Week 4: So it Begins… With Camels?

Well you could call this the week that medical school really started. At the end of this first week it already feels like we've been in school for years, yet at the same time I still feel that I know little about anything at all, including the genetics and genomics, and the microscopy anatomy (histology) and cell biology that we are currently studying. Granted they only really are two courses but the two hundred or so pages that we've gone through have seemingly gone in one ear and out the other - I need someone to get me a cork to retain it all.

I thought Genetics and Genomics would be review from a course I took in college in 2003. Apparently four years has been eons in the genetics world though as the definitions and topics that I learned previously have been superseded by new developments and new breakthroughs.

Histology has been brand new territory for me, new territory charted with volumes of outlines on the simplest things of the cell. We haven't even really started delving into slides yet and it's already intimidating but I think I'll survive.

Perhaps the most fun moment of the week was my experience in Intro to the Patient, a course running through the greater part of the year alongside our didactic blocks. We learned how to do our first medical histories and practiced on standardized patients.

I was unfortunate enough to get "Doug", a 50 year old Rochester native who I found hurt his shoulder after falling off "the camel" at the state fair. Not knowing if "the camel" was a ride or attraction of some sorts I (stupidly) asked him what the camel was. He stared at me blankly blinking for ten seconds and finally gave me a description of a camel including some mention of its dromedary classification and natural habitant (lesson learned, don't ask "what is" questions when you're supposed to look like an authoritative figure)

"Doug" was also a chain smoker which was a curveball that was thrown at me, upon which I had to improvise how to suggest to him why quitting smoking was a good idea. Luckily the interview was done in closed circuit TV was all recorded onto a nice little VHS that no one will ever see. Maybe one day I'll look back and laugh on it: my first medical interview which I've appropriately labeled: "The Camel Interview."