Day 149: Brief musing on specialties

Today's inane image of the day:

This was the sky's "Good Morning" today -- this photo was taken from a study room in O'Dowd [I highly recommend these rooms early in the morning... so peaceful to watch the sun rise].

For our PRISM session next week, each of us is required to complete the 150 question MSPI-R assessment on the Careers in Medicine website. Not surprisingly, the speciality it said I was most compatible with was OB/GYN. Huh, you ask? Haven't you been raving about interest in anesthesiology, radiation oncology and cancer genetics? Why did you know you would get OB/GYN [beside the fact that the survey asked predictable questions]?

Well, first and foremost, I really enjoy working with the female population [which is probably why I was so involved in the Society of Women Engineers and now the American Medical Women's Association]. Women indeed have different needs and I find it fascinating how distinct males and females react to problems or emotional expression. I love the connection and the firsthand understanding. And babies are absolutely magical.

But, I don't know if I really want to dedicate the rest of my life to women's reproductive health. Maybe after my clerkship I'll change my mind. Or maybe it'll push me more toward breast cancers. Or maybe I'll be back here exactly where I started [hopefully not that last one!].

Bah! It stresses me out not to have a more concrete idea of where I want to and hope to be after medical school.

Day 127: Spirituality rounds

Today's inane image of the day:

One of my favorite walls of art in Beaumont Hospital. It always lifts my spirits to walk by this.

Each of us are required to spend 2 hours doing "spirituality rounds" with a chaplain through the PRISM program. I did mine today and thought I'd share my experience with you.

[I believe] the purpose of the rounds is to get a feel for the role of spirituality within the healing process. Spirituality is not synonymous with religious, but religion is a form of spirituality. I personally do not identify myself as religious, but I respect all beliefs and love learning more about various spiritual practices. Furthermore, there is immense value in understanding various beliefs -- physicians need to be able to understand their patients.

One of the patients we visited today during rounds described the experience that led him to the hospital as, "like waking up in a nightmare." I'm not quite sure why those particular words stuck, but they did. He was also the only patient we visited that asked for a prayer. Although I did not actively participate in the ritual, I found his response to it comforting -- it seemed that after the words were spoken and the minister had taken his hand off of the patient's shoulder, that some of the turmoil he was feeling had abated. Even if the prayer wasn't a form of healing in the literal, physician's-sense of the term, I do believe that he found those moments therapeutic. Hopefully, he'll soon be jolted from that prolonged nightmare of his.

Another patient that stuck in my mind was one that couldn't communicate with us. It was absolutely heartbreaking to watch her struggle to form coherent words while her eyes longed for us to understand the indiscernible moaning and grumbling. As we started walking toward the door, we heard an unmistakable, "I'm sorry."

Although I was apprehensive to conduct a spirituality assessment on my own, the chaplain encouraged me to try it. I walked into the patient's room and introduced myself as a medical student conducting spirituality rounds. Then, I asked if the patient had any spiritual needs at that time. He quickly shook his head and refused to converse with me. I pressed on once more before retreating back into the hallway where the chaplain applauded my effort and explained that many patients respond in the same manner.

Overall, I found the experience to be beneficial to my future as a physician. And it definitely didn't hurt to spend time with patients on the floors.

Today's medical school fact of the day: "Protein A, found on the surface of most Staphylococcus aureus strains binds to the Fc region of IgGs, preventing antibody-mediated immune clearance of the organism." --Microbiology lecture notes

Day 100: Pause

Today's inane image of the day:

Challenge: Can you guess what we're modeling here? [Leave comments with what you think this is -- no OUWB students, please!]

I apologize for the lack of updates lately -- Mike flew into town late Friday and I have been busy relishing his presence since then [I even took him to school with me yesterday and today!]. Since things are still pretty hectic around here, I'll just leave you with my PRISM reflective writing piece [fictional, about anatomy lab, not my best work but still something!]:

As she stepped into the anatomy lab for her first session, the distinct scent of formalin filled her nasal cavity and sent chills down her spine. She looked around at the room filled symmetrically with metal gurneys. Each gurney had a similar white body bag, but the outline of each cadaver was unique. As her thoughts drifted away during the professor’s introductory presentation, she realized that she had never come this close to death before – in fact, there was a horribly eerie quality to standing in a room full of vibrant medical students ready to pry into the flesh of a deceased and preserved human being.

The professor stopped speaking and she looked down at her assigned cadaver. Her team members were ready to unveil the body, but she wanted to take a step back and consider what lay in front of her. This woman was once a living, breathing person. She lived a life that this medical student would probably never know about. Family and friends probably loved her and probably still miss her. And now, 5 medical students were about to invade the physical entity of this woman’s life. They were about to explore her like no other person has before.

After mulling over her thoughts, she slowly approached the body with a scalpel and forceps. She was hesitant to plunge a knife into this woman’s flesh. There was something wrong about violating this woman’s body. But she recognized how this learning experience was one of the pinnacles of her medical education – there would be no other future opportunity to explore human structures in this manner. With this in mind, she began swiping unsteadily with her scalpel to retract the skin of the cadaver’s back. Two hours later, the group had exposed the superficial back muscles and she was relived the lab session was finally over.

Months pass and she is hunched over a new cadaver’s plantar region. A withering old man with surprisingly intact musculature replaced the previous cadaver. She was comfortable with the odd smells, sights and sounds of the anatomy lab. Time and experience have resolved her apprehension about dissection. Her blade now pierces the flesh with confidence to rip through the thick aponeurosis. After successfully exposing the 2^nd layer of the plantar muscles, she washes everything up and leaves the lab with a sense of excitement for what mysteries are to come. As she walks outside in the brisk, fresh air, she barely notices the distinct lingering scent of formalin in her nasal cavity. 

Happy Thanksgiving! More updates soon, promise.

Today's medical school fact of the day: "The quadriceps femoris is subdivided into four parts: rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus intermedius, and vastus medialis. All four parts have the same insertion [tibial tuberosity] and innervation [femoral nerve]." -- Anatomy

P.S. w00t, 100 days in and still going strong!

Day 95: The OUWB family

Today's inane image of the day:

THESE ARE ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. I have to say... the U.S. is definitely missing out on these Coffee Crisps! [Kudos to my favorite resident/Big Sib program coordinator for passing these out during his Radiology lecture!]

Imagine this: 50 medical students dressed in various types of gym apparel sprawled across a large Beaumont Hospital classroom with every square inch of the carpet completely covered in colorful beach towels and yoga mats. As the lights are turned off, a meditation audio plays. Interspersed are extended moments of silence when suddenly every slight noise seems to make a racket. As time passes, you can hear the breathing rate slow to a steady, calm pace. After a few more moments pass, you hear one student's slow, steady breaths turn into snores.

Doesn't sound much like class, eh? Well, that's what the last 15 minutes of PRISM entailed. And even though this may sound ridiculous, I think people really enjoyed that forced decompression time [even if it involved a slightly creepy voice guiding the meditation] -- I definitely welcomed it after today's... events.

Let me start by saying that sometimes my emotions get the best of me. I recognize that this is both a huge weakness and strength -- weakness because I'm going into a high-stress field that sometimes requires us to repress our natural thoughts and feelings, but strength because I feel like emotions lead to deeper interpersonal connection. Anyway, I discovered last night that one of my grades that has been up for at least a couple of months now took a downward turn. Now, this doesn't really affect whether or not I pass the course, and I already lost enough points that honors wasn't going to happen... but for some reason, this really upset me. It's probably a combination of the fact that our TBL [Acetaminophen overdose] was relatively difficult this morning and that I have been plagued with a dark cloud of disappointing academic performance, but I really shouldn't have had reacted the way that I did.

Since I couldn't seem to hold everything in, I had to leave the classroom to get some air.

I was fine after a little bit and actually quite content with everything after a couple hours. Why? Well, you see, when you matriculate into OUWB, you become a part of a family. Sure, I don't get to hang out with all 49 of my peers on a regular basis, but we all are there for one another. Today, two of my TBL group members really stepped up and made sure that I was alright... honestly, after their comforting words/presence, everything seemed to lighten up.

Plus, the first speaker for our PRISM meditation session mentioned a man and his wife who were in a hurry to make a flight. En route to the airport,  they ended up getting a flat tire. After quickly resolving that, they got to the airport, didn't bother dropping off the rental car and ran to their gate. As they tried to rush through security explaining that they needed to catch their fight, someone stopped them and told them that they had already missed the flight -- but it had crashed upon takeoff.

When you put it all into perspective, sometimes those little setbacks have a profound positive impact on the rest of your life.

Today's medical school fact of the day: [A quote from Kaivan during our PRISM group discussion] "In undergrad, you're a big fish in a little pond, but when you get into medical school, you're a big fish... with all the other big fish..." [this was meant to be comical, but is totally true].

Day 34: What's your type?

Today's inane images of the day:

Thanks Friday interviewees for leaving us food to eat after our MRSA TBL today!  I took home this melody of goodies in the salad bowl!

During lunch on Thursday, 4/5 of our TBL group decided to take a field trip to Franklin Cider Mill to celebrate the incoming Fall weather with hot cider and fresh donuts... the donuts were so good that I ate them before I could take a picture of one...

Over a month ago, we were told to take an online MBTI [Myers-Briggs Type Indicator] test for PRISM. This week, we got the results and discussed what they meant in the context of working with one another. Not surprisingly, our group had mostly the same preferences... which is probably why we work together so well.

Anyway, here are my results:

If you didn't gather from above, I am an ISFJ -- with an extreme on the judging and sensing preference. According to a PRISM reading, Anesthesiology, Ophthalmology, General practice, Family practice, Pediatric are good specialties for my personality type. Hmmm... interesting.

Last night was our Big Sib/Little Sib Meet and Greet -- S and I went to the restaurant and mingled with a couple of the residents and our peers [her Big Sib was able to make it, but mine wasn't]. Even though I didn't have my official Big Sib there, one of the rad onc residents painted a really convincing portrait of the specialty. In fact, I am very seriously considering the option despite the heavy academic [i.e. research] focus in preparation for and during residency. I personally shy away from science research because I don't love the slow pace of the work... but this resident made it seem far from my days of pipetting and fluorescence microscopy.

Anyway, moral of the story is that our Beaumont residents are awesome.

After the official event was over, we went to a couple of places in Royal Oak to celebrate two of my classmates' birthdays -- I personally love dancing and had a great time with everyone. Even though we are all really close, it's those nights out that really solidify a bond.

Now it's time to get back to the work part of medical school.

Day 11: Beaumont, Big sibs, PRISM, LDR and everything else

Today's inane image of the day:

Our first PRISM session was about expectations and wellness!

Most Thursdays, we have an excuse to wear our bright white coats because we have all of our classes in one of the Beaumont locations [today was Royal Oak]. I had the chance to walk through the small farmers' market that sits right outside the South entrance and was happy to find the tastiest vegan desserts at the market. I can't wait to go back and buy some baked goods next week!

Today, the resident that has directed the Big Sib/Little Sib program between us and the Beaumont residents organized a short Q&A event. Basically a panel of residents sat at the front of the classroom and tried to field our questions. Although the questions were mostly "how should we study?! can we fail out of medical school!?", it was reassuring to know that these residents seemed really... well, cool. Haha.

Oh, and I got matched with an Anesthesiology resident as I had requested! I'll be sure to discuss what's going through my head about specialty choices later.

We had our first official PRISM session today -- although I think it's a great idea to really drive the wellness point home, I was a bit agitated at the end of the day and kind of wanted to just go home. Our group mostly asked our mentor [an ER attending] a ton of questions about choosing a field, how the ER works and other academic questions. I really like our mentor because he's extremely laid back and I really need some of that to rub off on me!

On the more personal note -- this long distance relationship [LDR] has been extremely taxing on me. I truly do not know how people can handle the distance and the stress it puts on the relationship in general.  I tend to share very personal feelings with a small number of people, but when all of those people are no longer accessible, it really puts me in a bind. To complicate matters further, Chinese culture dictates that you remain a closed book about personal matters -- while I can't say I've been the best at maintaining this mentality [I was raised in the U.S...], I do unconsciously [or, I guess consciously now] follow it. This makes it extremely difficult, or basically impossible to open up and express my thoughts. So, I'm slightly concerned about imploding right now.

No wonder I had a good jog today -- I had a head full of thoughts that I needed to try to straighten out, and the rhythm really got me going. In fact, the endorphins from my jog today led me to write a guest post for the ever-popular KevinMD.com -- you'll have to wait for when it gets published to read it!

Finally, tomorrow is a pretty big day -- OUWB has its first interview day of the 2011-2012 application cycle and we have our first AMWA [American Medical Women's Association] meeting! Lots of great things happening around here.

Now on to find more ways to procrastinate... [Did you notice that I added pages to the right sidebar? I haven't had a chance to fill them out yet, but they'll hopefully make it easier to find what you need! Please let me know if you have any suggestions on improving the layout of the website!]

OUWB Orientation: Day 3 - PRISM Teamwork

Images from today:

How creative/symbolic/innovative [thanks for the words Caribou buddies!] were these "prism" table settings during our PRISM luncheon?

Mmm Caribou Coffee...

Last year as a member of the Executive Board for the Society of Women Engineers Section at the University of Michigan and while running the Ypsilanti Middle School Engineering Club, I got to know a lot about icebreakers. Some of them are really effective, while others are just plain annoying. While I cannot say that I absolutely love being a participant, by the end of the year I realized how much potential they have to teach communication and set the stage for a welcoming community.

I'm going to go a bit out of order to discuss today's orientation events, so bear with me here. 

In the afternoon, all 50 of us participated in a challenge course. After a large-scale "icebreaker" [which involved making squares...] we divided up into our PRISM groups [there were 10 per group] and went through various obstacles. After a generic name game [though, I'm happy to say that I was able to name everyone in my PRISM group prior to the game], we worked on a challenge involving teamwork, following directions, understanding directions and communication [believe it or not... this was all done solely with the use of a Beanie Baby turtle named Timmy]. Because success came relatively quickly, we relished in its glory while moving on to the second challenge. 

Our next challenge entailed a pretty wild story about being shrunk down to ant size and navigating a way to the "sticky" nachos using a rope. I'm not really doing this challenge much justice, but we completed it on our first try, which led to a mutual feeling of accomplishment. Bring it on Challenge Course people! Group C can handle anything!

Then came the Helium Hula Hoop... since I had done this particular icebreaker before, I thought that it would be relatively straightforward. Unfortunately, I was very wrong. Somehow, this challenge proved to be the most difficult and frustrating one of the day. While in retrospect, I see that there were ways that we could have alleviated the tension running through our group with our numerous failed attempts and constant bickering, I have to admit that I was also caught up within it all. I believe that a large number of medical students have made it as far as they have because of their perfectionist tendencies and ability to lead. But the problems always arise when you tell a bunch of leaders and perfectionists to work together -- who gets to lead the perfectionist leaders? [have you ever seen the words "perfectionist" and "leader" said so many times in 2 sentences?!]

Alas, we finally completed [well... mostly] the challenge and made it all better with a huge group hug and a cheer for our team. 

Next we lined up and formed a giant snake with every other person "blind." The snake had to scale a number of obstacles [under a rope, over a park bench, through a hula hoop] with half of its members unable to see. It was definitely a fun challenge.

Finally, my favorite challenge of all was the spiderweb. I personally have never done this before, but here's an example of what we were working with:

Don't let the image above fool you -- ours was a lot smaller than the example I found on the web. Anyway, the challenge was that we had to get everyone from one side of the web to the other without touching it and basically using every single space available [where you could only go through certain spaces once]. Also, we had combined groups, so we had 20 people to move from one side to the other. 

The reason that this challenge will remain ingrained in my memory is the fact that it took a lot of trust to let yourself be passed through a tiny hole by your peers. It was a very intimate moment to be held so carefully by a number of my classmates and looked after to ensure that I would 1. get through the hole, 2. not be violated, 3. not get my hair pulled out, and most importantly, 4. not get hurt. Thank you team, for taking care of me -- I'll make sure to return the favor as best as I can.

As you might have guessed, our team was successful in the challenge [even when we had to have a bunch of members blindfolded!].

The challenges lasted 3 hours [and I am now sunburnt...should have packed sunscreen!], but it really felt like time flew by [guess they didn't lie when they said time flies when you're having fun!].

Wow, I'm a bag of cheesy lines today.

To back up to the beginning of the day, we started with a session on Diversity and Multicultural Initiatives. Through a Powerpoint, watching a video, and a quick discussion, we received a great introduction to why diversity is so important in medicine. Afterwards we heard about the insurance plan available to students and the services available at the Graham Counseling Center.

Our [delicious] lunch was included as part of PRISM. Furthermore, each group had a mentor that joined us for the meal [ours was an Emergency Medicine physician]. Afterwards, we started the Challenge Course.

All in all, it was a really heartwarming day. I enjoyed it [even though I was exhausted] and hope that our TBL sessions will be this much fun in the future [maybe we can come up with a good icebreaker with our textbooks...]!

OUWB Orientation: Day 2/3

Today's inane image of the day:

This is what my front door does to the sun when it wants to invade my foyer -- woohoo prisms!

Last night, myself and three of my peers went to a Beaumont faculty member's home for dinner with him and his family. The dinner was definitely one of the big things I was looking forward to because it offered an opportunity to connect with a faculty member as well as my peers in a more intimate setting. Plus, it was refreshing to see a relaxed and happy physician [so, it is possible to have it all!].

As I drove home last night [very full from a delicious meal], I felt even more convinced that I had made the right decision -- while I believe that small schools generally result in a pretty close-knit community, I also believe that there is a right and wrong way to go about fostering its growth. OUWB seemed to put a lot of thought into this, because everything seems to be flowing perfectly.

Today we have a session on Diversity & Multicultural Initiatives, Health Insurance & Graham Counseling Center then the rest of the afternoon is dedicated to PRISM. I have an awesome PRISM group so I'm excited to do the low ropes challenge course with them later on today!

Just this past weekend I was [understandably] concerned about starting school and how everything would fall into place. Now, I'm just relaxed and ready to embark on this journey alongside my forty-nine peers [/corny statements... for now].