holding acceptance but worry about my GERD interfering

bravofleet4 · Jan 8, 2010

Hi,

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a condition in which food or liquid travels backwards from the stomach to the esophagus in case you didn't know. I was diagnosed with a hiatal hernia 2 years ago and I've been sort of just managing the symptoms. In reality, it's really just gotten worse over time and each time I've changed my habits to get by. It's just I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this. These past 3 weeks I've had to stay up all night b/c I cant sleep until maybe 5-6 AM and wake up at 12 PM. I'm kind of worried that this is a condition that is sort of evolving and getting worse over time despite the fact that I'm taking medication. Of course, I'm going to see my specialist pretty soon again in hopes of finding relief. However, I'm really worried that if it does get any better, I don't know if I can do medical school.

My question is how flexible class schedules have become with podcasts and streaming class sessions on-line. Do schools require students to show up to their morning classes? My condition probably to most people who don't have it sounds pretty silly but to me it really interferes with my life.

Hopefully this is just temporary but because this is a constant fear of mine I would just like to know how accomodating medical schools would be to my condition. I guess the closest example would be insomnia except I can go to sleep it's just that if I do at the wrong time I wake up with a burning throat and severe sinus problems that scares me worse than death sometimes.

Sorry, I'm not trying to get sympathy. I'm just trying to make you understand that I have a great fear that I'm not going to handle this and medical school at the same time.

On the plus side I guess I'll spend my time up all night studying

howelljolly · Jan 8, 2010

Depends on the school. Some are more strict about attendance than others. Anatomy lab, exams, and 3rd and 4th year are generally not flexible time-wise.

be careful about asking or providing medical info on the SDN

pingouin · Jan 8, 2010

moving to pre-allo

HateTheMCAT · Jan 8, 2010

Has your physician not recommended a surgical option. The procedure to treat GERD is called a nissenfundoplication I believe (they can do it open or laparoscopically nowadays), in which they wrap the stomach around itself to prevent the reflux. They'd also fix your hiatal hernia while in there. (I had this procedure done as an infant and again in high school and have never really had trouble with GERD symptoms throughout my life).

diosa428 · Jan 8, 2010

I would definitely recommend talking to your doctor ASAP and seeing if you can get this under control. I know of several classmates who did not previously have GERD who developed it in med school (or it worsened). While 1st and 2nd year are flexible, you will still be under a lot of stress at times (lots of exams, not to mention how you will feel when you have to take your boards). As stated above, 3rd and 4th year are not flexible. Your hours can be terrible. You may not get much sleep some nights, and you may be under even more stress. I know some people control GERD with exercise, but you don't always have the time or energy to exercise on rotations. If you have overnight call at the hospital, you will be sleeping in a bed at the hospital, so any nighttime modifications that you've made to your bed won't be there (and you will likely be Q4 so this will happen every 4th night for a month). You'll be eating at odd times (ie, on surgery, when you get out of the OR at 10pm and are STARVING, but then have to go to bed right away - this will worsen your GERD). You'll be eating cafeteria food, which doesn't always include the best food for your condition. Also, if you're on a rotation with long hours, you get tired and everything gets mixed up and you sometimes forget your meds. Even if you don't have overnight call at the hospital during med school, you will during residency. So I'd highly recommend getting this under control as best you can now.

Law2Doc · Jan 8, 2010

diosa428 said:
... As stated above, 3rd and 4th year are not flexible. Your hours can be terrible. You may not get much sleep some nights, and you may be under even more stress. ... If you have overnight call at the hospital, you will be sleeping in a bed at the hospital, so any nighttime modifications that you've made to your bed won't be there (and you will likely be Q4 so this will happen every 4th night for a month). You'll be eating at odd times (ie, on surgery, when you get out of the OR at 10pm and are STARVING, but then have to go to bed right away - this will worsen your GERD). You'll be eating cafeteria food, which doesn't always include the best food for your condition. Also, if you're on a rotation with long hours, you get tired and everything gets mixed up and you sometimes forget your meds. Even if you don't have overnight call at the hospital during med school, you will during residency. So I'd highly recommend getting this under control as best you can now.

Strongly agree with this post but would suggest that very often on overnight call you won't be sleeping at all until the next day, some 30 hours later, so you need to throw this into the mix as well. The clinical years and residency are NOT flexible at all. You either are able to do the work when you are supposed to, for as long as you are supposed to, often with minimal and unplanned sleeping hours, or you can't go down this road. Address this, surgically or otherwise, before you launch down a very expensive and grueling path you are unlikely to be able to complete. FWIW, many residents find themselves on PPIs thanks to the stress level, bad diet and bad sleep hygeine, so if you are already prone to GI issues, this is going to get a lot worse on this path. Fix it, or find a field where you can work around the hours you need to sleep; medicine isn't such a field.

holding acceptance but worry about my GERD interfering

bravofleet4

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howelljolly

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pingouin

just chillin'

HateTheMCAT

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diosa428

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Law2Doc

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