Pet peeve: speak up!

One of my biggest pet peeves is people who talk quietly when asked to speak up. In general I'm not a fan of quiet people. I'm a pretty talkative person and like being around people who also have a lot to say. I also enjoy people who speak at a volume I can hear them. I don't want to have to strain my ears to have a conversation. I don't want to have to ask you to repeat yourself either.

The biggest problem comes when people answer questions in class or even small group and you can't hear a word they say. Sure, you're shy, that's fine. But don't answer a question if you don't intend to throw your voice a little. Even worse is when the professor asks you to talk louder or asks you to repeat yourself. The volume at which you repeat yourself should obviously be louder than the volume at which you were unable to be heard the first time. These people, instead, answer with the exact same decibel level they had before. If the professor didn't hear you the first time, he sure as shit isn't going to hear you now.

I know for a fact that most of these people don't have laryngitis, or strep throat, or some restrictive lung disease preventing them from projecting their voice. We can all yell. We all have the diaphragm capacity to take a deep breath and force air out of it. There is absolutely no excuse for these people to not raise their voice loud enough for the professor, and those sitting next to them, to be able to hear.

H&P Fumbles: Vitals?

Me: The eye and ear exam were normal.

Partner: The pupils were equal and reactive to light. All cranial nerves appear intact.

Me: The heart sounded good with a regular rate and rhythm, no murmurs.

Partner: Lungs were clear bilaterally to auscultation....

Doctor: Hold on, back up, what were his vitals?

Partner and I look at each other frantically. Doctor mentally facepalms.

Winning the lottery

Sure, everyone wants to win the lottery. And while I wouldn't say no to winning a million dollars, paying off all my loans, and buying myself a new car and a house, it isn't necessarily what I want.

HOWEVER, I really would love to win $2,000. That'd be enough to buy myself some ski equipment, a nice pair or two of shoes I've been wanting, and go out to more sushi dinners with Joseph than we budget in (because damn, do I love sushi).

That sure would be sweet. Haha.

On my own

My dad always helped me with my math homework. My dad is really smart. Really smart. He didn't make it through college, but if he had I can't even imagine the places he would be right now. He found ways to explain academic topics to me in a way no professor could. Then there came a day when he couldn't help me anymore. He looked at my homework and I had, in fact, surpassed his knowledge of math. I was on my own.

This weekend, Joseph went on a ski weekend. He went to light the industrial stove that was in the cabin they were staying in and it blew up in his face. He's not burned too badly, just a few spots of missing skin on his nose and forehead and an overall "bad sunburned" look. Not to mention his eyebrows are gone and his hair is singed. Anyway, the point is my first instinct was to call my mom and ask for her advice. She's always been the go-to for medical advice.

Then I realized at this point I know way more about treating burns than her (which, albeit, isn't much). There isn't anything she could tell me that I wouldn't already know.

It's a weird thought when you're slowly exhausting all the things you need your parents for and gaining that knowledge yourself. But, let's be serious, I still totally don't know anything about taking care of my car. I still call my mom about cooking questions all the time. My dad still does my taxes. Oh, and that whole money thing. Still need them for that from time to time (including my phone bill and car insurance).

Parents will never go out of style.

Dreaming about eyeshadow

Most teenage girls go through a discovery phase. It involves experimentation with clothing and makeup and such. I never really went through that phase "properly" so now I realize I don't know how to do makeup. At all. Sure, I can throw on powder and eyeliner, but I don't know how to properly do it; especially eyeshadow.

So I decided I needed to learn. I've been looking up tutorials and bought a 22 piece makeup brush set on amazon that got good reviews, but didn't break the bank. We will see how this goes.

H&P Fumbles: just say it!

Med student: When you, uhh, go to the bathroom do you ever have difficulty starting or stop early?

Patient: What? I have been a bit constipated lately...

Med student: No, I mean the..uhh...other one.

Patient's wife: Urination.

Patient: No, none of that.

Med student: Now what about the, um, other side?

Gripes

Today has not been a happy day. I went to bed too late and had to get up too early. I spilled my tea TWICE all over the counter within a span of about five minutes causing me to have to remake it twice. I pulled a muscle in my neck somehow. My apartment decided to run low on hot water so I was forced to take a luke warm/boarding on cold shower. Then we got to our mandatory case discussions and were told the doctors would be an hour late. An hour I could have spent sleeping. The rest of my day thus far has been filled with studying. Needless to say, I am not a happy camper. So here are some gripes for the day:

1. The "high and mighty" attitude of morning people. I am not a morning person. A lot of people aren't morning people. For some reason though, morning people think they are better than everyone else. "Well, what are you going to do when you are on a surgery rotation?" "You can't be upset that you had to wake up for a mandatory class." I am so tired of hearing morning people declare statements of their self proclaimed superiority. I don't understand why it's unacceptable to be tired or to complain about morning class, yet if someone says they are tired after dinner that's totally acceptable. I don't understand why sleeping in late is looked down on, but going to bed early is a perfectly reasonable and responsible action. It's a preference. It's a body chemistry thing. Guess what? When I am on a late rotation at the hospital or forced to think at one in the morning, I am going to be totally fine. I get the same work done as a morning person, I just have my schedule shifted. It's the way I've always worked. So no, I am never going to be cheery and happy at 8am. Deal with it just like I deal with all you morning people being "too tired to go out" at 10 because its "past your bedtime" or "unable to study with you" because it's 9 and your brain isn't working anymore.

2. I know this has been debated before, but I don't like how some people pronounced centimeter. It isn't "sauntimeter". It isn't. I hope I don't have some attending down the road declare that it is and force me to change the pronunciation.

3. ESR and CRP tests. I want someone to explain this to me. I only recently discovered what these are and I still don't understand their point. The physician today even said there isn't much of a point to doing them because a positive test doesn't narrow down your differential at all. You have inflammation. Fantastic. However, every annoying medical student shouts them as answers like they are god. "What tests should we order on the patient?" "SED RATE" Great.

Best Valentine's Day (week) ever.

I haven't ever been a huge Valentine's day fan. I don't really know if it's because I've never had a good one (despite having significant others for most of them) or if I just don't like the idea of it. Whatever the reason, I spend the day pretending it doesn't exist.

However, this year, I really enjoyed Valentine's day, or rather, Valentine's week. Joseph and I are both impatient people. We both had bought something for each other and couldn't wait the 5 days or whatever it was until v-day to exchange. I had actually bought him my gift sort of on a whim. I got him a Beardo, which he had wanted for a while, and was planning on giving it under the pretext of joint v-day/1 year anniversary, both of which I don't love as celebratory holidays. He got me the most amazing gift - a coach purse. But not just any coach purse, the most perfect coach purse that I had been wanting. He had been paying attention when I scoured coach sales.

 

In addition, we decided we were going to go out to eat to celebrate. Before going out, he surprised me at the door with chocolate covered strawberries he made and gorgeous roses.

We had recommendations of a sushi place from some friends and so he made reservations for us. However, when I called to move the reservations back when we got a little lost, the hostess told me they are a new place. She thought they would be open for dinner (hence why she took the reservation), but now sees that they won't and that we should come back tomorrow. I was thoroughly confused, but it didn't really matter. We went to our normal sushi place which is delicious.

We ended up ordering more after this.

This was my first time trying sashimi. I only recently transitioned over from rolls into sushi. It's making my mouth water just to look at it all again.

All in all it has been a perfect week. Oh, and Joseph is beyond amazing.

The best way is the butt way.

Doctor: So say that someone did come in having ingested methanol. What would you do?

Student 1: Well, you'd give them alcohol right? Ethanol?

Doctor: Give them ethanol?!

Student 1: Well, yeah because, y'know the enzymes that break them down are the same so the enzyme would break down the ethanol and not the methanol.

Doctor: Okay, I guess they used to do that, but that isn't really done anymore. Say you were going to do that, what would be the best way to get it into the patient?

Student 2: IV?

Doctor: No. As it turns out you can only give someone IV alcohol to 10% which is about 20 proof.

Student 1: Enema?

My Jack of All Trades

My boyfriend does a lot of things. I'm sure a lot of them will come up on this blog at some point so I won't talk about what they all are. However, here are a few of the things he did in the last few days:

 He made marshmallows. From scratch.

 Then we obviously had hot chocolate with them.

He flambeed (for the first time) bananas to put on our pancakes.  

Oh, and he also built a snow fort adjacent to his apartment after we found the one behind my building earlier. His roommate came home and said to me, "You are dating a man-child." He's from California. He's never played in snow before. We will give him a break.

H&P Fumbles: pick your poison

Learning the history and physical is daunting. I'm sure once I get the hang of it and really learn the best way to ask questions and perform the physical exam tasks it will get smoother. Until then, I have a lot of stories about how myself or colleagues effed up the H&P or a patient made it difficult. When you practice on your med school friends who know the entire exam, they respond exactly how you want them to. Patients? Not so much. Therefore, I'm starting this series that will hopefully give those of you both with and without medical experience a chuckle from either silly patients or my own ineptitude.

Me: Do you drink alcohol?

Patient: I used to.

Me: How much would you drink? Maybe a six pack a night? (Aside: I read on a blog or heard from someone that it's better to start with a huge number and those who don't drink will be flustered and insist way less than that and those who are large drinkers won't feel like you are going to judge them since you threw out that number)

Patient: I don't drink beer.

Me: Right, well, the equivalent of a six pack?

Patient: [blank stare]

Me: [trying to decide whether to explain the 1 shot = 1 beer rule]

Snow day?

We got over a foot here. Here's the boyfriend who decided it was nap time and at his feet you can barely see the ruler we stuck in the ground proving my previous statement. I still have to study though all the same. Boo.

 

But we still had time to go out and have a little fun. We discovered a snow fort and took some pics.

Happy blizzard!