The best part about attending KCOM that I did not understand when I chose the school is the unique opportunity I have had to completely re-evaluate my future for my third and fourth year. By re-evaluate, I am talking about location, residency opportunities, teaching/learning styles and much more.

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The biggest decision for me was being able to choose between learning in a large hospital with residents everywhere who would be able to teach and/or intimidate me at their every whim, and a situation where I’d be one-on-one with a teaching physician, called a preceptorship. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. For me, I feel that I’ll grow faster and will be pushed harder if I am in a hospital-based learning situation rather than one-on-one with a physician. Plus, I didn’t like the possibility of getting a physician who wasn’t very good at teaching and as a result I’d lose out on pretty much an entire rotation.

We’ve already had our match and I’ll be going to Columbus, Ohio. My wife and I can’t wait! I’m excited about it because it is hospital-based, oozing with residency and fellowship opportunities, and from what we’ve heard an awesome place to live.

So where’s the curse, you might wonder. The curse is the brevity of the stay in Kirksville. Saying goodbye to our wonderful friends will be hard. Very hard. It’s those deep friendships that have spiced up our life while in medical school and now we have to start over again. We will miss our friends dearly and hope to keep those friendships for a very long time. No one can understand me and my wife more than the friends who have endured the same difficulties at the same time along with us.  We’ve needed to lean on each other as we’ve battled the rigors of medical school, while being miles and miles away from family.

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Leaving our Kirksville friends will be tough, but moving and starting rotations will be an exciting adventure!

I love to cook.  In fact I told Tam that if I hadn’t made up my mind in kindergarten that I wanted to become a doctor, I definitely would be a chef.  I’d probably be in culinary school right now learning the art of reductions and tartares. 

Saturday night I told Tam that I’d make dinner for us, since she is always the one doing the cooking.  She tries to have dinner ready when I get home from school each day but with two young kids, making dinner isn’t as easy as it might sound.  So I truly appreciate those meals!  Saturday was my chance to treat Tam.

I made one of our favorite meals, Cashew Curry.  I learned to make the curry recipe in Switzerland and have tweeked it here and there along the way to make it my own.  I love trying new recipes and I almost always have to add my own little touch with tweek here or a spike of Si Racha hot sauce there.  Sometimes when Tam is cooking she’ll have to threaten me to not touch the meal. “It’s perfect just as it is!” she’ll say.  She knows I’ll be tempted to throw in some sort of spice.

As I look back on my days as a medical student at ATSU, I find most joy in the memories made in between all the monotonous studying and test taking.  You have so much opportunity to spice up your experience as a medical student.  A friend of mine, a fellow 2nd year, is now an assistant coach for Truman State’s women’s volleyball team.  How cool is that?!  Some of my friends go help the Kirksville High School athletics as volunteer athletic trainers at their games.  I myself have enjoyed participation in the school’s student government as the 2nd VP.  Otherwise known as, “the guy in charge of clubs on campus”.  I have also loved the intramural program and the comraderie I have gained with my new found friends on the basketball court and football field. 

Just last week I was able to do something I had never before done in my life.  I jumped into a frozen lake!  ATSU put together a polar bear plunge team to help raise money for the Missouri Special Olympics.  I loved being a part of such an awesome event, and I especially loved the invigorating feeling of jumping into that freezing water!

The opportunities have been absolutely endless to spice up our otherwise stressful lives as medical students.  This weekend there was a wilderness campout, next week begins intramural basketball playoffs. The pediatric club is always serving at the elementary school with health screenings, no smoking campaigns, etc.  A group of my friends started a little handball league every other Friday afternoon.  If you haven’t played handball or haven’t even heard of it, you should check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34jN0AQp8Rk It has been a blast!

As president of the Latter-Day Saint Student Association on campus, student government 2nd VP, and a student ambassador I have kept very busy and extremely involved in the school and its many activities.  I feel that all of it has spiced up my medical school experience and given me an opportunity to get to know a wide variety of students and faculty. I have truly loved every minute of my time as a medical student.

My suggestion to an incoming medical student: Find the things you are passionate about and GET INVOLVED!  Don’t let the years of your medical school education pass you by because you felt you had no time.  Here’s a little secret…residencies care much more about your board scores and clinical grades than they do your 1st/2nd year grades.  That is of course along with your personality, work ethic, and what kind of “spice” you can add to their program.

FYI..

Table 2. Rankings of the Importance of Academic Selection Criteria From a National Survey of Residency Program Directors, 2006

Medical school is stressfull. Each test is stressfull.  The constant barrage of tests, quizzes, labs, and lectures beats down on you.  If you take a day off or even an hour or two you feel the weight of being behind and the stress continues to increase.

 As a test for a specific class nears, you might even triage your study time.  You might deem that the upcoming test in hematology/oncology is more important than the dermatology lecture going on at the same time.  So you dig yourself a hole in dermatology just to survive the next test in hematology/oncology.  Stress! Not only for the upcoming test, but because you know that you will need to bust your butt when the dermatology quiz comes around next week. 

Then there’s the BURDEN of the BOARDS.  It’s heavy.  Much worse than the MCAT. I mean, I’m trying to survive medical school at the same time! 

I’m always thinking that the next guy is preparing for the COMLEX better than myself.  If what’s-his-face has paid $99 to a board review website that sends out daily emails, I should be doing that too!  What about the board review flashcards that my OTM partner looks over in class…I’m totally missing out on that.  Or maybe I’m not studying in the USMLE First Aid book enough.  Should I be dedicating more time to the boards?  Aren’t my current classes preparing me for the them?  Was it a $500 mistake to sign up for the USMLE or will that help me get into a residency at the University of Utah and eventually lead me to where I want to be (practicing medicine in Utah)?  So many questions with even a wider variety of answers. 

The fire that is our normal curriculum is overwhelming enough.  Then dowse it with the gasoline of board review and preparation and I get a literal bon fire.  Add in the uncertainty of whether my personal approach will even be effective and I’ve got myself some very stressful times.

More often than not, I just go about my business studying for the next test and dabbling board review in between.  It’s easy to doubt myself when there’s no perfect way or golden book to study for the boards. 

I’ve just been noticing lately that whenever the boards come up in conversation or even by email, I get this automatic pit in my stomach.  It’ll even stay with me for the night and Tam will ask me what’s wrong.  There’s been times when I didn’t know what was wrong, but as I looked back at the previous hour or two I realized I had just read an email about studying for the boards.  I wasn’t being myself. I fell into the trap of comparing myself to my classmates and was left feeling inadequate. 

The board burden is alive and strong. 

Well, at least I have my weekly stress release of intramural basketball. I don’t know what I’d do without it!

It all started with a gorgeous afternoon of sledding in our backyard.  We have a hill that’s perfect for sledding with our kids.  So after over an hour of sledding, Tam and I decided to take our sledding adventure to another level.  There’s a huge dirt mound from construction near our house that was covered with snow.  I’d say that it’s about ten feet tall and very steep. 

I climbed to the top then successfully sled down the hill without any major injuries. Next it was Tam’s turn, her extreme sledding experience wasn’t as pleasant.  She was going just fine until she got to the bottom of the hill when she hit her tail bone on a big rock hiding under the snow. OUCH!

Being the husband/doctor-in-training that I am, I ran to her and tried to rub it to help calm done the pain.  OOPS!  That didn’t help the situation.  (Seriously, what was I thinking!)

Day after day, I’d ask her how her “tail-feather” was doing and she’d answer, concerned that it might be something serious, “It hasn’t gotten better at all”.  She’d then explain how playing with the kids or getting up from the floor would just kill.  She said that when she taught Turbo Kick (aerobics) she couldn’t go 100% because of the pain from her bruised tail bone.

After two weeks, I finally decided that I should try some osteopathic manipulation to see if that might help.  I don’t know why I didn’t try it earlier, I just thought it was a bruise and didn’t think manipulation would help.

I diagnosed her pelvis and saw that one hip was rotated further forward than the other.  I then diagnosed her sacrum and saw that it too was out of alignment.  I treated both those dysfunctions with muscle energy, a very common technique that we have learned to use for almost every joint and muscle in the body. 

Well, the next day when I walked in the door after a long day at school, I was first surprised by my little girl Preslee.  She loves to hide behind the door as I walk in and scare me.   She does it every single time I come home, never fail.  Then came Tam around the corner and she said, “You fixed it! I haven’t felt a thing since you treated me last night.  Watch!” She then did all sorts of dance moves and exclaimed, “It doesn’t hurt at all!”

Wow. It is one thing to learn day in and day out the billions of things we need to know about medicine. It is another to take what we’ve learned and make someone’s life better.

That day…I was a doctor.

The quickest way to get a feel for the culture of a town has got to be at the local demolition derby.  With my brother and his wife in town to visit over the summer, we couldn’t pass up the derby and all the food, fun, and games that come with a local fair.

I had a deep fried 3 course meal.  The appetizer was deep fried oreo, dinner was cajun fried chicken on a stick, and for dessert…funnel cake! It was beautiful! Preslee just loved all the kids rides, and she and Jonah thought the pigs were pretty cool. 

 We all loved the demolition derby!  It was almost as fun to see the variety of people that came, than it was to see a 14 year old out there smashing cars and even holding his own! If you haven’t been to a demolition derby, I highly recommend it.

Eventhough we have three tests this week and finals the week after, Tam and I have some exciting stuff coming up.  Friday night, the SAA (club for spouses of students) is offering free babysitting so KCOM students with kids can go have a night out on the town!  We’re going to get together with some friends for a game night.

  Then on Saturday, Regina Spektor is coming to Truman, the undergraduate university here in Kirksville! So we set up a babysitter for that night as well.  Once again, the school and even the town of Kirksville have provided some awesome opprtunities for us to have a good time and for me to find a release from the constant push of school.

Today I woke up at 5:30 am threw on my basketball shorts grabbed my bag and was out the door in 2o minutes. 

6am - I got to the school’s gym, laced the sneakers, and enjoyed a good hour of basketball. We play every Tuesday and Thursday morning, I LOVE IT!

7:00-ish am – After basketball, I quickly showered there at the gym changed and was in a student government meeting within 15 minutes. We talked about clubs, the disco skate night this saturday that I definitely plan on attending, curriculum, and scheduling issues that are a big concern among our peers at the moment.

8am - Class starts with our first lecture in Pharm. I liked the lecture and am excited for that course.

8am-11pm - Pharm, Neuroscience, and OTM fill up my morning schedule. 

11pm - I decided to go home instead of stay for the Infectious Diseases class for two reasons.  One, I feel that I can effectively listen to that specific professor’s lectures online and get just as much out of it as I do when I’m in class.    Two, I was missing my wife and kids and just wanted a little break.

So, I went home had an early lunch and killed a spider via the classic WD-40 flame-thrower maneuver.  You know… take a match and spray it with the WD-40 and VOILA, you’ve got an instant death machine for insects invading your territory!  The spider had setup camp right in front of our garage door, it was completely self-defense.

Noon - Interview Day Tour Training – As an ambassador I will have the opportunity to give tours to the perspective students who come to interview.  Today they showed us the route and gave us tons of interesting factoids about our school.   For example, 80 miles of fiberoptic wiring was used to make the new multi-million dollar building on campus completely wireless.

1-4 pm- more class. Infectious Diseases, Pathology, and Principles of Medicine. The lectures take on a little bit of a different feel now that we’re having more and more physicians as lecturers.

4 pm – TENNIS INTRAMURALS! I love our intramural program here. I had no idea that we’d have enough people interested to put together football, basketball, volleyball, soccer, racquetball, ultimate frisbee, tennis and more.  My match was close but I was able to eake out a win! Tennis is at its best when you are able to find someone who is at your exact same level or even a little above you.  That was definitely the case today.

530 – 7 pm - I got home and played with my family: Tamara (beautiful wife), Preslee (cute 2 1/2 year old little girl), and Jonah (8 month old stud).

7 pm – My wife left for an SAA meeting. The SAA is the club for the spouses of the medical students. It’s an incredible club that creates a great support group and opportunity for the spouses to meet other people in their exact same situation.

7-8 pm – I played with Preslee and put her to bed.  That might sound like a quick and easy thing to do, but you wouldn’t believe the list of things that need to happen each night for a successful bedtime.

Snacks, brush teeth, read stories, make sure all the appropriate stuffed animals are on her bed, pray, read more stories, explain to her that she doesn’t need a third snack for the night, water bottle for her bedside for when she’s thirsty, kisses and hugs.  That’s our recipe for a perfect night.

830-930 pm - I play on the computer checking emails, facebook, and type this post.  Tamara gets home from her meeting, she helped with refreshments and I think they were a hit.

930 pm-’til I fall asleep at the computer - I study.