Week of November 1

The first week of November really felt like I was in medical school because it was such a rude awakening. 

This block was the start of anatomy for the Musculoskeletal -Integument System (MSK for short). It also happened to be the week for preclinical site (because they are currently every other week).

Monday

This Monday was absolutely INSANE. Our school really didn’t let us have any mental break after the FOS 2 exam.

For this Monday, there was anatomy lab from 8am to 11:50am. After lab, I had to go straight to my preclinical site from 1pm to 5pm.

Anatomy lab was very difficult because I had no idea what was going on. There were didactic videos and pro-section videos before the lab itself. There were also instructions on the VH Dissector but it was all very overwhelming.

My group was great and let me go earlier because I needed to eat food, fill my car up with gas, and dive thirty minutes to my preclinical site.

At this point, I was very exhausted. I was running on adrenaline and crashed by the time we finished with the first patient.

This day was a true introduction to the non-stop chaos that medical school brings.

Tuesday

I took Tuesday to relax a bit from the chaos of the previous day. I felt very tired from the FOS 2 exam and being hit with anatomy.

I did my best to rest, but it was very difficult. I felt stressed about the new block. Anatomy is difficult to learn in medical school. Lab was also very confusing. I was trying to understand how to take what I saw and did in lab and connect it to the lecture material.

Fortunately, I kept bothering my M2 friends about how they studied and how to better improve my strategies. It helped me figure out what information was important and what resources to use.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, there were lectures and anatomy lab. I noticed that there were not as many pre-recorded lectures for this block, so I had to go to one lecture before anatomy lab.

I also realized during this session that aphantasia makes it very difficult to learn movements.

For those who don’t know, aphantasia is the inability to visualize. That means when I close my eyes and try to visualize objects or anything, I only see black. It’s like being unable to access the visualizations. 

For this week, it made seeing how the spine moves a bit difficult, so I scheduled a meeting with my professor for Friday.

Thursday

As previously mentioned, I thought Thursdays were my busy days…but I must change how I feel about it now because Monday and Wednesdays of this block became very busy as well.

This Thursday was Procedure Day for CAS! In this session, I learned how to insert needles for subcutaneous and intramuscular injections. I also learned how to perform a venipuncture. This session was so much fun! There were simulators for us to use so we didn’t have to practice on each other.

At first, I felt embarrassed that I was unable to do some of these procedures well. The embarrassment didn’t last long, but I realized that I wouldn’t have another opportunity to practice these skills until much later because I am in an endocrinology practice.

In contrast, many of my classmates will have the opportunities to perform PPD tests and inject medicines/vaccines because they are in primary care settings.

I hope that I will have the chance to practice these skills again because I really do want to improve.

Here are some pictures from Procedure Day:

After the CAS session, there was some time to complete the asynchronous modules and fortunately the research session was only two hours long on this day. It was a bit stressful to be in this session because I have no idea what to do for my capstone project.

Friday

On this Friday, I made a meeting with one of the professors. It was very helpful to go through all that information with her.

I was very glad that I took the time to go over the material that really confused me. I was already very behind in this block, and it was only week one.

But it was so useful to have someone go through the movements with me, it helped me understand what parts of the movements I really needed to understand.

 I also shared how I felt during my last exam and asked my professor about how I could improve this block. She was very glad that I was already asking questions before it was too late.

In addition to sharing my feelings about the block, I told my professor about the encounter from my exam week. She also supports me in how I want to create an educational module. I am very happy to know there are faculty to help me out.

On this Friday, I was also super lucky to have a friend go out to dinner with me! My main reason for going into the city was to get my AirPods fixed up, but my favorite restaurant was next door. It was also the week of Diwali, so I wanted a way to celebrate.