Still Kicking! An Update

Still here!

I'm back! First, my extreme apologies for the huge lack of posts this year. I tell myself that no one actually reads my blog (which helps me be more open and personal with what I write about), and it doesn't actually matter if I post or not, but clearly that's not the case. My mentee passed along a "formal complaint" today that some of you have felt a bit ghosted by my lack of posts and updates, so I promised I would do a brief update.

A text from a friend today that pretty much sums up the 2021 residency season for me

For those who are wondering, I have not given up on my surgery goals. I have submitted my completed applications, and since the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) officially opened to programs at 9am EST this morning, I am officially back in the residency program waiting game. Unlike prior years, I will share my experience with the entire process on my blog BUT you will have to wait until after Match Day in March 2021 to read about it. I don't want anything written to interfere with my chances, so while I plan to write frequent dated posts throughout the process, I will not actually hit the publish button on them until everything is all said and done. I will continue to post about things outside of this application season, and I am always happy to take requests if there is a topic you'd like me to address. What I can tell you regarding this season is I have only applied to surgery programs, and I continue to remain positive and hopeful that everything will work out the way it should.

Post work glow :)

As for work updates, I am still enjoying my work as an urgent care physician. If it weren't for my love of surgery and the fact that I deeply miss being in the operating room, I would be completely happy with this lifestyle. I work an average of 3-4 days a week, pretty much get to pick my schedule, the attending physician level pay is a plus, and I usually have time monthly to take a quick getaway or have a staycation for a few days. Plus, working in the urgent care setting offers a ton of variety, I still get to perform small surgical procedures in addition to suturing, and I rarely have to type up notes at home.  

 

Me and my not so little one

For those of you who care about mommy updates, my daughter continues to do well. She is currently attending school in-person, remains an Honor Roll student, and in a little less than 3 weeks, she will be turning 14 years old...Can you believe it?!?! This blog has been around for half of her life! She still remains very supportive of my surgery goals and loves to speak things into existence by telling all friends about her "surgeon mommy" :) My daughter remains the biggest reason why I continue to push forward and I hope to continue to make her as proud as she makes me.

I voted! Have you?

Despite being in a pandemic, my life hasn't changed much, so I don't have too much in the way of updates. I continue to stay pretty busy with work (COVID testing and telemedicine services have added a new layer to what I do), and I'm always keeping myself occupied with new activities. My recent hobby has been testing out new vegan recipe ideas, so I hope those of you who follow me on Instagram haven't been rolling your eyes with all of the food posts in my stories, LOL. I've also been trying to make a better effort at promoting my BOOK since a few people recently were super surprised that I wrote one, so don't be surprised if you see a few shameless plugs in each of my posts. Other than that, the most important thing I will end with is I don't care if it's via absentee ballot, mail-in, early voting (like I did last week), or in-person on Election Day, please do not forget to exercise the right that so many fought for you to have. GO VOTE!!!!

      

Almost Halfway Finished with Intern Year!

Still smiling!

I thought I was going to put out a lot more content following my last post, but that clearly didn't happen. Honestly, it hasn't been from having a lack of time since I'm currently off service and have had more free time over the past month and a half than I have had since starting residency. I think I've mostly just been experiencing writer's block, which is super weird given that I've had a lot of new experiences that really wouldn't have been too hard to write about. Oh well, I'll use this post to catch everyone up, and then I'll type a couple of new posts today to let everyone know what's currently happening in my world.

Physician Swag!

When I ended my last post, I was just about to begin my emergency medicine rotation. My first day was a complete culture shock! My first shift didn't start until 930am, so coming from the surgery world of 3am wake ups, it was super odd being able to sleep in. The work load was also much less intense. A couple of weeks prior to starting, I was informed that the service would also include internal medicine call which would begin on my first day. What this meant, is when my ER shift ended at 530pm, I would grab the night pager and head upstairs to function as an internal medicine resident until 6am. My first night was not only super busy, but a complete 180 degree turn from surgery life. We were swamped with new admissions, and notes had to include a lot of information that you typically don't see in surgery. For example, if a patient came in with something simple like a fractured hip from a fall, we didn't just workup that one problem, but we focused on what seemed like every co-morbidity the patient had. Whether it was their blood pressure or an episode of asthma that last occurred years ago, we left no issue unaddressed. That first night was a huge adjustment from my typical focus-based notes, and it was even harder considering the first half of my day was spent functioning as an ER resident, and that I had not been on an internal medicine rotation since my third year of medical school. Nevertheless, I quickly learned to adapt after receiving a few calls and texts from attending physicians the next day when I was post-call, LOL.

Relaxation before work

What I will say that I found to be the most shocking about call on a different service was actually leaving at 6am. During my surgery months, call doesn't typically end until after morning rounds, so you can imagine my disbelief at doing sign out at 530am and being out the door by 6am. Even better, during my ER month I had multiple full 24 hour days where I wasn't scheduled to work. That's right, full days where I wasn't groggy from being post-call and could actually sleep in and still have an entire day of productivity mixed with relaxation. I even had shifts that started later during the day, so a few times I ended up sleeping in, waking up to explore the city for an hour or two, and then getting ready for work. It was really nice being out in the sun each day and doing simple things like walking to the park and watching the calming river.

Post-Boards Celebratory Drink

I guess the best thing about having an emergency medicine month, was the extra time I had to study. Last week, I took the final board licensing exam required for me to obtain a full unrestricted medical license (I'm currently under a training license), so I needed all the extra study time I could get. This exam (COMLEX Level 3) differed from the other ones I had to take in order to graduate from medical school because it was a two day exam that took place over 8 hours each day, and instead of only multiple-choice answers, it included fill-in-the blank responses and questions where you had to select multiple answers. It was definitely long and stressful, but since the two days aren't required back-to-back, I was able to sit for the first portion on Monday and have a couple of days to breath before taking the second portion on Thursday. I won't receive my score until February, but I am so glad to be over the board exam hurdle! Plus, whoever it was who decided to place a Prometric testing center in the same building as a whiskey bar is a true MVP, because a drink was very much needed after making it through 16 hours of testing in one week.

On-Call Selfie

Right now, I am in the middle of an internal medicine month, and it hasn't been too bad. The hours are pretty consistent, and there are a lot of daily lectures and other learning opportunities. Oddly, this month has shown me how much I really enjoy and miss surgery, so I am itching to be back on the general surgery service next month. I'm also learning that I don't do well with free time, and I seem to be happier and more productive when my schedule is busier (I'm weird, I know!). The good news is in a little over two weeks, I will finally get my first true break of the year since I will be off New Year's week, prior to going back to general surgery, and I can't wait!!!!

That pretty much sums up the past month and a half. I know I always say I'll be coming out with more posts shortly, and then get too busy to post, but this month will be different. Not only is my five-year blogiversary approaching (stay tuned for a sweet surprise!), but my writer's block has resolved and I have a lot to say right now. Plus, I'm currently in the middle of working a 24 hour call shift, but rounds are over and my patient list is tidy, which means I actually have time to type a few future posts right now :) Stay tuned and I hope everyone has an amazing weekend!

Update: Month Two of Intern Year

Happy Thursday! I can't believe I am nearing the end of my second month of intern year! The past two months have been somewhat of a blur, but I am continuing to learn a ton, and even with all the hard work of surgery life, there are a lot of fun times too.

I started off the second month of intern year at a completely different hospital where the general surgery service is run by one intern and two senior residents. The volume is a lot smaller than the location I worked at last month, but I was definitely thankful to have had a super busy first month where I saw and was able to do a lot with help the entire day. At this location, I am the only person covering the floor while the two senior residents and attending physician spend the day in the OR. This was super scary at first, but I am a lot more skilled and able to handle whatever is thrown at me more so than I was during my first month.

A few general surgery intern essentials

The only drawback to this month has been the travel. The hours are a bit better since I can turn off my pager by 6pm and be done for the day, but it's a lot different when I'm on call. During the days I am on call, I come to my main hospital and work a full day, but then I leave around 5pm in order to go to the hospital where I worked last month and I spend the night there handling the surgery patients while taking in new admits and consults. It's just myself and a senior resident at night, so things can get a bit busy sometimes. When the interns arrive in the morning, I head back to the hospital where I am working now and have to round on all my patients, type up the notes, and then I can finally be post-call. Last month, I knew all the patients going into the evening, so I could relax and maybe take a small nap, but now I spend more time making sure I learn my patients when I am on call. Every now and then I get lucky with a couple of hours of sleep though, so I really can't complain.

Next week, I'll be starting at a busy hospital and trauma center where I will spend the next two months continuing general surgery with trauma on my call nights. Although my program has multiple hospitals, I kind of enjoy switching it up every now and then, and I'm looking forward to some new experiences. Plus, I have yet to place a chest tube, so I'm hoping I will meet my program's requirement of five within the next couple of months.

Golden weekends involve having fun and wearing sparkly dresses

As for maintaining work-life balance, I still take full advantage of being post-call and the rare days off. I haven't been on call as much this month as I was previously, but I was blessed to have a golden weekend last weekend, and I will have another this weekend. This past weekend, I enjoyed a night out clubbing where I danced and got super sweaty, hung out with some of my GA-PCOM family, was treated to an awesome meal at a great restaurant by my roommate and his girlfriend (can you believe I've lived here two months and never had a chance to really talk to the person I live with?!?!), and I even went to the movies and saw Crazy Rich Asians. It was an amazing and very much needed break, and I am so very thankful that this upcoming weekend will also be another golden weekend!

That pretty much sums up the past month. Although the change isn't drastic, I'm starting to realize that as each day passes, I am growing as a physician, and I really am enjoying the surgery life and all that comes with it. I'll make sure to keep everyone updated as I find time, but I appreciate all who continue to follow along with me on this crazy journey. As a thank you to all my wonderful readers, I'll be hosting a giveaway in my next post, so stay tuned!!!!

Finished with my 4th Year of Medical School!

My last rotation as Student Doctor Ward

Happy Monday! Since I’m backtracking on updates, I figured my last physical rotation of 4th year would be a good place to start. I was fortunate to finish back in March since I never took a vacation month to study for boards, and I am so happy to be done. My last actual rotation was an online course, but prior to that, I ended my stint of having to wear the short white coat with an Emergency Medicine (EM) elective in Tennessee. It was an elective that I applied for through the Visiting Student Application Service (VSAS), and probably one of my favorite. EM is a required 4^th year elective at my school, but since there weren’t any available slots open in any Georgia hospitals, I had to apply to out-of-state programs. I definitely wasn’t upset though, seeing as the program I went to not only put me up in a hotel for free for the month, and provided a nice food allowance, but the residents and attendings were some of the friendliest and down-to-earth people I had ever met. It’s just too bad they don’t offer a general surgery residency program, or I’d be all over it! 

I’d have to say my favorite part of the rotation was all the freedom I had. As a 4^th year student, I’ve found that residents and attendings place a lot more trust in me to get stuff done. At this particular location, once they knew I had an interest in surgery, I was the go-to for all the laceration repairs, and I loved it! There’s something about getting my own supplies, walking into a patient’s room introducing myself and letting them know that I will be fixing them, proceeding to do it unsupervised, and having great results that completely made my day! It also freed up the attendings to do other work, so they seemed to enjoy it as well. It was kinda bittersweet when the rotation ended, but I couldn’t resist having the attending take a picture of me on my final rotation of having to wear the short white coat.

Safari Park in TN with my daughter and little sister

Another awesome thing about being in Tennessee was it wasn’t so far that my daughter couldn’t come for a visit. We visited a place called Safari Park where we literally got to drive around and feed zebras, giraffes, camels, kangaroos, and other exotic animals by hand! My daughter was slightly freaked out at first, but she eventually warmed up to it and participated. I also had the chance to visit Memphis for the first time, and I even discovered that my aunt, who I hadn’t seen since childhood, literally lived down the street from the hospital I was working at! I was so happy to have the chance to visit relatives and have people around that made me feel less alone during my rotation.

My first time in Memphis was a great one!

Now that I’ve been finished with rotations for a while, I’m in such an awkward place. I don’t quite feel like a medical student since I’m done, but I’m not exactly a doctor either since I haven’t graduated. I’m also excited for graduation, but I kind of like the security of still having the student title with no major responsibilities. I’m just one confused soul, LOL. Either way, it feels good to be done, and there’s only 17 days left until graduation!

Greetings From Ohio!

General Surgery Essentials

It has been entirely too long since my last post, so time for another update! After my general surgery audition rotation in Philadelphia, I landed right back in Georgia for a required 4 week rural family medicine rotation. I had a lot of autonomy, nice hours, an awesome preceptor, and plenty of relaxation time, so I was really happy. Plus, I really enjoyed my time back home, and I was able to spend time with my daughter who I hadn't seen in two months. We both enjoyed much needed mommy/daughter bonding time, and it made me really happy that she is still doing okay despite me being away so much for 4th year auditions.

Selfie with the Georgia Family Medicine crew

After a pretty chill month, it was time to get back into the operating room, so I hit the road to Ohio where I am at now for general surgery audition #3. Today marks the start of week three, and so far I am enjoying my experience. As with any surgery program, the hours are long, but here, there are a huge variety of surgical cases every day, the residents and attending physicians are all super nice, and I enjoy working alongside the other auditioning medical students. Plus, over the past few months I have become super comfortable with suturing, hand tying, and patient management, so everything is a lot less overwhelming now.

Snagging in a little extra study time in between surgery cases

In addition to being on the surgery grind, I also had to fly to Philadelphia last weekend for the Student National Medical Association's (SNMA) National Leadership Institute hosted by the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. As National President of the SNMA, I was responsible for securing the location, finding speakers, putting together all programming, and making sure the weekend ran smoothly. To say I was stressed would be an understatement! Thankfully, I had the help of amazing individuals who helped me with everything from planning these past few months to handling minor things during the event so I could tend to meetings and such last weekend. Team work truly does make the dream work, and I continue to be reminded every day that I wouldn't be able to accomplish anything without the support and help from the fantastic people who surround me. I am super blessed, indeed!

Thank you to everyone who attended the SNMA September 2017 NLI!

Lastly, in terms of general 4th year updates, I have submitted all my residency applications, and now I'm just praying for a decent number of interviews. This waiting game is sooo stressful! The good news is I have one more general surgery rotation after this one, and then I'll be able to head back to Georgia and breathe again.

I think that covers everything for now. The next time you hear from me, I should be in Delaware finishing up the last rotation of my fourth year general surgery grind. I hope everyone reading this is doing well, and I look forward to updating everyone again soon!

Goodbye Vacation, Hello 4th Year!

That 4th year glow!

Vacation time might be over, but I'm officially a 4th year medical student, and couldn't be happier!!! I'm one week into my first rotation of the year, but I'm still feeling the effects of a wonderful two-week break that was filled with relaxation and happy vibes. Plus I found out yesterday that I passed the COMLEX Level 2 CE exam I took on May 8th (and scored higher than my Level 1 exam), so I'm pretty much on cloud nine. I officially passed all of the medical board licensing exams required for graduation which means I'm going to be a doctor, y'all!

Chicago fun!

But to rewind, I finished my third year with a great rotation in neurology that gave me the opportunity to really develop my examination skills, but I was ready for a break! So a few days after my rotation ended, I took a short trip to Chicago and had a blast! I finally got to see the play "Hamilton" (an amazing experience!), checked out the Rolling Stones exhibit at Navy Pier, and I got my fill of super delicious foods. I even took some time to stop by the American Osteopathic Association headquarters. It was great meeting the content editor for The DO magazine, who gave me a tour of the building, let me hold an autographed copy of A.T. Still's biography (he was the founder of osteopathic medicine), and she even hooked me up with some awesome freebies. I was one happy lady :-)

Weekend Girl's Trip

After Chicago, I made a trip to Mississippi to drop my daughter off with my dad since she had just finished school, and then it was off to Louisiana with my mom and two of my sisters for a girl's weekend getaway. We enjoyed the spa, watched a movie, danced, saw Smokey Robinson perform live, and somehow in the mix, I even ended up holding a baby alligator. It was a great time!

More Excitement to Come!

But now, it's back to reality as I'm currently back on the rotation grind. This month, I'm taking it somewhat easy with a family medicine rotation since next month I'll be starting my general surgery audition rotations. I'll be spending the next few weeks packing up and getting ready to live out of my car for a few months, but I'm excited for new adventures. I'll make sure to update everyone on all of that later, along with the other posts I promised, but for now I gotta get back to work!

In Love with Plastic Surgery!

The OR: My Happy Place :-)

So much awesomeness has occurred since my last post, but I could never find the time to sit down and write about it. I’ll try to do a very quick recap for you all, since I have a conference call coming up in less than an hour. In a nutshell, I am getting ready to start week 3 of my plastic surgery rotation tomorrow, and I am absolutely in love with this rotation! There is just so much variety and every last bit of it fascinates me.

All smiles :-)

On the very first day of my rotation, I got the chance to assist on a 5-hour procedure that involved reconstruction of an infected knee. The procedure included everything from wound debridement, muscle flaps, skin grafts, and negative-pressure wound therapy. During my general surgery rotation, I had previously given a presentation on muscle flaps, but I had never actually seen one done in person. It was the coolest thing ever! The surgeon even let me suture up the leg and he allowed me to handle the Bovie (a tool used to cauterize and coagulate tissue), and all this was on my first day! There really is no greater feeling than being able to repair a person, and we did just that.

Nope, that's not a breast implant. It's a butt implant

Other surgeries that I have assisted on have included bilateral brachioplasties (aka arm lifts), breast reductions, breast augmentations, and liposuction. I absolutely love that even with all the swelling, you are able to see immediate results with plastic surgery, and I love being able to help patients transform themselves. There’s nothing more fulfilling than seeing a woman who survived breast cancer and had to have a double mastectomy, cry after a breast reconstruction and augmentation surgery, saying that she can finally feel like a woman again. It’s also pretty cool to see a patient go from having a huge hole in their backside from a pilonidal cyst removal, to looking completely normal again (with the exception of a minor scar). When I was a child, I always loved putting puzzles together, and to me, plastic surgery is all about being able to see the big picture when there are only mixed pieces in front of you. It just makes me so happy!

I will say that surgery is definitely not at all for the weak. The hours are long, and there have been some days where I have gone as long as nine hours standing with no food, drink, or bathroom breaks. I don’t notice it when I’m busy helping, but when I get home my whole body hurts and I am just tired! It’s a good taste of what’s to come during residency though, so hopefully I can build up my tolerance. I am definitely building muscle having to hold up breasts, arms, and legs though, LOL.  

But all-in-all, it’s been a pretty fun rotation and I am happy to be back in the OR. I don’t know why it makes me so happy, but there is just something to be said about working to fix people while jamming to your favorite music, and having interesting conversations with the OR nurses. I know I’ve said it before, but I can definitely see myself becoming a surgeon and having a very happy and fulfilling career.

Getting in the holiday spirit!

But other than that, life continues to be busy and fun as usual. The little one and I finally put up the Christmas tree today, so I’m finally starting to get in the holiday spirit. I also went to see The Hip Hop Nutcracker last weekend, and that was such a fun show. I seriously can’t believe the year is almost over, but I’m definitely looking forward to enjoying the rest of the 2016 holiday season while soaking up as much surgery as I can. Well, my next call is starting in less than five minutes, so until next time! 

So Many Updates!

Busy, but Happy :-)

Happy Monday! If you follow me on Instagram or any other social media, then you probably already know that this has been a great, but super busy month for me. I started my dermatology rotation on the 5^th, moved to a new house just three days ago, and I’ve also been busy interviewing nannies (I’ll explain that in another post). But most importantly, after what felt like forever, I finally received both of my board scores, and I am happy to say that a celebration ensued :-) It is such a relief to finally be over such a huge milestone, but I still have more board exams to go before I graduate, and I’m already focused on the game plan for those, so I can’t get too cocky. I have no plans to post either of my scores on the blog because I realized that different people have different goals, and in the grand scheme of things passing is the only thing that really matters. Plus, residency programs like even higher scores on the step 2 exams, so I still have that looming over my head. What I will say though is that my dreams of surgery still remain a possibility for me, so I am extremely happy about that.

A lot of you reached out to me for advice on studying for boards, wondering why I took the USMLE, exam day feelings, etc., and I am keeping with my promise to write up posts on the topics. Immediately after this post, I will post a write-up of everything I did to study for both exams, and over the next week or two, I will write a few more posts that cover everything I’ve been asked, so hang with me. I’ll wait until the end of the month to write about all of the exciting things I’ve been learning on my rotation, and I’ll also end the month with a summary of whatever I haven’t covered so that everyone won’t feel like I just dropped off the face of the earth. As always I appreciate everyone who takes the time to read my posts, and I can’t wait to share all my adventures with you all!

Officially a 3rd Year Medical Student and 4 Days until USMLE Step 1!

The smile of a 3rd year medical student :-)

My brain has decided it can't take any more studying for the rest of the night, so I figured I would type up a quick update post. As of today, I can officially say that I am a third year medical student, but I take USMLE Step 1 in 4 days (and COMLEX Level 1 in 10 days), so I still have that hanging over my head. I am just so ready to get these board exams over with and start rotations!

I don't think I'll ever feel ready to take these exams, but I've been told that no one ever does. At this point, I probably won't learn huge amounts of new information in the next few days, so I'm just trying to focus on the little mistakes I make, so that it doesn't happen on exam day. Today I headed to campus bright and early to take an 8 hour assessment exam, and while it wasn't too bad, not being given a score when I completed it was a bit frustrating. I heard it might take a week or so to get the results, so I pretty much feel like I could have spent the time doing practice questions at home and using the feedback to work on my weaknesses a little more since I'll have taken my exams by the time the results come in. Oh well! The good news is my stamina is pretty strong because I didn't even start to get tired until maybe the last 50 questions (it was a 400 question exam), so that's assuring.

In other news, my daughter finished school last week and I was so grateful to have my dad drive in from out of state to pick her up for the summer. I'm thankful to have uninterrupted study time, and I know my daughter is happy to have animals to play with and people who constantly interact with her because for the past few weeks I've been in a deep exam mode. But even when she's away she still brightens my day, and the text she sent me the other day was the best (pic at the end of this post). My family also has a huge Disney World and Universal Studios trip planned, so I'm sure she won't even miss me that much.    

But anyway, that's about it for now. I just bought a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and I plan on completely zoning out and relaxing for the next hour. My next post will probably be a post-exam update, so hopefully it will be a happy one. Until next time!  

My daughter sends the best texts! :-)

Board Exam Study Update

My daughter is really into Pathoma! LOL

Hi all! I decided to resurface for a bit to give a quick update on how the board studying is going. Right now, I am 19 days away from taking USMLE Step 1 and I'm definitely feeling the pressure! It feels like there aren't enough hours in the day to accomplish everything I want, but I'm slowly working my way through it all. The good news is that my NBME assessment scores continue to improve by a lot each week, so even though I am nowhere near the score range that I want to be right now, knowing that I haven't hit my plateau gives me hope. 

In case you're wondering about my daily schedule, today pretty much went like this:

4:30-7:00am - Four sets of 40 UWorld Questions in random, timed-mode back-to-back (I usually finish each block with 15-20min to spare)

7-7:30am - Made sure the little one got dressed and ate breakfast, did her hair, and then headed out to the bus stop

7:30-12pm - Reviewed all of the morning's UWorld questions (even though I'm on my second official pass, this still takes me forever!)

12-1pm - Took a break to eat lunch and caught up on last night's episode of Fear the Walking Dead

1-4pm - Did two 40 question sets of USMLERX questions on tutor mode in the subjects of MSS and Embryo since my latest NBME listed those as my weak spots. I also took a break when my daughter got home to help her with her homework/discuss her day and I had a little extra time, so I did 10 Combank questions on the USMLE side.

4-5pm - Watched a chapter of Pathoma (had to speed it up a bit because 1x is too slow for me)

5-6pm - Dinner with the little one (I cooked last night and had leftovers, so it didn't take the entire hour) and then finished up some outside business

6-7:30pm - More Pathoma and got the little one ready for and tucked in bed.

At this point, I've pretty much covered everything on my list for the day with the exception of reading a chapter out of First Aid, and it equals a little under 11 hours of study time with all the breaks subtracted (I literally calculate and write down how much time I spend on every individual thing). Not sure if reading that chapter is going to happen tonight though, because I have an 8:30pm conference call that will most likely go until 10pm, and then I'm calling it a night!

My schedule is super exhausting, but since it seems to be working for me, I don't want to change it too much. I do need to get to a point where I am doing more questions per day since the COMLEX will be 400 questions (compared to only 280 with the USMLE), but I'll just have to slowly increase the amount over the next 3 weeks. Tomorrow I also have my very last written exam of medical school (yay!) for my Primary Care Skills course, so I'll have to put an hour towards my schedule in the morning towards studying for it and another hour towards taking it.

Anyway, this post pretty much sums up my life nowadays in a nutshell. I'm about take a quick shower before my call begins, so I hope everyone has an amazing week!

Getting Ready for the USMLE Step 1 and COMLEX Grind!

Study Selfie!

Happy Friday! I finished my last set of basic science exams today, which means the bulk of my second year of medical school is officially complete. That means no more all day mandatory lectures ever again and more time to study for my upcoming board exams! The only courses I will have to worry about from here on out are Primary Care Skills on Tuesdays and Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine labs on Thursdays. That means I’ll spend no more than four hours on campus each week, and I am so happy for the chance to finally be able to focus!

In case you’re new to the blog and confused about all the board exam talk, six weeks from now, on June 4, 2016, I will be taking the marathon 8-hour exam known as USMLE Step 1, which is the first in a series of medical board licensing exams. Six days after that, on June 10th, I will be taking yet another 8-hour licensing exam known as COMLEX Level 1. Not only do I need to pass the COMLEX to graduate, but both of these exams will pretty much play a huge role in me being able to match into the future residency program of my choice. So, yes, the struggle is definitely real right now!

The past few weeks have been a bit rough dealing with balancing lectures, studying for boards, and handling the million other things on my to-do list, so I am looking forward to having a better schedule. I’ve been waking up at 4:30 most mornings to do my readings and questions, and then a lot of time spent in class was dedicated towards finishing up questions, with evenings being dedicated to reviewing the material. It’s pretty much been the only way I could get everything on my list accomplished in one day. I’ve also started going to sleep around 9:30/10pm, which was super rough at first because I’m used to staying up until 1 or 2am, but I think I’m starting to get used to it. Going forward I’ll most likely keep my current sleep/wake schedule and that’ll give me a chance to still have a few free hours every night to relax and handle my mommy responsibilities and other outside stuff. Plus, I’m noticing that my brain has decided to stop working after 7pm, so it all works out, LOL.

As for the actual board prep, I’m still keeping it pretty simple. My major resources are UWORLD, First AID for the USMLE, COMBANK and Pathoma. I sprinkle in a little Goljan every now and then, and I may incorporate a little DIT for some of my weak points. I learn best from questions, so my goal is to do as many as possible between now and my exam dates. I finished my first pass of UWORLD at the end of February, so I’ve been going through my incorrect and marked questions. Tomorrow makes six weeks from my exam date, so I plan on resetting UWORLD and starting fresh. I haven’t finished all of COMBANK yet, but apparently we will have to do questions from it as part of a class grade, so I am trying to save what I haven’t completed on the COMLEX side for that. Depending on how much I get accomplished, I might also buy a 30-day subscription for the Kaplan Qbank, and I will also be taking all of the available NBME and UWORLD assessments before my exam date. I took my first NBME assessment before AMEC and was not happy with my score, but I did have a 20 point improvement when I took my first UWORLD assessment last weekend, so hopefully I can get up to the score I want. This week was lost studying for class exams, so I won’t be waking up to take an assessment tomorrow morning, but I will be back on track with the weekly weekend assessments starting next weekend. I also plan on taking two NBME assessments the week before my exam because I really need to build up my stamina.  

That’s pretty much it for board prep. I am definitely requesting prayers, positive vibes, support, and most of all patience and understanding as I shut myself away and become unavailable over the next several weeks. I won’t be posting on here as much until after I finish my exams, but since blogging relaxes me, I’m sure you’ll hear from me a few times before then. I also appreciate all the emails I receive from you all, but there will be some huge delays in my response time, so don’t get upset if it takes a while to hear back from me. I’ll also be trying to avoid other forms of social media (mostly Facebook) because it is a huge time suck! Five minutes always turns into an hour for me when I’m on there, so I might check every now and then to make sure I’m not missing any information from my class or rotation group, but that will be about it. Pictures are quick and easy though, so I’ll probably keep posting to my Instagram account :-)

But other than that, I hope everyone has been having a wonderful week and that your weekend is even better. The little one has been begging me to have a picnic, so I might attempt to do that tomorrow (along with my First Aid book in tow). Outside of that, these goals aren’t gonna happen by themselves, so the study grind is on!

Stay Warm, Folks!!!!

Friday Selfie :-)

Happy Friday!!!! I know I said I would do a post last weekend, but nothing really noteworthy has happened since I last wrote. I took my first reproductive exam and managed to do fairly well on it, so I treated myself with a two day break last weekend of absolutely nothing school or board exam related. After about 24 hours, I was bored out of my mind! LOL The boredom quickly faded after that when I spent the next two days preparing for my OMM written exam and practical, which I took on Wednesday. Those two exams completely wore me out, and I’m still kicking myself in the head for my performance during the practical exam. Hopefully when I get the results back next week it will show that I didn’t perform too bad. The odd thing is I probably practiced for this one more than any other practical, but my tendency to over analyze everything most likely got in the way this time. Oh well, it’s not the end of the world, nor the end of the course. Plus, my daughter enjoyed bonding with me while I used her as a patient for practice :-)

My Favorite OMM Patient :-)

Outside of that, I am currently at home staying warm and happy! They closed my campus at 1:30 today and then my daughter’s school ended up having a ten minute early dismissal. It’s cold, raining, and the temperature is supposed to drop below freezing tonight, so staying in and staying warm is a no-brainer for us. I also got a new library book, so I’m really hoping to get all of my studying done early so I can relax a little and enjoy it. I hope everyone reading this has a wonderful weekend, and to those of you braving the storm in the Northeast, please stay warm and safe this weekend!