It’s been a while

Gooooood afternoon!

“It’s been a while” is a fitting tagline for this blog. Someone (me) evidently didnt strike that all-important ‘work-life balance’ last year. However, I’m back and I’m… older? The last blog post I wrote focused on my transition from second to third year of medical school. So, in keeping with tradition, it’s only right that this post focuses on my transition from third year to… hang on, wait for it… fourth year 😉

Third year of medical school was interesting. It can be nicely summed up by the opening lines of ‘A Tale of Two Cities’:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…”

I learnt a lot, forgot a lot, worked a lot, chilled a lot more, made new friends, lost some others, got my shit together, lost it a few weeks later.
Essentially, I was my own barrier. The experiences and opportunities I had last year were amazing but my mindset, however, was the complete opposite. I became very lazy. Let me tell ya, laziness and medical school is a dangerous combination. I managed to pass my assessments but my reluctance to work throughout the year made it needlessly difficult. The desire to work and revise stemmed from the fear of failing, so revision was left to the last possible minute. Although I passed everything, I could have performed a lot better. That’s life, I guess.

I have decided to adopt a healthier attitude in fourth year. It’s worked out so far but it has only been 16 days…

My drafts folder is bursting with posts about medical school, particularly clinical years, so they’ll hopefully be making their way to the published folder. Stay tuned!

Medical school: clinical years and moving out

Hello! It’s been a while since I’ve written about medical school and, as always, a lot has happened since the last post. Unfortunately, my time management is still a work in progress. I’ll get there one day.

1. Starting clinical years

The biggest change is that I’ve transitioned from a second year to a third year medical student. In other words, I’ve entered clinical years! Pre-clinical years were very safe, in the sense that it’s what most of us are used to. Dragging myself to anatomy, attending lectures (lol, debatable), revising in the library and eating my body weight in Morrisons meal deals was the norm. We had a few clinical placements, but nothing too scary or out of the ordinary. Starting clinical years in an actual hospital and being shoved onto actual wards with actual patients who have actual health conditions and are cared for by actual healthcare professionals is… different. Fortunately, everyone I’ve met at the hospital is super nice and eager to help out. Though, I’m yet to figure out if they’re genuinely nice or if it’s pity due to the perpetual looks of confusion plastered on our faces? Probably a mix of both?

2. Flying the nest

I’ve packed up my stuff and moved out for the last three years of my degree. This wasn’t necessarily out of choice, but was mainly due to my base hospital allocation. The hospital is an hour away from the main university campus. It’s a commutable distance, but I’ve yet to pass my driving test and, besides, I’m way too lazy to leave the house at 6:45am for an 8am start. I was disappointed with the allocation at first, but then I started to see it as a great opportunity. Being a ‘living-at-home’ student came with its perks (mum’s cooking) but, ultimately, I’ve got to start learning about all that adult stuff someday. Bills are reeeal fun, by the way.

It’s three weeks into clinical years and that’s an extremely brief update on everything. I do have a handful of posts to write up so I’m hoping to whack them up soon! I hope everyone has had a great start to the new academic year – let’s make this one the best yet.

Second year of med school, check!

All the prayer circles paid off – I passed second year!

Excluding A Levels, this exam season was the hardest yet. It wasn’t so much the number of exams – I only had three – but more the content. We were told to recap the whole two years anatomy for our OSCE, which annoyed everyone because 1) IT’S THE WHOLE BODY WITH 206 BONES AND OVER 650 MUSCLES, and 2) we’d have a maximum of what, 25 questions? For the whole two years? Is my suffering classed as entertainment? So many unanswered questions.

If the OSCE wasn’t already bad enough, they chucked in some cheeky histology during the last station. The problem is that everything in histology looks the exact same (to me at least!) making it near impossible to differentiate between cells. So, when the examiner asked me to identify which section of the GI tract a particular histological slide belonged to, I genuienly had no idea what to say. I said it was the small intestine… turns out it was the stomach.

After the OSCE catastrophe, you would think that the written exam would be slightly easier. When I opened the paper and read the first question, I got a cold, hard slap in the face. It wasn’t even a one-off slap. Every page I turned came with another… and another… and another. At the start of this semester, we were told that the majority of the questions would be based on content in the lectures. Mate, they chat so much shit. I went over every important lecture and I still had to guess about 40% of the paper. I’m not kidding! Literally, 40% of the paper.

Anyway, all bad feelings aside, I am relieved that it’s over. The first two years of medical school are down, three more to go!

Bulking up the CV

The second year of medical school is over (providing I don’t have to resit – everyone, lets form another prayer circle) and summer is finally here.

Technically speaking, summer has been here for a while. I had my last exam on May 22nd so I’ve already had a whole ten days of freedom. I can’t lie, I felt a bit lost when I woke up on May 23rd with absolutely nothing to do. I sat up in my bed, glanced at the non-existent to do list on my whiteboard for a few seconds, felt a bit confused, and then just got straight back under the duvet. It was weird. Anyway, third year doesn’t start till the last week of August. That leaves a whole lotta chilling to be done.

However, unlike last year, when I spent the nearly the whole summer literally chilling, I’m planning on being productive (good joke, next). I was looking through my CV the other day and, keeping it real, it’s pretty empty. I’ve done a few things here and there but nothing that’s like “BAM, hire me”. I’ve spent the last couple of days looking through opportunities in my area, and I came across a tutoring job. I sent in my CV and they’ve sent me an invitation for a trial shift this Sunday. Pumped. If all goes well, this will be my first ever job. Adulting to the max, guys.

In addition to job-hunting, I thought it’d be good to make a move on that article I want to submit to the student BMJ (British medical journal). There is, however, a small problem… there is no article. I’ve hit a wall and can’t think of a topic I want to write about. My mum told me not to force the article, a piece of writing is best when it comes naturally. I guess I do have around three months.

There are some insanely good articles on the BMJ website – I’ll link them here for anyone who’s looking for a good read! 

1. I’m a doctor, and I have a mental illness
2. Studying medicine with a health condition
3. The quiet doctor
4. Five truths about being a first year medical student and five rookie mistakes to avoid

Spring break!

My report has been submitted and is out of my life! Apparently, next year’s report has to be 40 pages? Yeeea… That bridge shall be crossed at a later date.

It is two days into the Spring break. Uni doesn’t start again till April 25th, so I have a solid three weeks off. Studying will probably occupy a lot of my holiday, but it’s nice having time away from 7:00am alarms and anatomy on a Monday morning. The last couple weeks were kinda stressful. Almost every day consisted of early starts and staying in the pc cluster till 6pm, and, although I signed up for this course knowing full well it wouldn’t be sunshines and rainbows, it was starting to take it’s toll. You know you’re looking tired when people start to point out that you’re looking tired.

I’ve decided to make some life changes this holiday. It’s nothing major, just little things like drinking enough water each day, eating breakfast on time and getting to bed at decent o’clock. Sleep has been a major issue recently and it’s starting to show on my face – this is bad because now my mum is worrying about me, and when mums are worried, it only means one thing… Lectures are on the way.

I’ve also been thinking about my blog. There are some important issues I want to touch on in future posts, not necessarily connected to university or medicine, but definitely things I’ve realised since becoming a student a year and a bit ago. I’ll hopefully start writing the first post this coming week, providing I don’t have a major brain fart and forget how to string a sentence together 😉