Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Psych

I have my 'The Mind' (a.k.a. psych) exam tomorrow morning. I did a great job studying over the weekend, but really let things slide since Monday afternoon. That day, I made the mistake of having four Arby's Juniors with cheese for lunch, and followed it up with a Wendy's Wild Mountain Spicy Chicken for dinner (Biggie sized, no less). What followed, was two days of indigestion. I am thinking that perhaps my continued use of my anti-malarial doxycycline has something to do with that indigestion...

To refer to Alanis, I think that I need to get off of these antibiotics. The prescription runs out next week. :)

Anyways, I have also been reading 'Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman', since receiving it on Tuesday afternoon, which has also not been good for my studying. I had forgotten that it was a book of short stories, and not a new novel. I had actually already read a fair number of them in the past, but I am enjoying them nonetheless. With all the psych classes and clinics of the last three weeks, I have a whole new perspective on Murakami's work.

I have also been stuck on a particular song for the last three days: 'Chelsea Hotel #2', by LC, of course.

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men,
but for me you would make an exception.

And clenching your fist for the ones like us,
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music."

Maybe some body-dysmorphic traits visible there...

22 comments:

Marysienka said...

So, what's going to happen after you're done with this year? You said once your uni is like a 2 yr program?! So you're gonna have your md and start residency? can't be possible! I dont remember how it works there...

Tall Medstudent said...

We're a three-year school, but have 2 years of classes. So, in April, I'm in clerkship until the end of school. Yeah, that means I'm under 9 months from clerkship...

I wish that we were a four-year school, though. That would give us more elective time, and more time to pick what we want to do in residency.

Marysienka said...

clerkship means.... we don't use the same terms here!

Tall Medstudent said...

Clerkship means that we're on the wards all day, and rotating through different departments, over the course of a year and a bit.

Anna said...

ah, so confused!

are you doctors when doing your clerkship? is that when you are interns? or is it the same as me doing my clinical years - on the wards and working with patients but still a student?

and how the hell do you do it in 3 years?! my course is 5 years, and that still doesn't seem like enough time....

Tall Medstudent said...

Yep, it's the same as your clinical years.

We do meds in 3 years, as medschools here require a minimum of two years of undergrad to get in, so it works out to a minimum of five years.

There are actually only *2* three-year schools in North America: that's us (Calgary), and McMaster, in Hamilton, Ontario. There are rumours afoot that we will become a four-year school in a couple of years; I don't know about Mac.

Mac tries to be a very alternative school; I don't understand what their deal (a.k.a. philosophy) is, exactly. We are more of an almost-no-vacation school with a systems-based curriculum. That is, between now and the end of medschool, I have a total of four more weeks of holiday: that's two weeks at the next two Christmases. When the school was established, that lack of vacation gave us about the same school-time as the four-year schools here, and more actual on-the-wards time, but in the last ten years or so, the four-year schools have increased their clerkship/clinical hours, so we now have a bit less than them.

In any case, our school does about average in the LMCC results, our equivalent of the USMLE I & II. Still, I wish we had four years, so I would have more time for vacations and electives...

Oh yeah, although 2 years of undergrad is the minimum requirement, just 1 student in our class only has 2 years. Another 8 or so finished three years of undergrad, another 54% or so have four-year degrees, about 25% have Masters degrees, and 12% or so have Ph.D.s or a doctorate of law. Not too shabby! :)

Anna said...

but you all must be ancient!

seriously tho, that sounds horrendous. I thought we were hard done by with the total lack of holiday, but we get more than you!

I do think that gradute entry is a good thing. at my uni, a grad entry course runs alongside the undergrad one. its 4 years to our 5, integrated with us from our 3rd year and their 2nd year. and there is a difference - the grad entry lot have seen life, they're more professional, relate to patients better, are more confident and usually more 'hungry' for it. they really want to do medicine, and apreciate how lucky they to be here doing it. i sometimes think the undergrad lot - my lot - take it for granted. i think england will eventually become comepletely grad entry medicine, but it is going to take a few years to make the switch.

would i have done medicine if i'd had to do a degree before? i don't know. maybe i'd be an art teacher...

Anna said...

o, and which category do you fall into?

Tall Medstudent said...

I fall under 'particularly ancient'. :(

Anna said...

my god, are you a professor?

and you should 'fess up to your age. it's no big deal, just a number. but i still want to know!

Tall Medstudent said...

How shall I put this: I'm well into my thirties, explaining why I hate talking about my age. Death is just around the corner for me.

You're right, though, we are an older school. The average age of our class is a high 26, almost 27. The youngest in first year was 19, the eldest was at least 40.

At interviews last year, one guy asked what he was supposed to do for fun at a school full of old people. That did not go over well with my fellow students.

Anna said...

funny isnt it, how you imagine someone from stereotypes...

i always thought of you as this tall, lanky, still slightly teenage looking student with long shaggy hair.

and it turns out you've been hiding the fact you're a real grown up! how does it feel to know your best years are behind you?

Anna said...

(sorry, i'm immature and feeling touchy about my own age, and that just slipped out...)

Tall Medstudent said...

Funny enough, I've been thinking about just that for the last for the last week and a half. To top it off, I found a bunch of pictures from my first year of undergrad a couple of days ago... ah, to be young again. All that wasted time...

I think I'd have to say that I'm a tall, lanky, twenty-something-looking student who had long shaggy hair until this spring. People were guessing that I was 25 this summer... that is the good thing about visiting countries with a lot of sun-induced skin aging. :)

Tall Medstudent said...

Of course, I am afraid that thinking I still look 20-somethingish may be a sign of a delusional disorder... of course, that is assuming that the delusion can be classified as non-bizarre.

Anna said...

Well, you know there is only one way to prove how youthful you still look... I ain't falling for your delusional disorder til I see proof dammit!

Tall Medstudent said...

Hmm, maybe I will post something...

Marysienka said...

I've noticed people in medicine look young - students and many docs. There might be two reasons to that 1) going to school/learning all the time keeps you young OR 2) medicine isn't stressful enough. Ummm. I wonder ;)
we're waiting for da pic!

Anna said...

you know, if you don't post a picture next time, i will be really upset.

but how do you post pics? i actually would like to, but i haven't a clue how, as i am technologicaly inept.

Tall Medstudent said...

Oh oh, I didn't end up posting a pic. :)

To post one, you click on the little photo icon in the post editing screen...

Me, I wanted to just put up some kind of gallery on picasaweb, but didn't have any luck getting an account. :( I'll wait for it...

med neophyte said...

Not to discourage posting of the much anticipated pic, but I can testify to the lack of delusion. I certainly wouldn't have guessed 'well into [the] thirties' (having been lucky enough to meet the ancient in question) but I must insist that thirties isn't that old anyway. Of course drinking with a bunch of 19,20,21 year-olds is starting to make me feel my age as well.

Tall Medstudent said...

You only feel your age at first. Soon, you're going to start thinking that you're 21 again! :) That happened to me...

Now, though, I see a lot of patients just a few years older than me, and boy, they don't look good.