mcat2

I do not have to sow a seed. The one I planted in him more than 20 years ago (i.e., genes) is already good enough for him to keep a safe distance from that automatically.

The topic of our conversation recently is a softer one: relationship between boys and girls.

WayOutWestMom

LOL! our last topic of conversation was something along the line of "I just pulled the fracking dead battery out of my car and replaced it, and now it won't recognize the new electronic key I had made in August after I lost my keys off the Knife's Edge. I hate my car."

kristin5792

Today, me and mom talked about how much cinnamon to put in an apple pie, and also whether it would be acceptable to bake both an apple pie and a chicken pot pie at the same time. Of course both are homemade.

And the answers are: a few shakes of cinnamon, indeed they can be baked together.

bookiemom

This is good, Kristin. It shows you are maintaining a well-rounded life. (Philosophically, not physically!)
Med school + homemade food = happier med student

bookiemom

Update on away rotation: My 4th-year D is in 3rd week of away rotation in surgery. She worked 16 hours yesterday. Then she walked home to her housing a couple of blocks away from the hospital. She only has snack foods at her room there, eats breakfast and lunch at the hospital. She has to be there at 5 AM to round with the residents. (This is the norm for general surgery.) No washer and dryer in the house. Students had to bring their own bedding and towels so no way to wash anything. Good thing she only signed up for one of these away.

She also had one day when she worked 5 AM to 7 AM the next morning. Then was able to go to her room (walking back after that!) and sleep 10 hours.

eadad

bookiemom

Let her know that what she is seeing/doing is what the next 5-8 years will really be like. S who is in his first year of his gen surg residency is doing SICU this month and it's the first time since he started in July that he hasn't been putting in 16+ hour days every day.

WayOutWestMom

Here's a handy guide for choosing a medical specialty:

<insert tongue firmly in cheek>

Medical School for Beginners

D1 showed this to me tonight at night--and I LMAO!

(BTW, this was first published in the British Medical Journal in 2005 by Boris Veysman. Unfortunately I don't have a subscription to the BMJ to provide access via the original link.)

GA2012MOM

My daughter says according to that, depending on the day she is either surgery or derm. What the h***, my sweet DD must have a dark side that I don't know of.

WayOutWestMom

And my kiddo said she was able to find her specialty in just 2 steps.

Hers starts at "crazy".

bookiemom

Residency interview update: My D had her 2nd interview today, at the hospital associated with her med school where she has done most of her rotations. The interview went great--even better than she had hoped for! We are so excited! What a relief that it went well. Just wanted to tell some other parents who appreciate how hard this all is.

WayOutWestMom

Great news, bookiemom!

D1 assisted at her first surgery yesterday. She did retraction and got to close the patient. (Which surprised the heck out of me! She's only a second year.) D1 said the surgery ran into multiple complications and went 3 hours over it's anticipated length. I didn't get any gory (literally) details out of her because we were out at a swanky restaurant with an OOS guest who D1 thought would be grossed out by too much medical talk.

mcat2

For MS2s, Step-1 is on the horizon, less than 6 months away. Is it about the time to get started on this? It seems DS purchased something related to this online, but I have no idea about what it is.

During the holiday, one of the parents in this family visited DS, who kindly took her to NYC. It appears he has learned how to get around using train (those shiny M8 train cars are nice) and subways. He also rented a car and drove around in order to "polish" his driving skills on the more crowded freeway in the northeast. Likely not ready to drive in NYC any time soon though. I think he may need to change his driver license to the new state before he needs to drive on a regular basis in clinical years (i.e., when owning his own car.) He also shadowed some doctor in one day.

WayOutWestMom

Actually for D1, her Step 1 is considerably closer. Her school has a compressed second year and requires all students to take the Step 1 in February. D1 is already registered for an exam date/location and began studying months ago. Her school opened [free] access to QBank last April and Kaplan review materials in August. There's also a free Kaplan prep class in January.

D1 starts clinicals April 1st. (How appropriate!) Yikes!

She's already picked out the order of her rotations. She's front-loading EM and surgery--her strongest interests-- so she can arrange for external rotations for 4th year.

kristin5792

^Jealous of the free materials! I (literally, 5min ago) just dropped $149.40 on 3,000 QBank questions from Kaplan. I think we have a meeting with the dean about test dates tomorrow at lunch. Knowing me, I'll just pick one and make it work (probably 3rd week of May, a week or so after finals and still leaving enough time to go on vacation before 3rd year starts). Not looking forward to these next few months. Grrr.

School picks order of rotations for us. One less thing to think about, I guess!

somemom

Nothing is free, it is just already included in tuition!