The Year in Review I

It's hard to sum up a whole year's worth of emotion, struggle, fear, and accomplishment, but I wanted to write something about finishing the first year of medical school. In some ways, I feel very comfortable in the setting of a classroom, multiple choice exams, and powerpoint presentations. After all, I've been in school for nearly the last two decades. It's an odd thought; school selects out people who are good at school, and whether that translates to being good at a particular profession, I'm not very convinced.

I am glad I'm here though. I love the material. Though I've found out exactly how much I can procrastinate, the human body and diseases are absolutely fascinating. While as an undergraduate, classes presented human diseases as interesting but extraneous applications of basic science, now I realize we know an amazing amount and yet exceedingly little about ourselves. My favorite topics are the more problem-solving ones (organ physiology, medicine) rather than visual (histology, anatomy, radiology) or memorization ones (pharmacology). I've really become fascinated by the process of differential diagnosis and clinical reasoning. And unsurprisingly, I've really liked learning about weird rare diseases. I can probably explain Brown-Sequard better than I can explain multiple sclerosis. Oops. How much do I retain? Hopefully enough.

I've really enjoyed the patient-oriented stuff we've had so far. I think I'm fairly okay at taking a history, though I'm quite hesitant on my ability to examine a patient. I can go through the motions, but I don't really have the experience to comment on what I find. When I think about it though, I am awed of the privileged position I have in the lives of patients and their illnesses. It probably goes along with the whole "noble tradition" and "hallowed profession" of medicine. Medical school is about building skills as well as learning information.