Monday, June 04, 2007

You know you're almost a fourth year medical student when...

- Your complete physical exam takes 0.5-2 minutes, and yes, "CN II-XII are grossly intact" despite everyone trying to knock that phrase out of you for three years.

- You still don't remember the difference between all those inherited immunodeficiencies or all those freaking rashes with fever.

- You bring beer with you on study nights.

- You have no idea what to do with all those index cards.

- You do not have the attention span for anything longer than a bullet point.

- You avoid the MS1s because their whining makes you violent.

- "High yield" is now too superfluous to be in your regular vocabulary.

- You avoid the soon-to-be MS3s because they trigger your PTSD.

- You are no longer ashamed - and have accepted the soulessness - of the fact that you are unable to hold a conversation about anything other than medicine.

- You avoid pre-meds because they send you down a spiraling existential crisis.

- You no longer have any reservations about "popping a pill" to feel better.

- You still can't see the fundus. This further fuels the nagging voice in your head that's been telling you for the last 3 years that you got into medical school by accident.

- You are so addicted to caffeine that you find yourself popping Excedrin just so that you can have enough energy to hike up a hill.

- You can sleep anywhere, anytime.

- When people complain about their 40 hour work week, you fake sympathy while having flashbacks of delirium-induced trips you experienced after your 30+ hour call days.

- You avoid interns because they remind you that you known nothing, have not yet really suffered, and have nothing to complain about.

2 comments:

The Lone Coyote said...

Great post. Tag this one for sure :)

Marcia said...

Yup - I do every single one of those things... okay, I think I'm going to go cry now :)