I took these photos back in May with the intent of creating a post that obviously did not materialize in a timely manner. These photos are all from a Thursday waaaaaay back during the end of Renal. Thursdays tend to be slightly busier days, as the first years have clinical skills in the afternoon, so I thought it would provide an interesting look into what life is like for a medical student. I HAD INTENDED to post this back when I was actually an M1, but hey - things don't always go according to plan.
7:00 am - hit snooze a few times before dragging my tired butt out of bed.
8:24 am - snarf down a quick bowl of cereal [with raspberries!] while goofing around on the internet.
8:41 am - a quick outfit shot as I run out the door. Clinical skills days necessitate dressing up a bit fancier, so here I am in some variation on business casual - top and dress pants are from Kohl's, cardigan is Gap [to be swapped out for a white coat later], and shoes are from Belk. It takes me in the ballpark of 10-15 minutes to drive to campus every morning, so I usually aim to leave around 8:30; however, some days I am less successful at this self-imposed timeline than others.
9:00 am - lecture starts. Today we're being treated to a double feature on urinary tract infections before breaking early for lunch.
11:52 am - I'm chilling in the lecture hall rewatching a couple kidney pathology lectures on Tegrity [the bane of my existence!] while eating lunch. Today I have leftovers from the evening before - brown sugar spiced salmon, roasted sweet potatoes, spinach, and a bit of brown rice to add some more substance.
1:00 pm - practice history and physical with a standardized patient. This week's case focused on a potential urinary tract infection. We follow up with a debriefing with one of the internal medicine residents, discussing UTIs and pyelonephritis and the important components of a patient interview and what have you.
3:00 pm - our first clinical session finished up around 2:30 while our next activity won't start until 3:30, so for the time being we're hanging around the health sciences building killing time. I take the opportunity to pretend to be looking over material for tomorrow, while really chatting with my friend about how dismally we did on that first renal exam...womp.
3:31 pm - we thankfully get called back a bit early to commence our physical exam practice. We split up into two groups to tackle the two stations; I start off by (re)learning about prostate exams.
4:25 pm - learning how to insert a Foley catheter. Woooooooooooo. It's super easy on the manikins, of course, but unfortunately in reality no one has a urethra that large.
4:48 pm - I'm home! And in search of a quick afternoon snack - apple sauce and a couple of pieces of dark chocolate should suffice. I then proceed to waste a couple of hours doing things on the computer, washing a load of laundry, and picking up a bit around my apartment.
8:08 pm - I don't have anything defrosted to make for dinner, so frozen pizza it is! I then settle in to watch the season finale of The Vampire Diaries, because even the show has fallen deeply off the rails, I'm still stuck watching. At this point all I have to say is GOOD RIDDANCE ELENA.
10:19 pm - now that I'm home and have this morning's Powerpoint printed off, it's time to rewatch the UTI lecture. [I've also got Facebook Messenger open in the background, because now-Boyfriend was still working on that whole asking for my number thing - ha!]
11:47 pm - capping off the evening with a little Christina Aguilera dance party before heading off to shower and get ready for bed. "Dirrty" is still my jam, yo.
12:43 am - clothes are picked out, door lock situation has been double-checked, and I'm finally in bed, working my way through our reading on UTIs for TBL [team-based learning] the next morning. TBLs always start off with a quiz, so it's pretty important to familiarize yourself with the material going in. I usually aim to be done and [close to] asleep by around 1 am every night, depending on what our start time is the next morning, and most evenings I wind down the night by reading something - either an assignment or a chapter out of a book for fun.
Ta-da! There you have it - a very glamourous day in the life.