1 down, 3 to go

Today I had my Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE) and it was fine. Like most of my peers I felt there were things I probably missed but overall I felt like it went well. It feels like a huge weight off my shoulders, because now I can concentrate on studying for my next big three exams - practical, multiple choice and short answer.

Hands down my favourite OSCE stations are always the one involving technical skills, like suturing, basic airway management or arterial blood gases (ABGs). I guess it's in my nature to like procedural work. Maybe I should think more seriously about emergency medicine. Or not.

So a few updates - I am officially moving and I'm excited for something new! Post-exam is gonna be nuts though - I'll be packing and getting ready for Kenya. I now have all my immunizations (last time I got yellow fever in one arm and the flu shot in the other) and my malaria prophylaxis is ready to go.

As well, interviewing med hopefuls was kind of fun. It's funny how much I learned from being on the other side, such as:
1) It really doesn't matter what you're wearing. As long as you don't look like a slob, it's what comes out of your mouth that matters.
2) Don't worry if somebody is looking at the clock a lot. It's probably because after 15 minutes they know you're good, they think you're a good candidate and they just wonder how many more questions they have to make up before the full 40 minutes are up.
3) You cannot tell if a person is a good applicant or not purely from their resume/CV/autobiographical sketch or what have you. I hope there is not a single medical school out there that bases their admissions solely on academics or how someone looks on paper.
4) Interviewing is not completely fun, because you feel like you're playing with somebody's fate.

Unlike some of my classmates, I didn't meet anyone super amazing who climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro for charity or anything, but I think the future of Canadian medicine is in good hands.

***

Last weekend I attended the annual meeting of the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) in Toronto. I went to the medical school brunch and little did I know, I sat at a table with all American medical students and wow were they HARDCORE. The conversation went something like this: "I did research last year in embolization something something angiography something something cannulization etc etc" and "Colorado has an excellent program, oh my gosh I would kill to go to Denver blah blah blah" and I was like, "Hello, I'm Betty I go to Queen's in Canada" and nobody cared (well not really, but you know what I'm saying).

It's just so funny how medicine is so different south of the border. Name is everything. Money is everything. New technology is everything. In Canada, there's not that much going on in terms of large radiology programs. Even if the new technology is out there, it can't be afforded. Interventional radiologists in Canada don't make a killing either. I'm not sure what's better but I'm sure happy that I'm not so very hardcore and it doesn't matter if I graduated from the University of Alberta, Dalhousie or Queen's.

There was this huge technical hall exhibit and it looked like a huge space ship and all the instruments looked like the toys all those evil villains in Spiderman and Batman would have. I didn't really care much for the free pens and there seemed to be less of it around, so maybe companies are being more conscious about being ethical or something. Yeah right. I did see one really cool exhibit though, and it was all about uterine fibroid embolization. Usually, women with fibroids require a hysterectomy which is major surgery and now women have the option of getting a minimially invasive procedure that will block blood flow to the fibroid. It's not quite clear if embolization has a better outcome than surgery because the procedure is so new, but isn't it wonderful?

I also learned a lot at a basics workshop I attended. It was all about angiography and at the end there was a lecture on morbidity and mortality (M&M) rounds in IR and the importance of quality control. It was so cool, because my project this summer at Sick Kids is all about that! The lecturer even had the cutest "M&M Round":

I asked him if I could steal the pic from him and he said for sure, so I'm quite happy about that. If I ever do get somewhere with my research project, I'll have the most kick-ass powerpoint presentation ever!

There was also information on chemoembolization and the new field of interventional oncology. A major reason why cancer cells survive is because they're able to recruit blood vessel supply and gain nutrients that way. So what the interventional radiologist does is block blood flow to the tumor so that it shrinks... then the tumor will possibly go into remission or shrink to a small enough size so that it can be resected surgically.

So it's all very cool stuff and while I'm still not sure what the heck to with my life (#%$!!!!!!) it's definitely an interesting field.

Anyways, I can't wait until I'm done school and then I'm off for my European and African adventure! Imagine, after my time at the clinic I'll get to travel with Mike for a whole month. Why, I think it's going to be the longest time we'll have gotten to spend with each other ('cuz our relationship is LD and everything). Soon... soon... 1 down, 3 to go.