Noblest then...Noblest now, and Noblest Forever will be...

Saw this on of our transcriptions, i dont really know who wrote it though.

SURVIVING YOUR FIRST YEAR IN MEDICINE: tips and motivation

So. I survived my first year in Medicine.

http://www.wallpapersshop.net/wallpaper/this-is-sparta-300-king-leonidas-warrior-sword-shout-rage/

I was merely a few days away from freedom, and the final week was just pure torture. Everybody was feeling it, everyone was tired, sleepy, cranky, and just ready to get the exams over and done with. I wouldnt be surprised if a lot just kinda gave up on trying to finish reviewing everything, because, honestly, everyone seemed too tired to care.

BUT, we were always reminded, "ONE.LAST.PUSH."

One last push, and then summer vacation.
One last push, and you could burn all your reviewers and dance for joy.
One last push, and then you could sleep and eat as much as you wanted.

I was lucky though, I was exempted from several of the final exams, and it was such a relief that I didnt have to review all that bull-- and just relax at home.

I salute those who are still going to take the final exams and even removals. I seriously dont know how they hve the willpower to study all those topics all over again.

Honestly, I think that those who took the finals and removals have a headstart for the 2nd year, meaning, they have experienced the failures necessary to make them stronger and sturdier for the upcoming years.
I'm happy that I didn't fail any of the major exams in any subject this year, but I'm terrified about the upcoming failures I will be experiencing in the following years.

I don't know how to cope with failure. The one time that I "thought" I failed in an exam (I learned later on that I passed since they lowered the passing rate), I reacted like an immature piece of (expletive). I was depressed for several days, I was always thinking about how I would tell this to my parents, I thought how stupid was I to fail an exam?

I know, it seems a bit extreme for one exam, but Im just describing how terribly ill adapted I was to failure.

Looking back on the past year, I think I could have handled certain situations a lot better, especially in my academic life... so here are a few tips and words of wisdom to remember in surviving your first year:


1. In situations where you fail, remember this...you are not stupid, you are just adjusting.

from soulhunting.tumblr.com

This is Medicine. This isnt like your elementary/highschool/ college years where you could sleep, eat, poop normally, study for an exama night before and pass. There will be classmates who are smarter than you. They will ace every exam, every subject, they will UNDERSTAND EVERY WORD THE DOCTOR/LECTURER WILL SAY DURING LECTURES ( this is an astounding feat...), in all aspects, they are the ones who Darwin described when talking about survival.

BUT, then there is the rest of the class. Try talking to them. You will not be alone in your struggles. Take the time to look around and see that not everyone is doing so good in class. They may be honor students, summa cum laudes at their school, the math whiz, the top notcher in the Nursing/ PT/ RT/ OT/ Pharma boards.

Remember, this is Medicine. What matters is how YOU answer the challenge.
In the end, its just YOU who will be facing the patient.
It will be YOU handling the situation when you come face to face with a dying patient.

http://pinterest.com/pin/247557310737728706/

Do what you have to to survive (except cheat, and other dishonorable means) in Medicine. Challenge yourself. Stop comparing.


2.Study when you have the free time.

Believe me when I say this. If the exam is a week away and you have a free day/ ISP (individual study period)/ weekend---study. One night--even one day--is not enough to cover all the topics you need to study for the upcoming exam.

http://media-cache-ak1.pinimg.com/550x/71/a1/37/71a13761fdcc0dc0192bc982f1625025.jpg

3. When faced with setbacks (take note...setbacks, not failures):

http://pinterest.com/pin/247557310736795482/

4. Within your first few months, try to find out your most efficient study habits.

http://edufastonline.blogspot.com/2012/09/your-learning-preference.html

Know whether you best retain info by reading, listening to lectures, studying while moving around, etc.

If you dont know, try experimenting in your first few months. After a few exams, you'll finally settle into your natural academic groove for studying.

5. Don't be afraid to FAIL.

I've yet to successfully pick up on this, and one I'm hoping I can conquer this coming 2nd year in Medicine. If you've already covered this one, good for you. Hahahahaha

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. 

Medicine is like Jigsaw in the SAW movie, you never know what you're getting into, or what you have to exchange for freedom/ success/ a passing grade. 

I wanna play a game...its called....STUDYING. 

2nd Week of Med

SUBJECTS OF THE WEEK: Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Community Medicine


From now on, I'm just remembering the week based on the subjects for the week. Why? Because everything else seems like a blur, and the only way I can remember events is when I associate them with the mind-boggling, overwhelming, and at times, depressing lectures--just like the ones we had this week.


First off, June 13 was the first day of classes for the rest of the courses in HSI (PT, OT, Nursing, Rad Tech) and we all met up at the Animo Center for the Opening Ceremonies. The place was awesomely decorated, taking on a carnival theme, balloons were everywhere!

They hired stiltsmen (dunno if this is a correct term for the entertainer, hahahaha) and a mascot too!

Cavite's symphony band came in through the middle aisle playing Michael Jackson's Thriller with the entertainers dancing to the beat, and then the finalists for the Talentadong Pinoy show (pretty much like America's X Factor or something) performed for an hour. 

People were cheering loudly, and just high as hell (hahahaha) and the performances moved on to the different dance groups of each college. 

By lunchtime, they ended the opening ceremonies and we were free to go...study. :)) 

The day before, it was Labor day i think, I didn't go home, I just decided to stay at the dorm to make up for the lack of knowledge in Biochemistry. Spent the whole half of the morning studying basic/highschool chemistry using my brother's book. Yup, if you have your old highschool chemistry book, I recommend  you use it. It really does help you a lot especially with the bonds (ionic, covalent), the hydrocarbons, structures of the functional groups, etc. The second half of the day, I spent on review for Organic Chemistry. Our Doctor-lecturer advised us to backtrack on orgchem so Biochem can come a little bit easier for us. 

So for the next 6 hours, in between mini breaks on FB, I studied orgchem. I did this at HSI's student center, located at the old med building. Its a small room furnished with study tables, benches, a small sink (for those who study there overnight), and airconditioned. Its open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and is open only for Med students. This was a lifesaver for me since the dorm is full of temptations (food, bed, tv), and it was stuffy and hot, so going to the Student Center was pure heaven. Not to mention that you can charge your laptop and cellphones there and wifi! woot! woot! The connection there is pretty fast, so the only con in studying there is the unlimited access to the internet.

http://www.dlshsi.edu.ph/Gallery/MED/images/IMG_3379_jpg.jpg

For the internet connection, you have to have your devices configured by the school's IT staff located at the ground floor of the Angelo King Building. You are only limited to 2 devices, so I had my smartphone and laptop configured. 

Anywho, I spent the next few hours in the student center and got to meet upper classmen, and honestly, I was thinking--these guys are invincible. They passed the first year. HAHAHAHAHA

They were absolutely friendly, and gave me tips on how to study for certain exams. For example, in Biochemistry, the questions are pretty straightforward so all you need to do is remember structures and functions. In Physiology, it helps to read it AT LEAST two times so you can understand the processes. 

But the usual advice is: STUDY STUDY STUDY. No matter what subject it may be, you MUST MUST MUST STUDY. and READ a lot. In Med, you can;t just stick to one book and expect everything to be there. For the doctors, they usually use 2-3 references for their presentations/lectures. And, if you can (and you should), read all the books. 

So Biochemistry down, we have, drum roll please... ANATOMY.

This subject really depresses me. Results for the first two quizzes came out, and surprise surprise. I failed both of them by a measly one point (7/10). Its frustrating when you studied your ass of the week before, and boom, you still fail. But, as the professors and upperclassmen advised, try to accumulate as many extra points as you can to make up for the failures. They're pretty generous with it, but the failures are overwhelmingly strong in this subject.

We had our laboratory period in the Old Med building, and looked at the cells found in different parts of the body.

We looked at cells from the spinal cord, blood smear, compact bone, and liver. Each student had their own microscope and set of slides.

The last time I used the microscope was in highschool, and using one again, and more extensively, was pretty fun. 

Physiology was the same, and the topics were already merging with the ones in Histology and Biochemistry. Well, of course, they're supposed to be interrelated, but you'd never expect it to just blend in perfectly unlike the way of teaching in highschool and college where each subject is boxed seperately with little to no connection bridging them together. 

This week was tiring, but still gotta push. This is just the second week. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH/

De La Salle Health Sciences Institute Pictures

Ok, I know I'm kind of delayed in posting info about La Salle, but better late than never!
Got this from the PinoyMd website, care of @jcskie. :)
Flickr Photos of DLSHSI

This is the back entrance of the hospital. This leads to the canteen, the Wang Building, the Animo Center, the new library and New Med Building.

 The Wang Building, where most of the allied health courses are, as well as the admissions office, registrar's, school clinic, and other rooms are located. behind this is Dormbuilt.

 This is the park/open area behind the hospital and leads to the chapel and Wang Building.

Hallway of the Old Med Building, where most of the 2nd- 4th year med students take their classes. For the new batch, they will have most of their classes in the New Med Building. Woot! Woot!

 Inside view of the Wang Building.

Outside of the school, Congressional Road.

Wang Building again.

The cute Bahay Kubo near the canteen located on the way to Wang. They like to call this eatery as the Cadaver Canteen since its located near the Anatomy lab. :)) But their food tastes great and 100% free of human flesh. nomnomnom.

Tadaaaaaa! The new rooms located in the new Med Building!

For more information on DLSHSI, you can visit their site at http://www.dlshsi.edu.ph/index.php.

http://www.dlshsi.edu.ph/index.php

Updated: MED BOOKS and Download Links

Hey guys, sorry, had to delete the links, someone was informing me that they'd have me blocked if I didnt take it down. Oh well. :))

Just try searching the net for the books, there are always good torrent sites and file sharing sites like 4shared.com. :) 

To Study or Not to Study Before Med School?

To study or not to study. That is the question.

This came to mind when the last few weeks of freedom before med school started weighing in on my mind. And I was kind of worried. why?

Well, during enrollment, I was standing in line at the registrar's office and a bunch of teens were lined up as well as talking really loud.

One remarked, "OMG! You're 20 already??? You're sooooo old!"

And my reaction was...

And thats when I kind of panicked.

These  "kids" were in tip top shape. They just graduated from college, so their brains were in excellent condition to get beat up by a lot of medical topics and whatnot. PLUS, they graduated from courses that could actually help them with Medicine.

(Old versus young brain:)

Me? I graduated from a course that focused more of Psychology, Socio, and Anthropology. Its an excellent course, and I loved every minute of it, and it was a great help when I worked for 2 years. But for Med? Its an entirely different story.

Last November, I went to different med schools and had my transcript assessed for additional units I may need to accomplish. Med schools like Ateneo, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, and San Beda required a certain number of units in Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Anatomy, Physiology, Inorganic Chemistry, and natural sciences. So that was around 16-20 units that I needed to take up if I wanted to get into the different schools.

And, as I wrote in my previous post, I didnt take up the extra units because of the Php 70,000.00 price tag on them.

So what chance do I have to compete in the killer world of Med where my classmates are young, fresh, and ready to kick some academic ass? I had a slim chance. But I could take some steps to prepare myself a bit...like study.

So, should I study the hard subjects in advance? Or just leave it to chance, and hope that in my first year of med, we would all start off  at a leveled playing field?

I asked several doctors about this, and they said that, even though the new graduates have an evident advantage, oldies, or late bloomers like me, have the advantage of being rested, and motivated.

Fresh grads are sometimes at risk of burn outs since they had just 1 or 2 months to rest, plus, like all normal human beings, within the span of 1 or 2 months, they can forget about 80% of what they studied that year.

Good point doc. I mean, every year I went in college, I usually forgot what I studied last sem and had to review them again.

Right now, I guess I'll just enjoy the time I have left, and just study my ass off when the time comes.

Med Books...Y U SO EXPENSIVE?!

UPDATES: hahahaha, instead of buying them brand new, you can buy them from the upper years, a lot of my classmates are selling their old books. :) 

you can also trysearching on sulit.com.ph for 2nd hand med books, i bought some of them online too, reliable rin yung mga sellers doon. :)

The book alikes are pretty expensive now that i think about it. And from my personal experience. Dont buy all the books just yet. Try to borrow books first and see which ones you like or are more fitting.

P.s. check my other post regarding which med books are usually used during your first year here. :)  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I enrolled last week, and going through several of the buildings, I found myself in the basement of the research center, where a spritely woman was selling our med books.

She handed me a piece of paper with all the books listed on it, with corresponding prices and discounted prices.

Hmmmm. Short list. Not bad. 

Miss..how much all in all?

Wait a moment, I'll just compute it all. Dont worry dear, its all the books for the whole year.

Uh oh. The woman, even though she hadn;t computed it all yet, was already trying to justify the price...

Php 23, 600.00 lang po. 

Poker face. 

Ah, ok po, thank you. I'll come back during start of classes to buy the books. 

Not. I was shocked with the prices. Well, in all fairness, there were like, 10 books, so around 2k each. But I've never bought that many books that totaled that amount, ever. 

So I decided to poke around the internet, look for ebooks, or at least, 2nd hand books that could soften the destructive force that these books would create on my parents wallet. 90% of the books could be downloaded within the day. The other 10%, niet. 

Common sites like 4shared.com, Demonoid.me, and Torrentz.eu were pretty good at finding these little suckers. You can also try typing "download free med books" and a hundred or so sites would just pop up, and provide you with links to several useful med books. 

With torrent sites, you can just type med books, and several torrents are there for downloading. single books are at 20-100mb in size only, while others, the really good ones, are bundled up with about a hundred or so other medical books that are really useful like USMLE lectures, notes, colored atlases, pdfs, and other tidbits.

I found one seller on sulit.com.ph that sold black and white, photocopied versions of the book. at nearly half the price or so. Although its not advisable for some books like colored atlases for anatomy, physio, and neuro, its still a pretty good deal for other books that you just need to read. 

In sulit, they describe it as:

What's a BOOK ALIKE?

♥ Photocopied medical books, hard-bound, covered like the original one BUT are a lot cheaper.

You can read more about them here.

1ST YEAR BOOKS
	VOLUMES	PRICE
Devlin's Textbook of Biochemistry (7th ed)	1	P1520
Harper's Illustrated Biochemistry (28th ed)	1	P1210
Berne & Levy's Physiology (6th ed)	1	P1250
Langman's Madical Embryology (11th ed)	1	P930
Snell's Clinical Neuroanatomy (7th ed)	1	P1050
Moore's Clinical Oriented Anatomy (6th ed)	1	P1460
2ND YEAR BOOKS
	VOLUMES	PRICE
Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Diseases (8th ed)	2	P2350
Basic and Clinical Pharmacology - Katzung (11th ed)	1	P1500
Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine (18th ed)	3	P4460
Bates' Guide to Physical Examination and History Taking (10th ed)	1	P1350
Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry (10th ed)	1	P1680
Jawetz Medical Microbiology (25th ed)	1	P1250
Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics (18th ed)	2	P3540
Schwartz's Principles of Surgery (9th ed)	2	P2620
Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics (12th ed)	2	P2770
POCKET GUIDES/ COMPANIONS/ “BABY” BOOKS
	PRICE
Pocket Companion to Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology (11th ed)	P700
BRS Physiology	P450
Schwartz Manual of Surgery	P1300
Robbins and Cotran's Pathology Pocket Guide( 7th ed, with markings from original book)	P700
Harrison's Manual of Internal Medicine 17th ed  (2vols)	P700
Sabiston Textbook of Surgery Pocket Companion	P1000
Kaplan and Sadock's Pocket Handbook of Clinical Psychiatry (5th ed)	P950

Compare the book alike prices with this:

Not bad for some, right? I was thinking of different options rather than just buying them all from school since they were all sooooo expensive. 

And so I decided to buy the important ones (as upper classmen advised, the books that are important, are the ones you will need when you review for the boards). so out of the 12 books there, I just plan on buying 6 or 7 of them, and, since I have the ebook versions of the others, I just plan on buying a lot of paper, some black and colored ink, and voila! print my own textbook. 

Why not do it for all the books? Well, it would be a b*tch to just print 1,000 pages. And especially if they;re colored with super detailed drawings of the human body, I cant afford to have fuzzy images mess up with my studying. 

So I plan to print 4 or 5 of the books, chapter by chapter, going with the flow of teaching at school, instead of printing them all in one day. From Php23,600, I whittled it down to Php 14,000. I already have the super fast printer, all I need is the ink, and ink just costs about 350-400 bucks a cartridge. Thank youuuuu HP for being so sturdy and cheap. 

How about you guys?

HELPFUL LINKS/ BLOGS for ASPIRING DOCTORS/ MDs

Just stumbled upon a few blogs recently, and hope this helps:

1. CHOOSING MED SCHOOLS IN THE PHILIPPINES: http://auraazarcon.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/guide-to-med-school-application-in-the-philippines/
~ Very comprehensive, fast facts, overall view of majority of the Med Schools here in the Philippines. Provides NMAT Cut offs, application procedures, tuition fees, address, and standing in the Physician's Licensure. Includes the following schools:

1. Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health
2. De La Salle Health Sciences Institute College of Medicine
3. Far Eastern University Nicanor Reyes Medical Foundation
4. Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila
5. St. Luke’s William H. Quasha Memorial College of Medicine
6. University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center
7. University of the Philippines College of Medicine
8. University of Sto. Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery

2. BECOMING AN MD
http://starlightwantstowrite.blogspot.com/
~ Detailed, organized, and provides you with a lot of info on the step by step process in becoming an MD starting from your undergraduate course/ pre-med course, Med proper, internship, etc. She also has links to Medical books that are frequently used during your first year in Med.
http://starlightwantstowrite.blogspot.com/2012/04/medical-books-for-1st-year.html

3. PINOYMD.COM or PINOYMD.NET ~ http://pinoy.md/ipb or http://pinoymd.net

4. Here are some of the books that you can download from the internet also. :)

http://hopingtobeapinoymedstudent.blogspot.com/2012/05/med-books-and-where-to-find-them.html

NMAT? Done. Passing Requirements? Done. Med School? Uhhhh...

Well, this will be the first time that I would be writing about my journey into Med School here in the Philippines. Yes, I do specificy that my current location is in the Philippines because I had a damn hard time trying to look for really helpful sites about taking up Medicine and schools here. Hahahaha.

Anyways, for all you aspiring med students, here's a really, truly, helpful site for you to check on if you want to know about which schools to apply to, tips on the NMAT, 2nd level med exams in other schools such as the MCAT, and whatnot.

Pinoy MD, http://pinoy.md/ipb/ is a really awesome and educational site. Nearly 60% of my decisions were based on my interactions with students and doctors on this site. I think by the end of this month, they'll be moving their site to http://pinoymd.net/.

Anyways, I had to go through a lot of hell before I made up my mind to take up Medicine. I was employed, and it was nearing my regularization period when my mom suddenly offered to let me study for Medicine. God knows, how happy I was to hear that. Eversince I was a kid, I wanted to become a doctor, but during graduation, my parents hinted that I should just work since I had two other siblings who were studying still.

I let it go, and worked for 2 years, and then BOOM! My mom suddenly asked if I still wanted to become a doctor. I laughed it off and thought she was just joking. But after a few serious minutes, I got scared, and said no. I told her that I was going to be regularized, it was a pretty good company too, the snag was, by my 6th month, the two year bond would have started. So I had about a week to decide.

Whoa boy, was it nerve wracking. I loved my job, but deep down inside, I knew it never really was for me, and I always had that feeling that I never fit in in the corporate world. Say what you will, and say its corny, but its the truth. I FELT that I wasn't for the corporate world.

By the end of the week, I told my boss, and wrote my resignation letter, and the rest is history.