Melissa's Bio

Melissa's Diary

You may have thought that I dropped off the face of the earth, but I was only enjoying my summer. I think that I used my one summer off well, so let me tell you about it.

My study partner successfully worked out the ER shadowing and I managed to get in on it, too. I went in during the night (often 7 pm to 7 am) on whatever days I chose. I worked about 180 hours over the entire summer, so I got a decent amount of time but was still able to be “off” most of the time. The best part is that I was doing this as work-study, so I actually made a little bit of money, too.

There were always residents, interns, and 4th-year medical students there ready to show me the ropes. They basically treated me as a 4th-year which was great because I was able to do tons of histories and physicals and I was taught how to start IVs, draw blood gases, stitch, staple, inject, etc. The residents often asked me questions about drugs of choice or some technical question about a disease process and I would have to remind them that I only had one year of medical school under my belt and had not yet taken pharmacology or pathology. I learned a lot, though, from all of the patient exposure & from everything that the attendings, residents, interns, and 4th-years taught me. It was all a wonderful experience! Here’s a sampling of the cases I saw:

• A 13 year-old boy who ran into a barbed wire fence while riding on a 3 wheeler…lots of stitches, but otherwise okay.
• A 30 year-old who had been shot in the head. He died 2 days later.
• A 10 year-old who was bitten on the foot by a copperhead. The family caught the snake, put it in a jar, and brought it (alive) to the ER!!
• A 13 year-old girl who had a badly infected ear cartilage piercing (it was the size of a golf ball!!). The infection had eaten through most of her cartilage & the ear had to be incised and drained by an ENT resident.
• An elderly woman in full cardiac arrest from a nearby small town brought by the town’s volunteer EMTs. These EMTs had known her their whole lives (she and her husband had owned a local restaurant).
• An adolescent boy with multiple significant mental and physical disabilities whose femur had been broken while he was under nursing home care. The nursing home claimed to not know what had happened, but this particular fracture had to have been caused from a twisting motion, not a fall.
• A 50 year-old who attempted suicide by cutting his wrists. He was a very nice, but very depressed, man.
• A 30 year-old man who had a bug in his ear. It had flown straight in while he was outside & we had to pull it out.
• Lots of basic medical cases: earaches, abdominal pain, chest pain, fevers …and tons of stitches.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the ER and still have Emergency Medicine at the top of my specialties of interest list. I hope to be able to spend at least a little time there during the semester.

I was glad to be able to spend a lot of time with my family. My daughter and I were out of town for literally half of the summer: she and I went to visit her best friend (who lives in another state) and we went to California to visit my extended family. My husband was able to join us to visit his parents and for a family vacation to Florida. Our trip to Florida was with some friends of ours, and it was so nice to take some time to completely relax. My daughter had fun playing in the sand & waves, my husband managed to fit in some golf, & I was content to read on the beach. When we’ve been in town, much of our time has been spent at the neighborhood pool.

Somehow, early in the summer I managed to hurt my wrist. I didn’t do anything that I know of, but it has been quite painful & I cannot use it properly. Fortunately it is my non-dominant hand, but it is a nuisance, nonetheless. I’ve gone from wrapping it to splinting it to steroids, but no improvement. The thought has been some type of tendonitis, but we’ve ruled out fracture just to be thorough. Seeing as school is beginning and I need to be able to use my wrist/hand, I’ve been a good and compliant patient. Now I’m being sent to a hand specialist to determine what is wrong. Hopefully we can get this cleared up before too long!

I have spent the last few weeks of my summer being a “normal” person and trying to get ready for the upcoming semester. Chores that have been put off for too long, like cleaning out closets, are getting checked off my mental to-do list. My freezer is nearly full of food for the coming semester. I’ve also been getting ready for our contractor to start remodeling our kitchen (like I need more chaos in my life!!). That should begin in about a month…in the meantime I’ve been selecting new counters, floor, oven, etc.

This past week I helped out some with orientation for the new MS1s at my school. It has been fun to meet new students, & it’s hard to believe that I was in their nervous shoes just 1 year ago. Its odd to think that my classmates & I are now the resident “experts” on campus!

I’m looking forward to all of the clinically related courses that I’ll take this year. The courses for the fall semester are pathology, pharmacology, psychiatry, clinical problem solving, health promotion/disease prevention (known around campus as “Hippy Dippy”), multicultural health, clinical skills, and osteopathic manipulative medicine. The biggie course for the year is pathology. We’re quite fortunate to be taught path by “board review guru,” Dr. Goljan. He’s already given us a couple of weeks worth of notes packets and reading assignments, which he has all very well organized for us. I’ll give more information on the classes as I get into them.

So, basically that is where things stand now. I’m off to finish some more things off of my to do-list!!

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*Some names have been changed.