The Medical Thread
 

I did a search for a thread based on medicine and I didn't see anything similar to this thread. This thread is about anything related to the medical field, rather it be in veterinary medicine, to nursing, all the way to dentistry. Post here.

Ooops. Sorry.:o I had to edit my post because I worded it wrong. It's actually based on the medical field (like if you're in school), not if you have some kind of disease.

I do not have sickle cell anemia. But I work with a sickle cell anemia outreach group. Typically, the psychological symptoms range from asymptomatic to migraine headaches. Some psychological work has been researched, but not nearly enough. There are neurological problems with sickle cell disease, not necessarily with the trait.

If you go to WebMD or to the National Institutes of Health with Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute it discusses what the "typical" symptoms can be.

Sickle cell is debilitating with it "flairs up" when there are episodes, it is generally not called a disability, such as limb or neurological disability, although the resulting symptoms are debilitating. Handicap is an inappropriate word to describe these symptoms.

The last part, I guess you are referring to "malaria" protection? Having sickle cell disease is not completely protective against malaria parasite infection. In fact, if a child does not develop hypertension with vascularopathy or vascularitis, they definitely have a high risk of leukemias and other cancers, as well as stroke and aneurysm. There is a increased risk of HIV infection if risky behaviors are practiced. The anti-HIV drugs only alleviate the opportunistic infections, but not the sickle cell anemia disease...

Sincerely,

Dr. AKA_Monet
GC Hospital Chief

Directives? What do you want to know?

Huh?:confused:

No, I was just looking to chat with members who are studying to be in a similar field such as my own. Kind of like a random thread, but about the medical field.

So start it off... Folks will talk when the conversation starts...

o.k.:) I'll start. I'm finishing up my 1st semester of vet school. I'm procrastinating right now,:o but I'm studying this book on general medicine, and Liver Disease. What's everyone else studying?

lol lol lol OMG! I think you just scared the crap out of Allona. I highly doubt she knows what any this means.

Cheerful, that's awesome! I've been an emergency vet tech for a couple of years now and one of our own just got into Ross for next year so she's super excited of course! We have another one of our techs that is at Ross now and should be doing her externship now and about to graduate. Very exciting career right now for sure (and I know where I work now we're looking for emergency vets so finding a job shouldn't be hard). Good luck!

Third year med student here. I don't have a lot of classes right now, but I'm still kept pretty busy working at the hospital and studying for shelf exams. Good luck to everyone out there this semester!

What is a shelf exam?

oops sorry! A shelf exam is a test that is given at the end of each clinical rotation. For example, if I'm working at the hospital on a Pediatrics rotation, at the end of the 6 weeks there will be a Pediatrics shelf exam that I will have to pass.

Wasn't it you who I mentioned going into practice for exotic animals?? It's a pretty lucrative business because they are hard to find--at least in NC anyway. I drive an hour and a half to have my girls seen by an exotic animal vet and the only one in the state. He sure has cornered the market. :D

Yeah, I think we did have a chat about that, and I'm sure it is a lucrative business to get into. I'm still in my 1st year, but after I'm done with my clinical rotations, I want to start making money. I actually thought about going into specialty education, but then I would have to go through a residency program, which is another 4 years depending on what kind of specialty I would want to get into. (and another 4 years of being poor) I love exotic animals, but I think I would rather just stick to becoming a general DVM.

ETA: Allona you're really annoying.:rolleyes:

Oh dear God do I need it...bad.:( Thanks.:)

My husband is an aquatic animal specialist. Generally, you have have residency in the field you choose. If you go directly to clinics believe me, you work your ass off. All my vet friends tell me how horrific it is. It is NOT the cases, it the owners not doing what you have been trained to identify and solve, then getting pissed about your bill.

If you want to make money, get boarded in pathology or lab animal medicine. Both are VERY DIFFICULT boards and there is a 30% pass rate for the lab animal medicine... For the path board, if you do the AFIP course and study VERY hard, you can do it.

Folks really need vet paths... And surgeons

Working your ass off is an understatement. I'm only in my 1st year and I don't feel like I have a life anymore. I think there's only like 150 or so board certified veterinary clinical pathologist in the US. I think that may include Canada too, so there isn't very many. I can see why. I mean, I think clinical pathologists need at least three years of residency training, and of course that's after 4 years of veterinary school, maybe I should say 4 years of hell,:rolleyes: anyway I think it is three years to be eligible to take the board certification exam though. AKA Monet, I don't know. Really I don't even know if I can take much more of this semester and it just started.:o:p

If I did go into a specialty program it would be surgery.

This is the time where they will TRY you. You just have to suck it up and keep it moving...

You still need the path knowledge to do the surgical residency. Private practice will not allow you to do all the surgery you want, but academic surgery with a vet path board--look at DSI Technologies...

Ironically, I cannot tie knots with a 4-0 to 6-0 Ethicon suture... And I was suppose to be using 11-0 silk... Oh well... ;)

lol ^^^

I've noticed a lot of pathologists practice their specialty in university veterinary hospitals. When I mentioned the 150 or so, that's what I was talking about. They're mostly in vet hospitals, or independent labs. Either that or biotech companies. Yeah, surgery requires path, but after last semester some of my DVM goals have now changed.:):o

Can you tell your husband to sign onto greekchat so he can help me with my homework. lol (I'm kidding):p

You're right, it is hard, and yes I do have to suck it up big time. I did o.k. last sememster. I hoping to do better this semester though.

Thank you! All I know about medicine I learned from ER.

LOL! I WISH that's all I had to know.

That is the #1 question I am asked... "Is it anything like "ER"/"House"/"Grey's Anatomy"/insert random medical show here?" and the answer is NOPE! But it's still pretty cool most of the time. :p

This is great advice. It will probably get worse before it gets better, Cheerfulgreek. But it will be worth it in the end!

Sorry sweetie, he'll make you clean out the tanks and do a 12 hour TID of treatment on some dayum fish, and all they do is "look"...

Apparently, you need to learn by doing, constantly and consistently. If you can get into a vet lab on your campus and keep on keeping on, I think it will help you with your specialty board... Just don't be like my husband who had to jump in with the alligators at the farm...

I originally thought I wanted to be a vet.....too bad I'm allergic to pretty much anything that has four legs.
I'm studying for the MCAT now and applying to medical schools this summer. I'm pretty nervous and feel like I have no idea what I'm doing or how the whole process works, so if anyone has any advice about ANYTHING....

It's already gotten worse, but I do hope it pays off. I'm worried about how well I'll do when I start doing my rotations, and that's still a year and half away.:o:(

I got a kitten for Christmas and when I take her to the vet, I think the doctor hates to see me coming, because I bombard him with a ton of questions. lol.:p

lol lol lol.:p

You were kidding about the alligators. Right?

Good luck to you!:)

Oh man those days seem like they were just YESTERDAY! I guess my only advice at this point for you is to study hard and apply EARLY. A lot of my premed friends waited until the last minute, and I think it hurt some of them when interview time came. On the other hand, I came out pretty well and I do believe some of it came from being the "early bird".

And, since you brought it up, I have comment on the fact that you wanted to be a vet. Medical school, or the medical field in general really, is way too difficult and insane to be a back-up profession! I know vets who get allergy shots and use nasal sprays for their allergies. If that's what is truly in your heart you should do it. I hope that didn't come off the wrong way. Just some food for thought...

I was told by the med school admission's dean that you should read the "top matter" to JAMA and NEJM for the last 3 years. You should know current events from your newspaper--especially the government health issues, i.e. insurance, new drugs, better treatment options. And if you have not done experiences in a hospital or similar, you need to do them, ASAP. So, when you do get an interview, you have a discussion.

<rolls eyes> Oh shelf exams...how I wished you asked questions actually related to something I learned in the preceding 8 weeks...

SoEnchanted, have you taken the shelf for Family yet? Talk about ridiculous. I spent 8 weeks in clinic in a small town in rural Nebraska, where I felt like I learned a lot, only to have about 15 hematology questions!

What clerkship are you on now?

SoEnchanting,

No worries.....the vet idea was many MANY years ago. I've wanted to be doctor for a long time. I think the mere PREPARATION for medical school would have scared me off a long time ago if it wasn't what I truly wanted. Thanks for the advice though. :)

Funny you say that! I JUST finished FM right before the holidays. That shelf was AWFUL for everybody, including myself! The average NBME score across the national was lower than I remember other exams, so at least it wasn't just us.

I'm on Internal Medicine now, and praying for a miracle...

What are you on now?

LOL I definitely understand. There are so many hoops you have to jump through to get to medical school (and even more once you get in), it's amazing what we put ourselves through for this. It's worth every hardship though, if service and medicine is truly what fulfills you. Feel free to send me a PM as you get closer to application and interview time if you have questions. I'm going to assume if you've gotten to this point you've already done your research/teaching/clinical exposure/volunteering/etc. Right now you just need to study study study! Best of luck to you.

Did they have any "throw out" or "experimental" questions? My husband got all kinna crazy questions on 2 different board exams. So don't be shocked with the dumbshit...

All my tests were oral and I had to defend my ideas, which sucks in my life.

I'm on Medicine right now too - inpatient at the VA Hospital finishing up week two of six. We have a phenomenal lecture/socratic seminar series during the course of our 12 weeks on medicine so I've learned a lot just by being in class the last two weeks. I'm not particularly worried about the IM shelf as our class as a whole (at least during first semester) is averaging a whole half standard deviation higher than the national average.

That is awesome! I wish I could have a lecture to supplement everything I'm learning in the hospital and at clinic. Our Medicine rotation is 8 weeks, so there's a slight time crunch, too. What are you using to study, besides lecture notes? I quit Harrison's like 2 days in, and am now just reading FA & doing MKSAP.

Wow, that is unfortunate not to have any lecture at all. I thought that everywhere had at least some lectures while on Medicine. Just seems like there's way too much information to learn while on this clerkship to do it all on your own.

We do 6 weeks on inpatient, 3 weeks of a selective (Pulm, Rheum, DEM, Geriatrics, etc - Cards isn't offered. I'm doing ER at the VA, which isn't a real ER, but it's good for learning bread and butter initial work-up type stuff) and then 3 weeks of outpatient clinic. Our outpatient clinic time is only for a half day each day, the other half being taken up by small group work on high-impact cases...essentially a more challenging PBL session with much more questioning/pimping.

I haven't started MKSAP yet, though I plan to. I've been using Blueprints but a lot of people in my class are using Step Up to Medicine. I personally like having actual text to read rather than just outlines, and blueprints is nice because each chapter/topic is only about 4-6 pages. Kind of depends on what you prefer, but the information seems pretty much the same. Case Files is extremely popular at my school (Nebraska) for all the clerkships.

We do 6 weeks on inpatient, 3 weeks of a selective (I'm doing ER at the VA, which isn't a real ER, but it's good for learning bread and butter initial work-up type stuff) and then 3 weeks of outpatient clinic. Our outpatient clinic time is only for a half day each day, the other half being taken up by small group work on high-impact cases...essentially a more challenging PBL session with much more questioning/pimping.

What school do you go to? What specialties are you thinking about? Where are you hoping to end up for Residency?

I was watching Nightline and a few months ago they had a topic about student loans. Some people are going to med school to be doctors just so they can pay off their loans. For some it isn't what they truely want to do for a living. That's sad. School should be free.

When I was a kid I wanted to be a dolphin trainer at a zoo. I wanted to do that for a long time, after I saw a mother give birth to a calf at a zoo. I didn't change my my mind until I got to highschool. That's when I made the decision to be a vet.

I don't see how going to med school helps the situation...I had zero undergrad debt, and will be at about $170,000+ in the whole when May 2009 rolls around - and I only pay in-state tuition. Private school tuition will usually run you closer to $250k. If you have so much undergrad debt that you need to earn 6 figures to pay it off, it doesn't make sense to add another 150-250k to the total.

On top of that, residency only pays about 44-46k a year in the beginning with small raises in subsequent years (becoming a physician has a real rags-to-riches feel to it sometimes). You're also working 80 hours a week. At my school, with their salary package, that works out to $11.09/hr before taxes.

On a side note, I have an ex-girlfriend who is a third year med student at a different school (Creighton) and her parents are paying her medical tuition for her...I really wish I hadn't screwed that one up. ;)