The Adventures of Doctor Squirrelman

First off, I never said these posts would be consistent. But I suppose it’s about time I give an update since  finished first year almost two weeks ago.

I honored my physiology class (Thank you Dr. Leupen and UMBC). That was also my favorite class this year--no surprise there ;)

After that came Host Defense. I memorized so many microbes and the diseases they cause. Like, wow. I’ve also become much more conscious of food safety because of that class. #SoMuchFoodPoisoning Huge shoutout to SketchyMedical for getting me through those microbes. That is probably my favorite out-of-class resource in medical school thus far. Watching a cartoon being drawn in order to learn the important points about bacteria is much more entertaining than just reading a textbook. I still hate immunology, but I think it might actually stick in my head this time instead of having to relearn it every single time I need to know it.

In the midst of these classes, I learned that Abi is a total hypochondriac. I don’t know how that’ll work next year when all we learn is diseases and disorders. In the past few months she has decided she had scurvy, diabetes, maybe MS, and (most recently) extremely early menopause. I tend to encourage this behavior mostly because it makes it so easy to pick on her. #Friendship

In the past few months, I think I was most surprised and pleased by the fact that taking weekend trips is completely doable in medical school. A year ago, I never would’ve thought I would have that kind of time. I spent a weekend in Dallas/Fort Worth with Brooke, Amanda visited me for a weekend, and I also went to my cousin Chris’s wedding. I also visited my parents A LOT. Mostly because I needed a million fillings after avoiding the dentist for a few years... but still, I did well in my classes despite all those weekends with no work getting done.

Shockingly, I actually have non-medical school things going on in my life:

Abi and and I decided to surprise Ryan with a cake on his birthday and I think it might be my new favorite story to tell. I made him a red velvet birthday cake and took it over to Abi’s apartment the night before his birthday. We proceeded to insist upon him hanging out with us after class on his birthday. Ryan didn’t realize this was because of his birthday. Then, we stopped at Abi’s apartment before going to lunch. Ryan saw the cake and jokingly said it was a cake for him, pretending to take it. He didn’t realize it actually was his cake. Even though it was a cake. On his birthday. When we insisted on hanging out with him. We decided Ryan doesn’t understand how birthdays work.

My mom visited me right after I finished classes to finally decorate the walls in my apartment. I’m really enjoying not having blank white walls anymore. So thanks for putting up with how anal I am when hanging pictures Mom!

What I’m super excited for at the moment is that I’m leaving to visit Maryland tomorrow! It will be exactly one year since I left, which was unintentional but kind of poetic if you ask me. I’m really excited to see my friends!!!! I don’t like to talk about it much, but I miss them a lot. I’m also super ready for all the hugs I’m going to get. SO MANY HUGS!!!!

Me: so do you have any medical conditions?

Elderly lady:hm no

Patient's son: nope

Me: ok, do you take any medication?

Elderly lady: oh yes i take something for high blood pressure and for arrythmia and for my pancreas and for...

Me: so...you DO have some medical conditions

The son: well she had then for some time now

Me: thats so not the point of this conversation....but ok. So anything else? Any previous hospitalisations any operations?

Both of them: hm no

Me: ok. *starts doing physical examination* and what is that big scar you have on your stomach?

Patient: ah thats probably from that surgery when they took the cancer out

Today I was finally commissioned as an ensign in the U. S. Navy! There was a lot of waiting to get to this point, so I’m glad it finally happened.

As a little background, I didn’t decide that I definitely wanted to go the military route to pay for medical school until I was a junior in college. Then I didn’t decide I wanted to go Navy until around March or April of this year. That’s what happens when my mom tries to convince me to do something--I refuse until she finally leaves me alone about it. Anyways, I got “professionally recommended” for the scholarship over a month ago and just now got commissioned. That was very frustrating, but at this point I’m just glad to finally be in.

Some people might be surprised that I joined the military because I know I don’t exactly seem the “military type.” However, I am absolutely the “not going thousands of dollars into debt type” which was my initial motivation for this decision. There are other reasons:

I won’t have to deal with patient insurance or malpractice insurance.

I’ll have opportunities to go on humanitarian medical trips.

I’m now one of many in my family who has joined the Navy.

If I like Navy medicine, I’ll be able to stay in and retire in my 50s if I so desire.

So I just took my NBME anatomy final!! (For you non-medical school students it’s just a standardized exam) I learned a lot in 10 weeks.

While I’m happy anatomy is over, I will miss the amount of time I got to spend with my friends during dissections. Now I’ll actually have to make an effort to be social during the week. This is probably the first time I have enjoyed what one of my friends calls “forced bonding.”

My next class is Biology of Cells and Tissues (or as we call it, BCT), which I should already know some stuff about--cell bio is my jam. Hopefully that means my days won’t be quite so crazy!

In other news, I didn’t get a chance to write about the OBGYN conference I went to in Houston. It. Was. Awesome. My favorite thing was a skills workshop they set up for medical students. I got to practice suturing, forceps/suction delivery, tubal ligation, inserting an IUD, tons of stuff. Even though it was difficult to get caught up after that weekend, I’m so glad I went. I learned a lot and even got to attend a talk about a physician’s role in the fight against human trafficking!