Monday, June 18, 2007

Today was my first exam of medical school! It was a practical (clinical) exam at the hospital and turned out to be a very long day. I went in early with Martha (up at 5:30am) to find some patients for the other groups’ exams. It turned out to be pretty difficult trying to find 12 patients who were willing to be examined before 9am. We even ventured into the neurology ward to hunt some down, but we were scared off by some ‘unruly’ patients -one with a brain tumour and the other with encephalitis.

My first exam of the day was a 2-part (written and practical) Basic Life Support Test and was painless thanks to my 6 summers at the beach. Also, we have new defibrillators in the hospital here that are completely fool-proof (they have compression sensors and metronomes to make sure you are compressing at the correct cadence), so that made it even better.

In the late afternoon I had my clinical exam. My examiner was an intensive care specialist and there were four students (including me) in the examination group. The exam consisted of a 10-15 minute history, a 10 minute orthopedic examination, a 5 minute presentation of the case and then some feedback from the group and the examiner.

I took the history of a 53 year old woman who had been recently diagnosed with Susac’s Syndrome. The disease was only recognized in 1975 and is characterized by encephalopathy, retinal artery occlusions, and hearing loss. It is caused by the immune system attacking healthy tissue, and can lead to mental disorders. Of course, I did not know any of this at the time (and neither did the doctor!) since there have only been ~ 200 cases of this syndrome ever reported! But, I think my history went well, nonetheless.

For my orthapedic examination, I was asked to do a full wrist and hand examination, which I was happy about because I had practiced it quite a bit (and I knew a lot of the anatomy which makes it easier to convince people that you know what you are talking about)- he he he. The presentation of the case was definitely the most intimidating part, though- especially cause the guy who presented his case before me got about 10 minutes of ‘constructive critism’ afterwards. We had to stand outside the room (immediately after our history and examination) and basicly tell the doctor everything we had heard from the patient without writing it down (but organized into a summary). Also, when you present your case, you have to stand with your feet together, your hands behind your back (pretty much perfectly still), and looking the doctor in the eyes for your entire 5-minute speech. AND, the doctor interrupts you in the middle of it with extra questions to make sure that you know what you are talking about! For example- I had to name the 8 carpal bones of the hand, a bunch of joints around the wrist, and some deformities that can commonly occur in the hands. Luckily, I got really good feedback, except that I didn’t have my hands behind my back during the presentation of my case. Our doctor said that he didn’t really care about that, but that it was a good habit to get into… and I’m sure I won’t forget to do that next time! He also told me that ‘whoever taught me orthapedics taught me well’… :) So I guess all in all, my exam went as well as I could have hoped. Also, one of the ladies in the room (who was in another bed, but watching us) called me over to her bed and told me that I had done the best examination of the day :) - which was obviously really nice to hear.

Too bad this exam didn’t count for anything! He he he.

Anyway, enough about my exams! This past weekend was our Med Ball. It was at a really nice Convention centre overlooking Darling Harbour and over 600 med students from all four years came! It was really nice, but I’m not sure it was worth 105 dollars. I think if I had have drank about 15 more beers, I might have got my moneys worth. He he he.
Everyone was so dressed up, I couldn’t believe it! A lot of the guys wore tuxedos and girls were wearing ball gowns. I think that I was quite underdressed, but at the end of the night I was very pleased that I had worn an old $50 dress from Le Chateau and had straightened my hair by myself (especially after hearing what some girls paid for their dresses, hair and makeup!).
I also randomly met Alice (Tom’s medical student) in the washroom while I was at the ball! I guess she recognized me from some pictures! So, I talked to her for a long time (in the washroom) until her boyfriend started sending people in looking for her. He he he. Anyway, she was really nice and it sounds like she had a really great time in Whistler so I’m hoping that I can do a rotation (or two!) there! The weather has been awful here lately… 10-20 degrees and RAIN RAIN RAIN! I can’t wait to get home to the nice, warm, sunny weather! And the long days!

ONLY 5 more days and I’ll be on my way home! I can’t wait. If anyone needs to get a hold of me while I’m home, you can call Brent’s cell phone (and if you don’t have the #, just email me!)

Miss you guys and see lots of you soon!

ps. Here are a few pictures from our "Blue" pubcrawl in the rocks a few weekends ago too!