Ooooh boy, October. What a weird little month you've been. We started endocrine & reproductive wayyyy back at the beginning of the month, and while the module itself has been relatively light and easy-going, this still ended up being a super jam-packed month.
October highlights:
- We started back up at clinic as part of our LEAP thread. We're split up into three groups for our clinical skills stuff, so every three weeks I get to rotate through a community clinic to get experience in a primary care setting. This first visit was a bit slow, as we had a patient with a particularly complicated case followed by a couple of patients who weren't open to having students in the exam room, but I did get to give someone a couple of shots! Getting to do actual hands-on things is always my favorite part of school.
- In further clinical skills news, I practice performing a bimanual pelvic exam, a Pap smear, and a breast exam on manikins. Some of my classmates have actually gotten to do things like this in their LEAP clinics, so I'm crossing my fingers that this year I'll get to try my hand at some more exam things; last year's clinic experience was very triage heavy, so I spent most of the time briefly interviewing patients and taking vitals.
- Two exams. Eesh. This module has definitely been my best one so far, so I'm quite sad that it's almost over.
- A couple of weeks ago I got called in to the hospital to witness an autopsy. All second years at my school are required to complete this autopsy experience; they go down the list alphabetically, and you get called randomly by the pathology department depending on the availability of cases. It was a really interesting experience, and I found myself enjoying it a lot more than I expected ['enjoying' is a weird term to use in this situation, as you're essentially dissecting a recently deceased person, but considering I was entirely afraid of getting sick due to the smell or the blood or something, finding myself engaged in the proceedings without a problem feels like a win]
- I got to participate in a skills lab hosted by the internal medicine interest group here; they set up a bunch of stations in the simulation lab at the hospital, and we youngling students got to practice spinal taps and catheters and central lines and intubation, among other things. And now I am entirely freaked out by the idea of performing a lumbar puncture on a real person.
- WE'RE FINALLY LEARNING ABOUT DIABETES. Hallelujah! Considering this is a disease process that affects just about every other organ system - and has thus popped in every module so far without any actual explanation as to what's going on - this feels like a huge victory. I learned a good deal about diabetes through my preceptorship this summer, as obviously the majority of patients at a family medicine practice have diabetes at this point. Our country is in a sad state, and I encourage you all to pay attention to your diet and exercise habits.
I know I said it above, but I'll reiterate - I LOVE THIS MODULE. Reproductive biology has always been a huge interest of mine, dating back to the days when I was first getting interested in science and in medicine, and I've been looking forward to this since starting school last year. And even beyond that, endocrinology is something I find really cool; I've been exposed to bits and pieces in my various biology courses over the years, and it's nice to get to revisit everything in detail. This module has also moved at a much slower pace compared to some of the previous ones - usually only a couple of lectures per day, with multiple free afternoons or mornings in a week. It's been so nice to have a bit of a breather before finishing out the year with musculoskeletal and then neuro.
In other news, Boyfriend started his interview season this past month! He's had four so far and they seem to be going well, so fingers crossed everything keeps trending in a positive direction. Match Day is starting to feel so close! And I'm not even the one matching!