From the Horse’s Mouth, Part II

December 12, 2008, I finished my first semester of medical school. It was not as bad as I had imagined, but not as easy as I was secretly hoping. All told, I still want to be a doctor when I grow up.

A couple of weeks into the semester, I realized that medical school (as well as any other intense training, I am sure) is all about how you deal with stress. It is no wonder I was asked in different interviews what I did to manage stress. You really get to know someone when you see how they handle stress. I saw people crying in class the first week, I saw a lot of people ping-ponging their stress away, and of course, there were some Jessie Spanos thrown in there.

Medical school is also all about how well you can put things behind you. I am referring to both the good and the bad. If you do well on a test, that is great, woop-de-do, you have another one next week you need to start studying for. The same goes for if you do poorly on a test. Put it behind you, it shouldn’t dictate how your next one goes. A little perspective goes a long way.

When people tell you medical school is like drinking from a fire hose, they are right. There were times that I was sure we covered an entire semester’s worth of information in a matter of a few weeks. Luckily the tests came often, so we were only tested over 2, maybe 3 weeks’ worth of info. I found that handling the load was similar to callings in the church. As you try your best and work hard, you find you can do more and more. Not because it gets easier, but because your abilities grow.

For people who care, this last semester I took Anatomy, Biochemistry, Histology, Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine, and Diagnostic Imaging.

Anatomy was a really challenging and rewarding class. I liked the dissecting and have found myself very proficient at cadaver skinner. This class was all about putting in the time, and a small group and I found that Saturday morning at 5 am was a very productive time in the lab.

Biochemistry was a little different than the class I took at BYU. Here, there were 4 teachers who each kinda taught their specialties. This meant that instead of straight-up biochem, there was a lot of cell biology, molecular biology and a LOT of nutrition, along with some of the standard biochem (krebs cycle, glycolysis, gluconeogenesis, etc). This was a good thing and a bad thing in that it made it easier for me this semester, but didn’t prepare me a well as it could have for boards.

Histology was an interesting class because even though it was fewer credit hours than anatomy and biochem, we had to spend more time outside of class to prepare for it. This is because the professor is a law unto himself and teaches like it. This can be very frustrating (to say the least), but once you make peace with the idea, the class is very enjoyable and the professor is a nice/funny guy who honestly wants us to learn the subject.

Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM) is the training that I get as a DO that makes me different than an MD-other than that, the training is basically identical. In lay-terms (but not exactly), OMM is a combination of massage therapy, chiropractic and voodoo medicine. Just kidding about the voodoo. OMM is a number of techniques I can use in addition to traditional treatments. For example, if a person has pain in a shoulder that doesn’t indicate surgery, but is a bunch of nerve/tendon/muscle pain, instead of just prescribing medication, I could also use OMM to try to restore range of motion, loosen up tightness and help with circulation. This may not be the answer to the patient’s problem, but then again, it might just take care of everything. In this way, OMM is another tool in the proverbial toolbox Osteopathic physicians can use. Some things I learned this semester were techniques to treat ear infection pain, mechanical problems in respiration (rib movement), muscle spasms in the back and neck, tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, and range of motion problems in the neck, spine, hips, knees, and ankles. I really found this class fascinating, and I am looking forward to 3 more semesters. One big bonus from this class was that we were able to see and treat real patients (faculty and staff) in the first semester of medical school. In my mind, putting your hands on a patient and treating them this early in medical education teaches you how to be a doctor as well as or better than all the book stuff I learned.

Diagnostic Imaging (DI) was a once-a-week, one credit class that was a basic, first-look at reading X-rays, MRI’s, and CT’s. This is the second year they have taught it, so it is still in the development stage, but it will, I think, give me a little bit of a head start when it comes to making sense of Radiology.

OMM and DI were both taught by practicing DO’s (as opposed to PhD’s). This was nice because every once in a while the teachers would stop their lectures and give us an I-know-what-you-are-going-through-and-it-gets-better-than-this speech. This was a nice show of empathy that we didn’t exactly get from our other professors.

Along with my reporting on my semester, I also want to say what a trooper Faith has been. Most of the time I am gone in the morning by 8 and get home about 8 (or later), and not able to help much with the boys, but she is handling med school wonderfully. I couldn’t imagine trying this without a supportive family and am grateful for her and the boys.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!