Recording my Pre-Doctor Days

Overheard Quote of the Day...

nobody@vox.com(Lacey) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:12:55 -0700

As I walked into my local Wal-Mart this afternoon, two high school age girls walked out. They were, of course, oblivious to me, but what one of them said to the other made me giggle... and you might enjoy it, too.

"Oh. My. God!! That would be such a HELLA good MySpace picture!"

Yes, that was genuine excitement. And she was very serious. She wanted THAT picture!

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How your facebook status plays out in my head...

nobody@vox.com(Lacey) — Mon, 26 May 2008 21:00:37 -0700

SCENE: August-ish... Start MS-1, Semester 1

You: "Oh, hi. So you're a med student here?"
Him: "Yeah, first year, like you."
You: "Where are you from?/Where did you go to college?"
Him: "Chicago--what about you?"
You: "Oh, a small liberal arts school in Springfield, MO."
Him: "So, you wanna go steady/be my girlfriend/hook up and see what happens?"
You: "Sure! I'm totally into med-cesting. I've heard it's the best way to ensure the future strength of a relationship... especially when you date someone in your own class."
Him: "I agree."

SCENE: End of May... End MS-1, Semester 2

You: "Wow, first year is over! It went so fast, I hardly had time to catch my breath! I can't imagine what the rest of med school will be like..."
Him: "Hey, we've been together for, OMG, 9 months now. Want to meet my parents?"
You: "Yes! I'll have my parents come up too--they can visit our new cohabitat condo!"
Him: "Great idea." .......... "By the way, wanna get married?"
You: "Of course! Don't be silly... I don't need any more time to get to know you or figure out my own life!"

I'm sorry. I don't want to sound like a total bitch or anything, but... Seriously?

These two just replaced my top pick for Most Ridiculous Med School Couple.

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Done

nobody@vox.com(Lacey) — Fri, 23 May 2008 19:29:30 -0700

I'm officially done with my first year of medical school. I finished my pathology final today at ~10:30 AM. Holy shit. I'm done.

I passed pharmacology (by the skin of my teeth--I don't know what the fuck happened there...), and though the grades for pathology aren't posted yet, based on the test today, my last exam grade, and my performance in the lab portion of the course, I should pass very easily in that class as well.

I've learned a lot this year (not as much, probably, as most people would imagine--there's just too much to retain long term when you're drinking from a fire hose), and I'm excited to get past this boring basic science crap and onto organ systems next year. We start with neuro, so I'll have to get geared up for that when the time comes.

For now--I'm on the last summer vacation of my life, and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it!! :-D

P = MD

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QotD: XYZPDQ

nobody@vox.com(Lacey) — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:12:10 -0700

Are there any people you would not tell if they had food in their teeth or if their zipper were down? Why or why not?
Submitted by Charms.

Oh, there are dozens! There are any number of reasons why I would keep this from them--the reasons depend on the person, and why I don't like them. :)

I'll entertain you with a partial listing:

Marivern E.
Stuart P.
Samantha B.
Jeremy S. (wouldn't piss on him if he were on fire!!!!)
Hilary M.
Most of my ex-boyfriends
Taylor McK.
Tara B.
Jamie R.
Most of the "Hot Chicks" from my high school class... although, they do a very good job of making themselves look completely ridiculous already. See facebook.

I should stop Voxing now, and study pathology. It would be a shame to spend my last summer studying for a re-test.

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Too Good Not to Share

nobody@vox.com(Lacey) — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:03:33 -0700

While surveying the wall posts from a facebook group called "Overheard at Mizzou"... I came across this:

"Overheard on shuttle from Hearnes to Brady: "my friend who works at the hospital was cleaning an obese women and found a biscuit underneath her back rolls of fat. she asked the lady about it, and the lady laughed and said 'oh yeah. that's a game me and my husband play. i hide food in my rolls and if he finds it he gets to eat it'"

So gross.

So hilarious.

Too good to keep to myself!!! Ahhh, the joys of working in medicine...

Oh, yeah--this time tomorrow, I'll be a Second Year Medical Student!!!!! Memorial Day Weekend with the In-Laws, drinking copious amounts by the pool, will kick off the LAST Summer Break of my life. Yeah, it'll be great. :)

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Unbelieveable Irony Due at WashU Commencement

nobody@vox.com(Lacey) — Fri, 16 May 2008 00:53:07 -0700

There is a big hullabaloo, both here in St. Louis, and nationwide, that infamous Anti-Feminist Phyllis Schlafly is being awarded an Honorary Doctorate at the 2008 Washington University commencement ceremony. Much protesting has ensued, and will continue throughout the festivities tomorrow. I'm anxious to see how it turns out.

For those of you playing the home game, Mrs. Schlafly attended WashU as a 5th generation student, getting both a Bachelors and Law degree from the institution. Since then, she has made it her life's work to fight the very movement that allowed her to seek that prestigious, coveted, privileged education, and to repeatedly tell the population of married American women they cannot be raped by their spouses(due to that pesky 'consent to sex forever and ever' somewhere in between the lines of marriage vows)...

"I think that when you get married you have consented to sex. That's what marriage
is all about, I don't know if maybe these girls missed sex ed." (emphasis mine)

If someone doesn't get the jaw-dropping irony in THAT statement, I think you should give me a call. We should talk.

As if the idea of an internationally-known institute of higher education endorsing (albeit, the administration hopes, indirectly) the spewing of anti-feminist garbage... I have even more irony to lay on ya!!!!

The person being honored before The Schlafly Lady.... Dr. Jessie L. Ternberg, MD. A woman. A surgeon. A trailblazing spitfire, from the sounds of things.

Directly quoting from this profile of Dr. Ternberg:

            "Jessie L. Ternberg paved the way for many women... Ternberg was the first woman surgical resident
            at Barnes Hospital in 1954. In 1958 she was the first woman chief resident and first woman surgeon
            on the WU medical school staff. In 1973 Ternberg was the first woman...head of the University’s School
            of Medicine faculty council. Ternberg was promoted to professor of Surgery in 1971. She was instrumental
            in establishing the Division of Pediatric Surgery and was named its chief in 1972. Ternberg also was the
            first woman to serve as president of the St. Louis Surgical Society.

            She routinely performed more than 500 operations a year and was known for her expertise in the area of
            correcting congenital gastrointestinal deficiencies in children.

            Many honors...the American Schools and Colleges Association’s Horatio Alger Award in 1977. [I]n 1998,
            former students and colleagues established the Jessie L. Ternberg Award, to be given annually to a
            female medical graduate who best exemplifies Jessie Ternberg’s indomitable spirit of determination,
            perseverance and dedication to her patients. In February 2000, Ternberg was elected a fellow of the
            American Association for the Advancement of Science."

Seeing these two ladies juxtaposed for the same honor by the same institution... It's just too much cognitive dissonance for me. But it makes me chuckle and wonder how some of these crazy assholes live with themselves.

But, I guess there is always someone more crazy!!!

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QotD: Oh Sorry, Did I Offend You?

nobody@vox.com(Lacey) — Fri, 16 May 2008 00:29:15 -0700

Who was the last person you offended?
Submitted by May.

*Falls off of couch, crumpled into a ball of laugher*

Seriously?! There's absolutely no way to know... It happens far too often.

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QotD: Daydream Believer

nobody@vox.com(Lacey) — Tue, 13 May 2008 23:40:20 -0700

What do you daydream about? Is it something far-fetched, or something that might actually happen?
Submitted by lost_in_eternity2207.

My answer has been the same word since I entered high school in the fall of 1999: GRADUATION
I have lived my life, since the age of 14, in 4-year segments. Those segments have consisted of fairly-organized checklists subdivided into Requirements and Expectations--each of those, of course, had their own priorities built in.

I couldn't wait to get out of high school because I hated being with the same people I had seen every day since I was 5. I hated everyone knowing my entire life story, and everything that happened to me during the day--sometimes before I knew it myself. I despised the fact that I didn't quite *fit* into any particular clique because there weren't many people to whom I could honestly relate. I just wanted to go to college. So I built up my resume, aced all my classes, gave my graduation speech, and got the hell out of Dodge!

College was tougher on me--the ideas and roles I despised as a high school student were, apparently, simultaneously of great comfort. It took me my entire first year to adjust to the idea that I had to actively *make new friends* and that no one knew anything about me unless I told him or her. I went to Columbia with my best friend and a new boyfriend from high school, but they weren't living in my dorm, and they were doing their own respective things. However, college laid another gargantuan challenge at my feet... getting into medical school. I had approximately 3.5 years to put my application together, and it all had to start my first semester. Grades, extra-curriculars, volunteering, physician shadowing, interview preparation, research, teaching, ass-kissing (especially difficult with professors you only know for 15 weeks before you'd ask them for a letter!!), networking, and then... oh, yeah, trying to have a life. I think I ended up shifting the balance more toward having a life (dating, making friends, taking jobs I liked) than on obsessing over my application status... and I'm satisfied with how things turned out. I met the man I will marry--even though I sorta rejected him the first couple of times we went out--and the two people who I can honestly call my best friends while I was in Columbia. I gained admission to a US allopathic medical school (acceptance rate is ~45% these days), and I graduated with my Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry 367 days ago on May 12, 2007. I just missed this post for my One Year Anniversary. Meh. I graduated with a great sense of relief that afternoon--both because I was finished with the hardest thing I'd ever done, and because I knew I had another destination lined up. I was going to medical school.

I started class (Gross Human Anatomy, to be more specific) this past August, and I have already nearly finished my first year. The time has absolutely flown by!! I don't feel like I've really learned much new material, but I know I've learned to think of the science I already knew in a different light. I have learned to take advantage of the silly ways I can make my brain remember things that are seemingly unassociated. I have learned that a little common sense and a modicum of organization will really save a person from looking like a total dumbass. I have learned that I already know how to talk to people, how to get their side of the story while gathering the information I will need to diagnose and treat them to the best of my ability and serving their best interests. I have floundered in the pit of uncertainty, and I have doubted myself in countless ways--but I have overcome that doubt and realized that I am here for a reason. I have three more years before I will change my occupation on all those silly pull-down menus from "Student" to "Physician/Doctor"... and one more graduation to go. May 14, 2011.

Beyond the consuming world of medical education and eventually choosing my career path, I daydream of many other things. Recently, with the choosing of my wedding date, I have begun daydreaming of how to plan the ceremony and reception, what my life will be like once I am living with Greg (instead of flying across the Midwest every 2 weeks), and how our relationship will grow and evolve as we are together longer. I daydream of our future children--their personalities, their relationships with me and their grandparents... and I wonder if any of their great-grandparents will meet them.

I have spent the last 10 years living for the distant future--the present has caught up with me. I can now slow down a bit, and I am living, for the most part, in the moment. That is inexplicably refreshing, as it allows me to reflect on the time that rushed past me while I was so frantically trying to get *here.* I have led a blessed life, and am excited to see where the next few years take me.

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Miss USA Flashback

nobody@vox.com(Lacey) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:43:01 -0700

"I'm real, and I'm genuine, and that's really why I think I'm authentic."
-Miss Missouri Candice Crawford, at the 2008 Miss USA Pageant on April 11th.

Holy crap. Too bad this one is too short for a viral YouTube video.

Like my favorite television judge says, "Beauty fades... dumb is forever!!"

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Different perspectives...

nobody@vox.com(Lacey) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:56:50 -0700

From a (rich, Indian, Los Angeles native) classmate's Facebook status history:

April 22

Sheri would trade having children for couture, She definitely can't afford both...

11:40pm

I guess that's why she'll be an AOA graduate Neurosurgeon at the age of 28, and I'll be... a mother who happens to be a doctor of a 'less illustrious nature.' A woman who wears sweatpants and rolls on the floor making noises and goofy faces at a tiny, innocent person who she loves more than life itself. I wonder if our individual satisfaction quotients with our lives will be any different? I wonder if either of us will ever look back to this time in our lives (myself nearing 24, she just having turned 21) and say, "I wish I'd done *that* rather than *this*"? Or will our respective lives--though completely divergent in everything from culture to politics to taste in television--turn out as we wanted them to?

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