Friday, January 09, 2004

So I'm reading up on the mental status exam and they give examples. I think I might be in trouble. How are a fly and a tree alike? We had a patient who said a banana is like an apple because they're both have round edges. He is right. Then there's the "If you find a stamped and addressed letter on the ground, what do you do with it?" Another patient wanted to know what was in it which is a variation of a common response - "Is there money in it?" Well, back to the exam. In the meantime, see if you can subtract 7 from 100 until you get to 0 (or close to it). And no, you can't use a calculator. If that's too hard, you can try 3 from 25 until you get to 0. I have call tonight and I get to spend that fun with Kevin, one of my classmates who was on my medicine team. Ah, good times...We then reunite with Asha for the hell of neurology at the VA for 3 fun filled weeks. Oh and I get this weekend off! And so Mat and I are going to hang out and have fun. I haven't seen him in so long thanks to 3rd year. I guess that's the general theme.
~me~ at 4:02 PM

Thursday, January 08, 2004

Seems Apple has decided to make a smaller 4 GB ipod in different colors but not for a small price. In my opinion, it's not worth the money at all. For $50 more, you can buy a 15 GB regular sized ipod. And those aren't exactly humongous compared to other brands out there. I mean, if you've saved and saved for an ipod, why not save a bit more and get 11 GB more. That's right! I said there's a $50 difference for 11 GB and a few ounces and inches. Unless color and image are more important. Doesn't seem worth it to me but then again, I already have one but if you're looking, think about it real hard. Even with a case, that mini ipod will not be too mini...oh wait, there are no good cases for it yet. Double negative there.
In other news, Christmas and New Years was fun and relaxing. I saw everyone and got some new clothes with half the tax...course, my mom didn't seem to appreciate the tax difference. It was my christmas present.
Psych has been good so far. I have call tomorrow night and I think I have to come in for the mornings on weekends which sucks but I'll find out for sure tomorrow. Our intern hasn't been here since she had family issues and the only person on our team who isn't new is our attending. But I think we've managed pretty well. If it wasn't for incredibly boring lectures at noon and 1, I would have been home at 11 am today. Tomorrow I may go home at 1 then just come back for call at 7 after a little nap. The hardest people to talk with are the depressed patients since they mumble and don't respond with anything but yes or no or they just shrug their shoulders. It's funny seeing them interact during group. The people who try real hard to follow the rules for group get really pissed at those who don't care about the rules or just are so out of it that they don't know they're breaking the rules. We watched them during their social skills learning session and yes, it was wrong to laugh about it later but at least we didn't start laughing right there. One male patient had to role play asking a female patient to dance. Well, the skills instructor had just set up the situation and so he went up to her and said, "Come on" and so she stood up and said "okay." Then there was a debate about if it was proper for a girl to ask a guy to dance. And all I was hoping was that the manic patient would not come talk to me again about how he doesn't need the meds he's on and wants to leave.
~me~ at 5:34 PM