Postum Primum

Since I only got around to introducing myself in the last post, I will not try to tackle something complex in my first real post like politics, medicine, the meaning of life, or the reason why paper will always be better than plastic... No, instead I want to really show you, the patients, why medical school can kill you.

You must be thinking, "Sure medical school could kill someone... being around all of those sick people." That's not what I mean and really not even accurate. The public must know of the absolute agony that the lowly med-student is put through on a daily basis. Now, don't get me wrong... humiliation is a very effective teaching tool and if there were a way to inflict physical pain with each wrong answer, I'm sure we'd be looking at the finest students in the world. It's the enduring drawn out suffering that takes years off of our lives and turns even the most altruistic optimists into the arrogant misers that roam the halls of hospitals everywhere.

Waiting for the axe to fall... an upcoming test becomes the last day on earth. Everything revolves around it because we have had the fear of the-man-who-pretends-to-be-God put in us. If we do poorly, we will have to answer to the man in the long white coat. For some of us, that day of reckoning is coming soon in the form of what we affectionately call The Monster. The USMLEs.

The USMLE is the Olympics of medical training. We work our tails off to compete in the test for limited residency spots and only the best gain exactly what they want. Will we triumph and gain the respect of millions who look the white coats as noble heroes.... or will we land that 4 th place spot and get nothing? Don't let any cynicism fall in the path. Be ever prepared for the worst (because in medicine the worst is frequent). And lastly, always stop to encourage the lowly med-student. Until then we will slave away in order to preserve... if not gain... our sanity.

A word from the author... That's me.

I finally did it. After much holding out, I decided to jump on the Blogging Bandwagon to see if this new trend is really worth all the hype.

For starters, introductions are in order.... ahem.... My name isn't really important since you either know me already or you don't care.... not to mention that there many of you crazies out there who should never know my name. With a name or without, I am at the moment in a medical school that trains doctors for third world operations aptly named MSIH (Medical School for International Health). Clever huh. The real kicker is that I moved out to the deserts of Israel to learn here. Needless to say living here is HARD and the medicine isn't any picnic either. They say that the road to success is paved with.... uh.... I don't remember what they said it was paved with but I can think of some choice words for it. Somehow at the end of the day we manage to get by, my class and me.

So the point of all this is to perhaps mantain my sanity in this circus of a country. If anyone wants to hear the daily trials and opinions of a Texan pilot stranded in the Negev desert, I'm your man. This is only the the beginning...