This is a very belated entry (from late February), but thinking back, I realized that it was probably the most fun I've had in a single day this semester and can't believe that I didn't post about it yet.
It started out as a very impromptu trip for me on an early Saturday morning. The plan was to drive over to the French side to a place called Cul de Sac, where a ferry left shore every 45 minutes for a tiny island called Pinel. There was also a choice of making the crossing on a kayak, and that was what we had set out to do. I had kayaked once in the past, which was at Centreisland in a little calm river that never saw a single wave. I was excited and had no idea what to expect when we actually got on the waters. We paid about $15 each for a kayak, stuffed our belongings into a plastic bag, and pushed off onto the choppy waters. It started off nice and pleasant, but halfway in (about fifteen minutes), the waves started to get stronger and we could feel the current press against us. Still we had to press on (taking a rest meant getting pushed back in the opposite direction by the current), and what felt like hours later we finally made it to shore. How exhausted and drenched I was by then! We hauled our kayaks onto the sand and took in our surroundings. The shore was lined with beach chairs and umbrellas and there were plenty of visitors already. And the waters, probably the best I've ever seen since arriving on St Maarten (and I've seen a handful of beaches by now). Just looking at the waters I forgot about my aching muscles. I immediately pulled out my (dry) iPhone and started snapping photos left and right. We met up with some school mates who had taken the ferry and started throwing a frisbee around. The water was so inviting and warm that I had no problem splashing in it. One of the guys took a paddle board instead of a kayak over, so I borrowed it and set out on it by myself. It was going alright until I tried to turn it around to get back to shore. I fell from it more times than I could care to count when I tried to paddle against the current (it was a strong current!). I finally gave up and just tried to swim back to shore with the paddle board in tow. Thankfully someone came to my rescue! Two of my friends made their way to me on a kayak, and I traded the paddle board for the kayak without a second thought. Was I ever so grateful!
The rest of the day we just chilled and I got myself a few pina coladas to enjoy on the beach. We also took a walk to the other side of the island and discovered huge waves, quite the opposite of the calm and tranquil waters on the front side of the island that had greeted us.
We left the island (on our kayaks again) late in the afternoon. The trip back was a lot easier than getting there since we were riding with the current (thankfully). But it was still another work out and a half getting back to St Maarten.
It was an amazingly fun and relaxing & tiring day at the same time. Generally, I am not a big fan of going to the beach (I hate getting sand everywhere and my skin doesn't take kindly to the sun), but making the trip over in a kayak, and the beautiful waters that greeted us there, as well as spending the day with friends and schoolmates, definitely made it worthwhile.
It's April, which means the NBME is right around the corner! And with that comes finishing basic sciences!
A lot of people have been asking me if I am stressed about it and honestly I'm more stressed thinking about taking the STEP in (hopefully) four months from now.
We had our final class last Friday, which gives us about a week and a half to study on our own before we write the exam. I'm currently reading First Aid and doing Kaplan questions (trying to aim to hit at least 1500, currently at 1329).
Oh ya, our school has merchandise now! (woo!) Starting next semester, school uniforms will be made mandatory. (boo!) I snagged myself a long-sleeved sweatshirt just to wear around the house when I'm back in Toronto.
The past few weeks have been pretty busy for me, but this past week has definitely been the highlight of my medical school career thus far.
All the students in ICM have to rotate 5 times at the hospital here. So on Thursday, I went for my first one - paediatrics. We (four students) were introduced to the two doctors on the floor, who then took us around to all the pre-nates in the hospital wing. A few of them were contained in incubators while others were in glass cribs. They looked so tiny and fragile. As we visited each baby, the doctors explained to us why each of them had been admitted to the hospital. The cases ranged from HIV-positive mother to jaundice to suspected viral infections. The doctors asked us questions pertaining to the conditions unique to each individual. It was a very straight forward visit and within the hour we were done and made it to class before the end of the first lecture.
On Friday, we had our internal medicine rotation. The doctor greeted us and took us to see a few of his patients. Unlike the babies, these patients responded to our questions, which then prompted much discussion of differentials from the presented symptoms and patient history. It was much more detailed and thorough, and by the end of it we were all scratching our heads and pondering on a diagnosis. Internal medicine is more about treating the root cause of the symptoms, and each case is like a mystery that has to be solved, and all the clues come from the patient. So far the two rotations have only made me realize how much more I have to study before I am ready to write the Step!
On Sunday (today), I went to the hospital to meet with one of the ER doctors, who is also one of the professors for ICM. I had asked her earlier that week for an opportunity to shadow her at the ER and she enthusiastically agreed to let me and another student come in for the day. We were supposed to be there for 4 hours from 11-3, but we ended up leaving close to 7 PM. First thing when we got to the hospital we were greeted by the Dean and the CEO of the school himself, followed closely by two men with a lot of heavy photography equipment in tow. We quickly realized that we weren't just going to be in the ER that day. They told us that they (the school) wanted some footage of students in the hospital and interacting with patients. So we spent a good chunk of the morning filming and interviewing. I'm excited to see the finished product. After that we were ushered to the ER and we got to work seeing our patients for that day. We saw about a dozen patients in the span of seven hours. There were two patients that needed stitches, three patients with viral infections, a young woman with Dengue fever, a man with a bad case of constipation and suspected pancreatitis who was in so much pain he needed to be given pain killers IV, two patients with bronchiectasis, a child with a broken clavicle, and a few kids with mild GI complaints. Nothing too dramatic. But after seeing the distressed parents of young patients, I realize that for them it is serious and upsetting. The first goal of the doctors was to stabilize the patient before assessing the condition. What surprised me a little was that even though it was the ER, there wasn't really a feeling of urgency. Nothing was rushed. Everything was done at a steady pace, and the doctors spent time explaining to patients or their caregivers before discharging them. It was probably because none of the cases were too severe that there was no need to rush. There was a steady flow of patients to the ER and the time passed by without us even noticing it because we were kept so busy. It was very interactive and definitely my favourite rotation so far. I plan on going back after block 2.
At the end of the day, we went to Maho to get frozen yogurt and then watched the sun set behind the waters in Simpson Bay before going home and collapsing into bed!
This is a very belated entry (from late February), but thinking back, I realized that it was probably the most fun I've had in a single day this semester and can't believe that I didn't post about it yet.
It started out as a very impromptu trip for me on an early Saturday morning. The plan was to drive over to the French side to a place called Cul de Sac, where a ferry left shore every 45 minutes for a tiny island called Pinel. There was also a choice of making the crossing on a kayak, and that was what we had set out to do. I had kayaked once in the past, which was at Centreisland in a little calm river that never saw a single wave. I was excited and had no idea what to expect when we actually got on the waters. We paid about $15 each for a kayak, stuffed our belongings into a plastic bag, and pushed off onto the choppy waters. It started off nice and pleasant, but halfway in (about fifteen minutes), the waves started to get stronger and we could feel the current press against us. Still we had to press on (taking a rest meant getting pushed back in the opposite direction by the current), and what felt like hours later we finally made it to shore. How exhausted and drenched I was by then! We hauled our kayaks onto the sand and took in our surroundings. The shore was lined with beach chairs and umbrellas and there were plenty of visitors already. And the waters, probably the best I've ever seen since arriving on St Maarten (and I've seen a handful of beaches by now). Just looking at the waters I forgot about my aching muscles. I immediately pulled out my (dry) iPhone and started snapping photos left and right. We met up with some school mates who had taken the ferry and started throwing a frisbee around. The water was so inviting and warm that I had no problem splashing in it. One of the guys took a paddle board instead of a kayak over, so I borrowed it and set out on it by myself. It was going alright until I tried to turn it around to get back to shore. I fell from it more times than I could care to count when I tried to paddle against the current (it was a strong current!). I finally gave up and just tried to swim back to shore with the paddle board in tow. Thankfully someone came to my rescue! Two of my friends made their way to me on a kayak, and I traded the paddle board for the kayak without a second thought. Was I ever so grateful!
The rest of the day we just chilled and I got myself a few pina coladas to enjoy on the beach. We also took a walk to the other side of the island and discovered huge waves, quite the opposite of the calm and tranquil waters on the front side of the island that had greeted us.
We left the island (on our kayaks again) late in the afternoon. The trip back was a lot easier than getting there since we were riding with the current (thankfully). But it was still another work out and a half getting back to St Maarten.
It was an amazingly fun and relaxing & tiring day at the same time. Generally, I am not a big fan of going to the beach (I hate getting sand everywhere and my skin doesn't take kindly to the sun), but making the trip over in a kayak, and the beautiful waters that greeted us there, as well as spending the day with friends and schoolmates, definitely made it worthwhile.
It's April, which means the NBME is right around the corner! And with that comes finishing basic sciences!
A lot of people have been asking me if I am stressed about it and honestly I'm more stressed thinking about taking the STEP in (hopefully) four months from now.
We had our final class last Friday, which gives us about a week and a half to study on our own before we write the exam. I'm currently reading First Aid and doing Kaplan questions (trying to aim to hit at least 1500, currently at 1329).
Oh ya, our school has merchandise now! (woo!) Starting next semester, school uniforms will be made mandatory. (boo!) I snagged myself a long-sleeved sweatshirt just to wear around the house when I'm back in Toronto.
The past few weeks have been pretty busy for me, but this past week has definitely been the highlight of my medical school career thus far.
All the students in ICM have to rotate 5 times at the hospital here. So on Thursday, I went for my first one - paediatrics. We (four students) were introduced to the two doctors on the floor, who then took us around to all the pre-nates in the hospital wing. A few of them were contained in incubators while others were in glass cribs. They looked so tiny and fragile. As we visited each baby, the doctors explained to us why each of them had been admitted to the hospital. The cases ranged from HIV-positive mother to jaundice to suspected viral infections. The doctors asked us questions pertaining to the conditions unique to each individual. It was a very straight forward visit and within the hour we were done and made it to class before the end of the first lecture.
On Friday, we had our internal medicine rotation. The doctor greeted us and took us to see a few of his patients. Unlike the babies, these patients responded to our questions, which then prompted much discussion of differentials from the presented symptoms and patient history. It was much more detailed and thorough, and by the end of it we were all scratching our heads and pondering on a diagnosis. Internal medicine is more about treating the root cause of the symptoms, and each case is like a mystery that has to be solved, and all the clues come from the patient. So far the two rotations have only made me realize how much more I have to study before I am ready to write the Step!
On Sunday (today), I went to the hospital to meet with one of the ER doctors, who is also one of the professors for ICM. I had asked her earlier that week for an opportunity to shadow her at the ER and she enthusiastically agreed to let me and another student come in for the day. We were supposed to be there for 4 hours from 11-3, but we ended up leaving close to 7 PM. First thing when we got to the hospital we were greeted by the Dean and the CEO of the school himself, followed closely by two men with a lot of heavy photography equipment in tow. We quickly realized that we weren't just going to be in the ER that day. They told us that they (the school) wanted some footage of students in the hospital and interacting with patients. So we spent a good chunk of the morning filming and interviewing. I'm excited to see the finished product. After that we were ushered to the ER and we got to work seeing our patients for that day. We saw about a dozen patients in the span of seven hours. There were two patients that needed stitches, three patients with viral infections, a young woman with Dengue fever, a man with a bad case of constipation and suspected pancreatitis who was in so much pain he needed to be given pain killers IV, two patients with bronchiectasis, a child with a broken clavicle, and a few kids with mild GI complaints. Nothing too dramatic. But after seeing the distressed parents of young patients, I realize that for them it is serious and upsetting. The first goal of the doctors was to stabilize the patient before assessing the condition. What surprised me a little was that even though it was the ER, there wasn't really a feeling of urgency. Nothing was rushed. Everything was done at a steady pace, and the doctors spent time explaining to patients or their caregivers before discharging them. It was probably because none of the cases were too severe that there was no need to rush. There was a steady flow of patients to the ER and the time passed by without us even noticing it because we were kept so busy. It was very interactive and definitely my favourite rotation so far. I plan on going back after block 2.
At the end of the day, we went to Maho to get frozen yogurt and then watched the sun set behind the waters in Simpson Bay before going home and collapsing into bed!
