we need a new unit and some new ductwork. It should be here by the end of the week. It's about time. Our unit was 25 years old.

Also - K and I went to St. Louis last week, but I'll post about that later. This post is already entirely too long!

Hope everyone else's July has been going great - and that you all have working air conditioners. It's HOT out there.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Delinquent

I know I've been a bad blogger lately. I'm about to rush off to a book club meeting, but I just had to post this picture. Because I LOVE it:




Promise I'll post more later. I stole this picture from myfavoriteandmybest.com. I tried to hyperlink that but I'm either too dumb to do it correctly or blogger malfunctioned.
You should check her out. As long as you're not afraid of profanity and pretty design pictures.