Start of the semester

I'm a bit surprised that I'm excited to be in class this morning--the semester break just didn't seem long enough. Both pharmacology and microbiology/immunology are worth 3 credits each this semester, pathology is worth 4 credits and Introduction to Clinical Medicine is worth 5 credits. This most exciting part of this semester is that we are starting to get more heavy on clinical medicine rather than just the books. We will be doing hospital days more frequently than last semester, which is both good and bad. It is good because I want to be a doctor (in large part) to work with people not just to think about theory in a philosophical manner. It is bad though, because the drive to the hospital is an hour and the road climbs uphill and downhill as well as bending tighter than a hair pen. YUCK! Thank goodness for Dramamine (dimenhydrinate) because without it, I'd be sick enough to be a patient by the time I get to the hospital. With the two hours of driving and the eight hours of clinic time, we will have fewer hours to study (which is always a bad thing). We will also be required to write multiple history and physicals, which is a great thing for me because writing up patient histories is probably one of my strongest skills as a medical student. You might be surprised that writing a history and physical is extremely important and not nearly as easy as it sounds it would be.

One funny thing was said today in class. We were told that if we are too sick to attend a clinic that we must call in (obviously, you have to call in when you have a job so it makes sense you have to call in as a student). The funny thing was that our professor said, "if you are too sick to be in clinic [as a student] than we will send a transfer to pick you up so we can see you [as a patient] to check you out." That is one great thing about medical school: there are plenty of people to make sure we are healthy and wise!