Thursday 31 October 2013

Where I've been, and White Coat Ceremony

Well, it seems the theme of all my posts is beginning with an apology for disappearing for so long in between posts. The last few weeks have been absolutely crazy - I thought the first month was a lot of work, but that was nothing. My family has been gently reminding me that I haven't posted anything in a while, so I thought I'd put up a quick post to update you (and I have a few more in the works, so hopefully posting will be a more regular thing!).

At the beginning of October, we finished the respiratory module and started cardiology... and somehow, we finished cardiology today and we're moving on to hematology! I don't know where the time is going, our first 'medical foundation' (or block of systems we're learning) is over at the end of November! Jeez. If the rest of med school goes this fast (which I'm sure it will), it feels like I'll be a doctor next week.

A week and a half ago, we had our White Coat ceremony. It's a nice evening, sort of a 'welcome to the profession', where we get our white coats (which are short coats because we're still in training - we don't get the long white coats until we're done med school and are actually doctors). My grandfather (who is a retired GP) was able to come up for the ceremony, which was really nice - Dr. Brown getting to see the future Dr. Brown get her white coat. Here are some pictures from the night:

Me on stage shaking hands and having my coat put on.

Matt and I, post-ceremony. Our clothes matched... that happens more often than I should admit. 

The family - my parents and Grandad. :)

So, now I have a stethoscope and a white coat... this medicine thing is starting to feel official. I have some cool stories about being on the wards in the hospitals, but that's a post for another day. Thanks for stopping by, everyone!




Tuesday 1 October 2013

Stethoscope Day!

Hey friends! Something exciting happened on Friday... the stethoscopes that we ordered during orientation came in!

So, we clearly decided that the appropriate way to celebrate (on our way to clinical skills class) was to take nerdy pictures in front of the medicine office's sign. We're so cool. 


Note how the Caribbean Blue colour of my stethoscope matches my blazer. Total accident, though Matt pointed out that it will, in fact, match 90% of my wardrobe since it's my favourite colour. 

This post is going to be a bit of a drive-by - I promise a real post will be up soon - but we just had our first CAE (concept application exercise, which is another Macronym - my term for McMaster acronyms, though I'm sure someone else thought of it first) this morning, and so I've been busy studying! It was unnecessary to put in as much time prepping as I did, since it really was just testing our comprehension of what we've been learning about the last four weeks, but I feel pretty good about it. 

Now... to learn how to use my fancy new stethoscope. I found out on Friday that there's a wrong way to put it in your ears - who knew that there was a front and a back? Apparently I still have a lot to learn about this medicine thing. I foresee some internet videos that teach auscultation technique in my immediate future so as to not look like an idiot in clinical skills on Friday. 

Well friends, gotta run and do some work. Maybe I'll chase Matt around the apartment for a while trying to listen to his heart with my fancy new toy. :)