But first, let's focus on the positives:
- During my last entry, I had decided (although not revealed) that I was going to push my step one test date back 10 days to June 11th. Good news, I passed.
- I am now almost entirely moved into my downtown apartment. My room is still full of random stuff and I still don't have a well stocked fridge, but I know the area pretty well now and every weekend I go to the beach (within walking distance) with my friends.
Okay, now on to clerkships.
I started with Surgery. At Lutheran. Widely rumored to be the toughest place to do a surgery rotation. Results are in: I hate it even though I love how much I'm learning and how much I'm doing everyday. In the last two-and-a-half weeks I have cried six times, every single time because of surgery. I am a mess. And I finally know exactly why so I'll tell you:
Being a third year medical student on rotations is like being a middle child: no one likes you and no one pays attention to you so you might as well die.
If we were to compare the classical hierarchy of teaching hospitals to a nuclear American family circa 1950, the Attendings would be your parents, your older sibling is the residents, medical students are the middle child, and depending on group dynamics, the role of younger sibling is played by either medical students who are great at sucking up and being professional or interns.
Attendings are the people you want to be like. They are your role models. Sometimes you hate them, but most of the time you love/respect them. They may make you upset because they yell at you and occasionally call you dumb, but eventually you realize they are right about almost everything.
Residents are your older sibling. But there are a lot of different ways older siblings can act:
-We're in this together: Life is hard. But with any luck, your older sibling likes you and wants you to succeed. This sibling gets extra points if they know how to succeed. Residents can be good role models, just like attendings, but they can also be terrible influences. And as a young med student, you can't really know what's right or what's wrong yet. So you just pray these people are good influences.
-Too cool for you: Okay, you can't really blame someone for this, and to be honest, medical students are dorks. So...
-Constantly antagonistic: For some unknown reason, most likely being they are still bitter about that you took attention away from them (i.e., your birth), they hate you. They would never say that. But if they can, they will make you look bad. For fun. Because, to sum it all up, the world is cruel and if seeing someone else suffers helps you get through your shift, then someone's going to suffer.
Essentially, residents will determine how you feel about yourself day after day. Your parents may be important to you, but sometimes, they just don't understand. If a resident physician tells you that you did something well, then you feel pretty cool and competent. Otherwise you're just a useless person who know one pays any attention to.
Finally, there are the suck-up med students, the little sibling who really just makes you feel worthless. Everyone is so much nicer to them for reasons you cannot completely elucidate. They are even nice to you--but only some times. At other times they are totally working the angle so they get more assignments. Everyone wants to be around them... nobody wants to be around you.
Anyway, I'll probably post up something less... emotional, more analytical later. But right now, an hour past my bedtime, I'm genuinely shocked that I haven't quit yet.
More good news I guess.
