So I am done with medical school. Living in a starnge limbo between finishing rotations early and graduating. Between taking care of patients and taking care of business. Let me back up. Here's a nutshell:
February: Rotated on Surgical ICU then Neurosurgery. Learned a ton, worked hard but not too hard, basked in the post-interview/being recruited goodness, and hung out with friends. Helped my student group put on a Drunk Driving Awareness project at a Santa Ana highschool where I narrated a full-scale car crash simulation complete with ire trucks, sirens, and cops. We made up some kids like trauma victims, sorta like "Every 15 Minutes." It went very well, I am proud of the students who organized it.
March: Awkward phonecalls from residency directors, med students harrassing me in the hallways about where I want to go for residency, finishing rotations with orthopedics (large waste of my time), class back in the lecture hall with my whole fourth year class, ACLS (CPR+Drugs+Defibrillating, running "Code Blue" situations). Talent Show (best one EVER at UCI Med, featuring THREE songs by the patient gown-clad Irvine Fever, complete with encore of "You Shook Me All Night Long" where a bunch of people rushed the stage to dance. Then we played a giant PreMatch Day party at Sutra in Newport, the show went amazingly well with a ton of UCI students, staff, residents and even some old friends! Then Match Day where I opened up my envelope that said "Emergency Medicine, University of California San Francisco-SF General Program" which was where I wanted to end up. Then my friends and I proceeded to drink the rest of the day away in the most fun manner. Rolled out to Morongo/Banning for some not-quite-Vegas action the weekend after Match, so that was awesome.
April: Finished med school a tad early, moved out of Anaheim apartment to parents' place in HB (working out decently all things considered). See below...
The first week "off" had been so anticipated that I managed to schedule meetings, lunch, going out, working on random extracurricular stuff pretty much everyday. That and completing 75 pages of forms for my new job. And trying to find an apartment in San Francisco.
I also saw NOFX play The Knitting Factory last night, it was the premier of their new TV show and they played a little set. It was a great show and a great day in LA with my buddy Warren. I slapped Stinky (drummer of NOFX) a big high five, so that was cool. Finished off the night with a hot dog from Pink's, my first visit.
Today was nice too, the weather cooled down to the breezy mid-70's I think I'll miss, and I hit Riverview for 9 holes and a few beers with three of my best ER doc friends from UCI. I bought this hybrid driver/iron club that I ended up not using that much since one of the guys had this gigantor $200 driver that for some reason I could LAUNCH the ball with. Lots of sand, lots of out-of-bounds, but I still beat them all. Good times.
Let's see, what else? Lots of drama in the Emergency Medicine Interest Group (EMIG), as I pass off control soon. We've built this group into something pretty overwhelming, with about a fourth of all UCI med students involved in some way, and with the size and notoriety come politics and bullshit I'd rather live without. But as I keep telling myself, only a few more weeks.
This is pretty big, me moving up north and all. I've never spent more than a month outside of Orange County at one time, so I look forward to four years. I keep worrying that I'll lose contact with people, but I lose contact with people that live down the street, so it'll be nothing new and I'll keep in contact with the people I love no matter what.
Enough self-reassurance, I'm going to be.
February: Rotated on Surgical ICU then Neurosurgery. Learned a ton, worked hard but not too hard, basked in the post-interview/being recruited goodness, and hung out with friends. Helped my student group put on a Drunk Driving Awareness project at a Santa Ana highschool where I narrated a full-scale car crash simulation complete with ire trucks, sirens, and cops. We made up some kids like trauma victims, sorta like "Every 15 Minutes." It went very well, I am proud of the students who organized it.
March: Awkward phonecalls from residency directors, med students harrassing me in the hallways about where I want to go for residency, finishing rotations with orthopedics (large waste of my time), class back in the lecture hall with my whole fourth year class, ACLS (CPR+Drugs+Defibrillating, running "Code Blue" situations). Talent Show (best one EVER at UCI Med, featuring THREE songs by the patient gown-clad Irvine Fever, complete with encore of "You Shook Me All Night Long" where a bunch of people rushed the stage to dance. Then we played a giant PreMatch Day party at Sutra in Newport, the show went amazingly well with a ton of UCI students, staff, residents and even some old friends! Then Match Day where I opened up my envelope that said "Emergency Medicine, University of California San Francisco-SF General Program" which was where I wanted to end up. Then my friends and I proceeded to drink the rest of the day away in the most fun manner. Rolled out to Morongo/Banning for some not-quite-Vegas action the weekend after Match, so that was awesome.
April: Finished med school a tad early, moved out of Anaheim apartment to parents' place in HB (working out decently all things considered). See below...
The first week "off" had been so anticipated that I managed to schedule meetings, lunch, going out, working on random extracurricular stuff pretty much everyday. That and completing 75 pages of forms for my new job. And trying to find an apartment in San Francisco.
I also saw NOFX play The Knitting Factory last night, it was the premier of their new TV show and they played a little set. It was a great show and a great day in LA with my buddy Warren. I slapped Stinky (drummer of NOFX) a big high five, so that was cool. Finished off the night with a hot dog from Pink's, my first visit.
Today was nice too, the weather cooled down to the breezy mid-70's I think I'll miss, and I hit Riverview for 9 holes and a few beers with three of my best ER doc friends from UCI. I bought this hybrid driver/iron club that I ended up not using that much since one of the guys had this gigantor $200 driver that for some reason I could LAUNCH the ball with. Lots of sand, lots of out-of-bounds, but I still beat them all. Good times.
Let's see, what else? Lots of drama in the Emergency Medicine Interest Group (EMIG), as I pass off control soon. We've built this group into something pretty overwhelming, with about a fourth of all UCI med students involved in some way, and with the size and notoriety come politics and bullshit I'd rather live without. But as I keep telling myself, only a few more weeks.
This is pretty big, me moving up north and all. I've never spent more than a month outside of Orange County at one time, so I look forward to four years. I keep worrying that I'll lose contact with people, but I lose contact with people that live down the street, so it'll be nothing new and I'll keep in contact with the people I love no matter what.
Enough self-reassurance, I'm going to be.
