Wednesday, December 7, 2011

So I haven't Stopped Studying

Not yet at least, this time. This is, needless to say, good.

What's more interesting than the fact that I'm still studying is that while I'm studying I run into stuff I've been seeing/doing at work, which makes it a lot easier to remember things. I've been recording/tracking the blood and protein returned in urine tests, for instance. Then I studying I learned that what those are looking for (among other things) are possible defects in the glomerulus of the kidney (which is supposed to "filter" out large molecules). You get an "oh, neat" moment when you read about stuff you've been doing. And then it becomes even more interesting to do as well.

The other day when the pace slowed down for a bit in the ED I also got taught what an x-ray of a patient with pneumonia looks like, some basics of ekg reading, and a four-step outline for treating hyperkalemia in patients.

Fun stuff.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

What I Learned (2)

Takotsubo Syndrome: Commonly referred to as Broken Heart Syndrome because it's a condition typcially precipitated by severe emotional stress, Takotsubo Syndrom is a sort of cardiomyopathy that is hard to detect on an EKG because it mimics the readings that would be expected of a STEMI (a type of heart attack - ST elevated myocardial infarction).

In Takotsubo Syndrome however, the left ventrical of the heart gets bent out of its proper shape. It's a (relatively) recent diagnosis, originally discovered by researchers in Japan (Takotsubo means octopus pot, a reference to traps used to catch the creatures and, in this case, the shape assumed by the deformed cardiac muscle), but is being seen somewhat more commonly in other countries now that people know about it. If the patient survives the initial attack, the condition is usually temporary and resolves itself over a period of several months.

I ran into a case of this. Very sad that the person had it of course, but I think the idea that you can actually get broken heart syndrome/die from a broken heart is really fascinating.

In other affairs, I've changed my MCAT study approach from trying to knock out my worse subject first (Physics), to trying to start with things I'm better at (Biology, and I'll do Gen. Chem after that). With the hard stuff first, I was making very slow progress. With slow progress I'd constantly see how much other material was left to cover, and I'd freak out even more, which would further slow my progress down until I "took a break" (read, stopped). The idea here is to simply knock out what I know I can knock out, and then do the hard stuff last (but hopefully still have over a month for it).

So far, this new approach has been going very well. I've gotten a lot of Biology review done in the last few days, and if I can keep it up things look to be going great. The biggest catch is to not get /too/ caught up in the details. It's a fine line - the MCAT expects me to know a lot about respiration, for example, but it doesn't expect me to know all the details of the proteins involved in the ETC, or all about ubiquinone, or every individual reaction that takes place in the Krebs Cycle. It's easy to get side tracked into trying to re-memorize all of that like you might have for a normal exam, but that's not a good use of time (and will put undue stress on you as well, because memorizing that many details isn't a simple task).

Anyways, I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving if you're reading this (and if you're from the US). I had the day off and got to spend some time back home, which was nice. I'll post again later.

Monday, November 7, 2011

What I Learned (1)

Children get lots of ear infections. I know I used to as a young kid, and in general I've seen several people come in complaining of that lately. I never thought about it until a few weeks ago, but I realized that at "some" point I'd more or less stopped getting ear infections entirely. Why was that?

It turns out that children have smaller Eustachian tubes (little tubes linking the pharynx to the middle ear) in their ears than adults, and that the tubes are more level than in adults as well. These conditions combine to make it hard for fluid to drain from a child's ear - especially when the tube is partially filled with mucus or another substance. This creates an ideal condition for bacteria to be trapped, starting a middle ear infection (otitis media).

This isn't actually the first thing I've learned from my job, but it's the first thing that hit me as ::Oh! So that's why that happened!:: I think I'll try to put down future stuff on here occasionally that I find interesting. Especially since there's not too much else I can go on about without violating patient privacy laws or simply getting painfully repetitive.

Monday, October 24, 2011

November Schedule

Well, there's no way of knowing how my schedule will keep working out in Dec/Jan/etc, but for November at least I've been able to get one that's entirely made up of 9pm and 10pm to 7am shifts, which is fantastic (doubly so, if I can keep that going for the next few months as well).

I should be a lot less exhausted with a fixed schedule. Even if it's one fixed at night like this. Plus, as I'm sure I've said before, I enjoy being around hospitals at night (always, really, but especially at night).

Whether I can make good use of the new schedule with studying remains to be seen. If I can't... problems. If I can, things might be looking up.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

What do they call someone who got a 70 in Med School?

A: A doctor.

Words of encouragement from a nice Doctor who had the night shift after I had just passed my training (yay! I passed~) on the lower end of the score requirement (not 70, since we needed an 82% to pass, but same idea). I didn't do all that bad, really. I don't want to overly criticize the test, since we're not supposed to criticize/talk about internal processes, plus it's not fair to since they're in the middle of rearranging the test. I'll just say that because of that rearrangement a few questions were asked multiple times and, for some reason, those mostly happened to be the questions I didn't know. So instead of getting -1, I got a few -2's for not knowing one thing.

Not to excuse me or anything - I'm still responsible for knowing the material whether it's asked one time or a hundred.

From now on there's just sort of a constant evaluation process I think, where the HPIs/forms I write up get randomly audited on a once (I think) per month basis, and an unknown doctor evaluates me once per month as well. So if I can do ok, and avoid making anyone dislike me, things are starting to look like they're going well (enough).

My biggest concern is getting to my studying now. My exam studying. As neat/fun/interesting as this job is, it's been a huge drain on my time completely incommensurate with the number of hours I've been working. Studying for the job, taking shifts at odd hours, and driving up to DC for my PT, and then back for a job, has resulted in me staying up for the better part of three days in a row at times, with little naps here and there. I'm hoping as of November I'll get a more consistent schedule, and I know I can officially ease up with the job-related studying now. But I still have to find/make self-study time.

My apartment still has little furniture. I'm giving increasingly serious thought to a sofa as a place of study because otherwise... I'm just doing it on the floor or something. And that's not conducive to studying at all. A table is probably less relaxed than a sofa, but I've not been too goo about working at tables previously; a little bit of coziness isn't all bad. It would have to be a pretty cheap sofa though...

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Is The Month Over Already?

Well that went fast. Way too fast. On the up-side I have a job I like and have learned a ton of things for it. On the downside, I'm going to be tested on those things in a week or so and need to make sure I do well enough to keep the job.

Between that, my move, and my adoption of a new cat/kitten (Her name's Ema, and she needs to go to the vet soon too...) I really haven't been able to get my "real" studying done. I've also had multiple problems with companies thinking bills are late because my change of address apparently didn't work properly, and my insurance company is now saying I owe some 30,000 dollars for my surgery (which I don't....) I have a lot of excuses, and feel that they're "good" (or as good as excuses can be) since all the stuff that's been keeping me busy lately has been necessary, but this is still starting to get problematic a bit; it's beginning to get worrisome at the very least.

At any rate. The plan is to keep focusing just on job stuff until my exam for that in a week, because I really couldn't deal with loosing this job through being unprepared. After that I'll turn my attention back towards my real studying. The upside here is that the necessary learning for my job started off steep, but really plateaus and I can relax once I get it all down. It's true that there's plenty more I can learn /through/ the job, but that's more a perk of the job than anything needed to /do/ the job. So if things work out here I know I'll need less time to study my for job, and will have that time back to study for my MCAT.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

My Move

Well, I haven't posted in awhile, but it's not for lack of happenings this time. It's just that I was without internet access until today while I waited on Comcast to get things set up in my new place (and it's still not entirely set up right, but I do have my cable now. Only need to figure out how to use the wifi to connect it to my tv and other things).

Anyways, I've been very busy lately. Moving in was pretty exhausting. There were a lot of boxes that had to go up three flights of stairs, which was a huge pain, although it will be worth it later. It's nice being on the top floor of places, and having no one thumping on your ceiling. My apartment is pretty well located as far as neighbors go, actually. To one side is a cable/satellite/mechanics room so I have no one on my right to bother (or who'd bother me), and because my apartment is in the corner of the building in a sort of broad V angle, I don't have anyone directly opposite me either. There's even a hallway to my left, so no one is on that side as well. The only people who'd bother me/I'd bother are those living below me, and that apartment could be empty for all I know.

The downside to all this is that my apartment lacks light. Because of the weird V shape it's forced into, it only gets direct light from 7-11 in the morning or so. On one hand that means I'll never have the glare problems of my old place. On the other hand... it does get a bit dark. It's ok though. It's a nice enough place, and would look great decorated. Decorating it is being postponed a bit though, because I drove my car into the sidewalk (don't ask how...) and will have to pay for a new bumper. The bumper's not damaged nearly so severely that it /must/ be replaced, but it looks tacky and I can't have that.

The moving process was tiring and exhausting, but when my family left afterwards, and nothing had to be moved anymore, it got so oddly quiet by contrast. It really felt pretty lonely and depressing that night, although everything is better now (although I'm still kind of living in the middle of nowhere).

I had a meeting at the hospital on the 10th, and got my ID badge, so I'm now officially good to go. I hadn't started real work yet because I was out of touch due to the move, but I expect I'll be able to get moving forward with that any day now and am looking forwards to it. I've been working on my MCAT studying as well, although a little bit less than I might have hoped. It's just been really busy lately though with the move, and I've been making a 4 hour round trip twice a week as well for physical therapy for my shoulder. But I have been getting some studying done. I've decided to go over physics first, since that was probably my weakest point.

I'm hoping to have my review of that done by the middle of October if possible, so I have enough time to get in a good overview of the other subjects as well. Then I'll start really narrowing down my studying in late winter/early spring, prior to the actual exam. But I need to start with a really broad overview of everything before I can find my weakest points.

That's it for now I think. I still have a lot of studying to do for my job as well; there's still 200 some terms and abbreviations I need to learn for training, along with all the procedures and forms I ought to familiarize myself with.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Back to Studying

Today I went and arranged to get my pants hemmed for work, and those are supposed to get finished for my by next Wednesday. I also got a confirmation yesterday that my drug test came back negative and my other papers had been received(how the drug test came back negative when I was on percocet, I'll never know... but whatever). So other than my move, all my pre-work stuff appears to be taken care of. As for the move itself, someone else in my building seems to have reserved the elevator on the 10th. Which could be a problem, but could be ok as well since the only thing I really need an elevator for is my desk (most everything else is reasonably small, and can be carried well enough by one or two people).

What I get to do next is study. I get to keep studying for the MCAT, and I have to study the binders I got at work to memorize a few hundred abbreviations as well. Memorizing the abbreviations is probably going to be my short-term priority, since it has to get done for me to get/keep my job. It's fairly interesting anyways, actually, and it's much easier to memorize abbreviations than study for the MCAT, so it will probably be a good change of pace. I'll probably go out and grab a few sets of flashcards for that purpose tomorrow.

I have to memorize these fast though, so I can get back to studying for the MCAT; in the end, that's the only test that counts.

Friday, August 26, 2011

And Then A Hurricane?

Really? Really? Really: because an earthquake in a part of America that doesn't get those wasn't enough - we clearly needed an unusual storm as well.

Everyone is expecting the power to go down, which will be inconvenient for my faxing/emailing records back and forth to all the people who need them. Hopefully it manages to get fixed soon enough though, and I can finish my pre-employment requirements prior to my move.

I kept things going today by getting the PPD test for TB, and the first of a series of Hepatitis B vaccinations (the only one needed before work can start). I have to wait till Monday for the PPD results, before I can fax that and my vaccination form over to HR. Once that's been done, I'm effectively finished. They still haven't contacted me for the drug testing, and I'm worried that will cause me trouble. I also still need to get my scrubs hemmed so they fit me properly. All the fundamentally necessary paperwork and visits are now taken care of though.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Earthquakes and Drug Tests

So we had an earthquake. Yeah, a 5.8 one. Nothing particularly relevant to this blog, but it was a pretty exciting event since we hardly ever get them over here in DC. Apparently it was the biggest one we've had in the last 69 years too. It still wasn't that big, although it did break a few pieces on top of the national cathedral, and knock things off walls. There's a bit of a crack in my parent's apartment now, and there seems to be in the Washington Monument as well.

I remember it because it woke me up. My thought process was pretty much: "Why didn't they tell us they'd be working on the roof this morning.... why do they have to shake the roof to work on it... why to they have to shake the building to work on the roof..." And then I was awake enough to figure out what was happening. It wasn't my first earthquake, since I'd been in a few of similar sizes back when I visited Japan. But it was still neat enough. We don't get much weather like that on the east coast. No hurricanes or tornadoes or tsunamis or earthquakes to remind us how small we are.

Anyhow, back on topic. I went out for my drug test today (the company giving it is separate from the one I will be working for). The receptionist just kind of gave me a dull stare when I showed up and asked for my documents. I said I had been given none. Then she asked for a confirmation code, which had been given to me but I had forgotten all about because I've never ever needed something like that for an appointment before. I ask if I can use their computer to quickly check my e-mail and get it, and got another big dull-eyed stare. Apparently I can't borrow their computer for one minute to get the code. So I'm reasonably frustrated. It's not particularly close, and I really didn't feel like coming back the next day.

Anyways, I went back to my car to leave and fortunately realized that I'd left the folder from the orientation in the car, and had written my code down in that as well. When I came back there was a new receptionist who was much more personable and I was able to get the drug test after all, although I wasn't able to just give them my prescription bottle of percocet to prove it's legitimate. Apparently I have to wait for them to call me back once I test positive before I can present it to them. And since it's a drug test I doubt they'll take my word for it over the phone, so it seems I'm going to get to drive all the way back up there anyways. Yay.

But at least things are moving. I faxed over my vaccination records as well, so I'm making pretty good progress. I still need to get my Hep B vaccination and a TB test, so I'm going to try and set those up in short order. Otherwise, things look to be coming along well. My moving date is rapidly approaching, and I checked the wheels of my car and added pressure to them for that. I've been picking up some boxes and bubble wrap as well.

Edit: The new blog design is very crisp. And white. I like the big change in design, as I'm making a corresponding big step forward with my plans. The design feels a bit empty though, so maybe I can find a picture in the coming weeks. With moving ahead though, looking for good pictures isn't much of a priority. I might end up posting a picture of the hospital, but I should probably take my own for that later rather than use a copyrighted one from the hospital's site.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Orientation

The first of several job orientation sessions took place today, from 9 to 5. It was pretty exhausting, but in a good way. The last year or two of courses being taken as prereqs for medical school admissions really managed to replace a lot of the initial excitement of my decision to leave law for medicine with stress focused on tests, application essays, letters of recommendation, and all sorts of other things that seemingly tried to drown a bit of my soul. This orientation reminded me how fun/neat medicine is though, and how exciting it can be to work with it (or even just around it in an emergency department setting).

The bulk of the time was spent learning the basics of how to chart patients. I'm still learning how it works of course, but the general gist of it is that the form used looks at the HPI (History of Present Illness) to attempt to codify each patient's situation. Things looked at include the location of the injury, the severity of the injury, the timing of the injury, the duration of the injury, the context in which the injury took place, the quality of the injury, any modifying factors, and any other associated signs and symptoms. The ROS (Review of Systems) is a second set of items that is looked at, and includes the PFSH (Past Family and Social History) as well as the physical exam which will look at the Global (general) system, the Eyes, the Neck, the Respiratory System, the Cardiovascular System, and various other systems.

To chart all this down, we get to expand our vocabulary with hundreds of new words. We get to learn about Bradycarida (a cardiovascular rate under 50), Scleral Icterus (the yellowing of eyes), and all sorts of other stuff. We'll also get to associate what conditions match up to what symptoms. It's like taking a course, really, except we get paid for it.

Then to take notes and write down the charts, there's a whole set of abbreviations as well. I'd put them down, but they're not all /that/ interesting on their own. I'd put up an example patient history, but the one's in the materials we got handed are probably copyrighted/not my intellectual property, so I'd hesitate to put it up on the internet. And I haven't learned how to do it well enough to put up a perfect example of my own yet. Maybe I'll get around to it later.

I still have to take my drug test, and that's been set up now. I can go anytime over the next week, but I'm hoping to knock it out tomorrow. I'm still on percocet from my surgery, but have more or less cut that down to one a day. For some reason, I'd feel weird not taking one on the day of my drug test, but bringing the bottle to explain why I'm testing positive. At any rate, I'm going to try and do that in the next day or two, and then I'll finish stopping the percocet completely.

I also need to fax a copy of my vaccination records and get another TB test, but then I'll be pretty good to go. ... for a second orientation, that is. It looks like the start of my real work is still a ways off, although I'll be shuttling around between the HR office and the Hospital quite a bit. Anyways, I'm pretty excited again, and think things are looking good.

I suppose that calls for a new background on this site, so I'm going to go see what I can find to mark this watershed moment.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Moving On Up

So, everything for the job is fairly well in place, and I'm busy tracking down vaccination records, signing up for drug tests, getting fitted for face masks, etc. I received my two pairs of medical scrubs the other night, and the first of my orientation sessions is on August 22nd (as I've probably said before). The scrubs are black, which certainly isn't my ideal color, but I think they're pretty neat. The top has "emergency medicine scribe" stitched on the chest pocket in white, and makes me feel all sorts of official for once (especially as opposed to the almost embarrassing blue "volunteer" jackets they put on us when I was doing my volunteer work at georgetown). The pants are a bit too long, but fit well enough at the waist, so it looks like I'll have to go get them hemmed a bit in the next week or two.

I've finally found myself a new apartment as well. I looked at all sorts of apartments, and was starting to feel dismal over how dreary and unpleasant most seemed to me. That was doubly true because most of these bad to mediocre places were still renting out for over 1100 dollars a month, despite being an hour south of DC. That's a fairly high rent, but I can manage it. What I couldn't manage is paying it for something that felt it should have been hundreds of dollars cheaper. Then I ran into the Westchester at the Pavilions, which suited me much better.

The apartments are well designed, the bathrooms are fantastic (with extra wide tubes that have headrests of a sort), there's a set of tennis courts that have lighting at night, a pet salon, a two mile circuit walk/track around the place, lots of little fountains, and its generally pleasant in every way possible. I think I even like it more than my current apartment, apart from the fact that it's situated in the middle of nowhere rather than in a nice part of DC. The rent was a bit higher than the other spots I looked at (1400), but I think the quality of life difference more than makes up for it. Easily.

I'm fortunate (or spoiled, you can decide for yourself I suppose), so I'm getting my parents to help finance this. I'm paying for half of the first year and they're covering the other half of the rent. My job is a two year commitment (in theory), so I'll need to find a way to cover the second year on my own. At least largely. That's a ways off though, and since I have the option of changing to a full time position after the MCAT I'm not too concerned about paying for the second year (as long as my parents keep helping me pay for food, a bit). The apartment will be ready for me on September 7th, but I'm not actually going to move in until the 10th when my family can rent a small U-Haul and help me carry my things.

What's really nice though is that I was able to get the apartment without my parents being co-signers, so if I want to renue the lease after one year it will be easy whether my parents want to keep supporting it or not (even though I'm not making double the rent).

I don't know my schedule at the hospital yet. I've asked to work the minimal amount of hours sufficient for part-time status this first month, as I'm still recovering from surgery (and will have to make the long drive up to dc twice a week for my physical therapy). Hopefully the schedule works out reasonably well though. I don't anticipate it being otherwise at this point, and am pretty excited to move down there and start.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Yaaaay! I Have A Job

Just got a phone call and an e-mail late this afternoon, and I've been offered my job at Civista Hospital as a medical scribe. This is clearly very exciting, because I finally get to wear scrubs. ... More seriously it's exciting because it's a fairly neat job, because it pays, because it gives me the option of switching to full time with greater pay in the future, and because it's the first thing in awhile that's clearly gone "right" in the little mental outline/plan I have for myself.

All that said, it will be very difficult to set this up with surgery this coming Tuesday. I'll probably have to make a lot of phone calls, and ask for delays and postponements very nicely. I'm not entirely sure how that will work out, but I am pretty sure it will work out. So I'm just going to be happy for now, knowing that the job itself came through for me.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Interview Day

The scribe interview took place this afternoon and seemed to go well. It didn't go badly, at least, for whatever that's worth.

I'm supposed to find out if I get an offer in the next week or two, I believe. If I do get an offer, I might have some problems trying to set up the beginning of my job training in light of the surgery I'm having on my shoulder next week. But I won't trouble myself over that unless I actually do get the job.

If I do get the job, and if I do make it to to training, I heard that I can switch to full-time later easily enough. If I do that the pay goes up a tiny bit, and I get some other little benefits. Nothing really important, probably just 10 dollars an hour to 12. But I'll take it if it comes to that.

Hopefully it goes well. Everything that needed to get done got done, so we can only wait and see now.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Transcripts

Some good news. I went down to get the post-grad transcripts I need the other day and, while I couldn't pick them up directly (they have to be mailed over) I was able to find out that the "blank" grades I was seeing on my computer were a random fluke cause by who knows what, and my actual transcript does have the grades on it. That's a nice break for me - I have no idea how I'd have dealt with an empty transcript, but I'm sure it wouldn't have been fun or easy.

If all goes as it should, they'll be mailed out this Tuesday, and I'll receive them in time for my interview. In the worst case scenario, I'll at least be able to bring the duplicate request forms to show that I asked for them in a timely manner, and they're being mailed out (and I'll have my undergrad transcript on hand as well). So things are looking good.

The only other thing I have to do prior to the interview is find the names/contact info of three people/companies/hospitals I've worked for to put on the (second? continued?) application. That shouldn't be too hard though.

Friday, July 1, 2011

I'm Back in Town (Briefly)

I'm not done with my set of short trips yet, but I'm home for a few days in between two for the 4th of July.

The date of the interview has been set for July 19th, so I'm excited about that. I'm fairly anxious too, both because it would be great to get the job and because I don't really have a good "back-up" job plan at the moment. I don't like the group format of the interview, but I'll just go and do my best. I'm entirely sincere about wanting to work there, and feel I'm entirely qualified, so hopefully it will go well.

I do need to get a transcript copy prior to the interview. I'm going to go attempt to do that today (for my post-grad transcript - I already have several undergrad transcripts on hand). I'm worried over that, because the computer isn't showing grades on my transcript anymore.... which is both odd and problematic. We'll see what happens when I talk to people in person though.

Lastly, I need to start really studying for the MCAT, regardless of whether I take it in September or move it up (yet again.... tragicomically) because of the surgery I'm having in late July/August (I anticipate I'll be on painkillers, and won't be able to study all that well with them). I need to really /do/ something though, instead of just talking about doing something. It's been far to easy to push acts into speech. Maybe this blog has contributed to the problem a bit by giving me an easy outlet to talk about what I "want" to do. But yeah. I need to get very serious about actually doing right now.

Monday, June 13, 2011

What's Going On

So, I haven't posted in awhile, mostly since nothing has happened. I've been waiting on hearing back in regards to that interview and, until today, was having no luck. I was getting pretty close to giving up on that job working out even, which had me feeling like I'd undergone a large setback. I haven't been studying much for my MCAT either, because while it's rescheduled in September I'm supposed to have a shoulder surgery in Late July now, and am skeptical I'll be able to study well at all around that time because of the painkillers that will no doubt follow the operation. That in itself isn't a huge deal, since I'm not able to apply until next summer regardless of when I take my exam, but it got me feeling like I'd suffered a second setback as well.

At any rate, today I finally did get in touch with the HR people. It seems certain my interview is still on, to be scheduled at some point in July. I should have a more specific date in July within a few weeks. So it may have taken awhile, but good news has finally come through. Better news is that it looks like I can start the job part-time, and then opt to turn it into a full time job if I ever get the desire. I probably won't, especially since my theoretical site of work is so far away, but it's something I might want to think about after I take the MCAT.

I'm going on a few short trips in the near future as well, so probably not too much is going to go up here until I'm back. With any luck though, once I'm back and through my surgery, I'll have some interesting things to talk about again.

Friday, May 20, 2011

I'm Hired! (Sort Of)

I'm not actually hired, but I just got a message that there's an opening or two at one of the hospitals I applied to (the one furthest away - go figure), and my application/resume was apparently decent enough that I got invited out for an interview. So suddenly, the odds of me getting work as a medical scribe have shot up from fairly dim to pretty high, as long as I show for the interview in a respectable manner.

I'm actually not sure /how/ to show up though. If it was an interview back in law school, I'd certainly show up in one of my suits. But for some reason it doesn't feel as natural to be showing up for an interview for a fairly bottom tier hospital position in a fancy suit. I'll have to think a bit about what I want to wear... For now though, I think I should just be happy enough I made it this far. We'll see what happens from here.

As far as actual MCAT studying, that's going a bit behind schedule. No need to panic yet, since there's plenty of time to correct it, but it is something I should get to work on correcting. If I get the job, that should help focus me some as I won't get to be sleeping in anymore. If I don't get it, I'll just have to start setting my alarm for the sake of setting my alarm.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Medical Scribe, Take Two

All right then. I spent the last three days working on my application for the job as a medical scribe, which is a bit more time than I spent working on it last year when I tried. Of interest I calculated my post-grad science GPA for the application, and its a 3.63. Not great, but not awful if I can do ok on the MCAT.

I've offered to work at almost every available hospital they have, up to and including the ones with 60 minute commutes. I'll probably hate myself if I get the job and end up there.... (one of those far away hospitals looks very nice and new though, from its website).

It seems like an interesting job at any rate. And I can manage the commute if it stays part time. I enjoy driving, so I have that going for me. My only concern is putting too many miles on my car and having it start to break down early. I could always possibly get lucky and manage to get a job at one of the closer hospitals. Then again, it's always possible I won't get a job at any of the hospitals just like last time. We'll just have to wait and see.

And it looks like we have a bit of a wait, since nothing is supposed to open up until June or July. So until beginning tomorrow morning, I'm officially in full MCAT mode with no other commitments to distract me. Physics, here we come. (Bet you can't keep me down twice!)

Thursday, April 28, 2011

MCAT Date Change 2.0

Ok. The MCAT is definitively schedule for September 10th now, at the same spot and time as it was previously. That gives me just over four months, which should be just enough time to get a hold of physics, as well as brush up on everything else (knocks on wood).

I'm also giving serious consideration to taking a prep course for the exam now. The biggest problem there is that I'd have to sign up for it soon, and I don't know if I'll get my job yet (or what it's schedule would be if I did.)

Speaking of my job, I called the people in charge of hiring medical scribes at a set of local hospitals to ask a few questions. It sounds like a /few/ positions will be opening up in June/July, and I should apply now for a shot at one of those. If they like my app I'll have a little phone interview, and if they think I'm a decent person there then I'll have a set of panel interviews at the hospital.

I wish it were occurring a bit sooner than June/July, largely because of MCAT prep course scheduling issues. Also, a lot of other things I'm looking at take 2 year commitments as well, and if I spend my time waiting on this, I'm pushing the window shut on those other possibilities.

But still, it seems like a really neat job I'd enjoy having for 18 to 24 months, and I plan on still giving it a try as my first choice. Besides. June's not /that/ far off.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Good News; Bad News

Well, it looks like I'm going to get to drag out my premed adventure after all, for better or worse.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about what to do with myself now, and have had a chance to talk to my advisers to get their thoughts as well. The good news is that based on my GPA alone, they think I have a reasonable shot at getting into a medical school somewhere. So based on that it doesn't seem to make much sense for me to up and quit.

The bad news is that medical schools (in general) won't look at only my highest MCAT score. Different schools have different ways of dealing with applicants who have multiple MCAT scores, but the most common is to take an average of the scores. So if I take the MCAT now as scheduled and do badly, it becomes something that's very hard (perhaps impossible) to really fix.

Further bad news, obviously, is that if I don't take the MCAT now I'm applying next year, and not this one. More postponement makes for a frustrating situation.

Further good news though - I'm able to take the MCAT in September or so if I want, I don't have to wait a whole year to take it. I'll still not get to apply this year, but at least that would give me a solid score much much sooner, and would let me have a good idea of if I could get into a school much much sooner (once I have my combined GPA and MCAT score, it largely turns into a statistical exercise; interviews and essays are important too, but I think I have a pretty good motivation/story and am convinced those would only help me).

Taking the exam in September gives me a respectable four to five months to study. If that's not enough time, it's a safe bet that spending a whole year wouldn't get the job done either. Plus, if it was in a year it would be easier to procrastinate. It's harder for me to get concerned about events that distant.

So I'm going to think another day or so, but it looks like this is the current plan. I'll try to get an interesting/medically relevant job as well, to boost my resume some more too. Hopefully a paying job. My first shot is to try working as a medical scribe somewhere again. It seems like a really neat job, and pays, and is different from what I've been doing to date. It didn't work last time, but this time I have a bit of a better resume, and I can commit a solid amount of time to it if I know I'm not running off to medical school next year. Other choices are less interesting to me, or unpaid, or seem difficult to get without knowing people. I'll give this a shot first and see what happens.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

What's To Do With a B+

Status update~ we got our last exam back. It went better for me than the first, although I still just got a C+. Which was pretty much the average score. I wouldn't call it good, cause it's not, but.... a lot of people apparently did worse so I shouldn't complain. By some mystical magic and vodoo invoked to keep the paying students (customers) of a university happy, my average grade for the semester is now a B+ between this exam and the last one.

On the surface it's good news. My grade is definitely high enough to go to nursing school if I'm so inclined (although I'll have to take a few more prereqs, etc). Options are nice. Options are also cruel.

I have a really borderline set of grades for getting into medical school. I did well in /most/ everything, and there's a very reasonable chance that I can place as worst of the best and make it in somewhere. If I do that, I have to apply. If apply I have to choose between taking the MCAT now (and almost certainly doing badly.... 1 month isn't enough prep time for basically relearning physics), taking the MCAT a year from now (ok if it worked out.... if it doesn't work out... another extra year wasted.... I think I'd break), or taking it both times (and letting schools see my bad first score, on the 5% chance I manage to get an acceptable first score instead).

If I just give up and go with nursing I'll actually end up with a career sooner despite needing a few more undergrad courses, but I'll always be a bit bitter about just giving up probably ... the million dollar question is whether I'd be more bitter than I would be spending another year studying for the MCAT and ending up nowhere.

Not that I wouldn't enjoy nursing. I think I really would. But I'd be second guessing myself for a long time.

In some ways I'd hoped more for an A- or a flat F. That would have made choosing what to do easier.

Well, I've scheduled (or am trying to, more specifically) an appointment with the premed advisor here. I might try to call my old one from Vanderbilt again as well and see what his thoughts on the matter are, the more informed opinions the better. I have an instinct to take the "wait one year, study for the MCAT, work as a paramedic or something, and then apply" approach, but part of me is worried that that's just me procrastinating. Maybe I would have a chance if I spend the next month studying, but I just don't want to admit it to myself for some weird reason.

... that's probably unlikely.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Realistic Assessments

So. Things look bad. Very. The second organic test is tomorrow and I have every reason to believe I won't get above a 60 on this one either. I'll quite possibly do worse, in fact. So... my best grade possible for the course (non curved) - working on the absolutely unrealistic assumption that I take the cumulative final in two weeks which would have about three times as much material as this test and manage to get a perfect score - is about a C. Which can be bumped up to a B by the curve. But, like I said, that's a completely unrealistic assumption.

It's annoying to have on class throw off my whole plan. It's tragic that it happened to be the very last semester of the very last course though. I'd even gone out of my way to make the course I thought would throw things off (Calculus) get taken first, so I could just change things up after a few months rather than a few years of classes. Here I am though and.... well.... tough luck.

I don't know what I'll do next.

If I take the optional final and manage to work my way out of this course with a C, then maybe the option of going to nursing school will be open since that doesn't require a year of organic chemistry. If I take the final and it lowers my grade (quite possible, since it would be harder), then I'm not so sure I'll find a nursing school willing to let me in with D's (or worse, an F..... which would be a pretty shocking turn around from the A I got first semester. Go figure).

I can go back to law school always. The problem is finding a job after though, since I won't have had any of the internships, and I'll have tough luck getting a second year internship after having quit law school for 2 years. That will be tough to explain away in an interview.

Other jobs I have some interest in, like working with the State Department, generally have requirements I should have been busy fulfilling over the last 6 years instead of going to law school and medical school. Experience in "X,Y,Z required, along with a degree in political science or...". I have the degree, but I never got that experience since I was doing completely different things. So it looks like it'll be hard to get hired for a spot like this too. At least, for any meaningful position.

Well, that's it for now. I'll see if I can go find a new background for the blog, although it looks like it might be coming to a premature end.

Monday, April 4, 2011

And Now For Something Completely Different....

It seems I have, finally, actually, shockingly managed to overachieve by accident.

The personal statement I've been obsessive over lately was actually meant to be a 5200 character essay, and not the 5200 word mini-thesis I put together. The larger essay isn't actually due for two months (and even then I'll have to cut it down a bit in size I believe). So... that's actually done. In advance. Almost.

The downside is that while I spent the last week frantically working on my 16 page explanation of why I should be accepted into a medical school, I wasn't studying my organic chemistry for the upcoming exam on the 12th. I was never happy about that, but I thought I was facing a deadline and had no choice.... so it looks like I've wasted a lot of perfectly good time that could have been much, much, much better used studying chemistry.

I have a strong feeling that this chemistry test will go badly again, in large part because of this. I'll be able to start studying for it this Wednesday, and will do that frantically until the day of the test. I'm somewhat helped out by the fact that the NMR at work is still down, so I get some days off since work can't be done without it. But still, less than one week probably isn't enough time to get me ready. I'm not entirely down and out, but that means everything will be riding on the optional final. That's not a pretty situation to face.

Other good news though - I've finally finished securing all of my letters of recommendation. I have one from my biology teacher, am going to get one from my physics teacher after meeting with him this week, and got one from the nurse who was supervising me at the hospital. I also got one from a physician today, although I was sadly unable to get in touch with my neurologist for that.

Well, that's it for updates - I'm off to go work on my very last lab report of the semester. I suppose I should change the background to something more Spring-Like again.... imagine I'll do that next time I drop by.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Too Much Is Going On For A Single Title

I got the first o. chem test of the second semester back last week, and did as poorly as expected. I'd managed to forget about it over spring break, but it was a downer to come back to. I got about a 60, which is probably a C with the curve at the end I think. So it's terrible, but still in the realm of correctable. Nonetheless I got pretty bent out of sorts last week, and even played hookie from my job (the first 75 degree day of the year probably helped with that decision, somewhat.)

In better news I found my third (and I think final) recomender. I'll meet him in early April, and then that will be all sorted out. My neurologist never got back to me, which is probably the fault of the secretary there for not passing on my message, but there's not really time to worry about that - looks like I'll have to get a letter from my general physician. Personal statements are in draft form, but not complete, and I have to schedule two mock interviews by I'm not sure when (but sometime really soon).

So. What next. I have a general feeling of anxiety, and am pretty sure things are going badly. The biggest problem is simply that I'm not getting time to study enough for the MCAT, and am fairly sure I won't be ready to take it and do well in May.

I think the real approach is to "ignore" the MCAT. Whether canceling it and retaking it next year, or taking it and doing badly and ending up taking it again next year.... either way it's a test I can take again in the worst case scenario. Obviously I don't/didn't want it to end up working like that, and making this whole process take one more year is kind of (very) disheartening, but there's really nothing I can do about this. If I let that stress me out I'll just mess up everything else.

So what really needs working on is O. Chem, because I don't get to retake that and change my GPA. The problem with the last test, as I said, was that the answers to problems aren't in our useless book. So that's what I need to fix. I have to start actively working on problems this coming Monday, so I can go in and talk to our teacher about them to see what's going on. Then I just need to finish the rest of the application stuff. Hopefully the letters will be reusable/holdable if I were to not apply this summer, and my personal statement will certainly work whenever. That way, I won't have to worry about doing it again.

Just for the record, second semester O. Chem seems to have become a legitimate nightmare, with more to figure out and memorize than you can probably imagine. But I'll go on and do my best.

Friday, March 11, 2011

A Busy Break

So I haven't had classes this week because of spring break, but I've been running around everywhere trying to round up some letters of recommendation. I've succesfully managed two so far, not including my faculty "mentor" who'll reccomend me in the committee letter I talked about earlier. So it looks like I need one more faculty member, and the reference of a physician. I'm trying to get in touch with my neurologist for that; it would be nice if I could keep some sort of neurology theme going on in my application, since that's my reason for applying. If I'm unable to get in touch with him I'll have to get my generalist to write one up, which should be easily doable, even if somewhat less desirable.

The third professor is a bit tricky. Ideally it would be a science professor. Unfortunately, my first year science courses at AU have been large and I didn't go to office hours, so I'm pretty sure the professors don't know me at all. My physics teachers might remember me, but physics was my weakest class and, probably, isn't the best place to go for recommendations. It's an option though - I'd go with the teacher from the first semester when I managed an A-. I went to his office hours a lot, and he'd hopefully remember me once he saw my face. He could talk about me visiting frequently and trying hard, if nothing else.

I was also thinking about trying to get one of my old law teachers to help explain/justify my transition from law to science. Having only one letter from an actual science teacher would seem odd though.... not to mention I've been completely unable to track down this former law teacher since she left her job after being nominated as an appellate judge.

I also need to finish my personal statement by Tuesday. I haven't really started (although I have a good idea of what I want to talk about), and that's a pretty important essay on my behalf, so it's I'm feeling a bit of stress. At least I'm good at that type of writing though, so it shouldn't be too hard once I get a draft done.

The funny/sad thing is that while I'm spending all this time working on my application, I'm not being able to find time to study enough for the MCAT itself.... that's going to be a problem in two or three months. A big one.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Foiled Again

The first O. Chem test of this semester is going to be this Tuesday. I've actually been working on that hard for the last two weeks but, again, not in the proper manner. And I didn't figure that out until a few days ago, so it was too late to really fix anything.

Our book is awful, and has no answers to the problems (you have to buy another 150 dollar book to get those.... which I don't own). I was planning on hitting my book really hard over these last two weeks to get ready but that's proven impossible. I can spend all the time in the world with my book, and it's almost useless if I can't confirm that I'm doing things right or not. I don't know why I didn't figure out that would be a problem sooner, since it's the same book as last semester. I guess it was less of a problem last semester of that other small o. chem book I had on the side. Without anything like that this time, I've been left kind of staring at pages.

The test won't go well.

The semester itself isn't ruined, of course. It just means I need to do better on the second test and, probably, I'll have to take the optional final this time (if I want a 4.0, at least. or a 3.7). I'll also have to change my approach to studying for the next test immediately, and suppose I'll have to break down and buy that answer manual. Even though this doesn't ruin anything, it's really really frustrating. Was hoping to do well on this test and have that trigger a wave of good happenings. No chance of that now.

Wish I had the test tomorrow, instead of Tuesday. I'm going to keep stressing over this all of tomorrow, while not being able to fix anything. It's something that just needs to get over with.

This will be the last week of courses before spring break though, so I'll have a week off soon at least. Or a week to spend trying to track down more letters of recommendation and work on personal statements, rather.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Mentorship

I said I'd talk more about the upcoming set of things I have to do, so here goes. The first up was find a faculty "mentor" for me by February 15th. Their job, more or less, is to review the 3+ letters of recommendation that I'm going to get, and add their own letter of recommendation that can tie the previous ones together into a coherent whole. So it's a pretty time intensive job on their part, and I'm glad I found someone to do it. However, it makes finding people for the actual letters of rec a bit harder, because I don't really know /that/ many teachers having not been in undergrad lately.

Anyhow, here's what needs doing (beyond studying O. Chem and MCAT material).

March 15: I need to my resume, a brief autobiography, a lengthy personal statement, and all of my transcripts from undergrad and lawschool brought into the premed office. The resume and personal statement are going to medical schools, so have to be super-well done.

April 1: This is my last day to have done a mock interview with the admissions-help people at the college. And that's a service I really ought to take advantage of, because the medical school interviews are actually really important in determining if you get in. Your grades and MCAT determine if you can get an interview, and then the interview by a panel determines if you get in the school. There was nothing equally like this for law school or undergrad, so it's worth preparing for.

April 15: All letters of recommendation have to be /recieved/ by this date. Which means that I'd better start asking for those letters right about now. People have stuff to do, and probably would want at least a two months head up on having to give me letters. Especially people I haven't been in touch with lately - if I wanted a letter from the law professor I did research with, for instance.

~May 15: This is when my transcripts have to go from the premed office to the AMCAS website.

May 29: MCAT Day. Can't push it back again and still successfully apply for this cycle.

~June 1: This is when the actual application can be submitted to most colleges from the AMCAS website.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

MCAT Date Change

Well. I spent a long while trying to decide if I should push it back or not. After meeting with the pre-med adviser today I was able to get a pretty straight answer about how bad it would be to take the MCAT in May, rather than April, and was told it wouldn't matter much. And that's all it took to tip things for me, so the new date is May 26th instead of April 29th. I was actually able to keep the same location and test time, although I had to pay another sixty dollars to make the change.

I figure that if I don't get into school because I applied late, but got a decent MCAT score, that's a much better situation to be in than if I were to take the MCAT early and not get in anywhere because of a bad score that would stick on my record permanently. The extra month will be much needed: whether it's sufficient or not remains to be seen.

What keeps me hopeful is that I'm really more qualified for this than I ever was for law school. I got into law school pretty much on a whim, just because there was nothing better to do. I had no prior extracurricular activities or work that were relevant, and no particularly great letters of recommendation or personal statements. Getting into medical school is much tougher, but in the last few years I've picked up a job in a Chem lab, have worked in a hospital, have met people who'll give me good letters of rec, and have a great "why do you want to be a doctor" statement lined up from my own experiences with epilepsy. So .... maybe I can pull it off.

Anyhow. As far as actual MCAT studying goes, that's officially kicked off now. I've been trying to study at least four hours or so for at least five days a week now, if not more, and it's pretty exhausting. Especially with work at the chem lab just starting up as well. Work at the chem lab isn't time exhausting, but it's mentally draining. I feel really dumb not knowing exactly how stuff works there yet, and have lots of questions.

O. Chem is draining too. I'm behind on my mechanisms, and there are so many. But now I can study a bit more for O. Chem specifically, since the MCAT is a bit further off. Hopefully that will end up helping me out both in my class and on the MCAT itself.

When talking to my adviser I got a list of things I need to start setting up, and dates they need to be set up by. It was interesting, and helpful. I'll go talk about those in another post though.

Friday, January 21, 2011

MCAT Review... and Postponement?

I finally got my MCAT review book in the mail. It looks like a great book from the glance I've given it. It has good 150-250 page reviews for bio/gen chem/o chem/physics that are pretty clear and succinct (as far as a 200 page review could be), and should be a much better way to study than trying to wade through 400 page books on each topic instead. It also has an online thing I can access, with 4 practice MCATs, extra review stuff, etc. - and little monthly diagnostic quizzes that track your percentages, your time spent answering, and everything else.

Should be helpful, and assist me a lot in studying.

I'm thinking more seriously about pushing back my test from April to May now though. There's so much on it, and I'm very much not convinced that I'll be ready this April. Especially if I want to put in a good amount of time to studying Organic Chemistry for my tests there (I do), and to working in my lab (I do). There's no way to be sure... still a good bit of time between now and then.... but I don't want to make myself take the test early out of principle and do badly. I think as little as that one extra month could make a pretty big difference; a difference worth applying later in the cycle for.

One of the things that I'll have to check for is if I can still take the MCAT at the same location at the later date. I'm pretty sure I'd have to take it at an 8:00am time, which is awful, but if it's at the same location would still be close and familiar. Don't really want to wake up at 4:00 and have to go out to the middle of nowhere to take the test at 8:00am though, if it's not still open around here.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

First Day On The Job

Well, was my first day. It didn't go exactly as scheduled - an awful freezing rain coated the ground this morning, and led to people showing up at different times, but eventually everyone involved was able to get together with me.

I'm getting a basic understanding of what the project is - and it's really really really just basic. Not even up to the level of basic, yet. But I'll try to explain it as best I can at this point to give an idea of what I'm doing. Not that I could be wrong, and this is subject to extensive change.

Anyhow. Basically, the deal is beta-lactam. Beta-lactam is a ring-like structure/molecular piece consisting of I believe three carbons and one nitrogen atom, and is notable because it formed the key component of penicillin (and other antibiotics with similar structures). In a fashion I don't quite understand yet, it's responsible for inhibiting bacterial reproduction by interfering with their cell walls. The problem is that many bacteria have or are developing resistances to these types of drugs.

In the lab, we're trying to synthetically create molecules that feature structures similar to, but slightly different from, standard beta-lactams. For instance, reversed chirality or the addition of tiny fluorine atoms are some of the things being tested. The specific disease we're focusing on happens to be tuberculosis, in part because it's a very relevant disease, and in part because some of the structures created by the lab so far seem particularly suited to interfering with it, rather than other diseases.

In my section of the lab, we're tracking fluorine atoms added to the beta-lactams to try and determine whether the synthetic molecule is interfering with bacteria around the cell wall, or whether the molecules created are going to other parts of the bacteria and proving less effective.

My own role is fairly simple to start, naturally. I'm going to help assemble the head groups of various molecules, and test their purity on the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance machine we have. My roll might grow as time/skill allows.

I'm not sure how much time will go into this yet. It's very open ended, and the people I'm working for all seem really nice. I'm thinking I'll start on the low end and add hours as possible, rather than plunge in only to realize I've over-committed myself. It's a neat lab, and would be fun to work for entirely aside from letter of recommendation purposes. But I have to make sure that basic MCAT studying still comes first. And I also have to make sure I keep up with my Organic Chemistry course, which will be as tough as ever.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Mental Note: Work Starts

More of a note for myself than an exciting post for anyone stumbling on this. My work starts next Tuesday, and I need to make sure I show up by 1:00 or so.

As far as other stuff goes, nothing of note. Organic Chemistry is scary because I've forgotten everything from last semester already, and the MCAT is scary because its the MCAT. I'm feeling panicky, generally. I ordered some more study material, which should arrive soon and hopefully help me come up with a more organized approach. Working in the chem lab, coupled with hard work at home, should hopefully get me feeling more comfortable with O. Chem as well.

Thought about changing my MCAT date from the April one to the May one today. Still not planning on that change though. Will talk to adviser (next week?) to see what someone else thinks though.

Monday, January 10, 2011

And We're On

No posts in awhile. I had a long vacation, which was nice but entirely uneventful. That has now come and gone though, and I'm moving on the last stretch of undergraduate courses I'll ever take, for better or worse.

The campus opened today, but my own Organic Chemistry class and lab only meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I'm still waiting on that. It should be a good bit harder than last semester, but having the finish in sight should be able to help me out. It's easier to work for things when a clear end is visible and you're not floundering about seemingly moving nowhere.

For the MCAT studying I've actually opted to do it on my own. Which could save a few thousand dollars, or could be a bad call. There won't be any good way to decide which until hindsight kicks in. I have a physics "review" book, and am hoping that I can get to an "ok" place by a combination of that, my old text, and possibly meeting my old teacher one or twice with any questions. For biology I'm hoping that the basic bio material is mostly what's covered, and not the much more in depth material we did in cell biology. For chemistry, I think I should simply be ok if I can get a decent amount of review time in.

The deadline for that test is fast approaching. While I could take it again some months later if I do badly, I really don't want to go down that road. It would also look bad, and further hurt whatever acceptance chances I might happen to still have. So here we are, and this is pretty much it. Four months to go.