Playing Doctor

The thing I love about this semester is how applicable everything is beginning to become.  I took about four weeks of biochem in undergrad and dropped it because it was boring and the professor was horrible.  Now, we're taking biochem and I love it because we don't just talk about compounds and how they react but about why they are important to you as a doctor.  When discussing enzymes, we didn't just talk about the difference between competitive and non-competitive inhibition, but had examples given to us of different HIV drugs that utilize both strategies.  When we talked this week about isoenzymes, we discussed how cardiologists use creatinine kinase isoenzymes in the blood to diagnose a heart attack.  SO cool.  It keeps me interested and reaffirms what I love about this field.  

On Thursday, we had what's called an ICC group--basically, a small group setting led by a couple of physicians where we discuss diseases that make our material more clinically relevant.  This particular case was what's called a "pimping session," which is where the doctors came in and were supposed to just ask us lots of questions about a certain disease we had been told to look up.  Pimping is one of those things that med students and residents generally hate, because a lot of times when you're actually on the wards, attendings will get malignant with it and just ask you impossible questions until you cry.  Our group's session was completely the opposite--we were relatively well-prepared for the questions they asked, and I feel like I learned a lot about biochem but more about how things actually work in a real-life hospital diagnosis setting.  This is why I came to medical school, and it makes even getting up to be at class at 8 every day so much fun.  

Last night me, my husband, two of our old friends and one of my new med school friends went out to dinner and spent the evening chilling out and playing the most evil game of Monopoly of all time.  At one point I was in debt to a loan shark.  It was crazy, ridiculous, and the most fun I've ever had playing that particular game.  Nice to just have a relaxing evening with good friends, new and old. 

Tomorrow we have a day off of classes for Martin Luther King Day, so I'm using the time to do my required ER preceptorship.  Basically I'll be spending 8 hours following an ER doc around and hopefully getting to see some cool stuff.  I get to wear my scrubs and white coat and stethoscope and feel like this is actually real, as it eventually will be.  I couldn't be more excited...hopefully I'll have some good stories tomorrow.