Getting Comfortable

The past few weeks, I've been heading into the ER a decent amount. Between having had most of the book stuff (e.g. biggies like pathology and pathophysiology) and some decent practice with physical exam, I'm actually starting to feel comfortable with eventually having the responsibility of being a doc. That is, I might actually be able to do this doctoring thing.

Of course, my comfort level is at the level of eliciting a history and performing a rudimentary physical exam. I'm in no way ready to start putting those H&P pieces together. No where near synthesizing a diagnosis and/or plan. At least not with any confidence or any high degree of accuracy. When I get things right, it's always a nice bonus. But most of the time the attending I work with still has to guide me toward the right assessment, differentials, and plans. Long story short, I'm more comfortable with H&Ps - half of being a doctor. Just not the figuring stuff out and fixing part...the other, more important half of being a doctor.

All that said, there's a decent amount of info floating around in my head. It's just ridiculously unorganized and unprioritized. That is, I don't have the experience to bring together seemingly random bits of info together. I don't have the experience to know what's all that important out of the ginormous amount of info shoved in my face. To make matters worse, not all of that info has been retained. And not just minutiae, but some big picture stuff (IMO). Hopefully studying for boards'll help with integration and retention.

And sure, there's a (lacking) base of info, but it doesn't really do all that good if it isn't applied. And that's what the next two years are gonna be about. That's what I'm excited about and what I signed up for. Hopefully.

Until then, I'm sitting in the middle of my last week of classes ever. About damn time! Six finals next week. Three weeks of hospital stuff. About a month to study for boards.

Honestly, boards scare me. For a few reasons. I'm less than two months out, and haven't been able to start studying yet. (In undergrad, I was ~2 months into MCAT studying). I've mentioned that I really want to do well on them - which breaks my med school trend of "eh, whatever." Why? I would love to 1.) stay in Chicago and 2.) do Emergency Medicine. Each of those would require above average board scores. And moreso if I want both. On that account, I'm seriously considering pushing my exam date back a week. That leaves me one week of break before rotations. I'd like more recharging/unwinding/traveling time after such an intense exam. But I'd also hate to be disappointed with my board scores and consequently not match into a Chicago EM program. All because I wanted another week to (most likely) sit around on my ass.

Like I said, I suppose it's what I signed up for.

Warm Up, Layer Down

We've had some gorgeous weather the past few days - 50° on Saturday, with yesterday seeing temps in the 70s. It's this time of year that I start noticing people's different wardrobe choices, with regard to temperature. With temps in the fifties, I'll see anything from all out puffy coats to straight up T-shirts being sported. That said, I've got my own temperature appropriate model for layering up and down throughout the year. Your mileage may vary.

>75° Shirt and shorts. Nice and warm, but definitely the potential to sweat balls if walking around for awhile. Summer!

65-75°: Shirt and shorts/jeans. Comfortably warm. Preferred temperature, usually September, May.

55-65°: Long sleeve T with or without T on top and jeans. Probably my preferred temperature range. Mid spring/fall.

40-55°: Above with track jacket or other zippable sweater types. Shirt and fleece jacket. Straight up hoodie also acceptable. Also a decent temperature range.

30-40°: Hoodie and fleece. Peacoat and longsleeve shirt. Possible beanie and/or gloves.

15-30°: Peacoat and hoodie. Peacoat and layered shirts or sweater. Puffy and shirt. Beanie and gloves. I personally consider <20° to be cold. Average Chicago winter weather.

0-15°: Peacoat and layered sweater. Puffy and layered shirts. Beanie and gloves. Possible scarf. Occasional Chicago winter weather. At <10° all cold kinda feels the same.

<0°: Puffy. Layers, multiple. Probable scarf. Consider extra leg layer depending on windchill. Beanie and gloves. Damn cold - God forgot to leave the heat on. Cold, even for Chicago. Luckily, more the exception than the rule.

My system assumes I'll be outside for a bit and doing some walking. Note: I usually prefer it cooler, but I've also learned to err on the side of extra warmth.

The More the Merrier

I'm in line for some Hot Doug's (local hot dog place) today and the wait outside is about 45 minutes. Whatever, there's a group of us and it's not too cold. On looking around, there are these two women in front of us wearing full length fur coats. A little out of place, given the establishment we're in line for. Upon eavesdropping, their 40 minutes of conversation consisted of: needing to go shopping; not knowing what to do with boots/clothes that they can't wear but bought anyway; how much Patron and Grey Goose they went through last weekend; how they need more jewelry; trash talking their friends and significant others. It was pretty disgusting how materialistic and superficial they were.

Granted, I like nice things and fancy toys as much as the next person. But not to the extent of brazenly spending money for the sake of it and only having said activity to look forward to in life. Whatever.

On another note, tomorrow is Pi day and Chicago's St. Patty's celebration. Sounds like the perfect combo and a winner to me.

Randomosity

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day. At least, by local standards. Sixty-three in early March? No complaints. More of the same today ~60°! Unfortunately then it's back to reality for a bit...temps hovering somewhere in the 30s - which is itself at least above freezing. It'll be probably a month before highs are back into the 50s with regularity. I don't overtly despise the winters or anything, but I do feel more alive when days like today hit in the middle of winter. Jokingly, some of us think we have seasonal affective disorder.

Got some of my exam scores back a few days ago. Only one real surprise on one of them - a bit too close to the pass level for my liking. And actually, my lowest grade by far in med school. Maybe I'm getting a bit too nonchalant about school. I think I'm actually gonna try to stay on top of things for this home stretch. And ambitiously, I'm for real gonna start studying for boards. All the cool kids are doing it. Big picture-wise, I've worked a bit too hard to let a few months of jackassing mess up boards and residency apps. Especially if I wanna stay in Chicago.

On the note of resolutions, I gave up fast food again for Lent. Sure not the most original, but it makes things more interesting for someone who isn't home so much. I contemplated giving up elevators again, but I spend a lot of time on the eight and tenth floors of two buildings.

I got my schedule for next year. There are 24 different scheduling combinations that we rank and enter into a lottery. I, of course, got my nineteenth choice :/ I would've preferred my breaks distributed more evenly and the rotations done in a different order, but beggars can't be choosers - at least we're out in the hospital. For those curious, the six rotations next year are medicine, surgery, psych, family, peds, and OB/GYN. Hours-wise, I'm least looking forward to OB, surgery, and medicine.

Pretty run of the mill stuff - nothing too exciting. Unless you count Korean bbq. I'm kinda excited, it's been too long. T-minus an hour!