Tag: premed

The 4 AM Club

Posted on by Analise

Good morning everyone!

It’s Lise here, live from my house for the early, early morning show.

I have loved mornings for a long time, I’d say almost 7 years now. It all started when I was studying for STEP 2. I would wake up at a regular time in the morning and get started with studying – no distractions. But then by the time that afternoon hit, my energy would wane and it would always would be near impossible to get back to my studying groove. *Cue the chopped and screwed version of Lets Groove Tonight*

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Why I Chose Cardiology

Posted on by Analise

Also, you can add a comma here for comedic relief- Why, Cardiology?

Anyway, its just the best. I didn’t say this in interview season, but I am often amazed at how much I love this field and how cool I think it is.

Cardiology is one of the fields of internal medicine that is just so broad. Though people in residency made it seem like only one type of person goes into cardiology, I am pushing back against that, because it’s just not true.

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Practical Tips for Intern Year

Posted on by Analise

July 1 is here! You’ve likely started your first job as a doctor and you are scared (petrified).

Some VERY normal questions that may be going through your mind…

How do I write notes again?

Where is the bathroom on this floor?

Will there be lunch at this lecture?

All of these were questions that were swirling through my mind as I entered my 3rd week of residency (recall that I had 2 weeks on night float to start out).

I have some practical things that I would share with myself if I could do it all over again.

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Microaggressions in Medicine

Posted on by Analise

Microaggression- “a statement, action, or incident regarded as an instance of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group such as a racial or ethnic minority.” (From Oxford Dictionary)

Before I took my graduation picture for medical school, the photographer said, “And what do you call that hairstyle? Do you need to fix your hair or something?”

I was wearing my hair in the puff that I had grown so fond of during my then 7 years of being natural. That day, my hair had made the most glorious puff in its own history.

This guy jumped in and made me feel small while I should have been celebrating one of the greatest achievements of my life.

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About That Time I Became Sad

Posted on by Analise

Who didn’t want to share this one? Me. I didn’t want to talk about it.

This one may come as a surprise to some of you, but I thought it was important to share about my struggle with depression.

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What is a Resident?

Posted on by Analise
Residency- a period of advanced training in a medical specialty that normally follows graduation from medical school and licensing to practice medicine
  via Merriam Webster

Rome does a funny thing anytime I introduce myself to a new person and we get into the small talk of where I work and what I do.

“Oh I work at the hospital, I’m a resident.”

Rome gives me a death glare and subtly motions for me to go on.

“I’m a resident physician.”

Rome face-palms.

“She’s a doctor!” He basically yells.

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Starting on Night Float

Posted on by Analise

I know that it has been quite literally 6 months since I “put some ink” on my blog, as one of my friends puts it. I have been so busy doing some major ADJUSTING to my new schedule and my life as not a med student but a newly minted doctor, New Jerseyan, and apparently adult. It has been so hard but so good and so rewarding and I will have to write about that in another post.

Anyway, I thought that I would write this post to discuss one of the rotations that I have completed already this year. I’ve actually done it twice by the time that I am writing and editing this post because I was one of the fortunate people to have a whole month of it in my intern year. I wanted to talk about this one both to provide some encouragement and so people can see what I did wrong and maybe make better decisions. Enjoy!

My intern year (first year of being a resident) began at night. I came into orientation that glorious morning and got my pager (an indestructible device resembling a small brick that rings when people want to contact you, for you generation Z people). Then I went home, took a nap, and showed up bright and early for my 7 pm shift.

Teams came in and began giving me the signouts for their patients. In other words, they gave me the pertinent information that would help me (or not) when I got paged for their patients. I took them all, attentively listening to the stories for all the patients because they were all so unfamiliar and interesting. At the end, I was drowning in lists of patients from all the medicine teams.

After all the teams left and it was just me and my two senior residents who were busy admitting new patients, reality and panic set in.

Me: Wait a minute, how do I log into the computer? Which team was I supposed to order a CT scan for again? *PAGE* Where is the bathroom? Where can I find this patient? *PAGE* How do I even order things? What blood pressure do I need to treat overnight?? *PAGE* Do I need to call the fellow on this patient? *PAGE* Am I hungry or just anxious? Are those fireworks outside? *PAGE* *PAGE* *PAGE*

My nights were crazy but I can honestly say that there were some things that I did to try and make logical decisions at 3 am.

 

Get organized early

At the beginning of each shift, before any of the teams came in, I would have a blank sheet that I would label “To Do” on one side and “Pages” on the next.

The to-do side would have labs that I needed to follow up on, the patient’s name, medical record number (MRN), and the patient’s team. This really helped me because I would just go through the whole list of things for follow up anytime I was at a computer and because all of the MRNs were there, I could run through them quickly.

The pages side of my sheet held the number that paged me, which patient it was for, and the problem that they were having along with what team they were on. This was so helpful because I could just call back the number without having to guess which one was for which patient. Also, it just helped me stay on top of my pages.

The learning point here is that you need a system. The first night I didn’t have a system in place yet. It was a mess. I’ll just leave it at that.

Go see the patient.

I first heard this when I was in medical school and it is something I have taken with me into residency. Frequently a patient will have abnormal vital signs or an abnormal symptom that requires evaluation. These patients, after I got a page I would put a red “I” with a circle around it to remind me to go see that patient. I had to go “lay eyes on them”, if you will. This gave me time to think about what I needed to possibly do for this patient and time to text my seniors if it was someone who was potentially decompensating. This leads me to…

Your seniors are here to help you!

No, they are here to admit patients. However, if you need help, don’t hesitate to ask them. There were some times that I really just didn’t know what to do from lack of experience (I was a medical student like yesterday!!), and other times, a patient’s symptoms were really concerning and I needed them to help me with the next steps to evaluate a patient overnight. Each time I needed their help, they were extremely gracious toward me because it was my first time being a real doctor and trying to make decisions.

 

Now, for the practical, non clinical stuff

 

Eat now, ask questions later

So night float was a funny beast, in that I wanted to eat at normal times at first, but couldn’t because my stomach was confused. I would get really hungry in the middle of the night when nothing was open, and when I would bring a large meal, my stomach was still confused because it isn’t used to eating oxtail, rice and peas, cabbage and a large drink at 3 am (I realize I am probably the only one with this problem). Anyway, I had to eat at some point. What I ended up doing that helped was eating small meals during my shift and a small meal when I woke up around 3 pm. I was able to eat in small portions much better than larger ones. I still ended up losing some weight on night float, but I wasn’t a hangry person during my shifts.

Stay connected

One of the hardest things about night float is the isolation. I think this was the one that I had the hardest time getting around. Honestly, I didn’t see Rome for almost a week when I was working for my last week. Plus, when you are awake and want to talk to all your family and friends, they don’t answer, because it is literally 3 am and apparently calling working people during that time isn’t polite. *rolls eyes*

Some things I did to combat this was facetimeing when I had my awake and not at work times. So when I first got into the house in the morning and Rome was at work, I would facetime him briefly and talk to him about my night and whatnot. I would call my mom when I woke up from my nap, and call my friends when I got to work, etc. I would work around my schedule, per usual. Telling everyone that I had a crazy schedule at the time helped so much too because people understood that I wasn’t ignoring them, I was just hibernating.

Don’t be unpleasant

It is easy to complain about how you’re tired, how you’re hungry, how the vending machine doesn’t have the special doritos that you like. If you do this, however, you’re forgetting that you have 2 other people who also are going through the same things that you are. Bringing up how uncomfortable you are won’t make you feel better, if anything it will make you even more upset. This is not the way to happiness and success, my friends.

Instead, try to be a light. Don’t be another grumbling, complaining person. It won’t help anyone.

Take a Walk

There is a blissful time between 3 and 5 am that the patients who were in pain in the beginning of the night have finally fallen asleep and no one is checking vitals in order to call you about hypertension. This is the time that I found myself in the basement of the hospital, walking laps. At first, the staff down there thought I was crazy, and eventually those same people were looking for the doctor in all purple to go down to the basement and walk a couple of laps.

It was a fabulous thing to do for my stress level and for my step counts. I did this every night that I had a free moment and I would always make a deal with myself and say that I would only stay down there until I got the next page (the blessed pager works in the basement). I would sometimes have 5 minutes before *BEEP BEEP BEEP* would sound and I think one time I had a full 30 mins. Either way, whether it’s 5 or 30, the effect was still the same.

 

I know I’ve been MIA, and thank you for showing me grace while I figure out my ever changing schedule. I’ll try to be posting once every two weeks or so as my schedule and my sanity allow.

 

Love you guys,

Lise

 

7 Things to Bring to New Resident Orientation

Posted on by Analise

This post is mostly for the current student doctors who will be residents next year (Or if you haven’t done orientation yet for this year). Congratulations in advance! This time is extremely busy with moving and all the random onboarding things that are required to start your first job as a doctor. Here are some things that helped me get through orientation without any snags.

  1. Planner/notebook/pens– Last week was full of important dates that were thrown at me along with emails that I needed to send to people for parking, IDs for other medical centers, etc. Using a planner helped me to remember that I was supposed to email John and what I was supposed to be telling him. I had a little to-do list within my planner so I would be able to knock out all my tasks and prioritize them by importance. The notebook is a hit or a miss- I used the papers that were in the folders already to jot down any notes I had. There were so many maps in my folders that I just flipped some over and scribbled on the back to organize my thoughts. However, having a notebook was beneficial for electronic medical record training to try and remember some of the cool shortcuts.
  2. Multiple forms of identification– To prove that you are cleared to work in the United States, schools/programs must fill out an I-9 verification form for each employee. They usually recommend bringing 2 forms of ID (social security card, passport, etc) so they can complete this form for you. I am type A and unfortunate events occur in my life, so last week I brought 3, just in case. Your school will send an email with the acceptable forms of identification, but don’t forget these because it will just be a headache to go back and grab them.
  3. Health information– At some point during the week, people are going to ask you if you have been vaccinated and if you have proven immunity to various illnesses. Bring your health information for quick reference for when they ask you. Even if you upload them or email them ahead of time, it is always a good idea to be safe when it comes to this stuff. Bring it with you so no one can say you didn’t send it in. It is so easy to lose someone’s information when it is swimming in a pool of information from ~500 other residents.
  4. Tote Bag/Backpack– So this one seems like a no-brainer, however, I tried to be cute and bring my smaller purse and was drowning in folders by the end of orientation. The folders couldn’t fit in my purse, so my arms were full for multiple hours of waiting in long lines. I had a feeling this was going to happen, but I ignored my intuition and went for the smaller purse. Don’t be me! Bring a larger bag or even a backpack to hold the folders and binders that your program will give you.

 

Extras:

  1. Breakfast– Rome and I have a motto that we stick to: never go to events hungry. This motto has saved us more than once from being miserable hungry people at long events. Orientation was no different. Your program may serve you breakfast, they may not. After doing the breakfast gamble one time and losing royally, I don’t suggest gambling. Be prepared for anything. Bonus points for bringing snacks. I know I sound like your West Indian grandmother, but I care about your well-being and your stomachs. It’s hard to focus on resident benefits when your stomach is growling, just saying.
  2. People’s names– This is my extroversion speaking, but seriously, it was fun to meet new people. While I was meeting my co-interns in clumps, I made a genuine effort to remember their names. The next time I started a conversation, it was much easier to jump right in because I already had their name down.
  3. Your photo ready face– We took SO MANY pictures during orientation. Every ID that we obtained needed its own picture. Don’t make the mistake I made in forgetting about the composite. This picture will be posted everywhere… EVERYWHERE! This composite is for other services to know who they are calling for consults/who is being exceptionally rude on the phone. This was the day, of course, that I didn’t wear makeup because I thought we were done with pictures. Nope. Surprise!!

 

Hope this non-exhaustive list helps you! The general idea is just that it’s better to be safe rather than sorry and that you shouldn’t make some of the mistakes I did.

 

 

Love you guys,

Lise

Graduation and Traveling

Posted on by Analise

As I reflect on my medical school matriculation, it is tempting to consider myself and say, “good job, Lise. You did that. You are now a doctor because of your hard work and intelligence.”

However, I know that thinking this would be a disservice to God who I felt gave me the idea to attend medical school, to become a physician. He is the one who sustained me throughout my time in school. He is the one who is responsible for the wonderful friends I have made and the mentors that I was blessed to find. He helped me pass my exams and he is the one who helped me match. He is teaching me, a baby healer, how to be like Him, the Great Healer. I am nothing without Him.

Keeping this truth in mind, I feel incredibly grateful for the opportunity that medical school was. It was a beautiful journey of stretching my limitations and shifting my viewpoints. I learned much about medicine and the nature of humans. I have also internalized the fact that I have much more to learn.

Thank you to every single person who encouraged me and prayed for me. Thank you to my husband, who made sure that I remembered what was most important. Thank you to my mother, my original inspiration to become a physician and my very first mentor. Thank you to the rest of my family who kept tabs on how I was doing and feeling through it all. Thank you to my friends, who reminded me that there are also exciting things that happen outside of the hospital.

 

In other news, I spent most the two weeks before graduation on opposite sides of the country. I was in both Panama City Beach and in the Bay Area of California. I spent a grand total of half a day in JXN in those two weeks and I love it because traveling. Yes.

 

Panama City Beach

First, we went to Panama City Beach with some of our friends (basically crashing their vacation) and below are some of the activities I enjoyed the most. We had been here before on our honeymoon and it was really cool to see it during its active season. Restaurants and attractions are mostly closed during the winter and open up right before spring break.

 

Saltwater Grill

Even now, I can’t stop thinking about this restaurant! EVERYONE at the table finished their food and it was all so delicious. The service was amazing and although our waiter was relatively new, he was extremely knowledgeable and attentive.

I had the Shrimp and Scallop Penne a la Vodka, which was a manageable portion, especially for someone like me who has trouble with the incredibly large portions that restaurants expect you to finish. After I devoured my food, I realized I would have eaten the entire large portion because it was just that good.

I have plans to bring one of my uncles to this restaurant one day because I know he will just adore the food and the service here.

Sunset Cruise

This cruise was low stress and came with a complimentary drink. We lounged on the deck and watched dolphins play around in the water, all while listening to “island music”.

The sun setting over the ocean from this perspective was breathtaking and well worth the money we spent to check it out.

First Watch

THIS RIGHT HERE. This place has become one of my favorite breakfast spots. Rome and I got a chance to check this place out for breakfast while he was in Omaha, and when Rome likes a restaurant, we  go back multiple times. My favorite thing here is their freshly squeezed orange juice. I am not normally an orange juice fan, preferring apple as my juice of choice. However, I can’t exaggerate when I talk about how delicious and fresh this orange juice is. I have never tasted anything like it and I am going to be at every First Watch I can find, ordering this orange juice in a large and finishing off Rome’s if he isn’t quick enough. My mouth is watering just thinking about how delectable it is.  Their food also is very fresh, offering a variety of organic options for those who are interested.

 

 

San Francisco/ Mountainview/Bay Area

Just so you know and so that you don’t make the same mistakes as I did, I was THAT tourist. You know, that tourist who is from Mississippi and assumes that it is blazing hot summer everywhere. Even better, the one who doesn’t check the weather of wherever we are traveling to. More like, the one who checks the weather then completely ignores it because surely, it can’t really be that cold.

Yeah, I did that. San Francisco is cold, y’all. Anyway, on to the touristy stuff we did.

 

Ghirardelli Square

We checked this one out first. It is a former chocolate factory that was made into a shopping center filled with mostly confectionary items. There are restaurants and bakeries and various shops that will make you want to dash your diet to pieces.  You can smell the chocolate from a mile away. Your nose will lead you to tasty treats here. You also get your first view of the wharf from this square because San Fran is on a hill and has many hills within its hills. There’s no escaping the hills.

This is a view of Coit Memorial Tower from one of the streets.

Fisherman’s Wharf

This is totally a tourist area. We walked up and down the wharf a couple of times, which is mostly a street filled with seafood restaurants that may or may not have some good things to offer. Chowder in breadbowls was one of my most commonly seen menu items. There are also a couple of tourist stores in this area if you’re looking for an I <3 San Francisco shirt. There are literally tons of people just milling about down here going to all the restaurants. We had some really fresh seafood off of one of the street vendors down here and then later on we came back to check out In and Out Burger because you can’t go to California without going to In and Out.

From the wharf, you can get a great view of Alcatraz island, which hosts the now-closed famous prison surrounded by water.

 

Union Square

This area contains a beautiful monument (The Dewey Memorial)  in the center of a large shopping area. There is a mall a couple of blocks down from the monument and there are stores completely surrounding the place.

We went to Daily Grill close to the square for lunch and did a lot of window shopping and walking around in this area (I got my 20,000 steps this day). Rome has a story he likes to tell about the water I ordered at Daily Grill that was the most delicious water ever and costed 9 bucks. Lise Lise has accidental expensive taste.

San Francisco Zoo

Rome makes a point to go to zoos in almost every place we visit, if they have one. He likes to compare them to the D.C. zoo, which he grew up frequenting with his family. No zoo ever compares to the D.C. zoo for him, but he still gives other zoos a chance.

The San Francisco Zoo boasts graceful giraffes, zebras, lions, tigers, grizzly bears, African birds, an insect area, monkeys and chimpanzees. I think my favorite thing about this zoo was the Rainforest area. It is likely my favorite because we couldn’t find it and had to go on a scavenger hunt to find this area. When we got there, it was a pleasant 80 degrees inside the building (a respite from the windy, freezing zoo). The birds in this area are unrestrained for the most part and are close enough to touch. If I had any artistic ability whatsoever, I would have taken the time to sketch them and then I would have painted the vivid plumes adorning the birds I saw in this rainforest.

 

 

 

My most recent traveling adventure is not traveling at all but moving. I have officially moved to NJ and am trying my best to adult. I don’t know how my college classmates have been doing this for 4 years while I was still in school. I’m trying to be like you guys 😉

 

Talk to you soon!

Lise

 

 

 

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4 Things I Wish I Had Done Before Starting Medical School

Posted on by Analise

Before I got to college, I knew that I wanted to become a doctor. I just wasn’t aware of all the time and effort it would take to complete this journey to MD.

Disclaimer about this post: I am going to forever keep it real with you guys. I am not afraid to share my failures in hopes that someone else can learn from them. I can’t pretend to be perfect.

I went to college with a goal in mind, but I didn’t attack my classes and my life in general as a future physician would. I pretended as if I didn’t already know my weaknesses (Hey Math, I’m looking at you). Flailing around and hoping for the best was my mode of operation because I was brilliant, right? Answer: no, Lise is not brilliant, and even if she was, I don’t know that it would have helped her.

 

Some things I wish I had done:

  1. Hit the ground running with my classes.

I was taking some of the hardest classes on campus, yet I thought I would be able to keep up with the same apathetic high school class work effort. I went to all my classes, but I didn’t go to them prepared. I wasn’t focused and I essentially went as if I was going to watch a rom-com. I did this every day for an entire semester! You would think I would have learned sometime in the middle that I needed to get my life, and quickly, but no.

I didn’t keep in mind that I was LEARNING a lot of this stuff for the first time. In high school, I was just memorizing facts that I knew would be on an exam. It came easily to me then, so I thought it would come easily to me this time around.

This was a completely different ball game. “You mean anything is fair game? Even if we didn’t talk about it in class? So you don’t have to use the questions that you gave us on the study guide? There is a book associated with this class?”, were all questions that went through my head as I drowned in my first semester. I learned later that all this information I was avoiding learning would be resurrected when I was studying for the MCAT.

Why is this even important, Analise? Because when these topics showed up again on the MCAT, I wasn’t prepared. As much as I hate to admit it, I should have been taking notes and learning like I wanted to be able to REVIEW (instead of truly learn it the first time) it to prepare for this exam.

 

  1. Focused MCAT prep.

I had MCAT prep classes, I did the studying. However, if I had studied for the MCAT as I have studied for STEP 1 and STEP 2, it would have made a huge difference in my score (Hindsight is always 20/20 right?). This just means that when I studied for the MCAT, that was supposed to be my job. I was supposed to set a schedule and have a plan, but that is not how it went. I was haphazardly studying here and there, getting distracted then coming back to it, and wasting time and then wondering where it went… and then I took the test. That is not how I succeed in life, I’ve learned.

I could have taken the time to delve deep into my studying and given myself the freedom to put everything else on hold for that short time. 

 

  1. Learned more about how I study best.

I knew that there was no way to simulate the situation that is medical school. I was told this many times before I started school, and now that I have almost finished school (Yay, 2 weeks away!), I completely agree. There is no reason to try and simulate it, nor do I think any simulation will be accurate.

However, I do think that having a plan when beginning matriculation is invaluable to success. This is especially important in the beginning when we learned so much, so fast. I simply didn’t have time to sit and think about how I was going to study. My study style changed when I went through the different classes and years, but the tried and true methods were good places to start.

The way that I studied for the MCAT was an excellent way to start off with studying.

 

  1. Organized my life.

I wish that I had taken organization seriously! After my first year in college, I realized that my same methods that I employed in high school would still work, I just needed to make fit my schedule more. I started doing them and didn’t look back. If I had employed these methods in my first year, I would have been less dazed and confused and more prepared.

 

Love you guys and hope this helps!

Lise