medical school

just got this: http://www.ecostudies.org/images/scientists/Ostfeld/Infectious_Disease_Ecology_cover.gif, psyched

also, who i have to lobby to get smart loans (ie - loan repayment is based on % of income, not fixed monthly payments....good incentive for pediatricians/obs etc)

i can give u a buck fifty maybe two bucks... 5% interest

lemme think about it

I used to get inner ear infections like clockwork. It's a special hell, one that involves regular vomiting and an inability to change position at all without vomiting, and an inability to walk without falling (possibly down stairs), and other unpleasant things.

ohhh man i dont even want to think about loans :/ lol market meltdown

id give u a loan but ur credit suxx sorry bro

yeah, there's been a lot of talk at school (well, w/a few ppl) about how market meltdown + possible restructuring of healthcare + less remunerative specialties could = :(

hey i just checked my score it is solid what gives

o u can get one, no prob, lamp has a credit score of bad

i hadnt expected to need loans since i had a fair amount of $$$ saved because i worked f/t through undergrad but ive lost some of that over the last fourteen months and my income has gone down as my living expenses went up so i havent been able to save all that much

it really sux because my financial situation is fairly different from when i first applied and im not sure what the mechanism is for reconciling that

+ acc to max my credit score is bad to madoff

wait so you're going for sure? :D

u guys are going to be doktor buddies!!!!!!!!

http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/1614/PreviewComp/SuperStock_1614R-5160.jpg

had a convo w/classmates yesterday about dcotor school v PA school and even though PA school is shorter and you work right away and it pays well and there's a huge demand, we all realized that we couldn't bear being "bossed around" by a doc

so basically med students in self-centered non-shocker

:-/

LOL tell me about it. I have a friend who did a 6 year pharmacy degree after high school and her second year out she is making $150,000.....

Given that I have already been 8 years out of high school and am a first-year medical student, I now feel more of an incentive to subsubsubsubspecialize in order to justify my many years of education.

And by 8 years, I mean 5 years. I cannot type today.

i am closing in on ten years out and i am a first year student, too, yeeks

Evan, we could've used you at pub quiz the other night when the category was THE HUMAN SKELETON.

oh man they had a whole category for it??

Yeah. 8 or 10 questions. We made a few lucky guesses but overall didn't do so hot.

ugh

:-(

http://www.funkandjunk.com/images/pictures/29508.jpg

currently drafting my B33F letter to the dean.....eek

wish u guys could come to my renal lectures....dr k4tz is the best

alllllllllllllllll done now it is bedtime yay

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congratulations. :-)

happy summer! whatcha got planned?

oh and I just want to confirm that you do NOT wear scrubs, white coat, or any other doktor paraphenalia to bars.

going on a climbing trip to devil's tower/spearfish canyon next week, but then it's back to school until the end of june. THEN summer starts.

and no, i def do not wear doctor regalia when out. besides, med student white coats are cut short on purpose to make it clear that you are but a lowly student physician, and not the real deal.

confession, tho: i have worn my UMN Med School hoodie out before, btu that's because it's the only hoodie i've got. also because i want to pick up chicks

i once thought about accidentally letting my stethoscope fall out of my bag will rifling thru it at the coffee shop while sitting next to a pretty girl, but i thought better of it and went back to studying renal physiology

'oh this old thing? no big deal, i'm just a future physician, brushing up on my stuff---not that I need to, of course, i just want to ensure that all those children and little old ladies i plan on helping are going to get the best possible care. after that i have to study for my physical exam....hey, i don't suppose you're busy?'

i don't really get out much :-/

Forget med school, u shd be writing dialogue for some show like "Bones" or related medical-ish stuff. That is, yknow, kind of dum but mostly lol.

not really sure if i'm supposed to be flattered there

Sure you should -- I think yr great. You should actually say that to the ladies and see what happens. If they think you're funny, you have a winnar.

When people ask me what I do or why I moved to DC or whatever, I always say "Oh I came here for school". Part of it is just that I spend almost all my time either in class or studying or hanging out with my friends from med school, so it is like the most normal, unspecial thing in the world to me now. But the bigger thing is that saying you are a med student is a fun way to get asked a bunch of questions that you have like zero idea about, which makes me so uncomfortable. God forbid there should be an actual emergent problem. There is probably not a more dangerous place to have a medical emergency than in a room full of first-year med students.

Also sometimes people will start just telling you stories about things that are wrong with them, which can sometimes be pretty awesome, but sometimes involves highly descriptive explanations of like, their sexual dysfunctions.

But the bigger thing is that saying you are a med student is a fun way to get asked a bunch of questions that you have like zero idea about, which makes me so uncomfortable. God forbid there should be an actual emergent problem. There is probably not a more dangerous place to have a medical emergency than in a room full of first-year med students.

^^^ real. i've def encountered ppl that aren't aware of how long medical training is, so they think that a first-year med student is like nearly a doctor.

I was recently around a medical emergency (which turned out OK) where the only doc present was a psychiatrist specializing in adolescent addictions. He dreads the "is the a doctor in the house?" question big time!

So peeps, how does it feel to be done being an M1?

just finished first week of summer session....M1 ain't over for another five weeks!

I have one neuro exam tomorrow (part of the continuing effort to get us to appreciate Friday exams more and more) and one in mid-June, and then some shelves and then I am done until August.

I am halfway between being comfortable enough with most material to not freak out over anything, and being so tired of burning days studying nonstop that I do not want to study very hard anymore. It is kind of nice, until the inevitable point at which I go down in flames on an exam.

oh man, neuro

really interesting, but i'm glad to be done with it. also so grateful that i swatted the practical portion of the exam, because the written portion did ~not~ go well

just finished first week of summer session....M1 ain't over for another five weeks

damn.... so u get what a month off??

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande

^^^ kind of interesting in light of how much medical school costs

huh, i was just coming to post a link to the initial article i read about smart loans: http://www.slate.com/id/2212534/

no, i get a 'real' summer break: done june 20ish, back to school sept 8th.

i keep forgetting Lamp: are you going in the fall???

next fall im doing graduate work in immunology/micro @ the medical school with the idea of applying for the combined md/phd program for 2011 (when ill be 26 lol)

enh, i'm 28

liked that article, btw. i really think that somehow making medical school dramatically more affordable (even though we're getting our educations at half-price??) is pretty crucial to 'saving medicine's soul' or whatever.

also you guys, i had another idea: so, you know how the NHS has a loan repayment program for primary care docs willing to work in underserved areas, right? would it be a terrible idea to propose a similar, alternate program that used first-year residents instead? that is: newly-minted MDs spend a year providing primary care services, and then transition on to whatever more specialized training they match into.

i understand that newly minted MDs don't really know anything, but I feel like many of the primary care deficiencies we're seeing might be able to be addressed by relatively untrained docs??? or would this be wildly dangerous and inappropriate?? i really have to believe that there are some ppl out there that want to be orthopods, but that would also post-pone residency another year if it meant that they got to work in an underserved community and defray some loans

i really have to believe that there are some ppl out there that want to be orthopods, but that would also post-pone residency another year if it meant that they got to work in an underserved community and defray some loans

Yeah this is basically me. Even the orthopod thing! Some kind of like, Doctor version of Teach for America or something.

I briefly was on the MD/PhD path (I decided I wanted to go to medical school about two months after starting graduate school, which was an odd time for an epiphany like that), but I ended up not continuing grad school. The amount of years you have to put in for the double doctorate was kind of terrifying to me, but the prospect of living on that MSTP money was reassuring.

Also we get out on June 20th but have to come back on like August 11th. And I am spending most of that time doing research! (But I am doing it in Los Angeles, which is all I really wanted out of my summer.)

Some kind of like, Doctor version of Teach for America or something.

yeah, this is it exactly.