Whew!

This week was the tail end of a round of exams - four in as many weeks. A nice exam-free two weeks, and then back into it again. Sure an exam a week doesn't sound so bad. Me and the other ~180 kids will vouch otherwise. I thought they went reasonably well - three of them I did above average on and one I did below average. Histology was the one I was most worried about, since I'd heard horror stories from last year's class. Something like the first exam's average being only a few point above passing. Buut, I found out Friday that I did pretty well - above average, and even a few points away from honoring the exam. So, I'm a pretty happy camper.

The exams themselves are rough just because of the amount of material covered in each. For this last histology exam, my group started studying Thursday or Friday for a Wednesday exam. Seems like a lot of studying, mostly because it is. Most of us felt okay at best going into the exam. There's just way too much material and too many styles of questions: looking at slides, evaluating micrographs, and regular lecture-based questions.

The thing that sucks about exam weeks is that you've gotta try and somewhat keep up with classes. Keyword: try. It's usually ended up that as an exam gets closer, other classes start taking a back seat. So in general, it's not if you're falling behind - it's a matter of how badly. Even on nonexam weeks, I'm usually behind. After exams, even more so. I've got about two weeks of anatomy, physio, and biochem to catch up on about now. So even without an exam coming up, there'll be weekend studying as if there was one. Bleh.

But, in getting back to the title of the post - it feels good to not have any exams this week. Feels even better knowing that I rocked that last histo exam. The combination of the two had me enjoy Wrigleyville that much more last night :D

R & R

When not being a med student, I've gotten the chance to check out Chicago a bit - one reason I was wanting to be at UIC. Soo, I've got a smallish list of the places I've hit up over the past few weeks.

Food
San Soo Gap San
This is a pretty sweet Korean barbecue place. Of course, I have no frame of reference from which to judge Korean barbecue. I did like the food quite a bit though. The barbecue (galbi) was really thinly sliced ribs that had been marinaded in goodness. They bring out the plates of galbi to the table. Buuut, the meat isn't cooked - they save that for the mini-grill that's brought to and set up at the table. Sure, some people might want their meat cooked before it gets to the table. I thought cooking it at the table added to the experience, especially since it didn't take very long. Oh, and about the table. It was one of those really low set ones that you sit on the floor for, Indian style.

There was a bunch of other food besides the barbecue circulating around the table. And to be honest, I didn't really know what most of it was. Along those lines, I'm pretty sure I was the least cultured one at the table. My inability to use chopsticks didn't help...especially since everyone was eating everything with them. As for the rest of the food though, most of it was pretty good, especially their "pancakes" (an appetizer). I think that these are what I had. As for beverages, I had some Korean beer - which was fine with me...nothing special, nothing horrible. Just kinda expensive. On top of the beer though, some of us had some soju. I thought it tasted like vodka, except that it's sweeter and goes down better. Funnily enough, wiki says similar things.

Minus my clothes smelling like barbecue afterwards, I liked San Soo Gap San. The food and drink were pretty good, but it was pretty expensive. The only downside to the place is that it seems like it's geared towards larger groups, in that there are only a few small tables (conventional or otherwise). This wasn't really a problem for us since we had a large group, but it's just something I noticed.

Sweet Maple Cafe
If you like breakfast food, you'll like this place. Hands down. Not too much to be said, except that this place serves breakfast and a few brunch items. And it's all really good. I've had two omelettes and they're definitely some of the better ones I've had. Their biscuits and spicy gravy are pretty good too. I'd never heard of "spicy gravy" before, but all I know is that I liked it. I didn't have the french toast or pancakes, but they were decently sized - much like the rest of their dishes. Only thing is that all this goodness will cost you a bit - something like $7-8 for the omelette. It does come with a tasty biscuit and some home fries though.

Bars
Here are a couple of the places that I've been over the past month. The first three places are lower profile sports/college bars. Lion Head/The Apartment is a two level place: downstairs has a sports/college bar with some decent food. Upstairs is The Apartment - it's got a pretty big dance floor with an understaffed bar off to the side. Funky Buddha is kinda small, but's a cool place to hang out (e.g. post exam party). And for those so inclined, there's a dance floor off to the side. The last two places are higher profile type of places, where you get dressed up only to get sweaty because 1.) you're probably dancing 2.) the place is too small. They're cool every now and then, but not really my types of places - mostly because I'm more into drinking than dancing.

Mad River
Abbey Pub
Drum and Monkey
Lion Head/The Apartment
Funky Buddha Lounge
Elm Street Liquor
Spy Bar

A few recurring themes. It's a bit more expensive to drink around here. And not just because of the drinks. Part of that comes from bathroom attendants being at every bar. I'd never had a bathroom attendant before. It was kinda weird the first time - having a guy waiting to turn on the faucet, give you soap, and then dry your hands. If I take more than a few pisses in the bathroom, I usually end up tipping the guy. The cab rides can be kinda expensive too - around $12-$20 depending on where we're coming from and going to. Splitting cabs helps that cause though. So does leaving a car downtown and then grabbing a cab to wherever.

A month into med school, and this covers most of what I do now: study, eat, sleep, drink. That first part has been getting pretty rough, especially this week. More on that later though. Anyway, even though it's a bit expensive whenever I go out (food and/or drink), it's worth it to me because 1.) it doesn't happen too often (~once/week) 2.) it's a good time and nice to get away from studying.

Free Clinic

Yesterday was my first clinical experience as a medical student. I spent five hours at a free clinic on Chicago's west side. The clinic is run by a nonprofit organization and is partially staffed by UIC volunteers (med students, residents, attendings) through a student organization. Anyway, the point is this was extracurricular to UIC's curriculum. UIC has some shadowing set up nine times throughout the year, but that's about it as far as clinical/patient contact goes. I just wish there were more chances to do stuff like this. Reason being, this stuff reminds me why I'm wading through insane amounts of facts and pathways. Being around patients again brought back why I'm doing all this and why it'll (hopefully) be worth it.

Anyway, as med students, the patients treated us as if we knew something. Scary things is, we don't really know anything at this point. Having said that, my having a reasonably heavy science background and decent clinical exposure made the whole experience so much better. Better in the sense that I understood some stuff that my higher-ups were talking about and kinda knew what was going on. Sure, it was all on a basic level, but it's more than some of my classmates can claim. Already having some idea of what's going on has me kinda excited...I might actually know what I'm doing in a few years. And that's just damn cool.

But even for those with less science and clinical experience, they had a lot of fun and enjoyed being around the clinic too. They got to see how some clinical aspects of medicine have ties to classes like physio and biochem. All around, it was a good experience for everyone. All the docs, residents, and med students were cool. No one was outrageously arrogant or anything like that - everyone was helping each other out and teaching whenever they could. That type of environment definitely made things a lot more enjoyable. I say that only because there are a few people in my class and probably a docs with whom I would not want to do a free clinic with. But, they probably wouldn't be in a free clinic anyway.

As for the actual patients, there was a good number of Spanish speaking ones. The dialog between the interpretor/med students and the patients was so fast, it was unbelievable. I was able to pick up bits and pieces, but a large portion of the conversation was obviously medically related. Since I don't have any exposure to that vocabulary or style of dialog, it made things that much harder to understand.

But, the patients were pretty cool in that they put up with having to see a lot of people over an extended period of time: an M1 and M2, then we bring in an M3/M4, and then the attending finally comes in with us. One patient can easily take over an hour to be seen. While this type of environment obviously kinda sucks for the patient, it's a pretty good learning environment. Especially for us M1s: we go in with the M2 and they do their thing, while teaching a bit here and there. Then an M3/M4 who's going through clinical rotations comes in with us: more teaching there. And repeat for when the attending comes in with us.

As for one patient, it was just a sad story. A Hispanic girl a little older than me came in complaining of shoulder, chest, and back pain. As the M2 and I are interviewing her, we find out that she's been having the pains for about a year and a half. She's been married for a year and a half and been in the country for two years. We ask if there's anything that sets off the pains, and she says that they happen when she's nervous and anxious. We present the case to the M3, and he comes in with us. Go through the story again, and focus a bit on the nervousness/anxiety. From her answers, we can tell something's up. We present to the attending and she comes in. After a few more focused questions on the anxiety, she breaks down and starts crying. She admits that her husband abuses her. The sad thing is that she's totally dependent on him - she's still in school and has no one else here. Just so sad how things can start out with general pains - then over the course of an hour pain is out of the picture and we find out about her husband.

This type of story wasn't an isolated one - another M1 had a similar patient. Another patient I saw was an alcoholic. If you were to look up alcoholic, you'd probably see his picture in the dictionary. He straight up admitted to drinking 2 liters of wine a day. But the reason he was in clinic was to check up on a blood pressure med switch. His other problems (blood pressure, prostate) were reasonably under control...not so much on the alcohol. I guess this type of demographic is expected at free clinics in big cities. I just hope that we were able to somewhat help them (even if I don't really know anything).

Even with it's low points, the free clinic was a nice break from all the book stuff. It was a nice reminder of why I got into this to begin with. Random clinical scenarios even reminded me that I'm actually absorbing some of this material. I might just be able to be one of those kids in the know and get to play doctor for real some day.

Under Door Number One...

I come back from class the other day, and I notice a few pieces of paper slid partially under my door. They're from my landlord and go something like this.

Dear Valued Tenants,
This Saturday, September 8, 2007 our plumbers will be working on the water lines. They have told us that the water will be shut off from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Please arrange your usage of water, bath, shower, toilet, etc. so this outage will have the least amount of impact to you.

The other piece of paper said that my apartment would be one that would have to be accessed for said work to be done. So right now (and since ~8:30) I've got plumbers coming in and out of my place. Whatever, shit happens. Not too much I can do about it.

I thought the last line of my landlord's letter was amusing: "arrange your usage..." AKA put off all bodily functions and cleaning for the day. Speaking of which, I most definitely have to use the bathroom right about now. Guess that gives me double motivation for heading off to the library right about now.

Labor Day Weekend

"Labor" is a good descriptor for most of the past weekend. In the interests of keeping whining to a minimum, I'll touch on the non-studying aspects of the long weekend.

During a study/lunch break, I saw that Michigan was losing to none other than the DI-AA champs of Appalachian State. Only reason I know that is because SIU has been fielding some decent I-AA teams of its own. Anyway, I didn't think the game would actually end like that. The Michigan alums in our class weren't too pleased. And actually, at a Michigan bar that I went to Saturday night, there weren't too many blue and yellows out and about. More on that later.

Between studying and going out Saturday, I was back at my place for a bit. Long enough for me to catch the tail end of the Illinois game. That McGee kid didn't do too bad for his first game. I only saw the two picks, so I can't really comment on his turnovers. But, I thought he did a decent job, especially leading the comeback. Well, until he threw the pick. And I didn't see Juice play, but I thought McGee was a better passer than I remember Juice being. Better in that he makes better decisions and throws.

I mentioned that I went out to some bar Saturday night. One of my friends is a USC fan. In continuing his and his friends' tradition from last year, they wanted to head out to this bar in Lincoln Park that's known as a USC and Michigan hangout. Like I said, the place was *devoid* of any blue and gold. Kinda funny, IMO. As for the game we watched, USC won - but that's kinda expected against Idaho. There was a sweet play where one of USC's receivers had a pretty nice one handed TD grab. Almost as nice as the Oronde Gadsen catch over the middle from a few years ago. I know, Oronde who? Took me a second to remember his name also. As for the bar itself: decent place to hang out. You can look it up (Mad River) here. My burger was okay at best. Although, the nacho plate we got was ginormous. We couldn't finish it. The place has a sports bar theme going on earlier in the night, and it gradually shifts over to a real bar later. And by "shift over" I mean they start taking the chairs and tables. That we're sitting on. Ah well, at least they played some good music. AKA, some stuff from the 90s and not all techno or rap. Final note: don't open a tab. Shit adds up faster than I would've liked.

Monday night, a few of us were coming back from the library and decided to eat. There's an area near my place with a decent number of restaurants, bars, and small shops. One of these is a Mediterranean restaurant. After having it for the first time, I'd have to say that I like Mediterranean food. Or at least, food from the one place. Had some couscous and falafel. Kind of a mainstream dish, but I might as well start out with that. Good stuff. The couscous was spicy. Not in a really hot, buffalo wing type of way. But spicy so that I noticed it and it gave the food some flavor. That combined with the fact that it was lamb couscous made for a good meal. I've always been a fan of lamb. We were originally going to eat at an Indian restaurant, but they were closed. Guess my first Indian food will have to wait until next time.

Week Deux

Disclaimers: this first paragraph is med school work-related whining. See next paragraphs for less venting. Also, this post is a little more disjointed than usual. It happens.

The second week of med school is behind me. I'm exhausted. Excluding finals and MCAT, I've also just studied on a Friday night for the first time. The fact that there were other people with me makes that previous statement less lame (barely). Buut, assuming I get enough done tomorrow, that means this M1 will feel okay going out tomorrow night! Hooray! And then Sunday it's back to more studying for my first biochem exam. Apparently there's three more biochem lectures right after the exam, along with physio. LAAAME. Buut, there's gonna be a post-exam party. It is *so* on then. Rinse and repeat for exams every week. The sheer volume of material is what makes things so hard. I've done okay keeping up with the material after class most days - but sitting down to a full binder of lecture notes after two weeks is kinda intimidating. Next week, more of my time disappears as anatomy and histology take turns eating up my afternoons. Haven't had histo yet, but the first anatomy lecture went over by about an hour. Oh and I found out that anatomy has a year-long cumulative lecture final. Uncool. Hooray more material and less time!

If you actually read that previous paragraph, I would like to give you a cookie. I'm not pissed or anything, but everything's just such a huge change for me. Even tonight, we were talking about this type of stuff and just had to laugh about it. We marked "yes" when schools asked us whether we were taking their acceptance offer and (somewhat) knew what we were getting into. Anyway, for non-whiny stuff, read on.

Back during orientation week, there was a med school organization fair that's analagous to UIUC's Quad Day. Also, since we have all our lectures in the same room, four of the six chalkboards usually have organizations' announcements posted: meetings, events, free lunches, socials, and whatnot. Between these two sources, I signed up for a few extracurriculars: two free clinics, a phlebotomy club, Asian-Pacific American Medical Student Association (APAMSA), a medical Spanish class, and a couple of specialty groups (ER, surgery, family med). The free clinics and phlebotomy classes were insanely popular to the tune of only 30-40% of students actually getting to do them. I'm in at one free clinic, waiting to hear about the other one, and out of the phlebotomy classes. I'm pretty excited to get to do the free clinic. That and any other limited UIC curricular clinicals we get this year: shadowing and a few basic clinical skills. APAMSA seems like a good organization for me...for more than just the obvious reason. It'll get me some of that culturing that I'm wanting, they have community service projects like free health screening in Chinatown, and they've got their own socials. The medical Spanish class is less productive than I was hoping for. I just can't pick up the language I need to at this point. I guess I kinda knew this going in, but still. The classes are run by a Hispanic med student organization at three different levels. I'm at the beginner level, and things are just way over my head. I can understand some of what's going on and have picked up on a few medical terms. I just can't put things together well enough to really understand, much less hold a conversation. In the clinic, conversations won't be as structured or slow paced as they are in class. Either way, I feel sorry for those in the class who are true Spanish beginners.

I mentioned that organizations post announcements like meetings in our lecture hall. Since every M1 and M2 has the same lunch break, meetings are usually held over the lunch hour, with free lunches usually provided. I have so been taking advantage of this. It's cheaper and it beats walking back to my place. Things only get tricky when they check the organization's member list. That's when I have to try and remember which friend is in which organization, so I can be them (if they're not there, of course). But free lunches are my thing now partly because these first few weeks have been expensive. Rent, utilities and their "setup fees," books (I've been trying to limit these, but it's still expensive), microscope fees, transcription services, and anatomy supplies...adds up pretty fast. Boo to that. But I've been blessed with parents who've helped a little bit with med school so far and will continue trying to. Eases the financial load a bit. Between the parents and me, I hopefully won't have to get a budget extension and/or private loans on top of the ~$43k budget, like some classmates are having to. Third and fourth years are even more expensive, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I'm hoping to get out of UIC with no more than $200k in debt. We'll see what happens.

Back to the present...this past and upcoming week have and will be the real adjustments to med school. With the first few exams and full schedule coming up, I'll be able to gauge how things are/should be going. Maybe I'll even figure out a routine that lets me keep up with all the material while still having time to go out once or twice a week. Seems like the main linchpin in said plan is truly studying when I'm trying to study. What I did in undergrad didn't work for the first few days. I've had to go to the library to get any real work done. It takes so much longer to get work done at home (if at all). There's just too many distractions at home: email, facebook, aim, 360, tv, food, naps. With a full week of the full schedule coming up, if that means heading to the library right after class, so be it. But at least I'll get my work done and out of the way. I've been packing some snacks, sandwiches, and drinks with me when I go to the library and this has seemed to work out pretty well. And the people I've started studying with are about my same style. We're in the same area, but don't really bother each other except for occasionally bouncing questions off each other and taking breaks. Sometimes I'm on my own when meeting up falls through for whatever reason or by choice. When this happens, the main Chicago library has been a pretty cool place for me. It's only about a 5 minute L ride and it's a really big, nice, and quiet place for me to get shit done. And for breaks, I'm in downtown Chicago. I think I can figure out ways to entertain myself there. So pretty much the plan for the next few weeks goes something like this: work hard, play harder.