Silent Auction and Wine Tasting Benefit

Every year, the second-year medical students help put together a Wine Auction in order to raise money for our student-run clinics. Co-directors from the various clinics come together to co-chair the various committees. Last year, I volunteered with the Decorations committee and so this year became one of the Co-chairs for Decorations! Our theme was Casino Royale, and we came up with a bunch of ideas to turn our building into the swankiest casino ever. This year we had the misfortune of not being able to borrow items from the main campus, so we literally had to assemble decorations ourselves, come up with creative ways to save money, and purchase whatever else we could not find. And it turned out great! The place really looked amazing and we got so many compliments. Hopefully, we were able to raise a lot of money for the clinics.

And although it was a lot of fun, I am so glad the event is over. Most of my commitments are wrapping up, since it's getting close to crunch-time for boards studying. In fact, I had my last clinic shift in December. It's so odd to have my weekends off (for now), and though I am thankful for the extra time, I also miss going there.

Spray-painted some wine bottles with my awesome co-chair.

Took me 8 hours to cut all those dots, no big.

Amazing. 

So cool!

Our catering department was able to put together this platter as well, ha!

My last day as a Co-Director. Sad :(

Move over Jon Snow, because I know something

One of my favorite parts of clinic is seeing patients longitudinally. This is really hard, considering that we students go one or twice per month, the patient may be coming in only every few months or so, and it's by sheer luck which patient you get assigned to see that day. I've had the pleasure of seeing some patients more than once, and tracking their progress.

One of my patients today commented on how much I had improved since the last time we had met (which was almost 7 months ago if I remember correctly). The patient remarked that I seemed more confident and calm...and then apologized if I thought this was insulting. Which was sweet. I wasn't. It's so great to get that feedback and realize that you are learning a lot, even if you feel like you know nothing - which is the sentiment of pretty much every MS1.

It's the little things.

Honduras trip

aka How I spent my Spring Break aka "Remember that time we almost died in Honduras?"

Spring break was a few weeks ago and I spent it doing a medical mission trip in Honduras. How I got involved was totally accidental, too. I recall receiving a mass email from the organization heading the trip, but didn't give it much thought. There would be some lunchtime presentation discussing it sometime during the middle of Block 1 so we'd probably get some reminder. But, it had completely slipped my mind until anatomy partner K brought it up. We went to the talk together and I was hooked.

I had never done something like this before and that was a huge factor in me wanting to go. Some friends had gone during undergrad, but it hadn't interested me much before. Now, I felt like I would actually be part of a team since I have an entire (!) few months of medical school under my belt. It would be an amazing opportunity to travel to Central America (haven't been!) and also get to know my fellow classmates better. If there is one thing I learned while on my senior class trip to Armenia, it's that trips like that tend to bring people closer together (or the opposite, but let's think positively!).

So I signed up. And then I learned Honduras has the #1 highest murder rate in the world. Oh joy. Well, there was no backing out now. I convinced myself that being in a group setting is not the same as being some random tourist and I also made sure to neglect to tell my mother that statistic. Ha! (As to the second "aka" above, that was a running joke between one of my roommates and me during our bus rides to the various clinic sites. Speed + steep mountains = palpitations for yours truly.)

Our team was composed of physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, us MS1s, a couple of MS4s, and two undergrads. We had had biweekly gatherings prior to the trip to prepare and get to know each other better. And in Honduras, we met up with Honduran physicians and dentists, along with some translators too, to round out the group. Here we go!

DAY 1
We literally left the first day of Spring Break, in the wee hours of the morning, and returned in the wee hours of the morning on the last day. This year we would be traveling to Santa Barbara, a new location from previous years that is about a 4 hour bus ride from the capital of Tegucigalpa. And we couldn't even fly out of Sacramento. So we took a 2 hour bus ride to San Francisco, 5 hour flight to El Salvador, 30 minute flight to Tegucigalpa, and...spent the night there to avoid having an even longer travel day. To our delight, there was WiFi in the hotel.

We finally made it to Honduras! Photo credit: A

View from our hotel room in Tegucigalpa.

View from hotel balcony.

DAY 2
Bus ride to Santa Barbara. With a pit stop at Wendy's for lunch. Seriously.

Leaving Tegucigalpa for Santa Barbara.

Homes damaged by a mudslide. 

The streets of Siguatepeque. Photo credit: Z

DAY 3
Today was our first day in clinic and we set up in a school in the Santa Rita area. I was assigned to Lentes for the day - doing eye exams and providing prescription glasses. I was a little glad I wasn't in Medicine on the first day so I could brush up on my Spanish before tackling patient histories. I can't believe how much I've forgotten in just a few years. I need to try and practice more often. We ended up seeing a little under 300 patients today, which is fewer than the average day, but also pretty decent for a first day.

The Lentes team! Photo credit: Z

What I learned while in Central America.

DAY 4
Pharmacy day in Guacamaya! Drugs, drugs, and more drugs. Most of my day was spent counting pills, writing instructions in Spanish, and deciphering the hieroglyphics that is some prescriptions. I vow to write as legibly as possible when I'm grown up and an MD.

DAY 5
Free day! The original plan was to go see the Mayan ruins at Copan, but when people heard it was a 4 hour bus ride (meaning 8 hours in the bus roundtrip), they weren't so enthused anymore. I really really really wanted to see them and I'm so glad our team leaders were able to work things out so that whoever wanted to see the ruins could go while the rest could take a free day to shop or relax or whatever. I mean, c'mon, these are architectural goldmines. Could even be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. No competition.

Traffic.

Photo credit: Z

U-C-L-A. Bruins at the ruins ;)

DAY 6
My Medicine day in Sapote! I was pretty excited to work with our team leader, and kind of got a little shock when he said, "Well, you're the doctor, I'm just here to translate if need be or if you have any questions." Oh dear, I wasn't prepared for that. Glad A and I tag-teamed on a few patients so that between the two of us we could gather a more or less decent history. And then we had to come up with diagnoses and treatment plans so it was kind of cool pretending to know what we were doing. Fake it till you make it, right? Highlight of my day: diagnosing a UTI from an interview I did (alone! in Spanish!) and knowing to prescribe TMP-SMX! It helped that we had had Quiz 5 which covered all of this right before the trip. ;)

DAY 7
Don't remember the town but we passed by Lake Yojoa on the way. Was supposed to finish up Medicine today but due to some team members falling sick, I covered Pharmacy. Which wasn't so bad since I had some more responsibilities so I felt less like a human counter and more like I actually know why I'm giving certain meds to people. We saw a record number of nearly 500 patients today, bringing our weeklong total to over 1600 patients! We also broke the record for number of patients seen for this trip ever and had four clinic days only instead of the usual five. Yay team!

DAY 8
Time to go back to Tegucigalpa. We stopped midway in Siguatepeque to shop shop shop. I managed to buy a few souvenirs and would have liked to buy some more, but I ran out of cash and chickened out on using my card. I really wanted to save that for absolute emergencies and not risk falling victim to identity theft. I had let the bank know exactly when I would be out of the country but was still wary about using my card. But oh well, still got some nice canvas painting for my parents, some small woven baskets and wooden jewelry boxes, and a very interesting gift for the brother. ;)

Laka Yojoa. Photo credit: Z

Painting of Lake Yojoa for my parents. Any resemblance?

More goodies.

DAY 9
Back to the USA! I was ready to leave, but also reluctant. It was nice living in a bubble and being with my classmates practically 24/7 - every night we played Banangrams and Mafia. We bonded and our team really meshed well together. I really miss our adventures already. From geckos in our bathroom to tortillas, refried beans, and plantains at every meal, this was such a wonderful experience, especially since it involved global health. What I'm really surprised about is that I didn't get sick at all. Usually when I travel, I'm the one in my family who gets sick while everyone else is just super. Just plain old good luck I guess. And finally to round out our adventures, as soon as we took off from El Salvador, the oxygen masks dropped in the row in front of us. Funny! But really, it was an unforgettable trip and I'm so thankful for our fundraising efforts - almost every single member of our team was able to cover all their costs. Amazing!

Pupusas during our layover in El Salvador.

What is a weekend?

1000 points if you call tell me where that's from.

This was the most relaxing weekend I've had since we started. On Friday night, I went over to my lab partner's house so we could watch the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy. (I can actually pick up on the few medical references, ha!) On Saturday, I had lunch with an MS3 friend at a little French cafe. On Sunday, I went to clinic in the morning and a Lebanese festival in the afternoon. My stomach is content.

Clinic was great! It's been my favorite clinic so far, and I think I will stick with it. I saw two patients, took the lead with the history, helped with the physical exam, presented to the preceptor both times, and wrote the SOAP notes. I'm feeling more and more comfortable with each part of it, so I am happy.

So many shows premiered this week. I sure hope I can keep up with everything. We all know how much I love my pop culture trivia. :)

What a week!

We had our usual biweekly exam on Monday and our first anatomy practical on Friday. Suffice it to say that I triaged other classes to make sure I had everything down for anatomy. I felt like I knew the material lecture-wise, but it might be tricky to identify structures on other cadavers. I haven't been doing a good job of going around in lab and viewing other people's work. I mostly stick to our cadaver and know her super-well. But I looked around the night before the practical, hoping that was enough.

Of course, by the random luck of the draw, my group was the last one taking the practical so I had plenty of time to just hang around. :/ Oh well; we actually get to go first next time and get it over with! I came out of the practical not feeling good at all. I felt very pressed for time and kept second-guessing some of my answers. I kept thinking about it throughout the night too. I was so anxious that I even woke up extra early on Saturday morning to go to school and pick up my results from my locker. Imagine my surprise when I saw my score. I have to learn to be less hard on myself and trust that I know the answers. I think a big issue with knowing so much material is that you keep thinking of the what-ifs and overthink questions.

But, on a lighter note, to ease the tension of the very first major anatomy exam, our instructors had us wear hats! It was even a question on the exam! Here's what I wore:

As one of my classmates astutely pointed out: Of course you would wear this hat. ;)

No, I actually do not own such a contraption. Thanks to my friend S for letting me borrow this. I made sure to bobby pin it to my head so it wouldn't accidentally fall into a cadaver, ha!

And then I went to clinic on Saturday. This time, I went to Clinica Tepati, which is definitely much bigger than Bayanihan. But I felt okay. I still need to practice some more blood draws before I feel comfortable doing them on patients. Next clinic appointment in a couple of weeks!

Of course, non-quiz weekends means dinner prep consists of more than heating frozen meals and/or leftovers. Here's cilantro-parsley-pine nuts coated tilapia with garlic-rosemary potatoes (with the skin on!).

It's been a year!

09/14/12 - interviewed at UCD
09/14/13 - volunteered at clinic

Clinic

Today I volunteered at one of the student-run clinics at UCD. I know it's still really early in the year and we've learned very minimal skills in relation to patient care (blood draws and flu vaccine administration!), but since it's a non-quiz weekend, I figured I might as well get started. The clinic I chose was the same one I had toured after my interview back in September (can't believe it's been almost one year!).

And it was GREAT! At first, one of my fellow MS1s and I tagged along with an MS2 so that we could observe the interview and physical exam. And then, my classmate and I teamed up to see our patient, present our notes to the preceptor, and present the assessment and plan to the patient. I'm really glad we teamed up for our first patient, because we each jumped in to ask questions the other may have forgotten. It felt like a comfortable transition. And then we wrote up a SOAP note after discharging our patient. A SOAP note stands for Subjective (what the patient tells you) Objective (exam and test results) Assessment (diagnosis and rationale) Plan (course of action, e.g. prescriptions, diet/exercise modifications, follow up appointment, etc.). Basically, a write up of the entire encounter so that the next time the patient comes in and another medical student is assigned to the case, they have an idea of what transpired.

Writing that SOAP note was more challenging than I thought! I've written countless reports for the research studies I worked on since undergrad. Each time I interviewed a study subject, I wrote up an assessment note, but I think it's just getting acquainted with the divisions of the SOAP note, which is a little different from what I'm used to. Common theme of medical school: everything is an adjustment! :)

But I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! Yes, it's a lot of work. More work than I anticipated. But the human body is such a beautiful thing. And being in clinic reminds you of why you want to be a physician. Six hours of class leaves me exhausted. But six hours of clinic just flew on by. It was a really great experience and I'm glad I did it. I've scheduled a couple more days in September in different clinics, to see how it goes and which clinic fits me the best.

I still haven't experimented too much with cooking yet. I have a lot of food in my freezer (thanks, mom!) that I've been heating up everyday since I've been spending so much time studying. But I think going into week 3, I've learned to make some modifications in my study habits so hopefully I will have more time to cook. I miss reading books, too. Gone are the days when I would spend an hour reading at night. Hopefully, I can pick that up again soon.

Two weeks in!

And just like that, two weeks have flown by. We had our first exam on Monday morning (I passed everything! woohoo) and then dove in to the week's lectures. This week has really been packed, but I'm really glad I got a chance to talk to my childhood friend L (seriously, since Kindergarten) who's just starting medical school as well. We compared notes about our first days and what we're feeling. It's just nice to talk to someone who is going through the same thing AT THE SAME TIME. I hope we can keep a schedule of checking in maybe on a biweekly or monthly basis. :)

Class officer positions were also this week. I seriously considered running, but ultimately decided not to so that I can jump on some other opportunities that should be coming up later this block. I don't want to commit to too many things and then not be able to focus all of my energy on each adequately (or sleep, ha!). I really need to work on adjusting my sleep schedule. I've been going to bed around 1am, so when that alarm rings at 6:30, I just ignore it and then have to rush to get to class on time. Goal is to go to bed at least one hour earlier. I think that will also help me concentrate better during class so I won't need to study as much in the evenings. And boy do you study a lot in the evenings. I've adjusted my study habits for some classes already, thanks to advice from the MS2s, but Physiology is taking up more of my time than I thought I would, and Histology is the one class I have not taken before, so I need to devote more time for that.

But, since this is a non-quiz weekend, I decided to go ahead and volunteer at one of the student-run clinics tomorrow. UCD has eight free clinics (EIGHT!), each focusing on a specific underserved population. I thought I'd start out with the one I'm most familiar with, which is the clinic I toured after my interview in September. I've signed up for a couple more in September, once things settle down with exams and anatomy practicals.

Speaking of anatomy, the class has been much more interesting that I expected. Anatomy during undergrad seemed like rote memorization, but I really love the way medical school incorporates clinical correlates into all the classes. It makes the learning process more integrated and easier. I seriously adore our lead anatomy professor. He explains everything so well that I feel like I've already studied right then and there. I was definitely nervous going into anatomy lab on the first day. My main concern was (and still is) always feeling like I am going to tear something or cut through a structure and ruin the dissection for the day. It helps that we alternate among our group members, but I find myself constantly asking for reassurance that I'm doing things correctly. But other than that, it's amazing. Huge amount of respect to those who have donated their bodies so that students like me can learn.

I'll try to get in another post later this weekend to talk about clinic!