What I Really Learned in Med School

I love Manhattan. I hate Brooklyn.  It was dirty and loud and it did not feel safe.  Our apartment was dirty and loud and tiny. I could go on. Craig was doing his Emergency Medicine rotation there, so I played housewife and kept him company. We mostly just spent our time together at our place, but we did have a few nice days of exploring. We also happened to be there during the peak of interview offers since residency applications had recently gone out so that kept me busy and distracted while Craig was at work. I actually received one offer while walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and another while eating New York pizza on Manhattan. Those are a few great memories that I will take with me. Otherwise, I am happy to be out of there. Assembled this Ikea desk

A look back on all of the hospitals that I spent time at during medical school... My medical education spanned 3 countries From the caribbean to the U.S.A. to Canada From rural Louisiana and Maine  to the big city lights of Detroit and Miami From working in a community centre with immigrant populations in South Florida  to being taught by physicians from Yale University The smallest hospital had only 2 patient rooms in the emergency department The biggest hospital had 15 rooms in the Neurosciences ICU alone The wide scope of experiences that I've had have been irreplaceable to me. . . . A.M. Edwards Medical Center Saba, Netherlands Antilles (Shadowing) Community Health of South Florida Cutler Bay, Florida (Family Medicine, Psychiatry, Pediatrics) Jackson South Community Hospital Miami, Florida (OB/GYN) Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center Houma, Louisiana (Internal Medicine, Surgery) Aultman Hospital

I am doing a sub-internship in Internal Medicine where I am supposed to do what the intern does in preparation for my own intern year next year. So basically I do everything I normally do as a student but I have a fancier title. I also get asked a different set of questions than the 3rd year student. The 3rd year student might get asked the criteria for a diagnosis where I would get asked the specifics of managing it.  I was expected to be accountable for all the patients I was seeing and to also know the plan for all the other patients on our team. This included knowing details from why we were treating an infection with a particular antibiotic including dosage changes to patient's urine output to the specific pathophysiology behind their medical issues. It is tough but nice to be held to a high standard. This program is definitely heavy on the academics. We have 3 lectures almost every day - morning report, resident lecture, and student lecture (yay for free lunch). I only

Diagnostic Radiology I thought that my radiology rotation would involve sitting in a dark basement of a hospital reading x-rays, CT scans, and MRI's. It turned out that although that was part of it, there were also many procedures. There were procedures that were CT or ultrasound guided, such as, chest tube placements and biopsies. There were procedures done under fluoroscopy (basically like an x-ray in video form) such as lumbar punctures and upper GI studies with small bowel follow throughs. There were also procedures in the Interventional Radiology suite like PICC lines and stenting of AV fistulas for dialysis. I didn't get assist very much on procedures, but I did put a bladder catheter in through the abdomen by myself! Interesting to me that 6 out of 6 radiologists were male. I asked one of them about this and he gave a very diplomatic answer about how most programs want women in them and how they should do better outreach as a facility. The way he phrased it all m

Vacation time in Canada with some amazing family and friends What more could we ask for? Martha & Tanner's wedding @ Crystal Cliffs beach Craig's MC skills Grand Bend with Steph and Allie The cutest beach town with my besties So many of my favourite people in one place!   Exploring Toronto Shawn and Kristen meet us in the big city! Jays game on Canada Day Silly sissy & sissy-in-law Michelle and Connor arrive! Hooray! 5 of us together... only missing Craig! Game went to 19 innings... We stayed until about the 14th inning stretch Random festival on the Toronto waterfront Beer tasting Shawn and I liked about 33% of them Peterborough with the Marshalls Montreal with Stephy Singing Kelly Clarkson karaoke on a bowling lane Love having friends that you can go so long without seeing and then pick up right where you left off Baden, Ontario with Allie