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Just a guy in med school

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justaloser:
Midsem's here and I couldn't be happier.

Spent the last 3 days having a break, went for a walk with an old friend which was a great opportunity to have a convo, had some games nights with friends. There was also a trivia night which was a bit of a disaster (iykyk) but still fun with friends. Now I feel a lot less strung-up and a lot more relaxed.

I have two assignments to do, 3 lectures to catch up on and examinations to study.
Not going to note down all my midsem goals specifically but they're just involving finishing one assignment and starting the other. I have two weeks so if I study lightly (2h? 3h?) on the first week then ramp it up the second week it should be fine. Also need to really brush up on clinical skills because I've neglected that in favour of anatomy for a while. Perhaps some practice exam questions might be in order as well.

That's it. Probably won't be posting for the next 2 weeks because there won't be much to write about. Till then, stay safe, enjoy the break (VCE & Monash people that is aha)

justaloser:
Alas, midsem draws to an end (it already has). So far this week we've gone through infectious diseases epidemiology and opioids, which is an area I've been mildly interested in since high school.

The ability to have a break and just take care of myself was much appreciated. I didn't study as much, but I did get an assignment submitted and did get the chance to revise a lot of anatomy, fill out some quizzes for this week and go on a good walk with a friend. 

I highly regret not paying attention during statistics in Methods in Year 12 because this stuff about CI's, normal distribution and p-values really bit me in the ass during my Population Health assignment -- but now I'm a lot better at reading through scientific journals (and I am sick of reading the phrase colon cancer). I kind of want to make journal-reading a habit just so I spend more time learning rather than surfing or using my time unproductively. 

Looking forward, I'm completing a mental health first-aid course, which is about identifying certain behaviours and illnesses in people you know and knowing how to help them. As someone highly interested in learning about managing mental health I'm looking forward to it! Hopefully it'll offer a lot of new knowledge and practical skills for future. And for uni, we'll be covering the spine and thorax for anatomy as well as the heart -- going to read up on how to interpret ECGs if I have time so I arrive at class prepared.

That's it. Have a good week, take care.

justaloser:
One and a bit weeks into second half of semester 2 (almost wrote term 2 there. it's a bad habit).

Last week was surprisingly calm. We had no live classes except for one live lecture on opioids, our Friday morning ICL (probably our "hardest" yet -- we were learning spina bifida which seemed like it came out of nowhere) and a Friday revision session. Which meant lots of time for self-learning, which was fine, but also writing: I managed to churn out an unfinished piece on Impostor Syndrome and submit a pitch to Medicguild for an article/piece. Also continued working on my assignment -- it's given me the opportunity to read When Breath Becomes Air again. If you're interested in medicine, it's a fantastic read -- Kalanithi's writing is highly eloquent.

Highlights included a revision on Friday which felt like the Eureka moment of Semester 2 -- it was a case-study consolidation that tested our knowledge. It's so rewarding to have all the individual sciences like pharmacology, clinical and anatomy come together and definitely makes the studying worth it. I live for the application -- I was studying heart valves today and the concept of a "clicking" valve came up, read the other medical student thread on here and a fact about clicking on auscultation & mitral valve clots made sense.

Also been doing a Mental Health First Aid course, although a lot of stuff is refreshing existing knowledge, it's great to learn a systematic way of helping people and a more nuanced way of approaching people and getting them to open up about how they're feeling. Also good training for helping others having mental health crises -- I know I've been in those scenarios and had no idea what to do. However I haven't made as much progress as I've liked :( but I'll get there. I've also spent some time playing Minecraft -- God that game has changed, shields are super janky

From now on the content's going to ramp up -- starting the heart/Cardiovascular system this week and so far, I've loved it, it feels intuitive and like an extension of what we've already learnt. I'm sure my attitude will do a 180 in one week though: I'm expecting the usual barrage of content in Specimens (and the inevitable "Flag race!" and "Hmm, not quite"). Furthermore, exams are coming in 5 weeks -- I haven't done any actual exams, so I should create a planner of what exams to do when. That being said, I've talked to my mentor, and from what I can gather it's less definitive and more of a test of knowledge of concepts. I guess I have to get myself out of that VCE mindset?

That's it. Take care.

K888:
Changing from "trying to catch you out with specific definitions and if you misplace even one word you won't get the marks" to "we're just seeing if you know the principles and if you can convey that you know it we don't care how you do it!" was one of the biggest changes moving to uni from high school. Exams are just so different and now so much less stressful!

Have only read When Breath Becomes Air once a few years ago, but now I want to re-read it!

justaloser:
Quick weekly update time..

This week was relatively good. Synchronous week for anatomy, so our tutorials were live -- I honestly prefer live tutorials because it's easier to concentrate and better to interact with other people. There was no flag race in specimens, but the content was nevertheless difficult to get through. Imaging was chill and relaxed as always, and PACA was great. Love it. The tutors make it so much better -- they're so understanding. Our group simps for them lol
Population health this week was a bit of a drag -- really just covering -- and most people (myself included lol) slept through it, probably because it's a 2 hour tute after 2 hours of intensive anatomy. Finally, ICL this week was another step up in difficulty -- considering differentials for cardiovascular disease & learning about CVD is really new, but I'm sure it'll be rewarding given its prevalence in the population.

Mental health has been alright. Saw a faculty member about getting mental health in check and we went through possible options for getting help. The number of students she said she was seeing daily shocked me -- I didn't think that many students were getting help. I was told that what I'm experiencing is "normal" so I'm quite concerned that a lot of medical students/18 year olds are in the same spot that I am lol. Also had a bit of a breakdown in the middle of a tute -- probably the result of a lot of intersecting thoughts that sprung up at the time -- so that's a catalyst for me to get things in check.

The Mental Health First Aid Course has also stalled in the progress -- only completed 2 modules at the time of writing -- probably because of the amount of classes this week. Hopefully I can complete 2 more modules this week since Friday is a free day and classes are asynchronous.

I've continued to write a few unfinished reflective pieces which has really been great, I've slowed down for now but hopefully I can pick up the pace once this next wave of content is over. I'm still concerned about to improve my writing though, since it never feels like I'm making progress with my writing skill. It's currently just simply producing content because it's intrinsically calming/stimulating to turn your abstract thoughts into words rather than to improve. Perhaps I need some sort of outside judge/criticism of my writing to improve.

next week: A ton of cardiovascular anatomy/physiology, but that's fine, I try to read up the weekend before. Trying to figure out ECGs is making me a bit crazy. But it's all good -- the heart is really so intuitive in how it works AND it's super rewarding because it meshes all the past concepts like the autonomic nervous system, action potentials etc. together..

That's it. Take care and, to the VCE students out there -- you got this! It's been such a tough year and you've persevered super well. Good luck!!

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