Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match!

Hello!

Match week 2019 is finally upon us. After 4 long years filled with endless amounts of studying, a ridiculous number of exams, clinical rotations, and residency interviews, I'm proud to say that I will officially become an OB-Gyn!

Becoming a doctor has been a dream of mine since I was 4 years old (yes, really). Medical school has definitely been difficult, but I never truly doubted my ability to actually achieve this dream until I started to apply for residencies this past fall. My friends will tell you that I'm crazy for making that statement, but let me explain myself. I consider myself an average applicant for the field of OB-Gyn. My step 1 score is right on average for past OB-Gyn applicants. I made Honors and High Passes in almost all my courses but was not high achieving enough to qualify for AOA*. I had a good number of volunteer experiences and a handful of leadership experiences. I participated in research but was never able to publish anything. Overall, I felt I checked all the boxes and had many meaningful experiences that I could talk about on the interview trail. Now, you may be thinking, "You're definitely crazy! All of that sounds amazing!" The reasons why I continue to insist I'm an average applicant are because my step 1 score is average and the field of OB-Gyn is becoming more and more competitive. Theoretically, I interviewed and ranked enough programs, but you can just never be sure especially after having met so many amazing applicants who were interviewing at top-notch programs on the interview trail. Regardless, by the grace of God, I have matched to an OB-Gyn residency position!

I'll find out where I will be training on Match Day on Friday, March 15th. Keep a look out for that announcement. I also still plan on writing more blog posts about my residency application and interview experience. I've been holding off because it didn't feel right to give you all my perspective and advice without knowing if it actually worked for me!

To any fellow MS4s reading this: congrats if you've matched as well! If not and you're currently going through SOAP, just remember that this experience doesn't define you. You are an amazing and successful individual who has reached an education level that only 1% of the world's population have also achieved. There is a reason for everything and just trust that there is a reason for your current struggles, a plan for your life, and many people who love you.

Much love and talk to you all again soon!


*Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) is a national medical school honor society. Members are the highest achieving students in their respective medical school classes and chosen based on basic science and clerkship grades.

I'm Back?

Alright, it's obvious, I suck at keeping this blog up to date. I've always loved the cathartic nature of reflecting on one's life through a blog or journal yet never seem to be great at keeping up with such self-reflection tools for longer than a few weeks. My growing collection of store bought, DIY-ed, and digital means for journaling perfectly represents my struggle. Regardless, here I am with thoughts of nostalgia and self-reflection crawling back to my digital journal that will forever be waiting and saved as a collection of 1's and 0's on the interwebs. Looking back at my scarce collection of published and saved but never published blog posts, I've noticed a trend for when I return to this blog: I tend to return either just before or immediately after a big change in my life. Today is no different. The last post published on this blog lists the things I've learned about myself and medical school at the end of my first year of medical school. Since then, I've continued with my medical education and have accomplished and passed many milestones like taking Step 1 at the end of my second year, starting clerkships and getting to know some amazing patients and medical professionals during my third year, and finally applying for and interviewing for jobs as a fourth year. This is the part of my life from where I write to you all now. I'm nearing the end of my OB-Gyn residency interview trail and have to turn in my rank list of programs in 2 months. After that, my future lies in the hands of an algorithm and, more importantly, God.

I had a lot of initial thoughts of what I wanted this post to be about: advice about residency applications, advice about residency interviews, and/or reflections about my journey applying to residency. I will hopefully eventually write a separate blog post about each of these topics, but I think for now I'll leave this one as an update on where I am in my life now and what my future plans for this blog are. In an ideal world where I am not a lazy procrastinator, I will follow through with the above as well as maybe detail future trips I hope to go on. Until then, just know that I'm doing well, the residency interview trail is long and tiring, and medical school is long and tiring. Overall, however, I wouldn't change anything about how I've lived my life for the past 3.5 years.

I hope you all are doing well also.

Lessons from my First Year of Medical School

Some of these will be more serious, others are very tongue-in-cheek.

1. It's okay to abide by the P=M.D. mentality (pass=M.D.) when first starting out or even for your entire medical school career.*
2. It's also okay to push yourself to achieve that Honors if that's what you want. Just don't let it stress you out and turn you into a gunner.**
3. Be confident and proud of where you are. You were chosen for a reason, own it.
4. With #3 being said, don't let your achievements and experience get to your head. You do still need to be humble.
5. The phrase "high-yield" will become a part of your daily vernacular.
6. The medical field has purposely tried to over-complicate things by creating new words for simple things like bruises and nose bleeds.
7. Every space, line, ridge, and bump in the human body has a name that you will have to learn in anatomy.
8. Your white coat and medical school I.D. can open many doors for you. You no longer have to beg doctors to let you shadow them.
• Subpoint: people outside of the medical field will mistake you for a doctor if you're wearing the socially accepted uniform of scrubs and white coat 
9. Your professors are great people and will do almost anything to help you succeed.
10. Your undergrad degree, if useful at all for medicine, sorry liberal arts majors, will probably only help you in certain classes for 1 lecture at best. . . the material is much more in-depth now.
11. You will encounter people who are really high-strung and stressful to you, don't feel like you have to associate with them. Choose to surround yourself with people that will encourage you and help you.
12. Don't feel like you have to follow the advice of the upperclassmen or even your classmates. If their study methods don't work for you, don't use them.
13. It's okay if you slip up in your grades a bit. There's a learning-curve and a big transition from undergrad to medical school. What's important is that you adapt and persevere. Also see #1.
14. Some people in your class will know 100% what they want to do when they grow up. It's awesome if you are one of those people. It's also completely fine if you're not.
15. Try to get along with your anatomy tankmates if you don't already. It'll make the 2-3 hours dissections that much more bearable.
16. Wash your anatomy scrubs at the end of every week. If you don't keep up with it, they will stink forever.
17. Try to desensitize yourself to your cadaver somewhat, especially when doing crazy things like cutting the body in half.
18. With #17 being said, do occasionally remember that your cadaver was a person with a life and a family who graciously donated their bodies for your education.
19. Don't worry about Step 1 just yet. Some of your classmates will talk about reading First Aid, but don't worry about them. Focus on completing your first year first.
20. Some members of your class will want to party and drink every weekend. If that's you, great, but don't forget about why you're here. If that's not you, don't feel like you have to become that person. Do the things that you love during your free time, because free time will be hard to come by.
21. Figure out what are the things you need in your life to keep you sane. Medical school is demanding and you're going to have to prioritize things in order to keep doing them.
22. You can get sucked into studying all day, every day. Don't feel like you have to to keep up with the work. It's important to still feel like a human being. See #21.
23. Keep up with your friends who aren't in medical school. You'll need to have some conversations that aren't about the brachial plexus and drug interactions.
24. Don't get upset if your friends and family who aren't in medicine don't think it's cool that you held and dissected a heart in anatomy lab. Everyone has their own criteria for what they consider cool.
25. Stay connected with the events that are going on in the world. There are things going on out there besides the Circle of Willis.
26. Never before has not having anything to do ever been so glorious
27. You might start freaking out now about rotations, Step, and match, but don't! You'll get there in your own time and when you do you will conquer them head on.

* My school still follows a Marginal Pass to Honor grading system. This won't fully apply to you if your school is on a Pass/Fail system.
**Gunner: a person who tends to sabotage peers in order to get ahead

1st Semester Recap

Why hello there!

The last time I was able to write on this blog, or even think about writing about this blog, I was about 2 weeks away from starting medical school. Since that last post, a lot of things have happened in my life with regards to medical school. In fact, these past 4 months have probably been the quickest, most stressful, and busiest months of my life so far. Highlights, in no specific order, include:

1. Officially donned my white coat for the first time and said the Hippocratic Oath
2. Met my first patient (my cadaver) and successfully completed anatomy lab without vomiting or passing out
3. Took my first National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Shelf exam and did decently well
4. Worked with my first standardized patient (SP) and learned almost all aspects of the physical exam (Neuro is to come next semester)
5. Became an Ambassador for my school and talked to interviewees and high school students about our school and med school life in general
6. Joined a women's Bible study and became a member of the leadership team for the Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA)
7. Got selected to go on a Spring Break global health trip to Santa Ana, Honduras
8. Met a great group of friends who are supportive and totally not gunners
9. Took 8 exams in 2 weeks and received a Pass or better on all of them
10. Finished my first semester of medical school with High Passes and Honors in all of my classes

Even though there have been bumps along the way, especially during my first block week of exams and finals, I don't think I've been much happier than I am now. I feel like I belong at school and as #8 reflects, found friends who will build each other up rather than tear each other down to get to the top. My top 2 criterion for a medical school were a supportive class and great opportunities to get clinical experience. My school exceeds both of those criterion by miles and I am so glad to be here. Thus, I have truly learned that school rank doesn't matter. What matters for me in my medical education is that I am happy and surrounded by people that will do anything to help me succeed, because how I'm feeling has a greater impact on my performance than my school's ranking.

I learned a lot this semester. . . probably more than I ever did in a year at undergrad, and I know I have a lot of learning to do. The biggest lesson for me, however, was that I am competent. I earned my spot in my class and I don't think the admissions committee made a mistake. I thank God everyday that He has put me on this path and is with me every step of the way.

I have a long road in front of me and a lot of things still left to figure out, but for now, I'm proud and happy to say that I am 1/8th an M.D! 

Life Update - Being an Adult is Hard

Hello again,

I always seem to come back to this blog in times of reflection and semi-boredom. . . no offense. It's not that I will only write posts if there's nothing better to do, I'm just unable to make myself seem coherent when I have some extra time on my hands.

Moving on, the biggest lesson I've learned this summer is: being an adult is hard. I don't really consider myself an adult (or just don't want to accept it) yet as I still have 4 more years of schooling left, but this summer I have had to deal with the inevitable search for an apartment and all the associated adulty things like finding an electricity provider, buying renter's insurance, finding an internet provider, and creating a budget.

My biggest realization in dealing with all of this is: being an adult means making a lot of phone calls. I really dislike making phone calls. I'm a millennial; I am used to sending emails and text messages. I'm also an introvert; I prefer staying indoors and limiting my interaction with other human beings, especially human beings that sound like they resent every phone call they get from a (potential) customer.

Regardless, I'm really proud of how I've handled everything. Even though it's been really stressful, I'm very happy with how I've handled things and relieved/glad that things are working out. (I'm signing the lease and moving into my apartment in a week!) If anything, this only makes me a little more confident that I'll be able to handle medical school like a champion which leads me to the second update I want to provide. (Good segue*, me!)

Medical school will officially start for me in t-minus 18 days. (Insert screaming emoji) I've bought scrubs embroidered with my school's logo, ordered my white coat, bought a new (required) laptop, registered for MS1 retreat, and looked into stethoscopes. In 12 days I'll get my ID badge and all the fancy computer/website authorizations needed to do medical school. In 2 weeks, I'll attend orientation and participate in the white coat ceremony! A lot of things are happening/soon to happen and it is so daunting, scary, nerve-wracking, and exciting.

I hope to keep you all updated on how things go. This blog is already a mixed bag of topics/themes, but hey I have a mixed bag of interests/experiences, so I hope to continue the focus on my journey to becoming a doctor. Actually, as I type this, I think I will try to make a video or write a post about medical school interviews and my experience.

Until next time guys. (Hopefully next time will be soon, but no guarantees.)


*Don't you think segue is spelled funny? It's like it's trying to compensate for something by being weird to spell.

My Promises for 2015

2015 holds a lot of great new adventures for me. I will graduate from college. I will start medical school. I will start living as a "real" adult. Since I will have what I consider a fresh start after graduation in May, I wanted to publicly commit to some goals for 2015 as I did at the start of 2014. (Link to that post here) However, rather than calling them goals or resolutions, I want to call them promises because that's just what they are: promises to myself. Now that I have achieved my long-time goal of getting into medical school and officially starting down the path of achieving my goal of becoming a doctor, I have some less tangible "goals" in mind. These are things that cannot be checked off after receiving a letter in the mail, but promises to myself that I hope I will have kept when I reflect on my 2015 on December 31, 2015.

In 2015 I promise to:

1. Make myself happy by putting myself first. This sounds bad, but I have spent the majority of my life doing things because I want to make the people around me happy. I fully embrace, value, and understand that much of my happiness comes from making the people around me happy (this is why I think I would be a good doctor who won't become jaded by the prospects of money and fame). However, it's time that I start feeling happy by making myself and only myself happy (as long as it's not at the expense of another person's happiness or well-being of course).
2. Be open and start building great friendships. Since transferring, I have gotten resigned to starting up conversations with people and truly taking the time to get to know them. I'm also not great at letting people get to know me. If I want to rectify all my regrets from college, I need to keep this promise when I start medical school.
3. Stay confident and believe that I belong at the medical school I am attending. I struggle with confidence in my intellectual ability. I think that's the result of a grueling pre-med course load and belief that I cheated the system to attend my current university. However, as my past two semesters of grades and recent medical school acceptances have shown me, I am capable and I should be going down this path.
4. Stop overthinking and take some chances. There have been a few times where I was not confident or brave enough to leap off a cliff (metaphorically speaking). This of course is caused by my lack of confidence in my own capabilities and qualifications. However, if I want to take advantage of every opportunity I need to just confidently say yes and go for it.
5. Remember everything it has taken to get to where I am now and everyone who has helped me in any way along the way. Ultimately, this promise stems from the fact that I would be very disappointed in myself if I start to become egotistical and stop putting others before myself when I need to. The line of work I am setting off to enter is somewhat set up to force people to forget the ultimate goal of the medical profession: helping others. Thus, I want to make sure that I never ever forget that goal.
6. Continue to make my parents proud. My biggest fear is disappointing my parents. I came close to realizing that fear at the end of my senior year of college. However with my recent medical school acceptances, my desire to hear the words "we are so proud of you" come from my parents mouths was fulfilled. Now, I want to keep it.

2014 may not have been the best, but it definitely proved to be the start of a great 2015. Hopefully, when I read back over this post in a year, I will be happy with the promises I have kept and did have a great 2015.

Reflection on My 2014

This is really strange coming back to this blog. I had started it with the intention of building an online presence for myself that was active and placed me in the creator category rather than the passive viewer category I had been in for so long. I still sometimes think about continuing that idea and making that thought a reality but haven't quite found the courage or time to actually do so. . . maybe that will change in 2015.

As I sit on my bed under the covers in my pajamas with my wet hair in a towel typing this up with Top Chef on in another browser window while people outside celebrate NYE with fireworks, I can't help but think about everything that has happened this year.

Here are the biggest positive things that have happened this year:

1. Most notably, I was accepted to medical school. And not just one medical school, but two! That last sentence feels very strange for me to type because I am not one to brag about my own achievements, but I think considering how my college application process went I deserve to toot my own horn a little. Plus, knowing that two medical schools want me reminds me that this was not a fluke.
2. I made all As and A-s for a second semester in a row. This is a weird accomplishment to type because I had always made straight As growing up. I broke that streak, however, in high school and have since struggle to return to it. I'm glad that I finally was able to do so.
3. I was named MVP of my ResLife staff for the 2013-2014 school year. I realize that part of the work that went into this title was done in 2013, but like I mentioned earlier, I tend to think about years in terms of school years. Regardless, it was nice to be recognized by my fellow staff members after feeling so uncomfortable and undeserving on the RA position when I started out.
4. I have continued to build and strengthen relationships with people at my university. While this may seem like a small accomplishment in comparison to the other things on this list, this one is very important to me. Since transferring to my current university, I have felt alone and without many friends. I left some great friendships behind at my previous university, failed to keep in contact with them, and failed to keep in contact with my friends from high school. Especially considering some of the negative aspects of my 2014, this point makes me proud because it exemplifies how I continued to try and make best of my situation even though it hasn't and probably won't turn out the way I want.
5. I have started to become more comfortable with being alone and relying on myself. I guess you could say that I have always had to be self-reliant for my entertainment as an only child. However, I would spend a large part of the day either in school with my friends or in daycare with my friends. Therefore, while I have had to become comfortable with only having myself or my parents to entertain me when at home, I still had a lot of social time during the weekdays when away from home. This changed since moving and transferring. Now, I really only have myself to rely on for entertainment and that was a BIG adjustment for me. I'm used to having friends and lots of people to really talk to. Now, I don't have that as much, but now I'm starting to become okay with it.
6. I finally started to feel like an adult and didn't panic or fail. As I flew home for Winter Break, I realized that I had gotten on a plane and traveled at least once every month that I was back at school because of medical school interviews. My very first trip was the first time I had ever booked a flight, made a hotel reservation, and successfully made it to my destination and back entirely on my own. I was so nervous and worried about everything turning out the way I had planned so that when it did I was so proud of myself. Now I am more confident in my ability to be a functioning adult.

Here are the biggest negative things:

1. My parents and I have moved away from the place I called home for almost 14 years of my life. Moving isn't foreign to me; this most recent move was the fourth move for me. However, our previous location was definitely where we had spent the longest and I don't have many memories from the 3 prior locations. So this move was sad for me because it rendered me very alone. Immediately after transferring, I was very unhappy because I was having a really hard time meeting people and making friends. The one thing keeping me going was knowing that during long breaks, I would be able to see my friends from high school. This move took that away from me. So while I feel slightly better about how things are going at my current university, it still isn't the same.
2. I have never felt more alone, friendless, and unhappy than I did this year. This is fully related to negative thing #1 and a little contradictory to positive thing #5 but is very true. I initially spent the greater part of this year feeling this way. I had felt crummy after my first year at my current university, thought that was slowly changing after my second year at my current university, only to be brought back to a state of loneliness and unhappiness after ringing in 2014 without my friends. This only amplified during my summer break when I was stuck in a city I had only lived in for 3 weeks prior and had no idea where to go, what to do, how to get places, or any reason to do any of those things.

I really like thinking back on my year. I have never really been one to embrace the whole New Year, New You thing but I do appreciate self-reflection. While I initially thought 2014 was the worst year of my life so far, those two lists above prove me wrong. Maybe that feeling stems from the fact that we tend to dwell on the negatives in our life rather than the positives, but also has to do with the fact that those 2 items on my negative list overshadowed a vast majority of my 2014. Like I alluded to in negative item #2, I really only feel like my 2014 began to look-up in the last 3 months of the year.

Here's to 2015 and all that this year will bring!

New Year's Goals

I know I suck. . . I haven't done anything with this in about five months. Can I still use the, "I'm busy with school and figuring out how to get into medical school" excuse? Hopefully so, because that honestly is the reason why. It's not like I *cough* forgot about this blog or anything. Just to prove it, I use Google Chrome. And on my start up screen, I have a few apps, one of which is Blogger. Every time I turn on my computer, which is pretty much every day if not multiple times a day, and go to do homework (look at Tumblr or YouTube) I would see the little orange Blogger icon and think, "hmmm I should post something" and then get distracted before I could. I'm also go to put a disclaimer right now that I have been writing essays for the past hour and a half, so I'm not even going to try to proofread this post and make sure I have commas where commas are supposed to go. I mean who am I kidding, I don't really use proper grammar all the time here anyways. So now that I have rambled for a bit as per usual, let's get on with the purpose of this post.

I am now eight days into 2014 and while my New Years was particularly boring and sad, a story for another time, I naturally have been thinking about what I want to accomplish in wonderful 2014. I was never one for New Years Resolutions because 1) I have a lot of goals that can't really be accomplished within a year, or shouldn't take me a whole year to accomplish and 2) while I think it's nice and wonderful to think about how you want to change your life in the coming year by making a resolution, most people tend to give up on their resolutions by the time February hits. Side note: I think I just made that list because I just finished re-reading Paper Towns by John Green and he does a lot of those lists in that book. So instead, I have come up with some things that I want to do in the year 2014 and hope to keep up with them throughout the year, or as long in the year as they have to be kept up with. You'll understand what that meant in a minute.

Just as the majority of Americans, I want to exercise more. I think I did a pretty good job doing that near the end of 2013, but I want to do better this year. Another side note: does anyone else who is in school tend to think about years in semesters or just school years? Like when I say "near the end of 2013" I really mean the fall semester 2013. And it's also hard for me to think about 2013 because I want to think about it as the end of my sophomore year and beginning of my junior year. Anyways, I hope to do some form of exercise for at least 30 minutes at least three times a week. But let's be honest, I will be proud of myself if I exercise at least once a week once classes start up again. My other goal for half of 2014 is to study for the MCAT for at least 30 minutes every day. I haven't decided if I want to give myself a break on weekends or not, I think I'll wait to see how well I do once classes start. Time is ticking away and I am getting closer and closer to when I have to take the MCAT and I only want to have to take it once.

To keep me motivated for both goals, I have adopted the "Don't Break the Chain" method. Initially created by Jerry Seinfeld and then brought to my attention by Charlie McDonnell, I think it's one of the few techniques that will actually keep me motivated because I am such a visual person. If you don't know what I'm talking about go ahead and check out Charlie's video "Don't Break the Chain". Karen Kavett has also made some 2014 calendars if you want to go ahead and try this technique out. Go to her page here to print them out.

I've done relatively well since starting, however, I didn't start on January 1st because I kinda didn't think to do it til afterwards, but better late than never right? Let me know if you decide to try this method or what your New Years Resolution is!

Clothing Haul

Hello!

I'm not one to do the whole makeup guru, fashion blog stuff, but I am a girl that still loves to find cute clothes at a cheap price. Of course since school is almost back in session, there are a bunch of deals on clothes and anything else needed for college and school. To take advantage of these deals and even try to get more of a deal, I stopped by my local TJ Maxx and Marshalls. I just want to apologize now for the iffy quality of pictures. The lighting also makes some of the colors come out funny.

Express denim shorts

Retail: $32.00

Marshalls: $16.99

Abercrombie & Fitch knit top

Retail: $16.00

Marshalls: $9.99

Active basic V-neck tee

Retail: $7.00

Marshalls: $5.99

Cynthia Rowley V-neck tee

Retail: $20.00

T J Maxx: $9.99

Mine skinny jeans

Retail: $22.00

T J Maxx: $14.99

BeBop lace dress

Retail: $24.00

T J Maxx: $16.99

I also stopped by Charming Charlie to buy some jewelry. Sorry I didn't take a picture of the necklace I got but I also found a really nice knit top.

Charming Charlie flowy knit top

Retail: $15.00

I paid $6.99 as it was on clearance

My two favorite finds are definitely the dress and skinny jeans. I don't really want to call the pants jeans because they aren't made from a denim material. If anything they are more like the Pixie Pants from J Crew which makes this find even better because those pants go for $98.00. In other words, I think I found a really great dupe for those pants, and they are going to be very useful for many different outfits.

Typography Wall Art

Hey guys,

I'm excited to announce that during this upcoming school year, I will be a Resident Assistant (RA) for my university. I will be working with freshman in a Global Cultures living learning community (LLC). Because I'm not willing to tell you guys which university I attend, the amount of information I can tell you guys will depend on whether or not it reveals my colleges identity. Regardless, I hope to tell you as much about my experience as I can especially since this will be my first year as a RA and I don't know yet what to expect. Training starts for me in a week in which I will get to know my fellow staff members and prepare the dorm for the incoming class of 2017.

Now on to the main point of this post. Because I am an RA, I will have a room all to myself. As such, I've been trying to figure out how to decorate the greater amount of space I will have. As a proud nerdfighter, I decided to make some 3D typography letters spelling out DFTBA pictured below. I'm really happy with how these turned out!

 

How to Shadow a Doctor

Hey guys!

In order to accompany the recent bombardment of blog posts about my doctor shadowing experience, I have made a YouTube video giving you guys some tips of accomplishing this task yourselves. It's a very general video to help give you guys a basic understanding of what to do and what to expect. If you would like any specific questions answered feel free to leave them in the comments of this post or in the comments of my video which will be below. If you want to read about my experiences in a more detailed manner be sure to read the three posts I have written as well. And if you guys like to know more about my pre-med experience so far please let me know because I would love to tell you about the other things I've been doing to help me with my medical school applications.

OR Observation

Hey guys!

Long time no blog! Sorry. :/

As you guys may already know, I want to become a doctor. And as you have seen, I reposted my posts about my ER shadowing experience. Well last week (7/18/13) I completed my third doctor shadowing experience by following an anesthesiologist. While I know many will wonder why I didn't choose a surgeon to shadow, it's because I hoped to be exposed to many different types of surgeries rather than those limited to the type of surgeon I shadow.

My experience began with a rocky start because the OR was slow and the anesthesiologist I was supposed to shadow was allowed to take the day off. Luckily, two other anesthesiologists were kind enough to allow me to shadow them instead. After changing into scrubs, a cap, mask, and shoe covers, I felt like a real member of the medical care team. During the first case I was able to view down a patient's throat and see the cords before a breathing tube was put in place. Instead of staying and watching that procedure I was able to go and watch a CABG from start to finish. This is an open heart surgery and more commonly known as a heart bypass. Rather than taking a vein from the leg, the surgeon chose to use a mammary artery from the chest wall. Then because the patient had very small and delicate vessels, the surgeon chose to put the patient on the heart-lung machine. All in all, the entire procedure was very awesome and only took about two hours.

Before I had to leave, I was able to watch an epidural be administered for a patient having a procedure done on his prostate. While much less interesting than an open heart surgery, it was still interesting to see a first hand viewpoint of a very popular form of anesthesia, especially for pregnant women in labor. My conclusion about whether I would want one for if/when I have a baby is that the worst part isn't even when the medicine is administered, it's when the doctor numbs the area with a local anesthetic. Interesting enough, that medicine is used a lot for patients who need stitches.

The rest of my OR experience was a little less eventful. The number of surgeries and procedures was too low for there to be a need for three anesthesiologists and so another doctor was allowed to go home. This then put more pressure on the remaining doctor I was shadowing to complete all the tasks and prevented me from properly viewing more procedures. 

Nevertheless, I am very grateful to the doctors and OR department for allowing me to stick around even when my prior shadowing agreement fell through. I also realized just how much authority and responsibility a doctor has especially in a department like the OR that has a strict schedule and rules to follow. Anesthesiologists have to keep track of all nurse anesthetists making sure a patient remains under anesthesia during the procedure and that all surgeries start on time so that every other member of the operating team can move on with their jobs.

Let me know if there is more information you would like about shadowing doctors or just the pre-med experience in general.

Lifescouts: Keyboard

Hey!

I really want to come up with a cute greeting to use for these blogs, because sometimes I get tired of putting hi, hello, and hey. Any ideas for me?

This badge is for playing a keyboard.

Now to me, I don't see many differences between playing a keyboard and playing a piano so I don't understand why they are separate badges, but that means I get one more to claim. The only keyboard I've ever owned was a little toy keyboard given to me for Christmas by my aunt and I think only has 3 or 4 octaves on it. Even though it's small, I love it because it will record one song that you play at a time and teach you how to play 10 pre-recorded songs. Other than that, I've played keyboards at friends' houses just because it was there and they didn't have a piano. 

Sorry this didn't have a fun story!

Badge count: 21

Lifescouts: Piano

Hi!

In continuing with my Lifescouts series, my next badge is the piano badge.

When I was four years old, my mom gave me the option to either start taking dance lessons or piano lessons. I chose dance and so she set me up with ballet classes. During my first class, I got freaked out and started crying and stopped taking lessons before the first recital. Then she tried to set me up with piano lessons. The only problem was no teacher wanted to teach me because they didn't think I knew the alphabet or would sit still long enough to learn anything. Until she found my first teacher who was willing to teach me because I knew the alphabet. She was the best teacher and I remember every time I finished a lesson, she would let me throw a tennis ball to her golden retriever before my mom and I left. Sadly, I had to stop taking lessons because we were moving. Of course I found a new teacher and continued taking lessons until the eighth grade. I had gotten bored with playing the piano because I had seen all my other friends learning songs I wanted to play even though they were on lower levels than I was on and yet my teacher wouldn't let me play them. My first piano teacher always thought that I had great potential and would become a great and famous piano player someday. She even gave me a music composition book so that I could write my own songs and told my mom to keep her in the loop with any awards or competitions I won. I sometimes regret the fact that I stopped taking lessons and wonder where I would be with my piano playing if we hadn't moved. Nevertheless, I will still sometimes sit down and play some of the songs that I always enjoyed.

Badge count: 20

Lifescouts: Performing on Stage

Hello!

I hope all is well in your life! Since I'm almost two months behind in my lifescouts badge, I decided to try and catch up. This badge is for performing on stage which I have done on many occasions because of piano recitals, concerts for chorus, and speech and debate. I don't really have an extremely funny or embarrassing story to tell you because luckily I don't suffer from any extreme stage fright.

However, one year during my annual spring piano recital where all of the students who took lessons with my piano teacher played one or two pieces to show off what they learned that year. I think it may have been my third or fourth recital with this teacher at this venue and yet I didn't quite understand how she decided to assign our seats in the church where our recital was held. See, when we walked in before the recital began, we were to go to the middle section of reserved pews where the recital programs were placed on the seats. Each program had one name circled which signified that that was your seat. Logically, I thought that we would be seated in order of the program so that when the person next to you returned from playing his or her piece, you knew that it was your turn to go. This recital didn't work like that. I was way in the back and students were getting up from random areas in the reserved section, so I didn't know when to go. Of course, if I knew who the person was that was to go before me I wouldn't have any problem, but I didn't. Therefore in an attempt to count the people who had gone and thus figure out where we were in the program, I assumed that I knew when I was supposed to go. I even waited a bit to see if anyone else was getting up to play. Since I didn't see anyone go, I went ahead and got up to play. Once I sat down, my piano teacher made an announcement that I was not the person whose place I had taken, and that now we were back on track with the program. To this day, I still don't know how I was supposed to know when I was to get up and play, but whatever.

Badge count: 19

Lifescouts: Bowling Badge

Hello!

I think some of the badges for nerd week aren't necessarily activities done solely by nerds, but I guess I would think things like that because I am a nerd.

I've been bowling many times, but I'm not an amazing bowler that can get a perfect 300 or a horrible bowler, just average. At the university I transferred from, there was a bowling alley in the student union. It was really cheap to play and included rental shoes and the bowling ball. It also didn't have the customary cigarette smell that a lot of the bowling alleys in my hometown have. It was in that bowling alley that I had bowled last. I went with the girls of my Bible study as well as the freshmen boys study. It was a really great time to bond with other people and just blow off some steam. Then afterwards we went to the dining hall for "Cookie Break" where they give you two free cookies and a cup of milk for free as long as you are a student. I really miss those kids. . . 

Badge count: 18

Lifescouts: Observatory Badge

Hi!

I think I'm getting better at writing shorter posts. Or maybe I just have less to say about things right now. Do you guys prefer the longer or shorter posts?

First off I want to say that this badge is really pretty to me. I don't really know why but it looks so cool and realistic. My observatory experience comes from some fieldtrip I went on while I was in elementary school. There's a local science center in my hometown where my elementary school loved to take us depending on what we were learning about in science class. I don't actually know what the science center does, like if research actually goes on there or if it's just to give enriching science experiences for kids. Either way, they have an observatory and we got to go in and look at the stars. I specifically remembering my teacher telling us that if we fell asleep we would be in big trouble. I remember thinking that everything was really cool and trying to memorize the different constellations, but I couldn't really tell you any of that information now. Still it was a fun fieldtrip.

Badge count: 17

Lifescouts: Scrabble Badge

Hello!

As the days continue on, its starting to hit me that I'm almost done with my sophomore year of college. And if that wasn't enough of a wake-up call, I have to start prepping for the MCAT and thinking about medical schools. But to keep me in my unrealistic world of never growing up for a little while longer, I'll save the "ahhh, is my life on track" post for another time.

My streak has been broken by the marching band badge. I guess that's what happens when I play the piano and physically cannot march on the field playing my instrument with my high school marching band. However, I have played scrabble. . . badly. I've never sat down and played the physical game with three other friends, but have played it online. And no I'm not talking about Words With Friends because I'm not sure if that counts. The thing about scrabble for me is that I never really got into it. I always felt limited by the letters I had and the letters on the board, because I hope it's not my vocabulary that hindered me. Either way, scrabble is a good game to play when trying to figure out who is the most creative and verbally savvy person in your friend group.

Badge count: 16

Lifescouts: Rubik's Cube

Hi!

I'm on a roll with these nerd badges!

The Rubik's cube is something that I wouldn't have gotten interested in if it wasn't for my mom. I don't remember why she got so interested but she wanted to learn how to solve it and thus so did I. We started out messing around with this miniature Rubik's Cube keychain that isn't even Rubik's brand. In fact we messed with it so much that the stickers started to come off and the pieces fall apart. By that time I was literally putting the pieces together. So my mom decided to invest in a real Rubik's cube and it now sits completed on my desk at home. For I a while I kept trying to beat my time at how fast I could complete it, but I think I never got below 3 minutes. I actually wonder if I can still complete one. . .

Badge count: 15

ER Observation 2

Hello!

Today (3/14/13) I did my second day of shadowing in the ER. Same doctor, same hospital, but a whole lot more chaotic. Well maybe not a whole lot but definitely more eventful for me in regards of procedures.

The main thing that stands out in my mind is the code that came into the ER. I know this sounds really bad, but before I went for my first day of shadowing, I told my friend that I kinda wanted someone to code so I could see how a hospital tries to revive a patient. I guess I got my wish. . . in a really morbid way. I was with the doctor in a patient room getting a better history on a patient that came in due to lack of consciousness and some chest pain. Out in the hallway was some yelling and a gurney with a doctor doing compressions. One of the other doctors came in and asked if he could steal me and led me to the room where they were trying to revive the John Doe who came into the ER in cardiac arrest. The main difference I noticed from a code in real life and a code on TV is the speed of compressions administered to the patient. While on TV, it does appear rushed and urgent, it doesn't come close to the extent in real life. In order to revive a patient and continue blood profusion to the brain, you need to do 100 beats in a minute and those doctors/nurses/transport did a good job doing compressions at about 121 beats per minute. It was also exciting for me because I got to help slightly. If they needed more gloves, I got them gloves. I opened and prepared epinephrine when the nurses arms were full. And finally I held an IV pump so that fluids would be administered. Also, the whole rubbing paddles together and shocking the patient with 300 joules of electricity doesn't happen anymore. They have a defibrillator that delivers the shock for them and it only goes up to 200 joules. They did get a sinus rhythm for about 5 minutes but never got a strong pulse and eventually lost the rhythm. Sadly, they eventually decided to stop and call it.

In comparison, the rest of my day was a little uneventful. Rather than a theme of abdominal pain like Monday, today's theme was shortness of breath. Other than that I watched an echocardiogram done and and abscess removed.

I guess upon my immediate reflection of my shadowing at the ER, I realized I can handle the blood, stool, and puke that comes with being a doctor. All in all, this was a success.