Review of Systems

Coda also reviewed key concepts in a number of fields. We got the best lecturers to come and speak to us one last time on topics from dermatology to emergency department complaints to intern-year neurology. The neurology session was especially fun because our beloved teachers acted out patient and intern interactions as we reviewed the approach to headache, stroke, weakness, and altered mental status. We revisited topics I still find confusing like acute renal failure, how to approach the geriatric patient, and transfusion medicine. As a medical student, I never needed to know the details of the risks of blood transfusion; next year, I'll be expected to get informed consent for such things. It was also my last chance to learn about something "for fun" in a field I'm not going into; I learned about obstetrical and gynecologic emergencies as well as transplant medicine from the department chair of surgery.

Starting in two weeks, I'll be learning primarily adult internal medicine. While that field is certainly vast, overwhelming, and intimidating enough, I realized from Coda that I've really been introduced to a lot in the last four years. We've looked at every organ system, every stage of life, every major specialty and many smaller ones as well. We started with dissecting a cadaver and progressed to assisting with surgeries in the operating room. We've learned the names and functions of dozens of genes and proteins, forgotten them, replaced that space with names of obscure diseases, and then subsequently forgotten about those as well. A lot of information has passed through my head. Hopefully some of it has stuck. But medical school is as undifferentiated as I will ever be; I learned things all doctors ought to know but which I will use very little in the future. What a weird feeling.