| I don't believe it... |
[Oct. 5th, 2006|08:34 pm] |
an actual post on this blog! To catch everyone up, yes, I passed Step I, and now am doing my first clinical clerkship in Pediatrics in Brooklyn. After a long time of being without, I finally got internet in my apartment today, so you are all being graced with a new post. Unfortunately, though it will have to be a bit short, since I have my final exams (oral and written) in Pediatrics in a week. Though I promise I will be updating more regularly shortly. Really, I swear! :-)View or post comments on my blog |
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| No More Dirty Jersey |
[Aug. 6th, 2006|10:29 pm] |
It's official, I no longer have to submit myself to radioactive toxic waste in Dirty Jersey:
Hi Carsten!
We have been able to accomodate you at NY Methodist Hospital for cores. You will receive confirmed placement shortly.
Clinical Placement Coordinator
Now that I have my confirmed placement, I have to start looking for apartments quick - I start August 28th. Crazy thing is, I can't find anything decent for under $1,500/mo in Brooklyn! If anyone knows anybody that died in NYC recently, please let me know! :roll:View or post comments on my blog |
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| It's Over |
[Jul. 27th, 2006|04:45 pm] |
That's all I can say about my USMLE Step I exam experience: It's Over. I knew some without looking at the question, I knew I should have known some, and I had no idea what they were talking about on some of them. Of the latter, I just hope they were among the 50 "experimental questions" and not among the 300 questions that were scored.
I took the exam on July 20th, and there is nothing to do now but wait a nebulous "4 to 6 weeks" for my score report to see if I was able to cram enough useless information in my brain over the last two years to satisfy the National Board of Medical Examiners. I call a lot of the information useless because no practicing physician knows half of it (I know, I asked!). They say you really learn medicine in the clinical years by doing. I'm definitely looking forward to this, provided I passed that minor roadblock on the way.
Posting should pick up again soon. I spent the last week on Lake George camping without internet access (hence the delay in posting), but I have a few shifts scheduled in the hospital ED and on the ambulance over the next few weeks to provide me with at least some fodder for this blog.View or post comments on my blog |
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| The Cart Before the Horse? |
[Jun. 14th, 2006|11:38 pm] |
Today I got a nice letter from the ECFMG (Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates), who are the fine folks who handle all the paperwork and register me to take my USMLE Step I exam. The letter starts off:
Dear Dr. Stracke:
Well that's nice of them - they gave me a field promotion, since I didn't think I graduated medical school for another 2 years... :roll:
The letter goes on to say:
Your score report for USMLE Step I/Step II is available.
Even better news! Now not only do I not have to graduate medical school to be a doctor, but I don't have to take the licensing exam either! I just hope that my score report shows that I passed the exam (even though I am not scheduled to take it for another month.) :-)View or post comments on my blog |
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| Zoned Out |
[May. 24th, 2006|10:23 pm] |
Sorry I kind of zoned out there for a bit. If you haven't guessed, I have safely made it home. I spent a week "relaxing" (working at the hospital and riding ambulance), but now I am in the midst of my US Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) Step I studying. (Note the new countdown timer in the sidebar. Though why does my life always seem to revolve around countdowns?) Anyways, posting on here will be sporadic for the next month and a half, as I spend most of each day in the books. (Posting about studying can't be that interesting, I mean it's not that interesting to begin with.) I plan on resuming a more regular posting schedule after the exam is done, and I start my 3rd year in Clinical Rotations.View or post comments on my blog |
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| It's Official |
[May. 12th, 2006|04:00 pm] |
It's official -- I am finally done with the Caribbean forever. Though it wasn't with the usual German efficiency (8.5 hours vs. normal 3), grades for yesterday's Pathophys exam were up, and I officially passed. I am really to exhausted to write much, and hot (since I am in the lecture hall without A/C - disconnected internet at home), but needless to say I am ectstatic about finally being a 3rd year (well, I guess I do have that pesky Step I still in the way). Going out to a celebratory dinner tonight, then I have two days to pack and get ready, and then my flight home is Monday morning. Can't wait to see everyone! :-)View or post comments on my blog |
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| One Step Closer... |
[May. 8th, 2006|10:02 pm] |
to being done with Basic Sciences. :-) Passed my Pharmacology final today, just one more exam (Pathophysiology) on Thursday which I really can't fail, and I will finally be DONE! Finally moving on to clinicals. I can't tell you how excited I am. :-)
And then I remember I still have to take the USMLE Step I. :???:
Anyways, 6 days, 10 hours and 59 minutes until my flight takes off, and I leave the Caribbean forever. (Or at least until I come back for a vacation in 10 years...)View or post comments on my blog |
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| Random News |
[May. 4th, 2006|09:30 pm] |
You know you are mentally ready to go home when:
-you start running out of bismuth subsalicylate (Pepto-Bismol ®) from eating your own cooking.
-you start driving on the wrong (or the right, depending on how you look at it) side of the road. :roll:
For some reason, the Business Office here at the Kingstown Medical College made a singular check for all SVG CPR instructors out in my name for the recent recertification sessions. So, couple of days ago, I had to go into the capital city to cash this massive check (EC$1,576) at a bank. After my tenth time around the block looking for a parking space, I was in the right hand lane, and attempting to make a right hand turn. On that block, the parking is on the right hand side of the street, next to the fruit and vegetable market. Somehow my brain thought that meant I should be turning into the right hand lane, and unfortunately I had forgotten that this section of the street was two-way traffic, and I had just turned into the on-coming lane. Luckily there were no "Reggae bus" drivers speeding at 800mi/hr, and I managed to squeeze into the correct left lane with no damage to the vehicle, other than a few glares from other drivers.
In other news:
-At a financial aid seminar on Tuesday, we learned there's a new federal student loan program which starts on July 1st called GradPLUS. Benefits: Theoretically supposed to have a low interest rate, currently capped at 8.5%, but probably will be in the 6-7% range. (Staffords go up to 6.7% from 4.7% starting in July.) No aggregate loan maximum. Low(er) 3% origination fee (vs. 6-10% at private lenders). Unlike Staffords, GradPLUS is credit-based, but not really. They don't look at a FICO/Credit score, just that you haven't had any accounts 90 days past due. Details are still being finalized, but sounds interesting at least. We'll have to see if the government can do better than prime rate - 0.5% that I currently get with my private lender.
-Made my final car rental payment today. As my landlord (and car rental agency said), "all good things must come to an end." Well, maybe it was good for him. :-) He also gave us a stern warning not to wreck the car in the next 11 days (did I say 11 days? !!! :-)), like he didn't trust us for some reason. It's not like we have given him any reason not to trust us. :roll:
-Pharmacology Final Exam is on Monday. Back to studying.
Did I mention? 11 more days! :-)View or post comments on my blog |
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| I Thought It Was Called Customer Service |
[May. 1st, 2006|05:48 pm] |
Remember my doubtfulness about the replacement for my lost ATM card ever making it to St. Vincent? Well, it turns out that the people in the Customer Service department at my bank didn't believe me when I said that no one in SVG has a physical street mailing address, just a P.O. box, so they mailed my replacement card home instead. Thanks guys, that does me a lot of good there. Their big reason why they couldn't mail it to my P.O. Box? "No one will be there to sign for it." Well, guess what? There was no one home at the time my replacement card was delivered, and a lack of a signature didn't prevent them from leaving it unattended on a porch. Funny thing is, if they had sent it to my P.O. Box here in St. Vincent, they would have gotten a signature from one of the secretaries at the school to whom all express packages for students are delivered. Oh well, I guess that is what happens when you let someone with a G.E.D. run things.
Today I experienced another Customer Service debacle with my cell phone company. Since the beginning of the term in January, my phone has been on a "Seasonal Suspend" plan for $5.95/mo to allow me to keep the account open, as well as my phone number. Usually, customers are only allowed to be on this plan for 3 months out of a year, but exceptions were made for me, so I usually ended up on the "Suspend" plan for 10-11 months out of the year while I was away at school. The company's generosity ended this month when I was automatically put back on the $39.95/month plan. When I emailed the Customer Service department, it took them about a week for them to realize that they needed to have voice contact to straighten things out and extend my "Suspend" plan the extra month and a half I would still be out of the country. The first agent was great, and actually called me long distance, since the local phone company here doesn't allow toll-free access to 800/888/etc. numbers. Unfortunately, he couldn't help me, and as usual, I was transferred to about 3 different people before I got to someone who could authorize an extension of the "Suspend" plan. However, he told me he would not be able to give me the extra month and a half, because my account has been suspended for so much of the last two years that the company was "loosing money." Tell me how a company can loose money by getting paid every month for no services being provided other than refraining from hitting the delete button on my account in the database. :evil: Now I get to pay a lot more for services not being utilized. Well, I could look at the bright side of things - it's only one extra month, and my phone will be ready to use when I get home (no waiting for re-activation). :???:View or post comments on my blog |
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| ... It's another... |
[Apr. 28th, 2006|11:19 pm] |
Still have water. But now the fridge is getting awfully warm. After reflection, we noticed it really hasn't been making any noise for days. Freezer seems to be working fine though. Weird. Called the landlord, but 6 hours later, no response. Good thing I really don't have anything super-perishable in there...View or post comments on my blog |
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| If It's Not One Thing... |
[Apr. 26th, 2006|10:36 pm] |
After days without power (ok, really it was a few hours on a couple of days, but you really get addicted to that air-conditioner), there is now little or no water. Since there hasn't been more than 10 seconds of rain per week in the last 3 months, the country is experiencing a bit of a drought. To combat the problem, the National Water and Sewerage Authority (NaWaSA) has shut off water supply to the entire nation from 8am - 4pm daily for this week, and possibly longer. Tomorrow it's rumored to be "all day." I'm not sweating it though -- I've been through a hurricane where I had no water and didn't shower for a week. (Guess that's getting back to my European roots - wait, actually, that's only the French that don't shower.) Anyways, for some reason (gravity, etc.) we have had water even when it is technically "shut off." Not a lot of pressure (must be whatever is leftover in the pipes), but it works. People living elsewhere aren't so lucky, and actually do run out of water. Hopefully, our luck continues, otherwise it could get a little smelly. :???:
19 more days!!! :-)View or post comments on my blog |
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| The OSCE |
[Apr. 23rd, 2006|06:31 pm] |
Had my OSCE yesterday. And not to further antagonize the worry-worts, but I did rather well without doing much studying (maybe an hour and a half in total). :-)
The OSCE is the final practical exam for Advanced Clinical Skills/Physical Diagnosis. It consists of 7 stations - 4 patient history and/or physical in 7 minutes or less stations, as well as 3 ancillary stations (EKG, X-Ray and Prescription Writing). My patients included a "frozen shoulder" after playing tennis, an HIV+ flight attendant having diarrhea for two weeks, a middle-aged male with angina, and a female with monthly abdominal "bloating." The "standardized patients" were very good - they were flown in from Grenada, so we had seen a couple of them before (like my oil-down woman), but that was cool. I missed a couple of points on the abdominal exam, because the tutor thought I should do every abdominal exam in the book, even if they weren't consistent with the patient's symptoms. Oh well. All the patients complimented me on my bedside manner, thoroughness, and style. Nice to hear just before going into clinical rotations. (I think this is half the point of the OSCE...)
For my X-Ray interpretation, I had an IVP which showed unilateral hydronephrosis (backing up of urine into the bladder). A couple of people were complaining that the x-ray was unfair because it didn't have the little clock on it to show how long after the injection of the dye the x-ray was taken. Come on people, really. What they really should have been complaining about was the EKG station - the quality of the copy was so poor that the leads weren't labeled, and it was hard to count boxes for heart rate, etc., since they didn't come out either. Though it really didn't matter that much, since the tracing was pretty obvious with the P-R interval shortening, the peaked bimodal QRS's, and possibly some T-wave inversions (but I couldn't tell which leads since they weren't labeled...) I finally diagnosed a case of Wolfe-Parkinson-White syndrome. :-) For my prescription I got a patient with angina again, so I prescribed sublingual nitroglycerin as needed for pain. Actually, I used some medical abbreviations like PRN, SL, q5, call 911, etc. In retrospect, maybe I should have spelled it out. Hopefully, they use the same abbreviations in Scotland where the Clinical Skills Chairman is from!
With that exam down, only two more to go: final exams in Pathophysiology and Pharmacology in two weeks. Ahh! Better start studying. :-)View or post comments on my blog |
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| I Passed!!!! |
[Apr. 21st, 2006|01:40 pm] |
Per the score report on ANGEL, I managed to pass the BSCE II without studying (not that I am surprised by this, as indicated by the number of exclamation marks in the title.) :-) And not that I don't have a long way to go for USMLE Step I studying, but at least I know a least a little bit of the material presented over the last two years stayed in long-term memory... Anyways, no time for celebration -- time to study for my OSCE tomorrow...View or post comments on my blog |
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| Power Outages and other good news |
[Apr. 19th, 2006|10:30 pm] |
When the power cut out yesterday around noon-time and came back on six hours later, I was slightly surprised (as it was the first power outage I've experienced in St. Vincent), but not overly alarmed (as this happened in Grenada around once a month). However, when the power cut out today for the same six-hour block, I became slightly suspicious. Turns out these are planned outages that I had no idea about, and don't adhere at all to the planned times. Oh well, Caribbean time, I guess... :roll: Anyways, looks like we have two more power outages the next two days to look forward to. :???:
In other news, yesterday I noticed all the major potholes on the highway were marked with spray paint. Today, believe it or not, all the rim-busting potholes were actually filled in. Too bad that was a few months too late...View or post comments on my blog |
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| Stupidity |
[Apr. 17th, 2006|01:19 pm] |
Sorry for the leave of absence, but I've been dealing with lots of stupidity lately. First my own stupidity: Last week, for the first time in the ~10 years that I've had one, I lost my ATM card. In a foreign country no less. So I call up my bank to cancel the card and get a replacement, but after wading through the endless computer voice menu, I always get "Transferring your call. I am sorry your call could not be completed at this time." Grrr. So I go online, and try and contact the bank through their secure messaging feature. I get an email back that they can't help me, I need to call to verify information. After explaining that I've already wasted $15 trying to get through, and get hung up on by the computer every time, they finally give me the secret back door number. When I finally get to talk to a human, I get my card canceled without a problem, but getting the replacement proved to be a bit tougher. Since I am in a foreign country, they have to send the card via DHL/Fedex/etc. The problem with this is that the express carriers "don't deliver to PO Boxes." However, no one in St. Vincent has a physical address. All mail gets routed to PO Boxes, where people go pick it up. The supervisor didn't believe me, so it took a bit to convince her to send the card. I mean I have gotten stuff Fedex'ed to me before, trust me, it works, even with a PO box... So hopefully I should get the replacement card soon.
Next up in the endless parade of exams (ok, not really, it just feels that way) is the OSCE. It is occurring all week, but I have mine scheduled on Saturday, since the rest of the week I will be recertifying 300+ students in CPR. (And they might actually need to learn it this time, since there is a slight chance they might be performing CPR over the next two years in clinicals.) I am not too worried about the OSCE - from what I have heard almost no one ever fails, and last term the entire class got grades between 82.1% and 89.7%. (So really, what's the point, if everyone is getting a B?) Anyways, can't be too tough, considering we never had a class on one of the exam stations (prescription writing - I mean why are we getting tested on that anyways, as we won't actually be writing prescriptions for a few years...), and there was all of one hour on another exam station (EKG reading, and since I've been reading them for years, I've got a slight advantage, I guess...). Oh and there's the station where we have to do a complete history and physical exam in 7 minutes, including reporting results. They really can't be expecting anything but something completely superficial. (On a side note, isn't this close to the average length of doctor's appointments in the US?) :roll:View or post comments on my blog |
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