Becoming Socially ******ed

[GeekDoc]

I've been in medical school for almost two months. I came in as a normal, healthy, red blooded male ready to take on what medical school had to throw at me. I was going to kick-ass and take names. That didn't happen. Instead, I fell victim to the medical school grind. I went from being the easy going, happy-go-lucky, life of the party guy, to the socially ******ed drone.

Case in point:

My non-medically associated friend (I still do have one or two left), called me up to tell me this amazing story. It was something about interesting his method for pickin' up girls at some club was. I was barely paying attention, but at the end of his spiel, he goes "Freakin interestin' eh?"

Now, normal people respond with "Hell yah man. Im gonna try that". But I apparently am no longer normal. I responded with "Well, yah thats cool and all but man, did you know your poo is white without bilirubin? Isn't that jacked up?"

All I got as a response was "You're becomin' a freakin wierdo".

The sad thing is, I didn't even realize it. I told my friends in medical school the same thing, and they were all really into the story - the part of bilirubin, not the part of clubbin'.

I've become that weird kid that spews facts about bodily processes that most people find gross.

So, anyone else have stories like this?

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[whatnot11]

HAHA not yet. It's taken a herculean effort though.

However, I have heard one of my classmates describe the difference between somatic and splanchnic mesoderm. In detail. At the bar.

 

[excalibur]

I think you became a weirdo when you felt this was a story worth repeating..........twice.

 

[ZagDoc]

However, I have heard one of my classmates describe the difference between somatic and splanchnic mesoderm. In detail. At the bar.

Hooray for intraembryonic coelom!

Had a similar experience in a bar with the brachial plexus and branches of the axillary artery. At least one of the pneumonics involved drinking.

 

[Miami_med]

If you're anything like most of us, you were socially ******ed before starting medical school and just didn't know it yet . It doesn't get better. The other day I attempted to explain Metachromatic Leukodystrophy to my wife. She was not interested.

 

[rhiannon777]

Just today I informed someone at lunch, who was eating beets, that beets could turn your pee red. When this didn't elicit the fascinated reaction I expected, I proceeded to talk about a weird genetic disease that turned your pee blue.

And I've only been here two months....

 

[Sartre79]

I can related, everything seems to loop back to what we are studying in medical school. for instance, laying in bed last night I had my hand on my wifes back and then started to feel for the approx location of the Triangle of Auscualtation (didn't spell right, too lazy to look up). She looked at me like I was a weirdo.

 

[zenman]

I've been in medical school for almost two months. I came in as a normal, healthy, red blooded male ready to take on what medical school had to throw at me. I was going to kick-ass and take names. That didn't happen. Instead, I fell victim to the medical school grind. I went from being the easy going, happy-go-lucky, life of the party guy, to the socially ******ed drone.

I'm a nurse so I'm not socially ******ed. When I was working on my MBA, we had a recently retired thoracic surgeon in class who said he was "useless at parties" because he had no idea what was happening outside the OR for most of his life.

 

[Gut Shot]

I was going to kick-ass and take names. That didn't happen.

Welcome to medicine.

Cramming so much information into your head in such a short period jacks with you. I spent two years unable to remember anything outside of class. Names, faces, directions, birthdays, the time, the date, addresses, phone numbers, appointments, engagements... it was all just a vague backdrop to the cycle of brain-load -> brain-dump.

It gets better. Not entirely, but it improves.

 

[megadon]

Just today I informed someone at lunch, who was eating beets, that beets could turn your pee red. When this didn't elicit the fascinated reaction I expected, I proceeded to talk about a weird genetic disease that turned your pee blue.

And I've only been here two months....

Why do I have a weird fascination to test this? Is it my Office connection, don't know, but man, that sounds like an interesting experiment. Then again, I could just be pissing blood. (that's not good, is it?)

 

[beegeforty4]

I absolutely love this thread, it's unbelievably true and shocking (for first year students -- like me -- especially).

 

[TRAMD]

It's "socially handicapped" you un-PC jerks. This never happened to me. I think it happened to most of the other people in my class as I was unable to feel like I could get through to about 80% of them socially, but I was just fine with people from the "outside world."

 

[remo]

This is totally hilarious - I was just telling my gf today why pee is yellow and poo is brown!

 

[werd]

wait, if you have that blue pee genetic disease and you eat beets... would you have purple pee??? see now that's how to be the life of the party again...
one idea for you might be to adopt a policy of not talking about "work" when you're not in/at the hospital. just try to remind yourself how it feels when some law student starts talking about torts or the case of carebears vs. care-animals.

 

[GeekDoc]

wait, if you have that blue pee genetic disease and you eat beets... would you have purple pee??? see now that's how to be the life of the party again...
one idea for you might be to adopt a policy of not talking about "work" when you're not in/at the hospital. just try to remind yourself how it feels when some law student starts talking about torts or the case of carebears vs. care-animals.

Colors of PEE > Torts in terms of cool factor

bah what the hell do I know about being cool.

 

[tacrum43]

Welcome to medicine.

Cramming so much information into your head in such a short period jacks with you. I spent two years unable to remember anything outside of class. Names, faces, directions, birthdays, the time, the date, addresses, phone numbers, appointments, engagements... it was all just a vague backdrop to the cycle of brain-load -> brain-dump.

It gets better. Not entirely, but it improves.

Oh thank goodness! I was worried...seriously.

 

[pagemmapants]

Yeah, it's the classic <someone's talking about something non-medical> --> you respond with "Did you know . . . <something almost but not quite completely irrelevant that is probably some form of disgustingness>.

Still do it. Although now that I'm on the wards it's been replaced with "OMG so I had this patient the other day who. . . <something disgusting>."

 

[tch001]

I've been in medical school for almost two months. I came in as a normal, healthy, red blooded male ready to take on what medical school had to throw at me. I was going to kick-ass and take names. That didn't happen. Instead, I fell victim to the medical school grind. I went from being the easy going, happy-go-lucky, life of the party guy, to the socially ******ed drone.

Case in point:

My non-medically associated friend (I still do have one or two left), called me up to tell me this amazing story. It was something about interesting his method for pickin' up girls at some club was. I was barely paying attention, but at the end of his spiel, he goes "Freakin interestin' eh?"

Now, normal people respond with "Hell yah man. Im gonna try that". But I apparently am no longer normal. I responded with "Well, yah thats cool and all but man, did you know your poo is white without bilirubin? Isn't that jacked up?"

All I got as a response was "You're becomin' a freakin wierdo".

The sad thing is, I didn't even realize it. I told my friends in medical school the same thing, and they were all really into the story - the part of bilirubin, not the part of clubbin'.

I've become that weird kid that spews facts about bodily processes that most people find gross.

So, anyone else have stories like this?

OMG, I did the same thing!! My home friends and I have been e-mailing each other weekly to stay in touch and my e-mail today led with "hey, did you guys know that the brown color in poo and the yellow color in pee is from degraded blood cells? HOW COOL IS THAT?"

Me = dork

 

[Cirrus83]

I've been in medical school for almost two months. I came in as a normal, healthy, red blooded male ready to take on what medical school had to throw at me. I was going to kick-ass and take names. That didn't happen. Instead, I fell victim to the medical school grind. I went from being the easy going, happy-go-lucky, life of the party guy, to the socially ******ed drone.

Case in point:

My non-medically associated friend (I still do have one or two left), called me up to tell me this amazing story. It was something about interesting his method for pickin' up girls at some club was. I was barely paying attention, but at the end of his spiel, he goes "Freakin interestin' eh?"

Now, normal people respond with "Hell yah man. Im gonna try that". But I apparently am no longer normal. I responded with "Well, yah thats cool and all but man, did you know your poo is white without bilirubin? Isn't that jacked up?"

All I got as a response was "You're becomin' a freakin wierdo".

The sad thing is, I didn't even realize it. I told my friends in medical school the same thing, and they were all really into the story - the part of bilirubin, not the part of clubbin'.

I've become that weird kid that spews facts about bodily processes that most people find gross.

So, anyone else have stories like this?

Dude, I spend my time chatting with my med school buddies about cleaning feces out of a leg dissection...while eating dinner.
I think we've gone far beyond normal. Far...far beyond.

 

[baylormed]

Dude, I spend my time chatting with my med school buddies about cleaning feces out of a leg dissection...while eating dinner.
I think we've gone far beyond normal. Far...far beyond.

Normal is overrated.

 

[blz]

these med school science jokes are only funny first year because you're excited to know all this crap. later on when you hit the wards, you could give two craps about medical-anything and its the last thing you talk about - unless you're making fun of a patient.

 

[cbass1350]

So, anyone else have stories like this?

No

 

[Jwax]

later on when you hit the wards, you could give two craps about medical-anything and its the last thing you talk about - unless you're making fun of a patient.

That's why I became a doctor.

I'm not really all that into science, but I do like getting to see all the ridiculous things that people do or that happen to them. And then laughing about it.... in an empathetic way, of course.

 

[Miami_med]

these med school science jokes are only funny first year because you're excited to know all this crap. later on when you hit the wards, you could give two craps about medical-anything and its the last thing you talk about - unless you're making fun of a patient.

Isn't that the truth.

 

[Doctor J]

Funny. I felt like when I started that I was finally with 'my people'. Intelligent, witty, able to follow some of my more flexible analogies and laugh with me.

Socially handicapped? Eh, not really. Just finding common ground and interacting with people at your level.

 

[Abilene85]

I've been like this for years. If I had a dollar for every science joke I wasted on my liberal arts friends...

 

[Slide]

I haven't become socially handicapped yet, but I can feel it coming.

Strange thing is that the most "intelligent", thoughtful and erudite people I've met and befriended were in college. We didn't talk about stuff like string theory or other geeky stuff, but we did discuss things like business, culture, society, and such. Now at med school, the only intelligent things I discuss just pertain to going over what the class just learned or asking questions about a topic. Everything else I've heard from other people degenerates into football, drinking, or crude jokes.

 

[Daddydoc]

This is a good reason why you should get married before starting med school. If you wait to get a girl you're not going to attract any hotties until you start making big bucks 7-10 years down the road.