Going in for a Checkup

I think it is worth it to do a checkup of what medical school has been like thus far for me: in 10 weeks I have had 2 midterms (M&C and Anatomy), 2 final exams (Emergency Med and Embryo), a couple of interesting clinical correlates (Krohn's, CF, sickle cell, ALS...), two patients (through EHHOP), and of course, lots of class time spent in Annenberg 12-01 and in the Gross Anatomy lab. As trite as this may sound, I do consider it a moral victory to have not only survived my Anatomy midterm, but to have beaten the curve set by the class. I would have to say that if there is any single class that exemplifies what people think medical school is about, that class would be Gross Anatomy. So it is satisfying to do well on an exam that is thought to be the epitome of medical school. It is also satisfying to do well after having done so poorly in my Anatomy of the Lower Extremities course at Duke, especially on the practical exam (that always left a bitter taste in my mouth...). The range on the midterm was from 53 to 95, mean was 83. I scored an 86.3, which is well within one standard deviation (=7.2), but good enough to put me in the top half. In total, 21 out of 125 students received either failing or marginal grades on the exam. A 53 is going to be a hard score to recuperate from (he or she would need an 87 or better), but it's obviously not impossible. Another interesting point is that I did better on the practical than I did on the written, which was rather shocking: in the four practical exams I've taken (two in AotLE and two this summer in SEP), I've always done better in the written section, and I did far more studying for the written part of this particular exam than I did for the practical (the class average was almost two points higher for the written than it was for the practical).

I go into great detail on this exam not because I always want to remember what the range was on my Anatomy exam, but simply because it it's the first major exam I've taken (of course, this statement ignores the Embryo exam, which at the time seemed like a very big deal, as well as the first M&C midterm, which was annoying to study for but really wasn't all that bad), and being that it was given about 10 weeks into school, it is a good benchmark to see how the adjusting process has been going. On the whole I am generally content with the way it is going: while I never had any doubt about whether I should have been accepted to medical school or whether I wanted to be here in the first place, it is a little comforting to be proven somewhat right. At least, for the time being, that is.

Yesterday we met with a patient who has been diagnosed with Marfan's Syndrome (disease manifests as tall stature, disproportioned features, weak blood vessels esp. aorta-- this was the disease that Jonathan Larson, the writer of the musical Rent died from). He was a very interesting, lively 45 year old man. Since being diagnosed in 1986, he has since become the chairman of the National Marfan Foundation, which is apparently doing great work as far as advocacy and education are concerned. I read an article in this month's Atlantic Monthly that talked about Abraham Lincoln and how he suffered from clinical depression, possibly had Marfan's, and was reported to have been gay. The article went on the say that if a candidate for president today was found to have these conditions, he would be instantly declared unfit for office. It is hard to justify this reasoning, however, when we consider how successful Lincoln was as president.

As part of the unofficial "Medical Spanish Elective" that I am "taking" this semester, there was a screening of the film Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside) tonight. It's a Spanish movie about a quadriplegic man who wants the legal right to end his life, because he would rather die with dignity than life in the state he was in. Incredibly, incredibly sad movie, but quite well done, I thought. Nothing special, but a compelling and moving storyline. It was set in Galicia, where my great grandfather was from, and the views of the sea were very pretty. Not a date movie though.

The last thing I wanted to write about was the CMCA Open House I attended this past Sunday. They asked me to be on a panel of minority medical students to answer questions from high school and college students about medical school in general and Sinai in particular. It was very interesting to be on the other side of the table, so to speak, especially since I had been sitting in the exact seats those students were in less than a year ago, asking the same questions and voicing the same concerns about which medical school to go to, and about whether I would be accepted at all. Since I have only been here for the past few months, I thought that I wasn't going to have anything to say, but apparently not: with each question they asked, I found that I had thought a lot about each of their concerns, and actually had to stop myself from dominating the panel. I am really glad I did the panel though; I think it's incredibly important to motivate other minority students to apply to medical school, and give them suggestions as to how they can be competitive applicants.

I think I have said a mouthful tonight. Tomorrow is the last day of Behavioral, and then ASM small groups. I am also going to try to make it to a few interest group meetings if I can.