Today Was a Crazy Tuesday....

And a really long one, but overall a good one. FCM was actually tolerable today. I won't come out and say it was great, because it wasn't. But it was tolerable, and that's a huge improvement. The reading for today's session was kind of dry and completely unrelated to the brief overview we had about the local men's shelter. I don't know why we had people talking to us about the men's shelter, because none of the FCM groups is assigned to work there. But the speakers were brief, and it was actually fairly interesting to hear about the programs they have going on. After the talks, we split up into our groups again to work on the projects. I told you already that my group is working with a women's shelter. I am happy to report that the size of this production has been greatly scaled down into something reasonable and manageable. We're now looking at doing a few drives to collect supplies for the women (books, clothes, toilet articles, etc.)

Next, my half of the class had our pharm seminar. Pharm seminars are always a little dry, and this one was too. But I happen to really be interested in pharm, so it doesn't bother me as much as it does some of my classmates. I think the worst part of the seminar actually is that we were stuffed like sardines into this tiny, hot conference room. Don't get me wrong: I like my classmates and all, but that doesn't mean I want them to be practically sitting in my lap for two straight hours. But we can't blame the bad room on the speaker. Our pharm seminars are taught by a pharmacist, and he's a pretty nice guy. I think it would help if he would make his seminars more interactive though.

At lunchtime, there was a meeting for a new interest group in cardiology. I couldn't stay for very long because I had clinic today. But I went for part of the time anyway, and the group has some very good activities planned, particularly the talks. I'm pretty sure that I won't wind up going into cardiology, but I like joining all of the interest groups anyway so that I can attend some of their events.

My clinic time today was hectic and awesome. The weather was good, and all four of my patients showed up. I can't tell you too much about the specifics of each case because it would violate HIPAA rules. HIPAA is the law that protects people's private medical information. But in general, what I did was go in to see each patient, interview them about why they were at the clinic, do some simple exams on them like taking their blood pressure and pulses, and then discuss their cases with my preceptor. After I finished presenting the patient, the two of us plus a resident who was also working in the clinic today would go back into the room and we would do a more involved exam. I got to practice some of the skills that we were learning in our diagnostic class last week. I was running non-stop for four straight hours, but I had a really good time, and I got to see some really interesting patients.

After I got out of clinic at 5:00, I stopped by the anatomy lab. Dr. Drake had waited for me like he promised, and one of my classmates was also there. The three of us went through all of the cadavers and reviewed the neck structures. It was a lot easier this time because I am starting to get familiar with the neck muscles, arteries, and nerves. I still need to finish reading the neck section of the book though. Now I am exhausted though, and I need to go to bed.