Update? Suuuure, why not?

So much has happened since my last real updates in August. I finished my time in Radiology. Though you spend very little time with patients, I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Each film is a puzzle with no published solution. There's a lot of detective work involved, and I may not be a Sherlock Holmes, but I think I pulled of a Dr. Watson rather nicely! I was asked by more than one radiologist if I would switch my specialty and join the fold. I think those are the best compliments a medical student can get!

After my month as a radiologist, it was time to go to Maine for my "Acting Internship" in Family Medicine. Every med student in the country is required to do an active internship to graduate. Most do it in the specialty that they want to pursue. Essentially, an acting intern is treated like a real resident physician, and not a student. It gives the students a chance to see what the real workload is like as a doctor and to see if they like the specialty as much as they think they did. The grade that you receive for it is often the most important one on your transcript. It shows the residency programs that you apply to whether or not you can handle the workload and perform as a resident. I spent my 4 weeks in Augusta, ME and it was an intense, and reqrding month. I was working about 85 hours a week and "in charge" of my own patients (with frequent looks over my shoulder to make sure I was doing everything right). The two most memoraable were a 20 year old who suffered an anoxic brain injury and spent several weeks in the ICU, and a 30 year old who we diagnosed with AIDS, and shortly thereafter, end-stage cancer. I feel like did very well, and received an "Honors" as my grade, the highest grade my school bestows!

So that was August/September. Now, September/October was back home for a month as a Dermatologist. Again, I liked it alot more than I thought I did. I assumed that I would find the care "superficial" (heh heh...) in that I wasn't helping patients with more serious medical problems. It turns out, when someone has psoriasis and has been itching over their entire body for years on end and digging at their skin, it can be pretty debillitating and Dermatologsits can make a real difference. Plus, there's something to be said for someone coming in with a specific, simpler skin problem and being able to offer them a treatment or procedure to cure their problem, rather than trying to convince an overweight, smoking, carnivore to change his or her entire life. I worked with some great residents while I was there and was again asked to give up Family practice, this time for a career in Dermatology. There is ALSO something to be said for workng 40 hours a week and making 2-4 times as much as a Family Practioner working 60+.

I finished Derm towards the end of October and that is the end of my clinical rotations for several months. I'm taking the time to study for the national board exam and to travel to my residency interviews. I spent the first two weeks studying for the next part of the National Medical Board exam, the "Clinical Skills" portion. In this all day test, I was required to see a dozen "simulated patients" (well-trained actors) and was evaluated on my history-taking skills, physical exam skills, ability to talk to each patient about his or her condition and what plans I had for testing, and lastly, a note for their medical records. It's a "Pass/Fail" exam that I haven't heard back from yet, but I'd be shocked if I didn't measure up. I'm now taking the next several weeks off to study for the "Clinical Knowledge" portion of the exam, a nine hour, multiple-choice exam covering all the things a medical student needs to know about medicine - not an easy test to study for last-minute. I take that on November 21st.

In the meantime, I officially sent out my Family Practice Residency applications on October 26th to 9 programs...and got 9 interviews from November to January! I've applied to Maine (Lewiston, Augusta, Portland), New Hampshire (Concord), Vermont (Burlington), Oregon (Portland, Klamath Falls), and Washington (Seattle, Tacoma). So needless to say, combined with Friendsgiving and parents/in-laws in two different states for Christmas, I've got some travelling to do over the next 3 months!

That's the brief update (believe it or not) and ought to bring my reader(s?) up-to-date! I'm going to try to keep my updates a little more regular, but we've all seen how well that's worked out so far.