So You Wanna Be A Doctor?

Not your average pre-med advice blog.

Surprise going-away party at the hospital today!

And everyone tried to bring my favorite foods! Chiefly, hot dogs (I have a sick obsession with gas station hot dogs), hummus, fruit and veggies, blue corn chips, cheese….

I’m just like, “Oh you guys.”

I’ve worked in the department with the same people for 5 years. As the youngest person by 20 years, it was like having 25 moms. I’m really lucky to have worked here and I’ll miss my coworkers a lot. Fortunately, the medical school is only a block away, so I’ll swoop down occasionally and scoop some free food or highlighters and stuff. 

It’s going to be very weird to not have a job. I don’t even remember what it’s like to be unemployed. Free time? Wtf is that? Weekends off? What? But, I think it will be nice to have the summer before med school off to travel and relax and blow all the savings I’ve been guarding and building Smaug-style for years. Get all those outrageous young-person-type urges out of my system so I can buckle down come August, you know?

EDIT: Also, because I am leaving 5 years and 2 days after my hire date, I am eligible for some pension benefits. Being under 25 and submitting pension paperwork to HR is really funny to me. I wonder what it’ll be… like $2 a month for the rest of my life? My monthly candybar allowance? 

"Specially Scuplted Pot Creates a Whirlpool When Cooking So You Never Have to Stir"

Gizmodo article.

“A Japanese dentist, of all people, has invented a sculpted pot that will automatically stir its contents as they heat up. It promises to completely revolutionize cooking, at least for the world’s laziest chefs.

The Kuru-Kuru Nabe (aka the ‘Pot Round and Round’) was invented by Hideki Watanabe, who came up with the design after experimenting with dental plaster at his practice. The pot relies on thermodynamics to create a whirlpool motion as liquids heat up. It not only saves you from having to stir, but it allows for a more efficient and even heating process, and has the added benefit of compacting foam so the pot is less likely to boil over.

It’s certainly not going to work for particularly thick recipes, like say a pot of chili, but for soups and such it seems downright genius. So we sincerely hope Watanabe finds an investor or two to help put this into production.”

Specially Sculpted Pot Creates a Whirlpool When Cooking So You Never Have to Stir

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING. PHYSICS RULES.

I See How Your World Shakes

themedicalchronicles:

            I was pouring my brains out over my textbook when Mom came in. She sat on my bed to discuss stuff with me again. Life. She wasn’t too happy with me lately, said I was keeping things from her that I shouldn’t be. All because of a stupid class. Organic chemistry.  Why I failed, how did I fail, why didn’t I tell her before that I failed, how could I have failed, why didn’t I get a tutor if I knew I was going to fail.

            I wasn’t going to medical school this upcoming year. She was real upset. She said a year is a long time to wait.

            “Tina, do you know how long 12 months is?” she asked.

            “A year.”

“What if I don’t even live to see next year? When will I see you as a doctor?”

She’d smack the ovaries right out of me if I talked back at her. She was in her lets-talk-business-because-you-are-making-me-very-upset-now-young-lady mood, and there was no stopping her.

Of course I wasn’t going to med school because of her. I wanted to go because I wanted to become a pediatrician. But I wanted to see her happy and getting in on the first try would make her real happy. I knew she had the fear that once I took a year off, I wouldn’t go back to school, but I knew I was going no matter what. She also thought I created this whole problem because I had to take orgo twice.

“What’s the point of pulling all-nighters if you’re not even going to pass?”

Jeez Mom, thanks. I tried, I mean I really honestly tried. I can’t be that dumb. Or can I?

 I’m surprised I didn’t have dark clouds of acidic rain hovering over my head following me around for the past few days, after all the arguments I had with her. She was ruining my mood big time. All I wanted to do was drink my mocha and write a good story, but no, she had to constantly nag me, reminding me of how my best friend was oh-so-perfect.

 Well, why don’t you go adopt her then?

I was beginning to develop “allergies” that week – teary eyes and a sniffling nose even though I had a perfect immune system. What else could I say to my friend when I just fought with Mom and was walking in to my research lab wanting to tear my temples out for being such a big disappointment?

Read More

I can’t tell if this is fiction or truth. It drips too much truth, even if it is fiction. I am very, very angry for the author’s sake. And so, I would like to address the author, and any anyone whose shoes might resemble hers.

Dear Tina:

First, you write beautifully. Don’t stop. Writing is a skill, not everyone can do it or even do a mediocre job of it. Fucking be proud of yourself, girl!

Second, your Mother is wrong to behave that way to you. Her job is to support you through success and failure. Not to tear you down and compare you to your friends- that is so unnecessary and unkind. I would suggest politely telling her that you are hard on yourself as it is, you don’t need her criticism and disappointment magnifying things; if she doesn’t have any encouraging and loving words, she can keep them to herself. You’re an adult now (I myself forget sometimes), so you don’t have to put up with emotional bullying like that.

Trust me, my parents worst punishment in their arsenal of torments was to tell me they were disappointed in me. It used to destroy me to think I was disappointing them (then I did things like move in with my boyfriend, get tattoos, stop believing in their religion, and I resigned myself to being a constant disappointment on some level). When my mom told me on my 21st birthday how proud she was of me for supporting myself and trying so hard in school, I broke down and cried after hanging up the phone.

This is a message to all pre-meds, med students, doctors, whatever the fuck you are. You don’t need negative people in your life. It doesn’t matter who they are: professors, friends, roommates, siblings, parents. How shortsighted is that person? This path is really fucking hard and try as you might, you will probably fuck up somewhere. SO. WHAT. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not that big of a fucking deal! If you are struggling, they should lift you up, not add some more weight to your emotional load. That’s cruel and heartless, not loving, not acceptable. Don’t keep those people around any longer than necessary (ex: family you can’t get rid of, but you can minimize contact with them until they start being positive).

In one of my interviews we got way off track, and the doctor interviewing me told me a story about a friend of his in medical school who committed suicide because the pressure from his family was too much; he felt worthless and hopeless because that’s what they told him he was. Parents especially often don’t realize what a negative impact they words and attitudes can have on their children- disappointment and criticism are not the right ways to drive someone to succeed.

If someone is treating you this way, please please please stand up for yourself. You’re awesome! You want to be a doctor and help people! You deserve hugs and coffees and cookies and rainbows! All campuses have great counseling services for students. Talk to them, don’t let someone else’s negativity define you.  Listen: your dreams, your path, and your life are yours and yours alone. Whatever you do, do it for yourself and be proud of those decisions. You are brave, you got this.

hidingerections: The Brain Hidden Epidemic: Tapeworms Living Inside People’s Brains “Nobody knows exactly how many people there are with it in the United States,” says Nash, who is the chief of the Gastrointestinal Parasites Section at NIH. His best estimate is 1,500 to 2,000. Worldwide, the numbers are vastly higher, though estimates on a global scale are even harder to make because neurocysticercosis is most common in poor places that lack good public-health systems. “Minimally there are 5 million cases of epilepsy from neurocysticercosis,” Nash says. SAY WHAT!??? Now I know a conversation that is going to take place very soon…. Hypochondriac Boyfriend: Ugh, my head hurts so much and I don’t know why!Me: You know tapeworms can live in your brain, right? Look up neurocysticercosis on your phone right now. Do it. Dooooooo it.Hypochondriac Boyfriend: Fucking seriously? You’re really mean. Me:

hidingerections:

The Brain Hidden Epidemic: Tapeworms Living Inside People’s Brains

“Nobody knows exactly how many people there are with it in the United States,” says Nash, who is the chief of the Gastrointestinal Parasites Section at NIH. His best estimate is 1,500 to 2,000. Worldwide, the numbers are vastly higher, though estimates on a global scale are even harder to make because neurocysticercosis is most common in poor places that lack good public-health systems. “Minimally there are 5 million cases of epilepsy from neurocysticercosis,” Nash says.

SAY WHAT!???

Now I know a conversation that is going to take place very soon….

Hypochondriac Boyfriend: Ugh, my head hurts so much and I don’t know why!
Me: You know tapeworms can live in your brain, right? Look up neurocysticercosis on your phone right now. Do it. Dooooooo it.
Hypochondriac Boyfriend: Fucking seriously? You’re really mean.
Me:

(via fuckyeahmedicalstuff)

From the askbox: Followup on advice for teens wanting to be MDs

Question: I’m actually a high school junior.. I’ve wanted to be a doctor since about 6th grade. I already volunteer at a hospital and an ambulance corp :) What would you say about what college to go to? People make such a big deal about going to a good college in order to get into med school. Is that true? Does it really matter what college you go to? Also, thank you so much for the advice :) It actually made a lot of sense and I will probably be reading it many, many times!

Answer: That’s so great that you’ve known what you wanted to be for so long!

Your volunteer experience is fantastic, kudos!

As silly as it sounds, I really would recommend getting an after-school job in a non-medical field while you live at home; it will give you a totally different experience with people. Many times I’ve noticed, pre-med kids run in their own little herd and never meet anyone who isn’t pre-med or a science major. The world is so huge and the more types of people you encounter, it’s likely the better you will be able to understand your future patients. If you can fit it in your schedule, try working at least until you start college, maybe even after if you have to support yourself. Waitressing and working retail provided some of the most valuable learning experiences of my life and I wouldn’t trade that for anything (responsibility, people skills, etc).

As for colleges, well, it depends on your long term goals. Do you want to be the Surgeon General? Do you want to the CMO of a huge hospital or on the board of the American Medical Association? If you have big dreams like this, go for a top level school that will put you in better standing to get into a top level medical school. But a warning, these are the hardest to get into. I read an article that made the point that while the education might not vary much from state schools, they make up for the tuition cost in terms of connections.

But, if you don’t care about anything above (I don’t), then I don’t think it really matters where you go for undergrad. Pre-med pre-reqs are the same for everyone, and everyone takes the same MCAT. If you’re wanting to do research or really like a certain program of a college, go there. Since the pre-med track is so standardized, college and major are a great time to explore yourself.

Because I’m unashamed to be a snob, check out the art scene and the food scene of the town. Don’t go places lacking art or a thriving local food scene; I feel like these places subconsciously will stifle individualism and growth. Gobble up every opportunity to enrich yourself and become the most fucking interesting doctor ever.

I went to the university for undergrad that I did because I got an academic scholarship that was full tuition for 4 years; if you have excellent grades and do well on your ACT, many public state schools will give you scholarships. If you can, go to school for free!! My little sister participated in a program during high school that guaranteed her free tuition at any public university in our home state, but she wanted to go to this one school out of state (where scholarships didn’t cover full tuition), and is now over $10k in debt before her 20th birthday.

You’re totally welcome. I’m glad to be able to help! Listen, when it comes to this sort of thing, there are no stupid questions. You’ll never learn anything or get anything if you don’t ask.

Some days, it’s just a clusterfuck of awful.

Imagine a flowsheet that has all the steps in the right order of the things that need to happen in order for a patient to discharge. 

Now take that flowsheet and burn it because everything is broken and I have 8 patients queued up to discharge but can’t and it’s 4pm. 

A friend of mine is also having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day and she is picking me up for half-price cocktails. I can make it an hour without hulking out and smashing everything, right? 


GIFSoup

medicalschool: Explore The Human Microbiome The human microbiome refers to all of the microbial organisms that reside in the body including bacteria, fungi, and archaea.  Notably, the human body contains over 10 times more microbial cells than human cells. To illustrate the diversity of these ‘body bugs’, Scientific American have profiled this impressive, interactive map of the key microorganisms commonly identified in the human body and their predominant location. Interest in the human microbiome has increased in recent years, following reports that the type and number of microorganisms seem to play a role in the onset of several medical conditions including obesity, cancer, and diabetes. Hey. Hey guys. This is cool.

medicalschool:

Explore The Human Microbiome

The human microbiome refers to all of the microbial organisms that reside in the body including bacteria, fungi, and archaea.  Notably, the human body contains over 10 times more microbial cells than human cells.

To illustrate the diversity of these ‘body bugs’, Scientific American have profiled this impressive, interactive map of the key microorganisms commonly identified in the human body and their predominant location.

Interest in the human microbiome has increased in recent years, following reports that the type and number of microorganisms seem to play a role in the onset of several medical conditions including obesity, cancer, and diabetes.

Hey. Hey guys.

This is cool.

Life in The ER: Something that has recently annoyed me

ermedicine:

Lately I’ve been getting a quite a few messages from pre-med students asking me if I was a nurse. While I’m not a nurse, I respect the hell out of every nurse that I work with in the ER.

What’s actually startled me is some of the attitudes I’ve been receiving when people I assume I’m a nurse. A lot of people were looking down on me for a presumed “subordinate” position.

Nurses in my opinion should be just as respected as doctors, and it really frustrates me that some people hold themselves in a higher regard because they are on the path to med school. Honestly, most hospital settings cannot survive without nurses and they’re there through thick and thin for their patients sometimes in ways that physicians cannot.

Working in a hospital isn’t like Grey’s Anatomy or House, there are usually more nurses than doctors and nurses do a lot of the heavy lifting.

I don’t know it just got me really frustrated.

Well put!

This also applies to CNAs, unit secretaries, pharmacy techs, medical transcriptionists, even Environmental (just to name a few)! Every position in a hospital is vital and important. Without everyone working together, a hospital would fail to function and patient care would fall apart. Doctors could never do it all themselves! Teamwork!

The person who changes the linens and sanitizes the rooms for the next patient is just as important as the person who gives baths who is just as important as person running medication up to the floors. A lot of the MDs at the hospital where I work have god complexes and can be really rude to anyone they perceive is a subordinate- which is basically anyone who isn’t a fellow MD. Next generation of upcoming docs are going to change that, mmkay?

I’ll never be able to traipse the hallways of work without chuckling again! The internet may be a cesspool-y continuum of kittens to heinous grammar to hentai, but, every now and then, some gold emerges.  Source: reddit. 

I’ll never be able to traipse the hallways of work without chuckling again!

The internet may be a cesspool-y continuum of kittens to heinous grammar to hentai, but, every now and then, some gold emerges. 

Source: reddit. 

"Secrets of the First Practical Artifical Leaf"

ScienceDaily article

“Daniel G. Nocera points out that the artificial leaf responds to the vision of a famous Italian chemist who, in 1912, predicted that scientists one day would uncover the “guarded secret of plants.” The most important of those, Nocera says, is the process that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. The artificial leaf has a sunlight collector sandwiched between two films that generate oxygen and hydrogen gas. When dropped into a jar of water in the sunlight, it bubbles away, releasing hydrogen that can be used in fuel cells to make electricity. These self-contained units are attractive for making fuel for electricity in remote places and the developing world, but designs demonstrated thus far rely on metals like platinum and manufacturing processes that make them cost-prohibitive.

To make these devices more widely available, Nocera replaced the platinum catalyst that produces hydrogen gas with a less-expensive nickel-molybdenum-zinc compound. On the other side of the leaf, a cobalt film generates oxygen gas. Nocera notes that all of these materials are abundant on Earth, unlike the rare and expensive platinum, noble metal oxides and semiconducting materials others have used. “Considering that it is the 6 billion nonlegacy users that are driving the enormous increase in energy demand by midcentury, a research target of delivering solar energy to the poor with discoveries such as the artificial leaf provides global society its most direct path to a sustainable energy future,” he says.”

Mostly when I first read this, I imagined plants that didn’t elicit horrible mucus secretions from my face. Fucking pollen.

But cheap green energy is good too! YAY!

And.. see, that section on photosynthesis wasn’t totally useless! You understood this article!

Life in The ER: TOADS: "Tumblr Organization of Anonymous Doctors (and also medical) Students"

cranquis:

ermedicine:

wayfaringmd:

cranquis replied to your post: wordsthatididntsay replied to your post:…

There ya go — you’re a TOAD now. :)

I need to go medical school STAT…

Please let the TOADS have Assassin’s Creed style rooftop running to cure the sick and ailing, and secret handshakes, and secret milkshakes.

(via beyondtheoath)

Summer Reading Series #5: “Stiff: the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers” by Mary Roach

As much as I love fiction, some good nonfiction is absolutely essential. For those readers with a science-y bent of mind, you’ll love this one.

#5: Stiff: the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

Mondays and Tuesdays are my ‘weekend’, and this past week was a beautiful sunny day. I hadn’t checked out the library a few blocks from my house, so I walked on down to it. It’s a small branch, but in a lovely historic building. Down in the nonfiction section, I found this book and was immediately taken with it.

It starts out with a description of attending a plastic surgery conference where plastic surgeons practice a new method of face lifts on cadaver heads in roaster pans. The author makes a pretty good argument for surgeons practicing new procedures for the first time on cadavers rather than the living.

Then the book goes into the history of human anatomy and dissection, quite a sordid affair for many centuries. Next she goes into decay and those who study it for the purposes of criminal forensics.

The rest of the chapters detail how research and experiments with cadavers have helped those of us on the other side of death: automotive, aviation, ballistics and transplantation among others.

Since I haven’t been to gross lab yet, I was struck very much by the author’s descriptions of being with the cadavers. Although they are technically empty sacks of meat in the same way a dead cow is, one can’t completely view them as objects. The cadavers are still people in a way. She describes being alone in a lab with a body about to undergo impact tests for car crash studies. How being with a part of a body- say an arm, or a leg- makes it vastly easier to regard the remains as tissue rather than a person. Everyone has different coping strategies. I wonder how I’ll do come August when I get to meet my gross cadaver. I hope my university holds a memorial service for the lab cadavers (many universities do!).

Also, something I had never considered, were the ethical and cultural issues with using cadavers, especially in the area of ballistics research. I don’t understand it. It seems to me the best way to understand body armor efficiency and bullet effects would be to use actual human bodies. Yeah it’s not the most fashionable way for a loved one’s remains to go; but the end result could save may lives. That’s what people should focus on. On page 92: “For every cadaver that rode the crash sleds to test three-point seat belts, 61 lives per year have been saved. For every cadaver that took an air bag to the face, 147 people per year survive otherwise fatal head-ons. For every corpse whose head has hammered a windshield, 68 lives per year are saved.”

I feel the same way about organ donation. If I’m in good enough condition when I go, I want them to take it all to help people whose parts aren’t working, and then stick the rest of me in concrete or something and toss it in the ocean to make coral reefs. In my completely blunt opinion, families of brain-dead patients who opt not to donate the organs (around 50%) are making one of the most selfish and cruel decisions a person can make; the brain-dead person isn’t coming back and doesn’t need those organs.

If my organs aren’t able to be transplanted, I’m definitely donating my body to science with a note that says “Deceased has given full consent to be smashed, shot, blown up, picked apart, dissected, or whatever else is necessary to further scientific knowledge that could not be gained without the use of cadavers.”

Anyway, this is a great book and it will hopefully make you consider some things you never have before. Check it out! :)

"Device May Inject a Variety of Drugs Without Using Needles"

MITnews article.

“MIT researchers have engineered a device that delivers a tiny, high-pressure jet of medicine through the skin without the use of a hypodermic needle. The device can be programmed to deliver a range of doses to various depths — an improvement over similar jet-injection systems that are now commercially available. 

The researchers say that among other benefits, the technology may help reduce the potential for needle-stick injuries; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that hospital-based health care workers accidentally prick themselves with needles 385,000 times each year. A needleless device may also help improve compliance among patients who might otherwise avoid the discomfort of regularly injecting themselves with drugs such as insulin.

“If you are afraid of needles and have to frequently self-inject, compliance can be an issue,” says Catherine Hogan, a research scientist in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and a member of the research team. “We think this kind of technology … gets around some of the phobias that people may have about needles.”

The team reports on the development of this technology in the journal Medical Engineering & Physics…

…Now the MIT team, led by Ian Hunter, the George N. Hatsopoulos Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has engineered a jet-injection system that delivers a range of doses to variable depths in a highly controlled manner. The design is built around a mechanism called a Lorentz-force actuator — a small, powerful magnet surrounded by a coil of wire that’s attached to a piston inside a drug ampoule. When current is applied, it interacts with the magnetic field to produce a force that pushes the piston forward, ejecting the drug at very high pressure and velocity (almost the speed of sound in air) out through the ampoule’s nozzle — an opening as wide as a mosquito’s proboscis.

The speed of the coil and the velocity imparted to the drug can be controlled by the amount of current applied; the MIT team generated pressure profiles that modulate the current. The resulting waveforms generally consist of two distinct phases: an initial high-pressure phase in which the device ejects drug at a high-enough velocity to “breach” the skin and reach the desired depth, then a lower-pressure phase where drug is delivered in a slower stream that can easily be absorbed by the surrounding tissue.

Through testing, the group found that various skin types may require different waveforms to deliver adequate volumes of drugs to the desired depth.”

This is great news! I know so many people who are terrified of needles and this is literally the only reason they won’t go the doctor’s office when they’re sick. Very frustrating.

Doctors and Tattoos

I’ve noticed the lovely WayfaringMD getting a lot of questions about tattoos on aspiring doctors (DID YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE).

And she’s totally right- pretty much as long as you cover it up and aren’t all noisy about your crazy tattoos then it’s not a big deal.

To completely debunk the myth that tattooed people are evil and scary social degenerates, some very very intelligent people choose to be tattooed for one reason or another, as seen in what eventually became the material for the book Science Ink. I feel like, as more and more people are getting tattoos, that they are starting to be a little more acceptable. The stigma is lessening, thank goodness.

I have a couple tattoos and I plan on completing a cap sleeve in the next several years. I got my first tattoo when I was 18 on kind of a whim when a friend needed a ride to get hers touched up. It’s a crescent moon and star outline on my big toe. I feel like it was the least painful of my (currently) 3 tattoos, which is weird. It’s pretty meaningless and silly, but started everything.

A warning, they can be addicting. I’m lying there, the artist has a gun/pen contraption that is essentially lightly stabbing me thousands of times a minute and injecting little quantities of ink in my skin. It hurts like hell, and at the exact same time I’m experiencing terrible pain I just keep thinking I want more.

Tattoos have become, for me at least, a way to commemorate huge events in my life. The one on my back is a traditional sparrow and banner that says “Everything happens at its appointed time” in French as a reminder to me to not take my own plans so seriously; this one was received as part of coming to terms with being dumped out of the blue by my fiance. The one on the front of my shoulder is of the statue Winged Victory, or the Nike of Samothrace, which I got after getting into medical school and because of my connection with art. When I graduate med school, I plan on getting a rod of Hermes tattooed on my upper arm and connecting all three tattoos with a morning glory/particle collision motif, perhaps I’ll start on the motif this summer.

I am proud of my tattoos. I got them because I want them on my body forever. However, as WayfaringMD points out, be mindful of the location. Winged Victory’s wing peeps under half of my collarbone (which was the most painful bit of tattooing I’ve experienced), and as a result a lot of more open/wide necklines are out the window for me, something I never really thought about before.  Shopping for grownup clothes for school and work is quite the hunt- but I’m not going to whine, because I chose to put this stuff on my body and I can deal with the consequences accordingly.

Another thing to consider when picking location is how the skin will look when gravity has been working on it for 50 years from now. That’s why I chose the areas for my work that I did: it will sag, but not the the degree that other areas of the body will. Of course, in 50 years we could all be mind melded to the internet and live our lives in a digital realm Matrix-style. What do I know.

So there’s my two cents: get something that means something, have a good design, don’t go someplace cheap and sketchy (the craftsmanship is usually shit and it’s on your body forever), and put it someplace where it won’t drastically interfere with your grownup clothes. Go forth!

(much thanks to WayfaringMD and her askbox; I was going to post most of this as a comment on a post, but it was too long and you can’t reblog asks…)

(also, read Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man. A guy with full-body tattoos that start to move and tell stories and in the end they tell you how you die. SO. GOOD.)