DMU................Self-proclaimed Super Geniuses

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Krazykritter said:
Board related question for you guys:

For Step I, what are the better books to use? I have First Aid for USMLE but was wondering about the difference between BRS vs. High Yield books. I am not trying to be a gunner or anything, but since I have some money now, I was thinking about buying them now. Thanks all.

Buy them all and sleep on top of a different one each night.

JK

I'd say I liked Step Up the best, but I'm probably not the best to get advice from. First Aid was OK, but sort of too something...I don't know...

People used those two pretty regularly across our class I think.
 
Krazykritter said:
Board related question for you guys:

For Step I, what are the better books to use? I have First Aid for USMLE but was wondering about the difference between BRS vs. High Yield books. I am not trying to be a gunner or anything, but since I have some money now, I was thinking about buying them now. Thanks all.
I ended up not using either First Aid or Step Up very much, but that's just me. They're not bad, I just had other things to read, like the Kaplan series (very good, all you need to know in 10 books) and BRS. High Yield books are good for very concise reviewing, like, the diagrams in Neuro are the exact same ones used in BRS Neuro. But with BRS, you get questions at the end of every chapter and detailed explanations. One of the best question books is the paperback Robbins Review of Path. You won't go wrong with it. It tests way more than straight path knowledge, and I felt that the thought process was similar to what you needed to do during boards. Good luck!
 
Krazykritter said:
Board related question for you guys:

For Step I, what are the better books to use? I have First Aid for USMLE but was wondering about the difference between BRS vs. High Yield books. I am not trying to be a gunner or anything, but since I have some money now, I was thinking about buying them now. Thanks all.

I used the Kaplan books almost exclusivly. I only used First Aid for the last week and a half or so for quick stuff and buzz words. It worked for me. I agree with what someone else said, everything you need to know is in Kaplan.

Good luck, don't buy to much stuff, use your money on meth and stay up for 5 straight days cramming out of the Kaplan books. Thats what Id do if I had to do it over again
 
After you pass boards, easy if I can do it by the way...You will find there are some good reasons to be in the D. Sorry for the graphics but someone has to put semi-inappropriate pictures on this site for us and break up the serious stuff.

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Astroglide User said:
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I am surprised I made it back to my free apartment after this day was over.
20 girls in this pic and who does he have his arm around....the only other dude in sight. Is there anyone in the world who is not convinced of the todd, i mean burchettes gayness? I was convinced when he kept asking me for OMM then breaking out a bottle of baby oil and two banana hammocks.
 
Dartos ~ you would need to shave before I'd ever be serious about such activities.
 
Astroglide User said:
Dartos ~ you would need to shave before I'd ever be serious about such activities.

Funny, that never stopped you when we did OMM, Mikey-Wikey.

I'm in Portland, people.

I had some really excellent sushi at a restaurant just a little ways from this hotel. Is it just me or does sushi kinda have a neutral taste. I mean there WAS on piece of fish that was more greasey and salty and yummier than the rest, but most of them had very little flavor and only sort of an interesting texture. The Wasabi is good...it attacks your face. For dessert I had Green Tea Ice Cream....fried. FINALLY, something fried...all the fish...raw...the ICE CREAM...let's fry that.


I'm going to Cancer Camp today. It's time to put my money where my mouth is on this Peds Hem/Onc thing.....next rotation for me is...Peds Hem/Onc.

If anyone is interested in a page turner of a "war-book" get Shooter by Jack Coughlin. It's about how he traveled around Iraq during the opening of Iraq 2 and shot lots of people dead. Well, almost dead. In one case he shot a 20 year old fedayeen militiaman twice (left arm, left chest) and the kid lived. Allah was with him.

If you want an entertaining read: Go over the Islamic History section of this Hashish
 
Portier said:
Funny, that never stopped you when we did OMM, Mikey-Wikey.

I'm in Portland, people.

I had some really excellent sushi at a restaurant just a little ways from this hotel. Is it just me or does sushi kinda have a neutral taste. I mean there WAS on piece of fish that was more greasey and salty and yummier than the rest, but most of them had very little flavor and only sort of an interesting texture. The Wasabi is good...it attacks your face. For dessert I had Green Tea Ice Cream....fried. FINALLY, something fried...all the fish...raw...the ICE CREAM...let's fry that.


I'm going to Cancer Camp today. It's time to put my money where my mouth is on this Peds Hem/Onc thing.....next rotation for me is...Peds Hem/Onc.

If anyone is interested in a page turner of a "war-book" get Shooter by Jack Coughlin. It's about how he traveled around Iraq during the opening of Iraq 2 and shot lots of people dead. Well, almost dead. In one case he shot a 20 year old fedayeen militiaman twice (left arm, left chest) and the kid lived. Allah was with him.

If you want an entertaining read: Go over the Islamic History section of this Hashish
I'm jealous, I hear portland is awesome. Were you eating nagiri? They do have sort of a neutral taste. I think the more you get into sushi, you start to eat more rolls, and less nagiri. The rolls are pretty flavorful. Try a spicy tuna roll. YUM! Now that you have been talking about it for so long, I cant picture you being any other kind of doc than peds onc. Now that I'm not on ER any more i've lost interest in it. It was fun for a while but....
Bird****, I just went to the waxing salon, took off all my clothes and said Give me whatever burchette gets when he comes here. 3 anorexic girls and one large croatian man pulled out every hair on my body with tweezers. I won't say what the croat tried to do (mike you are one sick puppy). I'm ready for our late night OMM/snugglefest.
Ray, I am going to try to bring the boat to graduation week if you are interested in doing some fishing with me and Dmak, just like the good old days. Buy a license ahead of time for once. Make sure it is for frogs
 
Dartos Vader said:
I'm jealous, I hear portland is awesome. Were you eating nagiri? They do have sort of a neutral taste. I think the more you get into sushi, you start to eat more rolls, and less nagiri. The rolls are pretty flavorful. Try a spicy tuna roll. YUM! Now that you have been talking about it for so long, I cant picture you being any other kind of doc than peds onc. Now that I'm not on ER any more i've lost interest in it. It was fun for a while but....
Bird****, I just went to the waxing salon, took off all my clothes and said Give me whatever burchette gets when he comes here. 3 anorexic girls and one large croatian man pulled out every hair on my body with tweezers. I won't say what the croat tried to do (mike you are one sick puppy). I'm ready for our late night OMM/snugglefest.
Ray, I am going to try to bring the boat to graduation week if you are interested in doing some fishing with me and Dmak, just like the good old days. Buy a license ahead of time for once. Make sure it is for frogs

Camp Sunshine is a really cool place. If you want to just volunteer somewhere this is a very nice camp. The volunteers are housed and fed (pretty good food...the blueberry pie was AWESOME), the children are fun to play with, and the activities are nonstop. They swim in a pool, swim in a lake, go boating, fisihing, marshmallow roasting, wall climbing, endurance course running, play kickball....and the list goes on.

Granted most of the volunteers this week are 17-18, but I think Mike would be OK with that.

I have to say that the concept I operated under about parents of childhood cancer patients was dead on. These are well informed consumers. Here's the strangest story I heard:

CAH and Neuroblastoma: By far the strangest story is this child. A
lesbian couple (Mother 1 = M1, and Mother 2 = M2) wanted a child. M1
was 40ish, and M2 was 30ish. M1 wanted to bear. After several
unsuccessful attempts at IVF with a sperm donor, M1 gave up attempts to
carry a pregnancy to term with her own eggs. M2 donated a younger egg
to the IVF. The embryo was implanted in M1. M1 carried the pregnancy
to term successfully with "some complications" but these were not
adequately described. The boy child was sick in the neonatal term and
was immediately diagnosed with CAH. A proper regimen for stabilization
was elucidated, and the child became stable. Some time later (he's 3
now), perturbations in health were noted such as anemia and abdominal
pain. The mother said that since the child was CAH, the physicians were
trying to adjust the regimen, and thinking in the focus of CAH. During
one visit the physician palpated a large liver. This led to further
investigation and diagnosis of Neuroblastoma type 4S. Several biopsies
of the bone marrow revealed it "changed" to type 4. The mother said
this was very odd, and the physicians didn't believe it. I'm not sure
what this means. In any case the sperm donor was "fired" from the
program, and the genetic testing was done on all parties. M2 was not a
carrier. The sister of M2 and that sister's husband both carried the
gene. The sperm donor carried the gene as well (obviously).
 
If our MPSE (deans letter) and COMLEX transcript are already uploaded to ERAS before we take level 2 will the programs ever see the level 2 scores? It seems like comlex only transmits scores once.

and if this is correct, should i study?
 
289 Days left till graduation. But, Im sure no one is counting
 
gagolden said:
289 Days left till graduation. But, Im sure no one is counting

1,019 days till graduation. That's a very, very long time.
 
Unfortunately I have a school related question...

Anyone remember the Preventive Med/Nutrition exams? Spreadbury seems like he might pull some crazy stuff out of nowhere. Suggestions??
 
nervil said:
If our MPSE (deans letter) and COMLEX transcript are already uploaded to ERAS before we take level 2 will the programs ever see the level 2 scores? It seems like comlex only transmits scores once.

and if this is correct, should i study?
I think you're right! It looks like there's a retransmit option only for the USMLE. I think I read somewhere that if you do want programs to see your post-submission COMLEX level 2 score, you'll have to fax each program your score report, but that was a while ago. Another reason to take the COMLEX after submitting ERAS, in my opinion. Here's to passing that test! 👍
 
Nutrition class: funny how fat people who are not in shape can pass that and then actually have a priviledge to council people on weight loss. medicine totally catches me by the balls at times. I remember him being pretty picky regarding the oils and which ones are best. Again, it was presented in a very UNpractical way but the food was good after class.

I also get annoyed by people like dr spreadbury who spend all their time trying to rip on Dr Atkins and people alike. Same goes for people who bitch about walmart, mcdonald's, etc. They had an idea that worked and made them money which was not too hard to figure out. the rest of time biochem professors want to complain about flaws in the diet and the only way to do it is through a perfectly balanced diet and exercise. good luck finding any patient who will do that.

done ranting about that. off to start my vacation in okoboji!
 
I am barely alive suriving my crazy month of neuro trauma in columbus. I am back in the D trying to study for boards, but realizing I just don't care anymore. I'm going to the beach today. I fly back to des moines wed for a week take boards and fly out that night so hopefully I get done early afternoon. When is myERAS due?
 
Portier said:
I had some really excellent sushi at a restaurant just a little ways from this hotel. Is it just me or does sushi kinda have a neutral taste...

Sushi is actually quite flavorful...it's the tapeworm eggs that taste neutral.
 
Krazykritter said:
Unfortunately I have a school related question...

Anyone remember the Preventive Med/Nutrition exams? Spreadbury seems like he might pull some crazy stuff out of nowhere. Suggestions??

Did you get the review powerpoint off the network drive? It answers his objectives; I'm going to stick to that.
 
I'm back in the mini-d trying to plug away for COMLEX II studying and it blows donkey balls. I remember now why I hated taking boards. It doesn't matter how much I study because I will recognize the rare disease then they'll want to know which isomer of what enzyme is deficient and what the PPV value will be if 3 people in idaho had that disease🙂 3 more days then only another year until boards again. I hope every is doing well on their respective rotations right now, only 9 more months until graduation!
 
Man ENT is boring. Im freaking dying here. Too much whining. My nose is stuffy, blah blah blah. Holy crap.
 
Vacation week wooooo!

Not really. More like board study and ERAS week. Fark.
 
Just finished level 2- thought Id share my thoughts for those of you who haven't taken it yet

-not much OMT on it besides viscersomatics (which there were lots)
-Two cranial question- what bone to treat with what presentation. for example ringing of the ears, or baby with GI stuff
-Overall, not that great of a test, better written than level one, images were above average, but not great.
I did have like 3 or 4 Chapman Reflex questions though.
-Hardly any pharm, except a few side effects (mostly overdose stuff)
-I used exam master as a Qbank, and thought that exam master was considerably more difficult.
-almost no ethics questions, some legal stuff about power of atterny, EMTALA stuff

If I had to do it all over again, I probably would have taken this test earlier. There is no good way to study for it, since the test is general knowledge stuff for the most part.

Oh, the one bad thing was the Prometric test people. The way its set up is your only supposed to leave after question set 100, 200 and 300. I drank a huge cup of coffee on my way to Ames, and had to drain the weasel after question 50. The lady told me if I left, she would write a occurance and sent it to the NBOME. Holy Crap! I left anyway....

Don't freak out over this test
 
Just finished level 2- thought Id share my thoughts for those of you who haven't taken it yet

-not much OMT on it besides viscersomatics (which there were lots)
-Two cranial question- what bone to treat with what presentation. for example ringing of the ears, or baby with GI stuff
-Overall, not that great of a test, better written than level one, images were above average, but not great.
-Hardly any pharm, except a few side effects (mostly overdose stuff)
-I used exam master as a Qbank, and thought that exam master was considerably more difficult.
-almost no ethics questions, some legal stuff about power of atterny, EMTALA stuff

If I had to do it all over again, I probably would have taken this test earlier. There is no good way to study for it, since the test is general knowledge stuff for the most part.

Oh, the one bad thing was the Prometric test people. The way its set up is your only supposed to leave after question set 100, 200 and 300. I drank a huge cup of coffee on my way to Ames, and had to drain the weasel after question 50. The lady told me if I left, she would write a occurance and sent it to the NBOME. Holy Crap! I left anyway....

Don't freak out over this test
Ha! I would have just peed all over her. Who doesn't enjoy a golden shower every now and then?

Sounds like you did well! Congrats on finishing!!

What did you decide on finally for residency? IM still?
 
I thought about letting it go right there, and then sitting in a warm puddle for the next 7 hours. Unfortunatly, I have this damn aversion to sitting in my own urine. I gotta figure out how to get over that. Poo I can do, in case you were wondering what that smell was in class.. just had to look over at me 🙂

Im not sure how well I did. I feel like I failed, but then again, I thought I failed Level 1. I just hope I land within 10 %ile of Level 1

Im going to do IM.. then work on a fellowship. Right now, Im torn between Nephro and Pulm/CC (leaning toward PCCM). They both sound pretty good, but PCCM is going to shift work. Working two 12 hour shifts one week and three the next with clinic sprinkeld in sounds awesome.

Your still doing Radiology right?
 
For some odd reason, you just made me think of tubgirl. :barf:

Wow, those are two very cerebral fields. But I agree with you on the lifestyle factor with shiftwork and all.

Yeah, still gonna try for Radiology. Keeping the applications to the Midwest states, with a few scattered westward, like Colorado, Washington, Utah, Oregon. Are you keeping yours to Colorado?
 
For some odd reason, you just made me think of tubgirl. :barf:

Wow, those are two very cerebral fields. But I agree with you on the lifestyle factor with shiftwork and all.

Yeah, still gonna try for Radiology. Keeping the applications to the Midwest states, with a few scattered westward, like Colorado, Washington, Utah, Oregon. Are you keeping yours to Colorado?

Best part of PCCM- tons of procedures (fun!), Best part of Nephro- own the dialysis machines.... cha ching. Bad thing about Nephro.. everyone is going to die a slow and painful death. How.... overwhelming. Doing PCCM, sure you have a high mortality rate, but you get alot of good stories too. Either way, Im sick and tired of healthy people. I wanna actually do something. I hate preventative medicine. Its so boring. Good God, like back on Peds, how many well childs can you do in one day.

No, in order to do a fellowship, I gotta go to a University hospital, and I wont get into CU. Those bigots have only accepted 1 DO ever. So, Im going to apply to Minn, Nebraska, Creighton, Kansas, Missouri-KC, New Mexico, Arizona and a second program in Phoenix. Im gong to send one to CU-long shot and Utah-same story as CU. (never know I guess) Every other place has historically been pretty DO friendly. I bet I end up in Omaha or KC since New Mexico doesn't have a combined PCCM fellowship.

Well see, from what I understand, IM isn't very competative so I dont see anybody who ranks realistically going below thier 3rd choice. And my step one and class rank are good, so Im not too freaked out. That is, unless Level 2 comes back as a barely pass and screwes the whole thing up. 🙁

Whos the heck is tubgirl?
 
I totally feel the same way about enjoying sick patients in the hospital as opposed to relatively healthy people in clinic all day.

Hey, we're applying to a lot of the same places, except I'm skipping the Southwest. Have you looked at Indiana U's program? It's huge, maybe even too big. But I think I saw some DO's in many of their programs, like IM, FP, and even Anesthesiology. Not radiology though 🙁

I can't imagine you doing bad on Level 2 after how you kicked Level 1's buttocks. I'm hoping the same for the FP match, that it's not going to be competitive and the man can be in the same city as whichever program is kind enough to take me!
 
Yeah, I looked at the University of Indiana. But, well, thats going even further from home, and when we have kids, I wanna be at least within a 10 or 12 hour drive from Grandma and Grandpa. Plus I didn't like the fellowship programs at Indiana. The PCCM is 18 months of required research, where Kansas is 6 or 12 (your choice) for example. I could care less about research.

Are you applying to any AOA programs?
 
No, I'm not applying to AOA programs. They're all in places I don't want to live. I just wish there was a way to do couples match between AOA and ACGME programs because the man wouldn't mind going to an AOA program, because they're just as good for FP. And he's not really planning on doing a fellowship, like you are, so that doesn't matter either. We're trying to find a place that has a less academic FP program coupled that's still either at a university or is affiliated with one which would work best for both of us. And I'd rather stay at the same place for an interventional fellowship. So for all the places on our list, U of Illinois at Peoria is looking really good to us at this point.
 
We're going to start having our lottery meetings pretty soon and eventually submit our rotation requests...

...so anyone want to offer some feedback on where you are doing your rotations and how you like them?
 
We will upload your transcript and letters of recommendation to ERAS one to two days after we receive a report showing you've submitted your application. At that time we will start working on your Dean's letter and will send you a copy to review before it's submitted to ERAS. Your COMLEX scores will be released to ERAS by the NBOME and I would think that will happen soon.

If you are going to bring us a new photo, let me know and I'll make a note in your file. Otherwise, we'll use the photo from your ID badge.

Karen
 
This is awesome! I am so glad to have it all submitted. Out of my hands now. And now I get to obsess over which programs have downloaded my ****. Wonderful!

I'm glad we get to proofread our Dean's Letters. Make sure nothing shady's going on.
 
Still working on my eras. I took the step II on july 27th and I had a ton of OMM questions. it was almost ridiculous. I also got to comment after each question which I did on some that were complete crap. anyone taking usmle step II?
 
I had a ton of OB, Peds, and neuro on my test. Not so much OMM. I thought it was better than Step 1, but obviously it is a ****ty test. I"m just chilling at Panera in Bloomington IL on neurosurgery here, though it is a much more laid back rotation here than anywhere else I've been. Do you guys know when we'll here about our interviews and etc? I know neurosurgery is a bit different, but I hope they don't call me on a Tuesday and say can you come interview tomorrow cause I hate that crap.
 
I haven't had as much fun since Mike took me out on Boji....wow!

I flew into San Diego on Sunday. I upgraded the Navy's rental to a convertible (250 bucks for the month I'm here).

I met up with my brother and we went break assing around the city with the top down and my iPod blaring. It was like a 1980's movie.

The weather is great here, the beaches are beautiful (if a bit chilly water), the people are lovely, and the food is awesome....there are tons of things to do! Balboa Park, the beach, downtown, parties in the east side, mountains....you pick it.

We kept joking: Man...do you wanna go see a movie? HA!

All in all, San Diego is the ****.

I'm starting a Pediatric Surgery rotation today...on Active Duty...at a Naval Medical Center....Crazy, I know. We'll see how it all goes. I'm actually interested in Pediatrics, but I wanted a surgical education month in Pediatrics.

Hopefully there'll be someone to yell at me this morning so I feel at home!
 
More Craziness....

I showed up and they just depolyed the Pediatric Surgeon...they turfed me to General Surgery.

I asked for a swap from the coordinator to a peds specialty, but he didn't want to help.

So I ran down to the dept head of peds and asked. He set me up with 2 weeks of Peds Neuro, and 2 weeks of NICU.

So I'm set up again....

The Residnecy Director at bethesda told me to drop Peds Surgery and do something like this since I'd get more face time....

So fate stepped in and fixed it for me.

Now...AS I WAS TYPING THIS EMAIL....I saw one of my boys from Jacksonville: Joshua Abraham Isaac Dominique....the darkest black guy with the goldest teeth. Damn! I love the Navy.
 
I got $640 for FP! WOOOOOOO. That's like a month's salary in FP these days. How's everybody doing? Super. Taking level-2 in two weeks. Come on pass (rolling dice.......and Yahtzee). Just think....we'll be doctors trying to explain our actions at M&M next year....:scared:....
 
I got $640 for FP! WOOOOOOO. That's like a month's salary in FP these days. How's everybody doing? Super. Taking level-2 in two weeks. Come on pass (rolling dice.......and Yahtzee). Just think....we'll be doctors trying to explain our actions at M&M next year....:scared:....

$640... how did you spend that much? My bill was only $190, and thats including the 40 for the NRMP. Did you apply to 7000 programs or something
 
$640... how did you spend that much? My bill was only $190, and thats including the 40 for the NRMP. Did you apply to 7000 programs or something
It's my fault. Really 🙁

He's already got 3 interview invites! It's nuts...I'm so jealous! And he submitted like, 4 days after me!
 
It's my fault. Really 🙁

He's already got 3 interview invites! It's nuts...I'm so jealous! And he submitted like, 4 days after me!

Holy cow. 3 of em! I have exactly ZERO.
 
The Good: I've met many of the residents here at NMC San Diego. I have interviews set up, and I'm going to stand a buttload of call so they all get to know me. Whatever they decide come residency selection time, it'll be based on experience with me versus "WAG's." For non science types, that's a Wild A$$ Guess.

The Bad: I'm not getting credit for this peicemeal rotation. I'm doing a week of this and a week of that...seeing lots of patients, and learning a ton. However, it's not a "4 week" rotation in any specialty so I'm not getting DMU rotation credit. Which pushes my finish time for rotations back a month.

That means I can't through hike the Appalachian Trail. I guess I'll have to settle for some weekend hikes or something.


Bright Side: I can maybe schedule a rotation with this Pediatric Nephologist (DO, former infantry doc) at Walter Reed. He's a great teacher, and REALLY funny. Maybe I'll understand nephritidities and how to say it.
 
It's my fault. Really 🙁

He's already got 3 interview invites! It's nuts...I'm so jealous! And he submitted like, 4 days after me!

It's because they saw his picture on the application.

He IS so much sexier than you..😛
 
It's because they saw his picture on the application.

He IS so much sexier than you..😛

Well, that is true. Alot of guys like that bear wearing a$$less chaps look. There are whole video series based on it. Not that I own my own collection or anything. :laugh:
 
Apparently, they can't see our photos until they offer us an interview. They can download it, but can't see it till they play nice. Thank GOD! I guess they can still not rank you if you make them throw up a little in their mouths when they look at you.

What's wrong with bears in @ssless chaps? Even better are bears in banana hammocks...mmm mmm finger-lickin good...
 
👍 GUESS WHO JUST FOUND OUT HE PASSED BOARDS??!?!?!?!!?

Guess who aditionally did about 72 points (well, EXACTLY 72 points) better than on step 1?

Here's a clue: He wears my underwear and misses LuckyStar smacking his ass after work.

👍

I really dig life at this moment!
 
WOOOOOOO...Nice work, Portier!! I would be honored to smack that ass again. Now go git you some! 😉
 
HAWKEYES 2-0!!! That game was painful to watch. Manson struggled A LOT!

Would have had a better time watching the game, but Pharm is always getting in the way of something...
 
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