Half way through med school

Half way through med school today, and since I have an afternoon off, I thought I would give an update on the past 6 months that I've been locked away in the hospital. I finished classroom work in December, and started clinical rotations in January. Ashley is realizing how nice it is having me gone all the time: less dishes to do, less laundry since all my scrubs are washed by the hospital, and extra shower time for her since I have to be up and at the hospital by 5:30 some mornings before she is even awake. Or to think about it another way, I like to think that she appreciates me more when I am home :). In reality though, I really appreciate all she does and puts up with, because I couldn't imagine having to do this school without her support.

Speaking of school, here are some of the highlights of the year.

I started on surgery - very long hours, living in Stamford, CT. I had no clue what I was doing, but I eventually learned how to sew and how to tie square knots with two hands. That's just about all you need to know to be a surgeon. So next time you need your gall bladder out, save some money and call Ashley (she's good with a needle) as well as your local Boy Scout troop to tie those knots!
I got to take care of infected appendices, gall bladders, pancreatic cancer, thyroid tumors, blood vessels, livers, colon cancer, and various other bad things that need to be cut out. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun.

Next, I went to pediatrics. Very nice people. I took care of the usual asthma, RSV, respiratory infections. I also helped take care of Tylenol overdoses, helped diagnose a 12 month infant with a rare blood cancer, sickle cell patients who were losing their eyesight, muscle aches, fevers, stomach viruses, encephalitis, and painful diseases that make your skin shed.

My next rotation was in psychiatry - yes, I am analyzing everything you do and say. And yes, I have thought about what your particular psychiatric disorder is. Ashley thought it was amusing...until I started analyzing her behaviors. Then it wasn't so fun. Remember that kid you went to school with that was always a little crazy? You were right all along, he probably is crazy.
I was assigned to an acute, lock-down eating disorder unit, but also saw the usual depression/psychotic people as well. Anorexia nervosa, Bulimia nervosa, and Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. It was so shocking to see the denial that people had about their illnesses. I saw first time admissions in 16 year old girls who were just beginning their eating disorder journey, and I saw their future (but hopefully not) in 40 year old women who had spent the last 20 years, 12 hours a day, eating and purging. I have a new respect for the physiological power of addictions, having seen it now up close when there is nothing for it to hide behind.

After psychiatry, I moved on to Neurology which was quite interesting. I helped take care of a smiling old man with dementia, taught a scared college student and her mother about her new diagnoses of multiple sclerosis and what her life would be like going forward, took care of a woman who suddenly couldn't walk one day, spoke with a Haitian man via translator about his prostate cancer that had spread to his spine, and helped evaluate patients with Parkinson's disease, among many other things. Many patients get really sick in neurology, and only a select few can slow the progression of the disease or get better. Most continue to get worse.

Lastly, I just finished my rotation on OB/GYN. Screaming women, screaming babies, emergency c-sections, terminal cervical cancer in single women, terminal ovarian cancer in young mothers, cutting out fibroids the size of your head, pap smears, ovarian cysts, infertility treatments, and circumcisions. Catching a slippery baby was, to say the least, really cool.

Next up: Urology and orthopedics.

MIA

Sorry we have been MIA on our blog. I've been trying to adjust to change, and I prefer to blog about happier things.  I just wanted to share what I've been going through.

Coming back from Christmas vacation I was very stressed and it was the hardest time coming back so far for me.  It was harder because I knew that when I came back Scott would be starting his year of medical rotations and I wouldn't see him very often.  On top of that his first rotation would be surgery in Stamford Connecticut which meant Scott would be living away from me.  If I didn't have a job I probably would have just stayed in Utah.  But I have a job and responsibilities so I couldn't do that. 

His rotation started at the beginning of January, and I will admit that it has been much harder than I thought it could be.  When Scott has been gone I have felt sort of empty I don't know how to describe it.  I felt like I had taken him for granted while I had him around everyday.  Luckily he has been able to come home at least one day each weekend.  I don't know if it makes it easier though because I have to say goodbye again each time he leaves. 

The good news is that he only has one more week left of living away!  Hurray this rotation is almost over:)  I feel like I have done a lot better than I thought I would.  I feel like I am learning to be more independent and productive.  I have been cleaning, organizing and crafting to occupy my time.  Also, our friends have been amazing and have invited me over for dinners, and to hang out.  It's crazy to think that he is almost done with one rotation.  When he gets back he'll still be really busy depending on which rotation he is on but at least he'll be living here and I'll see him more than I have with this rotation:) I'm kind of glad looking back that I got the worst one out of the way first.  When Scott's finished with this rotation I'll have him post a summary of what he's been up to in Connecticut.

Anyways, when I'm feeling stressed, overwhelmed, I tend to withdraw which is why I haven't blogged.  I'm getting back into it I promise!

First Day of School!

Today is Scott's First Day of his 2nd Year of Medical School! 

I made him take the traditional first day of school picture:) 

1 year down... 3 to go

Today Scott officially finished his 1st year of Medical School! I am so proud of him for working so hard. It's crazy that we now have one year down... it has gone by so fast!

I asked Scott to share some highlights of his first year. This is what he said:

• White Coat Ceremony - Even though I don't know what I'm doing, at least now I look like I know what I'm doing.
• Anatomy lab - dissecting my cadaver, aka my "first patient." My mind's view of the body will forever be changed, and it is imprinted with the delicate nerves and vessels of my cadaver's flesh.
• Shadowing in the OR - scrubbing in on a heart surgery and touching a live heart, seeing it stop . . . and start again, and seeing a full hip replacement, complete with power tools and all.
• Columbia-Harlem Homeless Medical Partnership (CHHMP) - Each Tuesday night from 5:30 to 10:00, providing healthcare to street-homeless individuals in Harlem. As you might imagine, I've met people here in the city looking for help who have life stories I couldn't make up even if I tried. All types of drug addicts, dealing drugs, stealing cars, prostitution as a means of staying alive, sleeping on trains, etc. At times I wish I could do more than give them allergy and blood pressure medication, advice on how to keep their infected feet both clean and in-grown toenail-free, and a new pair of socks...but I hope that what we do do makes a difference.
• Assisting a lung transplant - "harvesting" the donor's lungs at 3:00am - then racing back to our hospital with siren's blaring to put them in the recipient whose lungs have failed them from years of cystic fibrosis damage.
• Being a witness to both life (delivering a baby in the hospital) and death (in the ER)

This summer Scott will be busy doing research with a Urologist. The research he is doing is comparing patients who've had both cryotherapy (freezing) on their prostate cancer and organ transplants.

Mandoo, Knicks Game, and a Lung Transplant...makes for an exciting night!

We had tickets to the Knicks vs. Jazz game Monday Night at Madison Square Garden. We decided on our way to the game that we should try out a Korean restaurant called Mandoo. Mandoo is the Korean version of potstickers, or Gyoza. Here's the sign, you can't see it very well.The front of the restaurant. It was a small little place but nicer than what I was expecting.Here's Scott eating a side dish of turnips while waiting for our mandoo. We ordered the pork and vegetable Mandoo--it was really good!

We ordered Bulgogi Bi Bim Bop for our main course. I think that's what it was called or something like that--Scott would know but he's not here to correct me right now :) It's rice with a bunch of vegetables a little meat, some egg, and some red pepper sauce. It came to our table sizzling and our server mixed it all up for us. He asked how spicy we wanted it, Scott said medium so it wouldn't be too hot for me but it still was pretty spicy, but good!
Then... off to the Knicks game! When we got to the game we had to keep going up all these escalators because our seats were at the very top. I thought we were going to be so high up but we really weren't. It's not like the delta center (ESA now) where it's pretty steep, it's just wider. So we actually had better seats than we thought---yay for cheap seats that you can still see from! We were excited to see the Jazz play! (no we didn't go to see the Knicks)
A picture of us in our seats

Right before the game

Scott with his binoculars---it was cool to look through them it was like you were sitting right on the court:)
A Canadian Flag was hanging right by the US Flag. I took a picture for my brother Cam on his mission in Canada--it made me think of him:) Yay Canada!On the way to the game I told Scott, I hope we see someone famous at the game... and we did! During a break in the game. The theme song to The Office started playing and there was a picture on the big screen of Kevin from the office and then it changed to a video of him in his seat at the game! I was excited! We looked through the binoculars until we found him. Sure enough we found him--and I took a picture from our seats. See it below, he's the guy with the bald head. We didn't get to meet him because he was seated in the special section and we weren't but I still think it was pretty cool!

So about the game---The Jazz were ahead by a good lead the whole time until the last quarter. At the end it was tied up and stressful... but... the Jazz ended up winning by 2 points! Yay! Good ending!

After the game we wanted to get out as fast as we could to avoid the crowds. As soon as the game ended we opened the door to the stairwell and ran down the stairs instead of taking the escalators. We got out so fast! A piece of advice--the stairs are quicker, most people won't use them. We got to the subway stop and we hear beeping coming from Scott's pocket.

Side Story: Scott's been holding a pager that the medical students rotate through carrying. It's a transplant pager so if a transplant needs to happen at the hospital whoever has the pager will get paged and get to go watch the transplant.

Back to the story....

Scott pulls out the pager and it's going off. We have to stop before going through the Subway gates for him to call the hospital. He talked to them and found out he needed to be at the hospital in an hour and he'd be watching a lung transplant. We rushed home, he changed into scrubs and he left to go. This was about 11:00 pm so I went to bed. At 6:00 am I get a call from Scott asking me to open the door. Needless to say, Scott didn't get much sleep last night:) I'll have him write all about it when he has some time.

Yeah...last night was a crazy night!

Operation

I shadowed my first doctor last week here at Columbia, and it was one of the highlights of my education so far! He is an orthopaedic surgeon, specializing in the hip and knee. To give you a brief run-through of my experience, I stumbled through the hospital trying to find the right elevators and offices, had to ask directions to find the operating rooms, wandered some more, and finally had to ask random nice lady in the OR recovery room where the doctor was that I was supposed to meet. She told me that he must have already gone into surgery early (but in reality, he was just running behind a lot, and started his previous case very very late).

"Just go find him in room 10," she said.

So I'm thinking to myself, "What? Are you crazy? You expect me to just walk right in there??" However, the only thing that comes out is, "Ok." . . . . . . "WAIT, I'm sorry, I'm new to this whole thing..."

So she helped me find where I needed to go, and then in I go to room 10. And while I was feeling completely out of place throughout this entire experience, no one ever questioned my legitimacy as I wandered through the inner corridors of the operating rooms with my trusty name badge.

Sparing all the surgical details, I got to watch a total hip replacement, and a partial knee replacement. I came away with an entirely new appreciation for surgeons and what they do. There are a lot of specialties in medicine that I think are somewhat interesting, but I never really know if it would be my "thing." But after that experience, I told Ashley that "I could totally see myself doing that for a living."

- Scott

One Week

One week down, 8 years 51 weeks to go (give or take a year or two)...but what a week it was! I never thought that I would be so busy during my first week of medical school, but I also didn’t think I would be having so much fun. We’ve had a lot of science classes each morning, and I almost wish I had taken a couple more science classes during undergrad so I wouldn’t feel so intimidated when “the-student-who-did-a-master’s-degree-in-most-complicated-science-at-world-renouned-university-overseas” starts correcting the teacher on the first day about the subtle differences between different enzymes I’ve never heard of in the liver. I think to myself, “Hmm, I can barely follow this lecture. I sure hope I’m not the only one who doesn’t have a clue as to what they are talking about. I don’t even know enough to be able to ask a question. If I raised my hand, all I would be able to say is, ‘Time-out! We need a re-do. I don’t get it. One more time from the top!’” Needless to say, I’ve been studying to try and drink from the proverbial “firehose” of information that the professor has eluded to many times this week. After spending a few hours preparing my talk for Sunday, I spent the rest of my Saturday catching up. I’m sure I’ll eventually “get” all that I need to, I’m just still trying to find my groove.

On Tuesday afternoon, we had a basic first responder’s course. Apparently, once you are in medical school, people think you know stuff. They asked people to raise their hands if anyone has had a relative call them up in the last week, asking for medical advice of some sort, and about half the class raised their hands. At any rate, I now know enough that if something were to happen to a stranger while I was riding the subway, my best bet is to pray that there is someone else on the train that has more medical experience than me, because I don’t think I could be of much help to them!

(WARNING FOR THE WEAK STOMACHS: MEDICAL DESCRIPTIONS AHEAD) On Thursday, I met my “first patient,” my cadaver. She is probably around age 40-60, extremely well-preserved (relatively speaking), somewhat short, not-too-skinny-and-not-too-large, and quite beautiful (in a non-disturbing kind of way, mind you). I have a lot of respect for the people who donated their bodies for us to study. I was able to see someone perform a procedure to put in a chest tube on our cadaver (used if someone has a collapsed lung). I was able to feel the hole made in between the ribs, all the way to the lungs. I’ve never touched a human lung before, but now I have. We started dissecting the chest and the arms, and the first step was to take the skin off those areas. Strangely enough, it was relatively easy for everyone in my group, myself included, to jump right into things. There was a definite learning curve associated with using the scalpel to remove the skin, but I eventually got the hang of it. I think I look pretty good with a knife in my hand, if I don’t say so myself. J This was by far an amazing experience, but I know there is a lot of work ahead.

The week before last, we were able to take a boat ride on the Hudson river around most of Manhattan at night, and we cruised right past the Statue of Liberty as it was all lit up. What a cool sight! It made me realize that we really are in New York (well, I guess the subways, the buildings, and all the masses of crazy people kind of gave it away earlier, but you know what I mean!).

Our boat ride view at night.

Sorry about the blurry picture, we were on a moving boat...

Ashley had two job interviews this past week, and one of them was for a position here on the medical campus at Columbia. These are the first interviews she’s had while looking for a job, so we were very happy and excited about them, knowing that many prayers are being answered. We now hope that an interview will turn into a job offer, and hopefully it will be one that is near us.

Scott

White Coat Ceremony

At lots of medical schools they have what is called the white coat ceremony. This ceremony originated at Columbia. It is a whole program that is kind of like a graduation where they have speakers and put the white coats on the medical students. Here are some pictures from the ceremony. Scott also received his stethescope which is exciting too!

The Medical CenterScott in the processional
Scott putting his coat on (sorry so blurry)
Scott and his white coat
Congratulations pictures

Us and Scott's parents

Scott's First Day of Orientation and Target Adventure

Scott got all ready to go to his orientation and I just had to take a picture of him on his first day of school! He left to pick up all of his registration stuff and found out he didn't have to do anything else until 2:30 so we decided to go to Target.
We attempted to go to Target today to get some more groceries and just to check it out. We began our journey by trying to get onto the Subway. When we got to the subway we found out that a few of the stops along the way were closed. We found out that part of the ceiling had collapsed down by the subway. We had to take a shuttle bus along those stops. After we got to the working subway stop there was only one stop along the way at the very end. When we got to the end of the line we had to get onto another train to backtrack to Target. It took a very long time! We finally made it to Target and it was something familiar! Just looked like a regular Target and the prices were really good. Some things were better priced than the grocery store we went to. We didn't get a ton of stuff because we would have to carry it all back through the nightmare in the transit system today. It's kind of annoying having to depend on Public Transportation and nice at other times when it works.

Columbia

Our future has been in limbo for quite a bit of time these past months, not knowing for sure where we would be living for the next few months. I got a call this week (from a number that only had 5 digits on my caller ID . . . ), so I picked it up thinking, "How dare these telemarketers call my cell phone at 7:30 in the morning?!" Had I been thinking straight, I probably wouldn't have anwered it, but my immediate reflex to end Jimmy Buffet's rendition of "Barefoot Children in the Rain" coming from my phone was too quick. Good thing I answered (although I'm sure they would have left a message), as it was Dean Frantz from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He was pretty quick to the point: "Is this your number one choice, and do you want to come here?" Yep. "Ok, you're in." Ok. "Bye." Bye. Wait, what?? I still didn't believe him until I got the package in the mail. My dreams have come true, we're going to Columbia!

So it looks like Ashley and I will be moving to New York City this August! It will be very different that living in Provo, but we're excited and know that it will all be extremely rewarding.

- Scott