I Didn't Think There Was Gonna Be Any Medicine in Med School...

I would like to announce to the world that I have survived Gross Anatomy. It was 7 weeks of absolute hell. I spent an average of 14 hours a day at the medical center. It made me second guess my decision to become a doctor. It tested my will to live (kidding.... sort of). Now, it is over and that is all that matters. I am glad to be back to a relatively normal class schedule. So now that I have a little time, here's an update on what's been going on with my life.

I moved in to my apartment in Muncie at the end of July and got settled in for medical school. I am living with another MS 1 (code for Medical Student 1st year) from Indianapolis who I met over the summer. My classmates are a great group of people. Despite the fact that there are only 22 of us, we manage to have a collection of people from all walks of life. From former Marine helicopter pilots to doctor's sons and daughters to a guy who is only just now 21. As a whole everyone has tried to help one another, which has been a pleasant surprise. I figured it would be a group of people who saw everyone else as competition for the best grade, but it has been far from that.

I spent the first 4 weeks of school in Histology. It was a nice beginning to medical school. The material was nothing new and I didn't have to spend my life in front of a book. So I spent a lot of time socializing and getting to know some of my classmates. Then Anatomy happened. As I said earlier, it was a 7 week course. Let me say this now, that is way too short for anatomy. Luckily, our test schedule allowed me to make it up to several ND games to see some of you guys, so life wasn't quite as terrible as I make it out to be. Though, I studied more in the past 7 weeks than I did in any single year at ND, including junior year with the MCAT. It was quite an adjustment for me, especially with my study buddy Sean. Now I have moved on to Molecular Biology/Biochemistry. I have only had two days of class, but I can already tell that its going to be a lot less work.

During the entire school year I have an Introduction to Clinical Medicine (ICM) class every Monday from 7-9am. Surprisingly, I don't mind getting up for this class because it is where we actually get to go out into the hospital and interview patients and reminds me that being a doctor is about a lot more than book smarts. One day I was interviewing a lady who had come into the hospital for chest pain. As we are talking about her emergency angioplasty and family history, she starts to lose focus and got really distant. I realized something was wrong and when I asked her, she said that the chest pain had returned. I went a got the nurses and they took care of the women. It was quite an experience to have a person having a mild heart attack while your talking to them. I just can't wait until the day when I'm able to do something for a person in need of care.

Well, I realize that this is getting long. There is a lot more that could be told, but I will save it for another time. I hope everyone is doing well!

Mike D