Change of Perspective

In the movie "21," which chronicles the adventures of a bunch of MIT students counting blackjack cards in Vegas, the instigating professor presents a probability problem to his class. It goes something like this:

Professor: I have 3 doors. A car is behind one of them. Pick one.
Student: I pick Door 1.
Professor: OK, what if I tell you that the car is not behind Door 3? Do you want to keep Door 1 or switch your answer to Door 2?
Student: I'll switch to Door 2.
Professor (clearly impressed): Why?
Student: When I first picked, I had a 33% chance of being right. Once you took away one option, the odds changed....

My understanding of the math gets fuzzy right around there, but I've been thinking about that scene lately and how getting a piece of new information can change how you think or feel about something. Two recent situations have illustrated this.

A week and a half ago, I took my Biochemistry and Anatomy midterms. I was somewhat terrified going in, convinced that no amount of studying would make me feel fully prepared, and aware that, given my proclivity for sleeping, eating, and exercising on a fairly regular basis, I didn't have time for unending cram sessions anyway. I entered the tests feeling that I had prepared to the best of my ability and reminding myself that all I really needed to do was pass.

Last week as I walked to my mailbox to get my graded anatomy exam, I repeated my mantra: "All I need is a 65; I'll be happy with that" over and over. I took one look at my grade (safely above a 65) and thought, "Crap! I want to do better than that!" Once I had that assurance that I was passing, my goals changed. In the end, I scored above average on both tests. That knowledge has made me enjoy my subsequent studying even more; some of the fear of failure has been replaced by fascination with the information I'm studying, which I think is a healthy switch.

The second instance of a change in perspective occurred last Friday in Anatomy lecture. As we study the branches of the facial nerve, we learn about Bell's Palsy, in which a nerve injury leads to symptoms such as a drooping of one corner of the eye and mouth. We also saw pictures of people who have just one nerve injured, and saw that an injury to the marginal mandibular nerve results in the bottom lip being paralyzed on one side, making it look like the other side droops. This injury can occur when a person has surgery on their submandibular glands for cancer, and indeed, the person in the picture has sort of an indentation right under his jaw.

Suddenly my mind flashed to my 9th grade Earth Science teacher, Mr. Pearlmutter, with his asymmetrically drooping lip and what looked like a strange indentation in his upper neck. This man who we ignorant teenagers had made fun of had most likely suffered a nerve injury during a surgery (possibly for cancer)! I felt really terrible and want to apologize to him, wherever is he is now. I'm so sorry Mr. Pearlmutter!

Loving the Jewish Holidays

I haven't set foot in anatomy lab for 3 whole days, which is a new record. I also slept until almost 9:30 this morning (gasp!). These luxuries are thanks to the fact that Stony Brook shuts down in observance of Rosh Hashanah. This extra time has let me [start to] catch up in my studies and begin preparing for midterms, which are only 2 weeks away.

Here's a quick (maybe) synopsis of the goings-on since my last post:

We had a fantastic guest lecture last week delivered by a gynecologic oncologist - in other words, someone who does exactly what I hope to someday! It was so much fun to hear her describe the surgeries that she does, and when she started using terminology that I've been learning, it was sort of a lightbulb-going-on-over-my-head moment, as in, "Hey wait! I know that! I'm learning some of the EXACT things that I will need someday when I practice medicine for real!"

I've been ruminating quite a bit lately about how different medical school is compared to college in that everything I'm learning is directly related to, and vital for, what I will be doing later. Even after I declared my French major, I didn't look at what I learned in my classes in terms of its application to my future studies - there were no thoughts of, "Hmm, I'll definitely use this verb tense or cite this piece of literature in my senior thesis!" Here, however, it's a different story. There's a lot of pressure that comes the knowledge that this actual information may be important for my career, but it's also a great source of motivation when there seems to be no end in sight to the amount of information to cover.

Back to the guest lecturer, though. I had actually met this doctor years ago when I was doing an internship at Stony Brook with one of her colleagues (who no longer practices here, unfortunately), so I introduced myself to her afterwards and told her of my interest in gyn onc. In inquired as to how I might get involved in the department's research, and she told me whom to contact. Yay!

Some classmates and I spent almost 8 hours in lab on Saturday "pinning" several bodies. One aspect of our exmas will involve identifying different organs/nerves/blood vessels that are marked in the bodies using pins, so we decided it would be good review to pin everything we have studied so far - about 175 structures - and then test ourselves. It was very helpful and fun, especially with our break for pizza. Long hours in lab never fail to make me hungry.

Finally, I had a personal training session at my new gym on Sunday, and the girl worked me so hard I've been hobbling around for a few days with extremely tight muscles. At least I have some new moves to do at the gym once I recover!

Looks like I've been verbose once again. There's just one more thought that I want to share, as well as to document it so I will remember it in the future. I was talking to the medical school's learning specialist (who offered some really great tips as to how I can study even more efficiently), and she told me that, although everyone will tell you something different regarding how much grades, board scores, and where you do your residency matter, it's important never to forget that it's a privilege to even have the opportunity to study medicine.