Today’s inane image of the day:
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| I decided to spice up my mornings a bit with a new concoction… plain oatmeal, a tsp of brown sugar and a banana! Mmmm carbs… |
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| This [BLS = Basic Life Support] is what we did for 4 hours on Thursday on the top level of Central Tower [Royal Oak Beaumont]. It was so tiring… |
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| I am now BLS certified! [This is obviously not me doing compressions… but one of my readers may recognize her husband’s hands!] |
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| We also know how to properly do compressions in a 1-person or 2-person team for infants! |
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| So that we can avoid direct contact with our test subjects… |
I kind of wished that we had been given the BLS training manual prior to the start of the course since I was a bit surprised by some of the questions in the written section of the test, but I passed so it doesn’t matter.
This week was the first time I visited the 5th floor of O’Dowd [which is where a number of faculty and staff offices are located] — I went on Friday, which was another one of those dark, rainy, brisk fall days. While I was waiting for the elevators, I couldn’t help but notice how comforting our campus looks from up there, so I took a picture:
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| Sorry you can see the reflection of the elevators in the glass… but since there wasn’t much sunlight, I couldn’t really avoid it. |
By the time Friday rolled around, I was getting excited to visit Ann Arbor the following day. This weekend is an important one for the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering because of the SWE/TBP Career Fair. Over 300 companies are convening on North Campus to recruit students for internships and full-time positions… it’s quite a spectacle. I’ll try to dig up a picture from last year to show you guys.
Anyway, first thing in the morning I headed to Panera to see 1/2 of my old SWE Executive Board, following that I headed to Sweetwaters Cafe to see one of my Senior Design group members. Finally, I ended the evening over dinner with one of my best friends.
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| Mmmm frothy goodness… |
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| My friend’s hot chocolate knocked my cappuccino over in presentation… for sure. |
Although I just moved out of Ann Arbor at the end of July, it felt like I was visiting a city that I left years ago. This was probably due to the fact that mostly everyone I knew while I lived there has moved on to do other things with their lives [jobs, graduate schools, etc.], but for this one weekend, most of my favorite people convened in this quaint part of Michigan. It was weird to hear about how my engineering friends work 8am-5pm jobs and are making… well, a living. Myself and my friends who elected to do a PhD are stuck in the world of academia — while progress is made, it’s tedious and slow. Not to say that medical school is slow-paced, but the training process most definitely is. How many people do you know elect to spend 7-12 years of just training for a job?
One of the questions I asked my friends who were working full-time was if they thought that they had selected the right position, I got two different responses: “I don’t even notice time is passing — I love this job so much!” and “Well, it’s still early… there are definitely things I love and things I’m not so excited about.” Happily, none of my friends reported that they were miserable. When they asked the question of me, I reflexively responded, “I’m finally able to do the thing I’ve been working for since my earliest memory and it has been amazing.”
Even though there have been rough patches during these last 6 weeks, I haven’t lost the desire to be a physician. In fact, I see the times that I struggle and stumble as lessons to learn from. I recognize that I am surrounded by incredible people. I feel honored to be learning all of this material from enthusiastic faculty and staff that just want to see us succeed.
Anyway, despite realizing that life isn’t all that bad [weekends tend to help with recharging!], I still need to study [you’ll probably guess what I’ll be studying from the following…].
Today’s medical school fact of the day: Cubital fossa = depression in front of the elbow [from Dr. Bee’s Bare Bones text].
I had Dr. Tracey-Bee at WSU-SOM and she was fantastic! Great prof!