A Typical Day of [my] MS-2

Every Tuesday morning, I meet with my "College group," which is part of the Introduction to Clinical Medicine Class. I have been very fortunate to be paired with some really wonderful people, and a wonderful mentor, Anne-Marie Aimes.

Each week, two students from our group do a complete history and physical on a patient in one of three hospitals, and then present the case to the group. Occasionally, we will all meet at the medical school instead and do a tutorial on some aspect of the history and physical exam. In the fall, we were at Harborview, in the winter we are at the VA, and in the spring we will be at the University of Washington Medical Center.



In this picture, you see Isaac, me, Anne-Marie, Andy, Mike, Anna, and Kaye.


There is also a system of student mentorship, where an upper classman (in the class ahead) is assigned as a "Big Doc," and an incoming student is the "Little Doc." It is really nice, because there is someone known to the incoming student from whom they can get advice about various classes and resources at the school. It is also a great support system for when things are tough.

I love my Little Doc. Her name is Veena. It's a weird thing that I was assigned to her. I would often go onto Student Doctor Network during my first year and try to give advice for people who were applying in the next cycle. No one uses their real name because it is totally anonymous. But I offered a lot of advice to one person in particular, and then we started corresponding by e-mail. It turns out that she was accepted, and I told her that I hoped that I would run into her.

Amazingly, she was randomly assigned as my Little Doc, and I was so happy about it. But things were really crazy at the beginning of the quarter, so we weren't able to get together right away. Neither of us had a description of the other, but we ran into each other in the student lounge (where the picture was taken) one day, and we both stopped short and just knew who the other was. It was very strange, to say the least. :)

This is our classroom. It looks just like the classroom from first year, but it is one door down the hallway. The classroom looks full, but it is only because it is the first day of the Epidemiology course. Other than test days, the room is usually only about half full. That is my perspective. I'm sure the professors would say it is half empty. ;)

We have a lot of other tasks that get loaded into our mornings and evenings, but lectures are scheduled from 12:30-5:30 each day.

This quarter, I am driving each day from Gig Harbor. It sounds bad (and sort of is), but I am listening to Board Exam review lectures on my iPod. The drive takes between 75 minutes to about two and a half hours, depending upon traffic. I used to get very frustrated, but it doesn't matter anymore, because it just means more study time.

Staying physically fit is super important to me, so when I get home (between 7 and 8:30 pm), I either lift weights, go for a five mile trial run, or both.

Yes it is very dark outside for the trail run. There is a great system of trails that go for tens of miles right by our house. Seth and I don headlamps and just go for it. It is actually really fun and I enjoy it a lot.

We have built up quite a nice workout room, with a pull-up and dip machine, a squat rack, a cage for bench press and other exercises, barbells and dumbbells. We have pretty much everything we need for a great weight workout. We also have swiss balls and balance boards for proprioceptive workouts, abdominal workouts, and other strength training.

One of our lower energy activities, when we are feeling really lazy and in a fun mood, is disc golf. It is so much fun that I actually bought a target for our backyard. We also like to go to courses around the area and to different areas when we travel. Our favorite course is in Bremerton. The course wraps around old growth forest and is quite pleasant. So sometimes, on days I have less energy, we just go outside and throw some discs and drink martinis. :)