So long mini-quarter

I did it!

I successfully completed my first week of medical school exams. As stressful as this week was, the change of pace was nice in a way. We had mornings off and exams in the afternoon.

First up, we had our histology exam on Monday afternoon. My class was divided into groups of eight and we were assigned a forty-five minute time slot between 1 and 5 to complete the test. We had to identify ten things from five different slides, all in silence - raising our hands and the TAs coming over to confirm whether our attempt was successful. If we were right or wrong, we never new, the TAs merely made a mark on their notepad. After the exam, more studying, some tutoring, then more studying.

On Tuesday, we had our Cells to Tissues exam - 3 hours to complete twenty-two pages and boy was at a tight squeeze. Everyone was there straight to the end. It was quite the exhausting exam. Apparently the professor added an additional question this year because the exam is open note/resource and the 'find' feature on iPads and computers makes finding things easier than normal. Well, 'find' or no 'find' it was a long exam for all of us.

After more studying and more studying, I had my Pediatric Physical Findings class on Wednesday morning. We met in the children's hospital, were introduced to the distinguishing characteristics of pediatrics by Dr. Prober (Associate Dean of Medicine and a pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases) and one of the senior pediatric residents. We got a tour of the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit), PICU (pediatric), and the normal pediatric floors. We finished our session with a visit to an 11 year old patient with an undiagnosed stomach problem.

I loved that whole experience! Some of the unique things about pediatrics, really unique challenges, drew me in - such as the challenge of working with a patient for whom verbal communication may not be possible, meaning the physician needs to be astute to body language cues and work well with families to get as much information as possible and provide the best care. I do love working with kids, and this class will be a great experience for me to test out how important that patient population is to me.

After that class, I participated as a rater in the Multi Mini Interview for Stanford's medical school admissions process. It took up much of my afternoon but was a very valuable experience for me to be able to see what it is like on the other side of the room. The question I had revolved around the possibility of initiating a preferential admissions process for medical school contingent on devoting 2-3 years at the start of one's career to working in a rural or underserved community. Interviewees were required to explore the pros and cons and discuss the topic from multiple perspectives over the course of ten minutes. I saw ten people and they were very different in the approach and communication style.

I went home after the MMI and studied, studied, studied in preparation for our closed-note Molecular Foundations class on Thursday. Staying up later and studying was increasingly challenging as the week went on because of the stress and strain of studying so much and the two-way (16 mile) bike rides I had been completing each day.

Anyway, after another morning of studying, I took my last exam and WOW, it sure did feel good to check that off the list. There was a keg waiting outside on the lawn for us when we were done (in contrast to the coffee that awaited us after our Tuesday exam). We all hung out, chatted, and glowed with relief. A few of us ventured to the center of campus for some frozen yogurt to celebrate - I was one of them, no big surprise. I tutored a new student in physics for an hour and then met Alex and a bunch of my classmates at a local favorite in Menlo Park - the Dutch Goose. We shared pitchers of beer and some greasy food, including sweet potato fries. I think our energy was quite infectious. We were all so so happy to be done with mini-quarter and the stress level had virtually disappeared. We hardly recognized each other.

Friday morning we had a clas that focused on learning how to give feedback to others and understanding the importance of critical reflection in medicine. In the afternoon, we were introduced to the content of our Practice of Medicine course - we start lectures on quantitative medicine and population health on Monday and we will be starting to deconstruct the medical interview in small groups and with standardized patients.

My friend Carolyn Anderson from UPS, currently studying at UC Davis, came to visit Friday afternoon and we spent the evening relaxing at ur house with a few of my med school friends,

Yesterday was all about enjoying a slow morning, grocery shopping and tailgating for the Stanford- UCLA football game. Alex and I joined some of my classmates for a big tailgating extravaganza. I had never experience this kind of tailgating event but it was so much fun! The game was awesome too. Having never been to a big football game, I was shocked to find myself five rows up from the in-zone (all of the student sections are right by the field and all Stanford students get in free). The Stanford team did amazingly well, I felt proud!

Now, a relaxing Sunday, finally! Hanging with Alex, making banana bread, going to the Farmer's Market in Palo Alto with my friend Lindsey, tutoring, going for a run, making good for the week, etc.

Tomorrow, I start a whole new set of class's, but it will be nice to wind back the dial a bit on the stress-o-meter. For a little while at least.