Last Day

Tomorrow is my last day of work at my current job. I haven't really given much thought to how I'm going to feel this time tomorrow. In the back of my mind it feels like I'm still going to be heading to work on Monday. That moment when I turn in my badge and leave is probably going to freak me out. That badge has been in my purse for three years. I've never lost it. For three years, I've always known where it was, and it gave me access to all sorts of fun places. And when it's gone and that place in my purse is empty, I think I might have a slight anxiety attack.  It's been such a huge part of my life that not having it there is kind of scary. But it's time to move on. I've been out of academia for three years now, and it's beyond time for me to return.

Count Down to Classes: 11 Days

Facts About Stethoscopes

 ^^^MY stethoscope

1.  Stethoscopes are used for auscultation of internal body sounds like heart sounds, lungs sounds, blood flow, and intestinal flow. Additionally, in conjunction with a sphingmomanometer they can be used to determine blood pressure.
2. The stethoscope was invented by the French physician René Laennec in 1816.
3. When a soon-to-be medical student gets her very own stethoscope, the moment it touches her hands she will immediately jam the earpieces in her ears and insist on listening to the hearts of every living human in the adjacent area.  

I knew the first fact from being the daughter of a doctor and being a pre-med, and I learned the second fact from watching an old rerun of ER. The third I learned quite recently when my mother told me she had her old med school stethoscope sent off to be refurbished for me to have for school. I was thrilled. Not only did it mean I didn't have to pay to get a new one, but I loved the idea of having something of my mom's go with me to medical school. That stethoscope saw my mom threw all her rotations and now it would get to help me too. My over-active imagination visualizes it as having already gone through medical school once, so it already knows the drill.

Anyway, when it came back from being refurbished and I went to pick it up, she just haphazardly threw it at me saying "Oh here ya go." I on the other hand held it like it was the most precious thing I'd ever seen. And then suddenly it was like I was a little girl playing doctor again. I immediately put the earpieces in my ears and started listening to my heart. Did I know what I was looking for??? Absolutely not. My ability to perform heart exams at this point consists of the following..."Is your heart going buh dub buh dub buh dub? Ok then you're probably still alive."

But the fun didn't end there. My poor boyfriend got caught in the wake of excitement I had over owning my very own stethoscope and I preceded to force him to let me listen to his heart, the four quadrants of his back, his tummy and his neck. Why did I make him do this? Is it that I knew at all what i was doing? Nope, it's because I've seen it done by other doctors and wanted to see what it all sounded like.

It's not that I haven't used a stethoscope before. As a child of a doctor, it is practically impossible to escape childhood without finding one in your parent's white coat, sneakily removing it and testing it on yourself, your siblings, and your pets.  But this time it was different. This time it was better, because this time the instrument was mine and I had every right to be using it, no sneaking needed. 

I know that I will eventually become jaded with the use of my stethoscope, but I hope that doesn't happen for a while yet. I want each time I use it in school and beyond to be as exciting as this first time.

Harry Potter and the Night Shift of Joy

I went to the midnight screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Part 2 with my boyfriend and it was so worth not getting to bed until 3am. I thought they did a really good job with the film. Apparently a lot of other people did the same thing....

My mom, who is a physician, was working a hospitalist night shift and was thrilled that it was opening night, because that meant less work for her. Because you see, what normally happens during the night shift is that soon-to-be patients are at home, get bored and then start looking for ways to entertain themselves. Some of these entertainment choices lead to legitimate ER visits, and then some people decide that their entertainment of choice is going to be to just show up at an ER and see what fun they can have. So it's a double whammy. Those who choose reckless entertainment need to be admitted to the hospital to get that lightbulb surgerically extracted and those who just show up for kicks are well...wasting everybody's time.

But on a night like opening night of the last Harry Potter movie none of these types of patients showed up to my mother's ER because they were all far too busy being dressed up and geeked out at their respective screening locales. My mom had so much free time on her hands she was able to call me during her shift and just chit chat with me as I was waiting in line for the movie. Small talk with my mother while she's on shift...that she instigated? That NEVER happens!

I feel bad for my mom that this is the last HP movie, and another occurrence such as this one is likily not to happen again for quite some time. I doubt the Twilight movies will have the same kind of draw. In fact, she'll probably have an upswing of visits from boyfriends who very suddenly come down with "acute gastroenteritis" in an attempt to get out of seeing it at midnight. 

Medical School Count Down: Classes start in 31 days.

First Post

Hi Internets!

So I'm being totally cliche and starting up a blog to document my time in medical school and beyond (well hopefully I'll be that dedicated to this). There are many fantastic medical blogs out there (As I get this puppy up and running I'll gets link to them up) but I'm really not expecting this to turn into anything remotely close to those. I'm really just doing this to keep a virtual record of my thoughts and emotions as I go through my medical training, and if it benefits or entertains anyone else...well that's just faboosh.

Also, I know that "KateMD" sounds like I'm saying I already have an MD, which I don't. I'm just now entering medical school, but I thought that "KateisgoingtoschooltogetanMD" was a bit too cumbersome of a blog title. :)  

I'll write a more in depth "expectations" post soon, but for now all I'll say is that I hope being a doctor turns out to be like this...