The importance of "Me Time"

Hello there fellow non trads and a happy thanksgiving. This holiday marks a very important milestone in anyone who is in school. For the most part, it is the first real family holiday since Labor day or even 4th of july and people are going to want to talk to you and to see you and to find out how you are doing in school. Most of the time you are going to be telling the same story to multiple people. In addition, this marks the start of finals. It just seems as though time will get to warp speed once thanksgiving comes around and next thing you know, it is time for finals and then winter break. So if you have been putting off reading that chapter or writing that paper, get em done.

This brings me to my topic today. Now as non trads, especially those of us with families, our days are spent either at school or at home. And during that time we are either spending it with classmates and then when we get home, there are families that need our time. However, we tend to neglect a very important person. Ourselves. And surely, yours truly has and is very guilty of this as well.

The importance of having some me time is that you get to decompress. There is no one who is bothering you about going to the bathroom, being hungry, wanting to go home, buying a toy, talking shop, or having to deal with family issues. Rather you get to go to where you want to go, drink what you want to and let your mind settle down and enjoy some solitude. It is also important that you change where you have the me time as to not make it mundane. Little cafe's are wonderful. And if you can, try not to bring school work as this is NOT me time. Maybe, bring nothing and just listen to some music on your ipod, close your eyes and listen to the music at starbucks. Or even, bring a journal and write down your thoughts and feelings. You will find that you will not be resentful, and that you will actually be rejuvenated by the experience.

A question was asked about pattern recognition, let me explain.

When studying try to put things together in a pattern. In biology you know that A=T and G=C and that everytime you see a DNA sequence you will automatically know what the complementary sequence would be. In as much, when studying, you will recognize that when going from DNA to a protein, the pattern is always DNA to mRNA to tRNA to Protein. So if a question asks you about a defect where a protein is not made, you know that there will be something wrong in the pattern and you can recognize it. Same thing for chemistry, you know that the pattern for combustion is always "something + oxygen=carbon dioxide and water" it is always that. So if there is a question about why combustion has not occurred, or if the equation is not balancing you can know that the problem lies with one of the 4 elements of combustion. The same goes with medicine. If you know that if a person who has chest pain needs to be evaluated with an EKG,  blood pressure, pulse, oxygen saturation, chest x-ray, get a past history of the chest pain and their medical history and social history and if they are consistent with a cardiac problem, then you can recognize the pattern of treatment is nitroglycerine, morphine, aspirin, beta blocker (if not contraindicated), ACE-inhibitor, oxygen. And you know that the labs you are going to run are a Complete blood count, basic metabolic pattern, cardiac enzymes, arterial blood gas, etc. That is because you recognize the pattern of treatment. Eventually is becomes second nature but you must repeat, repeat, and repeat to know to recognize the pattern.

In the above example, if the patient with chest pain is a woman in their 40's and you find out that they just got off a plane from Australia, then the pattern points to a blood clot. On the other hand, if the patient is in their 40's and their father died at 51 from a heart attack and her uncle had his first heart attack at 48 and she has high cholesterol, the pattern points to cardiac.

I hope that this has answered the question about pattern recognition. If not, let me know and I will try to explain it better.

Now, off for some "me time"

With that in mind, I am off for some "me time".

COMLEX is over

So I took my COMLEX CK on Friday. I started the exam at 9am and I finished at 5:30pm including all of the breaks. In the end I took my time, unlike the COMSAE and never finished before time was up. I always reviewed some of the questions that I worried about but unless there was a very good reason I refrained from changing my answer.  I will not know the results of any exam for 4-8 weeks. In the meantime, there is nothing else I can do but to relax for the next few days until I start my next rotation this coming Thursday. 

I also need to prepare for my upcoming interviews. I found out who I am interviewing for 2 of them, now I need to find out who I am interviewing for the last. Then research them and prepare my questions. I also have to go out and buy a new suit for these interviews. 

With only 7 months to go before graduation, I am so glad that this part of my life is coming to a close. Where I can finally practice medicine and my family can finally be financially stable. I was talking with father who is working his tail off,  as he always has. Hopefully my parents will move down to Cherry Hill soon so that we (my family, my brother's family, and my parents) can all be together more easily. My father has always wanted more for us and I am glad that he is happy. He has worked very hard and he sees his hard work paying for in both my brother and I. 

This weekend was also very nice because I fulfilled a couple of promises to my girls. My 4 year old, Rebecca has been asking and asking for me to play Candyland with her. And because I was studying it wrenched my heart out to tell her No. But, as promised, Saturday we played 3 games of Candyland. And she was in heaven. This is what I try to tell other parents who want to go to medical school. That at times you are going to have to say no to your kids but then you need to fulfill promises and do it with you entire heart. When I prepared the games, it was with my 3 eldest girls. I prepared a snack tray, got them milk and we played. They had a lot of fun beating me all 3 times. And that is worth it. Yesterday, I promised my wife to take a day trip and we did. We went to Ocean City NJ. It was a really nice place, and there was a bonus for me: The Corvette Show!!!!!!! At least 50 corvettes of all ages were on display. And while we did not play mini gold, we did go to the little amusement park there and I rode a couple of rides with my girls. In the end, it was a very lovely day. One of the best times was being able to take Aviva, my 9 year old on the bumper cars and all I did was step on the pedal. She did all of the driving. While I wanted to take Rebecca, I could not because she was too small. So I took her on the Carousel instead and we talked about the bunny she was riding and where she was going on that bunny and what the name of the bunny was. Michelle went on a "free fall" type of ride and while she was scared on the ride, she was excited enough to go again. I wish my had a camera to take pictures. I guess I will go on e-bay. 

 Again, Quality time over Quantity of time. that is what you need to remember while you are in school and you have small kids. They will not remember that you spent 6 days with them but that entire time all you were doing was watching television or folding clothes. But if you spend an afternoon with them playing a board game while you take a break from studying, THAT they will remember forever and THAT is what they will want to do with you. My 6 year old is already picking out the next board game. I will pick up another board game and we can go it again. 

It will be nice to be able to give them more as I move on in my career. It will take time, but we will be there. 

The day after and 1 more to go

So here I am, status post taking the COMLEX PE (physical exam). It was just like what I did at school and I am glad that I was able to practice with my friend for a couple of weeks. I was able to get just about everything I wanted to do in the given time. But there were a couple of notes that I could have written had I had more time. But there is nothing I can do now. So I am 50% done with my COMLEX II. Now the big one is coming on Friday.

I have been studying my head off. Doing >2000 questions. Hopefully it will yield at least a decent passing score. I need to remember a couple of things that I learned after taking on the COMSAE or the self assessment exam: #1. Take my time. There is no need to rush. I should adjust my speed to maximize my time and use all the time given to me. And this is very big. It will give me a chance to think and to you ensure that my answer makes the most sense. Of course there will be questions with conditions that I have never heard of, but those I will just try and move on. #2. I reviewed and prepared. The material is in my head, I just need to access it.

It will be nice to not have to study all of the time now. I mean of course I need to keep up with my reading for my rotations but at least COMLEX will be behind me and hopefully done with. That will leave me more time to spend with the family. We are hoping to have a nice family outing on Sunday and I promised Rebecca that I will play Candyland with her, and I will.

One of the hardest parts of going to medical school right now is not having enough time to spend with my girls. But they also know what I am doing this for and that it is almost done. Sure it would have been easier to do this right after college but I was young, Idid not do well during my first year of college and more importantly, there is NOTHING I can do about it. I cannot travel through time and fix it. It is done and that is that.

I am keeping my eyes on the prize which is match and then graduation. After that, I have some plans but I want to first think about the immediate future.