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.

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