Eyeballs- Week 1

Well, I was definitely in for more than I bargained for! I've learned plenty this week, saw MANY procedures (who would have thought ophthalmology would be known for procedures), managed to terrify myself, and looked at lots of eyes.

I'll start with the things I've learned:
1. Take care of your eyes- there really is a point of no return. Pay attention to your vision, and if you note changes, call your eye doctor up. There are treatments within a reasonable time frame.
2. Contact lenses are really not that great for your eyes if you don't wear them the recommended way. I'll be honest, I definitely don't wear them the recommended way. You can get a corneal ulcer and then you won't be wearing contacts for months. I have been lectured by more than one of the docs already. For example, wearing them for 24 hrs a day, is bad. I don't do that now, but during residency I was pretty much planning on keeping them in since I'll be awake. Wrong. Apparently, I'll need to update my prescription so my glasses can be updated (they're circa freshman year of college). I'll be making a visit to these guys before I leave for residency.
3. The cosmetic side is very interesting. Botox, Juvaderm, facial laser treatments, and the surgeries. I'm seeing a blepharoplasty (eye lid tuck/brow lift) on Monday.

Ok, onto the things I've seen. If you are squeamish or hate eyeballs, consider yourself warned.
1. On my first day I was floored at the amount of things I saw. For starters, a man came in with a retinal detachment. This is BAD. Think of it as the back wall of your eyeball (on the inside) coming loose off the wall. The symptoms are a black curtain coming over your vision. The treatment is not nice. To start, the eyeball had to be numbed with lidocaine. This meant an injection onto the eyeball. The lidocaine made a bubble on the eye. (My mouth was hanging open). Then he froze the back of the eye with a cryotherapy technique, by basically shoving this thing alongside the eyeball. Then he injected a gas bubble inside the eyeball so that it would push the retina back up against the wall. This means that for 4 days, the patient has to lay in a position forcing the retina back where it should be. For him, it was his left side. Worst case scenario- laying on your face for 4 days. And yes that does happen.
2. Eye surgeries do not mean that the patient will have general anesthesia. For somethings, they just get a valium beforehand. In other cases they get some Versed. This means they can talk to you and move their eyes while operating. Very strange.
3. For wet macular degeneration, the only treatment is an injection into the eyeball. Some patients get these monthly. I was pretty disgusted by the first one, but they are SO common, that I now think it's a normal visit.
4. Lasik is pretty quick. It's not as scary as I thought it would be, but I'm still not interested for myself. I'll continue the road of cornea eating contacts.

The Eyeball

The eyeball is the one thing that I think is pretty disgusting. I hate looking in them, and Lord help me if there is some sort of trauma to the eye or I need to go digging in the eye. Tomorrow I start my rotation in ophthalmology/facial plastics. I am going to have to keep my gag reflex under control and hopefully I don't pass out in the OR, when we operate on them. The worst part about all of this: I have to fake it to my preceptors. They cannot know for half a second that I hate eyes. So you might ask why I'm doing a rotation in eyeballs when I hate them so much. Well, it's 15 min from Jake's place (I guess it's ours now) and I needed a surgical elective. This counted. So I'm doing it.

Welcome 2011

Happy New Year! This is a year I have been looking forward to for a long time. It's quite hard to believe that it's here actually. Here's the list of things I'm looking forward to this year:
1. Graduating medical school and officially becoming a doctor on June 3rd! This is something I've been dreaming about for a very long time. When I think about all the things I have learned since starting medical school, I'm amazed! My family is renting a house in Arizona for the event so we can party it up and celebrate for awhile!
2. Jake getting his PhD! We're not quite sure yet when this exactly will be since his boss decides, but we are sure it will be this year. Then he will find a job and make real money!!!! Jake is also contemplating starting a company based on his research.
3. Moving to an unknown place! As I've previously written about The Match, we won't know where we are going until March 17th.
4. Buying a house! This is very very exciting for both of us. I am looking forward to having our own place where we can do what we want. Plus we desperately need more space. I am constantly on realtors' websites checking out homes for sale.
5. Getting a puppy! Jake promised me that within 30 days of us living together in our new place, I will get a puppy. Our plans are to get a german shepherd pup. I have never had a dog so I'm sure I'll be jumping up and down like a child when I get it.
6. Finally starting my training in being an OB/GYN! If you talk to any 4th year med student, they will tell you how they are so sick of all the extra rotations, when all you want to do is start residency. I am enjoying my time off though.

I can't really complain about 2010. It was a good year. I learned a lot, spent a lot of time with Jake, celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with Jake and the rest of my family, and most importantly moved in with Jake. To celebrate NYE, we stayed in, watched movies and made cheese fondue! Today we went and saw Black Swan. My, this was a strange movie, but I'm so glad I saw it.

Anyways, I am looking forward to 2011.

Neurology 3 Days In

Tomorrow is day 4 of neurology. I don't have to be there until between 8-9 everyday! That is so late and I love it. Plus I get a 1 hr lunch in which I get to come home since it's so close to home. My preceptor is actually pretty fantastic but he is making me know the neuroanatomy of the upper and lower extremity. Now, this doesn't sound too hard except that when I learned this the first time, it was over 3 years ago, and well, it's not really that interesting. And he doesn't just want me to know the musculature, he wants me to know them ALL, their innervation, the cord, trunk and level of innervation. Oh em gee. And how does he pimp me? When we're doing an EMG on a patient (takes a while, lots of sitting down) and he asks the patient if they want a neuroanatomy lesson. Yup, the patient always says yes. So I'm stuck getting pimped in front of the patient for a good 20-30 minutes. Lovely. This means that my nights are spent studying....hard. I study harder right now than I did while on my audition rotations!

Update: Interviews, The Gunner, Holidays and Moving!

Since my last post, I have had interviews 3-6. All of them were very interesting, and I actually really liked them. I have been surprised with my happiness at the places. I was expecting to dislike some, but actually I've been pleased. What is not fun? The traveling. Ugh. I'm so sick of it. I sure have met some interesting people. In the beginning I expected to dislike all the other candidates, but I actually enjoy talking to them! In fact, I often find myself talking to them more than the residents!

I have run into The Gunner again. At Interview #4, we interviewed together. Let's see, she did not wear a suit. She invited herself to some food during the tour in the residents' lounge without being invited. She asked an inappropriate question while at the hospital (you can get away with some of these questions at the dinners the night before). Oh yes, and she seems to think we are going to be colleagues. And frankly, I'm getting a little concerned that we might be. Our top two choices are the same. Yikes.

I have moved! Well actually I'm in the trek across the country right now. My parents, sister and Jake spent this last week in Ohio packing me up (and man oh man what a job that was). I would have been screwed without them . Since my apartment was all packed up, we spent Thanksgiving on a dinner cruise on the Ohio River. It was okay. We all said that we'll probably never eat out again for the holiday. It just doesn't seem like it's Thanksgiving.

My mom, sister and I did get up to go Black Friday shopping. We had to shop in moderation since all of our vehicles were already going to be full. I did get an epic deal of the century on a mattress memory foam topper. I knew that all of them were 60% off. Once we got up to the aisle, the entire aisle was repeatedly marked $25.99, originally $89.99. While I thought that was strange, I grabbed the thickest one I could find and we got in line to check out, where we waited about 50 minutes. We get to the cashier and imagine my surprise when my topper rings up at $147, originally $350. My sister and I told the cashier, and she of course didn't believe me that it was marked at the price, so they were about to send someone up to do a price check. Well, the manager walked by and told the cashier that she had to give us that price. Plus my mom had a 15% off coupon. I got that topper for 94% off. Now I'm sure someone will be all up in arms about getting it for so cheap. Someone screwed up bad, because an entire aisle was marked for the same price.

Currently Jake, my sister, and I are at her house in Kansas. Tomorrow Jake and I are heading to his place in Colorado. My long distance marriage is officially over!!!!!

The Match

I don't believe I've posted exactly how the process works. Starting in the beginning of 4th year, I applied to all the programs I'm interested in. Then I continuously stalk my email waiting for interview invites. From Oct-January, - that's interview season. People spend a lot of time and money on traveling to these interviews (I have 3 next week), and time at home decreases....

On February 23, I have to submit my rank list. Basically, I rank the programs I interviewed at in the order I want to do my residency at. On March 14, I will get an email that says one of two things 1) Congrats you have matched or 2)I'm sorry, you did not match. Then on March 17th at 1pm eastern time, I will find out where I'm going. I think the worst part is finding out if I match.

There is so much more to this process than I had ever imagined!

The Scream

At my last interview, it was different, in that I interviewed with five separate people. I liked this method a lot better. Anyways, heading into my third interview, the coordinator tells me to go into the office. The interviewer is in the corner on the phone, with her back to me. She hangs up, smooths her hair, takes a drink of water, turns around, looks at me and screams at the top of her lungs for a good five seconds. People come running. I am wide eyed and apologetic. She had not heard me come in. Ok, so definitely a memorable start to an interview!
Throughout the interview, I'm having a hard time focusing because all I can think of is her screaming at me, and I have to bite my cheeks to keep from smirking. About halfway through, she asks me a question, I begin to answer, and then she doubles over laughing and says "I'm sorry, I just keep seeing myself screaming at you." At the end, she says "Hmm, maybe I should scream at everyone during their interview to see how they handle themselves. You remained very composed."

Well, that will hands down be my most memorable interview!