With two weeks remaining until spring break, I am still trudging/barreling full speed through medical physiology. ("Barreling" refers to the pace at which the material is presented; "trudging" is a more accurate representation of the speed with which I incorporate it into my mental framework.) The topics are very interesting, but, as with everything else, very detailed. Much to my high-school-teacher parents' chagrin, I have taken to only attending the very informative lectures given by the course director; most of the other lecturers tend to just read their slides, adding nothing. It is much more efficient for me to move through the material at my own pace, accelerating through information I know from previous courses and stopping to reference the textbook or make notes when necessary. Now that I spend much of each day in the library and fewer hours sitting in a lecture hall, I realize just how much time attending class requires! In some cases, it is totally worth it, but in others, it offers little return on the energy and mental focus invested. (Note: Brilliance in laboratory research, and even an earnest, kindhearted desire to help medical students does not guarantee clarity and effectiveness in a lecturer.)
In any case, I have adopted the strategy of focusing on the tasks I need to accomplish each day while avoiding too much thought about the subsequent and their required work. If I really start to consider how much physiology I should already know, plus how much I have yet to learn, plus all of the knowledge to be acquired during the next course, plus all of the information to learn next year, plus the fact that I will face the formidable Step I boards in June 2010 (a test of all I have learned in the first 2 years of school; very important in getting a good residency; much more on this in the future!). . . if I let myself truly consider all of that, I would completely shut down - just cease functioning. And so I don't.
However, when I related these feelings of being overwhelmed to the sage and calming psychologist who leads my mindful meditation group, she smiled and said, "But in one day, you wouldn't try to eat all the food you would eat in a year." This woman is brilliant and helps me make sense of the world.
On the bright side, I am eagerly anticipating several events. First, I will be spending 3 days in San Francisco and Monterey, CA, during spring break. I am going with two of my girlfriends from school. Of course, we are keeping the trip short because our physiology final is scheduled for after our spring break (yes, I'm serious), but I'm sure it will be fantastic.
Second, I was just selected to be one of the leaders of the Obstetrics/Gynecology interest group next year. I will be arranging speakers for several club meetings throughout the year, so I am hoping this will give me the opportunity to get to know some of the attending physicians.
Lastly, I have a really excellent gig for the summer: a fellowship doing pediatric oncology research at Children's Hospital Los Angeles!! I don't know that I will end up practicing in this area of oncology, but I'm sure it will be fascinating work and I hope to learn a lot. Also, I have never been to LA, but one of my college friends lives out there, so it will be great to get advice from him and to hang out again! Apparently living in LA really requires a car, so Tay and I plan to take some time for a road trip to get out there, and then perhaps my parents will fly out to help me drive back. (Suprise, Mom and Dad!) I don't know the specifics of my research project yet, but I am just thrilled in general. I absolutely love to travel and explore new places. Never fear, I will take TONS of pictures while I am out there.
I am also trying to work out one other potential side project, but at this point I'm not absolutely certain it will work out, so I am keeping my mouth shut (fingers still? As in, not typing?) for now.
As always, back to work....
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
The snow gods are good!
Last weekend, Tay and I and a friend from school made a quick trip up to Sugarbush to get in a bit of skiing and relaxation. Although our arrival was delayed until 2:30am due to snowy roads - my car just barely made it up the steep Sugarbush Access Road that leads up to the mountain - the entire mountain was in outstanding condition the following day. Now tonight, after a weekend of studying for a test that was scheduled for tomorrow, I have learned that school is cancelled tomorrow due to the massive snowstorm that is supposed to drop up to 14" on Long Island. As a result, I was able to catch an episode of Platinum Weddings (quality television) tonight and can spend tomorrow catching up on the work that I had put aside in favor of studying (and, if Tay has tomorrow off from work and can play outside with me, build a snowman).
Besides the glorious snow, much has happened in the past two months that bears mentioning. During the first four weeks of the semester, I completed an entire course in neuroscience. It was somewhat less than my favorite experience. I entered the course unready to end vacation, excited about being engaged, and with sort of a bias against the subject as a result of a short-lived experience working in neurology before I got my job at the cancer center at Dartmouth last year. The course was also poorly organized and the lectures were incredible scattered and involved long tangents, although that doesn't excuse my lack of motivation. Also, the second-year students led my class to believe that this course would be much easier than our fall curriculum. (Not true!!) I survived, although my enthusiasm and pride took a bit of a beating.
Now I am studying physiology (how the different body systems work) and histology (the study of different body tissues). The professor is phenomenal, both in terms of organization and teaching ability. I truly wish he could teach every single other course in med school!! I also find these topics much more interesting; in studying, for example, how the heart functions and what goes wrong in congestive heart failure or aortic valve stenosis, I feel like I am truly a medical student! I do have to admit, though, that even with my interest in this class, I have a love/hate relationship with med school. I know/think (it changes with my mood and the day's events) that I want to be a doctor, but this part of the journey is hard and not that much fun. The information actually isn't that difficult to grasp, but there is such a enormous amount that trying to learn and understand it in a meaningful way given the time constraints is a neverending battle. Part of me is very concerned with grades and wants to achieve the highest scores I can in everything, but another part of me doesn't want to give up absolutely everything else in my life in order to do that. So you see, there is an opportunity for frustration and unhappiness regardless of which path I choose. (I vacillate often.) Further, it has been disconcerting to discover that, although it is the path I have chosen, I don't always like med school. I am learning, through my mindful meditation practice, to come to grips with that and accept the situation and do the best I can.
On a lighter note, with the help of Tay and our friend Bill, I presented a poster at an academic conference in New Haven, CT, last month. It was the culmination of a project that we completed while earning our masters degrees, and we submitted it to this year's meeting of the North American Society for Psychosocial Obstetrics and Gynecology. We developed a decision tool intended to assist women who are pregnant with triplets in deciding whether to carry the full triplet pregnancy to term (which involves health risks to both the mother and fetuses, in addition to heightened risks of handicaps such as cerebral palsy and Down's Syndrome in the children) or to undergo selective reduction (which carries risks of its own, although it lessens the aforementioned risks). Here we are at the poster session:
The poster was well-received, and we spent a fantastic weekend catching up with a variety of friends in New Haven. A definite highlight was the fact that I got to go shopping for a wedding dress with one of my closest friends!
It looks like I have been my verbose self once again. Back to the books for a bit and then off to bed so I can be well-rested to enjoy tomorrow. I think we are never to old to relish a snow day!
Besides the glorious snow, much has happened in the past two months that bears mentioning. During the first four weeks of the semester, I completed an entire course in neuroscience. It was somewhat less than my favorite experience. I entered the course unready to end vacation, excited about being engaged, and with sort of a bias against the subject as a result of a short-lived experience working in neurology before I got my job at the cancer center at Dartmouth last year. The course was also poorly organized and the lectures were incredible scattered and involved long tangents, although that doesn't excuse my lack of motivation. Also, the second-year students led my class to believe that this course would be much easier than our fall curriculum. (Not true!!) I survived, although my enthusiasm and pride took a bit of a beating.
Now I am studying physiology (how the different body systems work) and histology (the study of different body tissues). The professor is phenomenal, both in terms of organization and teaching ability. I truly wish he could teach every single other course in med school!! I also find these topics much more interesting; in studying, for example, how the heart functions and what goes wrong in congestive heart failure or aortic valve stenosis, I feel like I am truly a medical student! I do have to admit, though, that even with my interest in this class, I have a love/hate relationship with med school. I know/think (it changes with my mood and the day's events) that I want to be a doctor, but this part of the journey is hard and not that much fun. The information actually isn't that difficult to grasp, but there is such a enormous amount that trying to learn and understand it in a meaningful way given the time constraints is a neverending battle. Part of me is very concerned with grades and wants to achieve the highest scores I can in everything, but another part of me doesn't want to give up absolutely everything else in my life in order to do that. So you see, there is an opportunity for frustration and unhappiness regardless of which path I choose. (I vacillate often.) Further, it has been disconcerting to discover that, although it is the path I have chosen, I don't always like med school. I am learning, through my mindful meditation practice, to come to grips with that and accept the situation and do the best I can.
On a lighter note, with the help of Tay and our friend Bill, I presented a poster at an academic conference in New Haven, CT, last month. It was the culmination of a project that we completed while earning our masters degrees, and we submitted it to this year's meeting of the North American Society for Psychosocial Obstetrics and Gynecology. We developed a decision tool intended to assist women who are pregnant with triplets in deciding whether to carry the full triplet pregnancy to term (which involves health risks to both the mother and fetuses, in addition to heightened risks of handicaps such as cerebral palsy and Down's Syndrome in the children) or to undergo selective reduction (which carries risks of its own, although it lessens the aforementioned risks). Here we are at the poster session:
The poster was well-received, and we spent a fantastic weekend catching up with a variety of friends in New Haven. A definite highlight was the fact that I got to go shopping for a wedding dress with one of my closest friends!
It looks like I have been my verbose self once again. Back to the books for a bit and then off to bed so I can be well-rested to enjoy tomorrow. I think we are never to old to relish a snow day!
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