At the Threshold of Med World: FREE. And Fabulous.

Another blog entry so soon -who would have thought it! Just don't get used to it, eh. Well, the real reason is that too much has been happening in this whole new world and whole new life of mine these last couple of days, definitely taking many turns for the better which I felt I should share, especially after the anxiety conveyed in the last entry (thanks btw to everyone who responded with encouragement and other nice words -definitely contributed to the better general feeling!).

Well, so firstly, people have been asking about the cuties. Really, it probably just comes down to the pleasure of encountering new faces and personalities and being attracted to the newness of it all (have I euphemized sufficiently here?) Much to my chagrin, with respect for my affinity to order and control in my life, I have already developed a crush or two (I know, this is ridiculous, it has only been 3 days, but alas, the heart does not always listen to the mind, and it probably also has something to do with this approaching of my peak fertility years or something). Of course, I cannot write about any of these in detail here (one day we might become Facebook friends, and one day this blog may be visited by said crushes, and really, that would just be embarrassing).

Day 2 of med world orientation

So yesterday - -after acquiring some snazzy, high quality, and most importantly, FREE, schoolbags from the CMA (Canadian Medical Association) / MD Financial people (the perks begin early, believe it or not), much continued self-congratulation for being worthy of medicine, attending a few orientation sessions, including an introduction to Physicianship and having received our first homework assignment (in a similar fashion to the Math 1a/1b tradition of homework due on the first day of class), I acquired a McGill ID card. Yes, friends, I am officially a McGill student. So much so that today, incidentally, I joined the McGill network on Facebook, boasting over 30,000 members. Yeah, for reals. Later that evening I enjoyed a decent (and FREE) dinner at Le Prince Arthur with my fellow "Med-Dent Frosh '08" (this is what is written on our yellow wristbands which we are required to wear all this week) and really, our particular table was absolutely fabulous! Really, I think I've met at least some of who will be "my people" -good conversation, same excited positivity, similar interests (met a former MUN person, and someone who did work under a circadian bio dude in the T dot, and someone with a sense of social/moral/anthropological medicine, and all of them are cool with the H-bomb, and in a friendly-joking way, chastise my round-about way of attempting a soft landing with the H-bomb, as well as ask me to say "Pahk the Cah in Hahvahd Yahd") and values -recalling the first days of Harvard Dorm Crew Fall Clean Up freshman year, when I met some of my dearest peoples. It was the best, again FREE, 3-hour long dinner I've had in a long time. I was thoroughly pleased and went to bed with pink warm fuzzies in my chest cavity.

Day 3 Intro to Med World

Today - -I was up at 6:30 a.m. (each day has been earlier than the last this week, but today's start will be the norm beginning next Monday), and walking those hilly streets again by 8:00 on yet another gorgeous sunny but comfortably temperate morning -I think "crisp" would be the right cliche. Anyway, more Physicianship talk -as a doctor, I will be both a "healer" and a "professional" -this was the lesson of the day, which connected to the "small group sessions" where we were put in random groups of about 16 (a mix of Med, Med-P and Dent students) to discuss Physicianship ethical / moral issues for about an hour and a half or so -this will be our group for the year -with a family medicine/Ob/Gyn/head of clinical clerkships doctor (this person will apparently be different every week) to lead the discussion session. This recalls "section" at Harvard. Very much so. No pompousness has emerged yet, but it's still early in the year -someone's going to be that kid and we all know it, right. This may sound skeptical, but it was actually quite a good class -and so far, I kinda liked everyone in our group okay.

Stomachs hollow and angry, we then set off for the Physicianship Apprenticeship Luncheon (PA is not to be confused with general Physicianship and other courses in this area). The group we were assigned to here is 6 fellow Med or Med-P students with whom we will regularly meet for the next 4 years, along with a doctor in charge of the group (our's is a hematologist at MGH -that is, Montreal General Hospital, not Mass General), and 2 co-leaders who are 3rd and 4th-year med students. We will be meeting on a regular basis and for the first year, pairs of us will be assigned a real live patient to 'follow', interviewing them about their health/illness experience (kind of like medical anthropological ethnography if you ask me -which is wonderful!). The point of all this Physicianship stuff, which I love and for which I totally respect McGill, is to train us to never forget about the patient's role in the diagnoses we will make, and in their own healing -to remember that ultimately, patients are people, individuals, not just 'bodies', the converse view being a common obstacle for much of medical training in the Western world, resulting in a poor doc-patient relationship. Kudos to Sir William Osler (whom I will now endearingly call 'Will') for inspiring such care in this regard of medical training here. Anyway, I will likely be 'pairing up' with one of the "my people" friends I made last night who ended up being in the same group, which is sweet -meeting other new people is wonderful, but for long-term 'projects' like this, if you can work with "your people" I think you're much better off. But we will see.

Now, 2 Majoryly Majorly COOL things:

1. Our 4th year co-leader is starting her neurosurgery clerkship (McGill speak for 'rotation') this fall and there is a good chance that our group will be able to watch from that viewing balcony area (just like in Grey's Anatomy... I know, it's a sad day when even med students can't help with the pop culture references) = Coolest thing ever!

2. Subsequent to this Luncheon, some of "my people" and I went on a tour of the Medical Simulation Center, where there are actual beds, real medical equipment, a mock OR room, with manaquins hooked up to machines, and then "complications" are simulated for med students, doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals who work with patients to practice with, thus mitigating the high rate of error that has been known to occur in these cases in real life (this is the function of the Center, apart from just being cool, and so Spa-like in setting, which is ironic because it's cleaner and spiffier than any hospital room I've ever seen in Montreal!). I am excited to bits about eventually practicing in this place. They also have 200 actors in their database who come in and simulate various medical conditions / difficult patients etc, and not only will we be practicing with them, but these situations will end up being our "practical" exams as well. Anyway, SO SO SO COOOOL!

Finally, tonight, Pub Crawl was okay, dancing at the Club at the end was much more fun, having to take detours around all the highway and street construction work in order to drive downtown for said evening activities = less fun, but instructive. Also, I got my package in the mail from Forever 21 which was nice.

But medicine and med school, seems to me like lots of work, lots of play, lots of FREE, and lots and lots of COOLness.

P.S. strangely enough, thought you should know that some of "my people" look freakishly similar (though not the same) to Megan Powell and Firth McEachern..