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Sarab Sodhi

~ My Life in Medicine

Sarab Sodhi

Tag Archives: Step 1

The Things They Carried: An MS3 Story

24 Thursday Apr 2014

Posted by Sarab Sodhi in Medicine

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Doctor, Hospital, Hospitals, Medical School, Medical Students, medicine, Step 1


Having just finished my third year here are the things that made my life easier.

1. Comfy shoes: Try walking around the hospital on rounds for >4 hours a day and standing in one place in a pair of uncomfortable dress shoes. I dare you. I can’t even imagine how it would be in heels. Buy yourself some comfy shoes for work. I use rockports when I need to be dressed nice and a good pair of sneakers for when I’m in scrubs. Invest in them- your feet will thank you.

2. UpToDate Mobile: You can signup for an uptodate username and password at any hospital computer and download the mobile app. If you’re not familiar with uptodate it’s the best way to quickly educate yourself about relatively recent guidelines, pathophys, treatment etc. Keep it on your cellphone so you can read whenever you get a second.

3. A stethoscope belt: Stethoscopes can be heavy. Wrapped around my neck it started making me stick my neck out like a turkey. Around Thanksgiving that’s a dangerous thing to look like. A stethoscope holder may not be the most fashionable thing around, but a few days in the hospital will make a sartorial slob out of any fashionista.

4. Snacks: Keep your white coat well stocked with snacks. You may prevent a hypoglycemic coma on Surgery, OB-GYN, and Medicine.

5. A gym membership: You need to stay sane in MS3- it’s busy and you’re going to need things out of medical school you can focus on. For me that was the gym. It was my endorphin rush, my cleanser and my calmer. Do what makes you happy dude.

6. Books: Walk around with the books you might need on your rotation. They’re specific so expect a post to follow later, but a good one year round especially around Step 2 time is USMLE Step 2 Secrets.

7. Reference Guides: Everyone suggests you buy the “Green Book” (used to be Red, now is purple). It’s the Pocket Medicine series and was questionably useful on medicine. Buy it if you’re really keen.

8. A credit card in your ID holder: Your stomach will thank you when you’re in the cafeteria with 10 minutes to eat between OR cases.

9. Pens: Black for the hospital- no blue. And keep your nicer pens on the inside. An attending or resident can snag a pen and “forget” to return it…

10. Fresh socks/Undies/Toothbrush: This one should be self explanatory- but post call- these are amazing.

11. Gum: If like me you’re prone to the sleepies especially after 4-5 back to back OR cases while sitting through a fascinating lecture on the biochemistry of transplant rejection- have gum in your pocket. Or your attending WILL make fun of you.

12. Someone to complain to: We complain. That’s what we do. We complain about our lives, the slights both real and imagined that we endure and the futility of our positions. You need someone to complain to- or lots of someones. So keep friends, significant others, classmates, parents, everyone handy. You’ll need them.

This will be one of the best and worst moments of your lives. My two months on IM was the most educational experience in all of medical school. The year will transform you from a bumbling and eager to please second year into a slightly jaded, somewhat educated, rather arrogant semi-physician.

In fact I’d postulate that the bulk of your learning pre-residency happens in this year. Buckle up. It’s going to be a fun (if slightly bumpy ride!)

 

Night and Day

31 Friday May 2013

Posted by Sarab Sodhi in Medicine, Philosophy

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

medicine, Step 1


One month ago, I was an antisocial, overworked bleary eyed machine. I was inhaling facts as fast as I can, trying desperately to keep them down. I was listening to a dozen lectures a day, reading a couple of hundred pages of books forcing esoteric facts into my struggling memory. I didn’t know how to talk to people anymore. My social skills were non existent. All I talked about was the horrendous 8 hour exam I was to take. I was pretty miserable. I was constantly stressed, worried and afraid. I had nightmares that I’d failed Step 1. One of them featured my kindly white haired Dean who pushed an ornately carved scalpel across to me and told me to do the ‘honorable thing’… It wasn’t a nice time.

Today, I’ve been working in a hospital for 3 weeks. I’ve grown somewhat accustomed to being called ‘doc’, to asking patients matter of factly if they want to kill themselves, how and how they’ve tried. I’ve heard heart wrenching stories of agony and pain, learning to clamp down on my emotions so I can feel empathy, but can stay ‘objective’. I actually feel like I’m of some use to people. I’m required to wear my white coat to work and since I travel by subway I’ve grown accustomed to being looked at a little differently as I wear the uniform of my profession. It’s a nice feeling.

The only thing is, I don’t deserve it yet. Each time I get called doc or someone looks at me with a hint of respect for the white coat, I realize how much more I have to do to actually deserve it. I’m a 3rd year med student. At this moment my ability to help people is minimal. My clinical acumen remains nascent, my skill as a diagnostician unformed and untested.

Frost said it best, miles to go before I sleep…

Oh, and fyi, I did end up passing Step 1. And I saw my Dean today. No ornate scalpel in the office. I checked…

Waterboarding. AKA Thinking about Step 1

31 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by Sarab Sodhi in Bioethics, Medicine

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Step 1, Torture, USMLE


Studying for Step 1 -http://whatshouldwecallmedschool.tumblr.com/post/24640000623/studying-for-step-1

 

If you know any second year medical students, right about now they’re at least freaking out about Step 1. Good words for this state are worried, scared, terrified, crapping their pants, praying, anxious, depressed, terrified and crapping their pants again.

 

For those of you lucky enough not to know what Step 1 is, it’s an exam. That doesn’t sound too bad you say. It’s an 8 hour exam. Okay, that could be hard. It’s an 8 hour exam based off two years worth of medical school material. That’s hard. It’s actually an 8 hour exam based off two years worth of medical school material which tests esoteric facts sometimes, and asks you questions which may seem simple but in reality are nowhere near.

It will present a case about a patient, who’s got certain symptoms. Somehow you recognize the disease. Excited you read on, to find that they’re asking not for the treatment, which you remember, nor for the side effects which you remember as well, but for the treatment of that side effect… (Course that’s only some of the tougher questions, but you get why medical students devolve into a quivering ball of anxiety with just the thought of this exam.)

So, we live in fear, going through new material, required sessions at the hospital and lectures that at the moment seem irrelevant to us completely. We chafe at any distraction from our prime study time, and are constantly anxious and jittery. Coffee consumption skyrockets, breaks consist of eating hurriedly in the face of work.

But, funnily enough we still don’t study per se. At least I don’t. Not enough.

At the moment the fear and the anxiety are there, but for some reason the motivation to really work is still missing.

Hoping it comes soon, with <90 days to the Boards.

 

Match Day

Match Day 2015March 20, 2015
The day my future is revealed

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