OK, I'm not actually an official MSIV (Med Student fourth year) yet. We haven't results back from our OSCE (observed patient exams) or MSIII finals on Wednesday and Friday, respectively. But I feel pretty good about both. It was a long week of studying for the latter with many of my classmates back in the cafeteria with the MSIIs (actually now MSIIIs) studying for Step 1 Boards.
So now it's a nice 3-day weekend (for Memorial Day) to work on my EM residency spreadsheet and try to nail down audition rotations. I've applied to several programs for Fall rotations, but only have August really nailed down. Arrowhead in Colton, CA is the only DO program I plan to apply to and it's in driving distance so I can see the family on the weekends. The others are out of state and, if I get all three, would mean another long season away from the family.
I'm also doing my best to get back into shape. Swimming is going well, other than missing Friday. I still have a few hours to get a workout in today. Biking is coming along slowly. I've been taking 25 mile rides once or twice a week plus spinning for 40 minutes her and there for about three weeks. Yesterday I pushed it up a notch and did a 52.5 miler solo. It was painful when I bonked at about 25 (only had a water and a glass of OJ prior) so I stopped for Gatorade and a snack. That really helped. I think I went through five 16oz water bottles in just over 3 hours at close to 100 degrees.
I'm loving my Garmin 305 even though I'm using less than half the features. It's cool to see your ride on the desktop software and then overlaid on Google maps. However, I went a little on the HR zone, speed and cadence alarms and those got a bit annoying.
It all must be doing something. I'm down to 208lbs from 220 in Fort Wayne 5-6 weeks ago. I've got nine more weeks until I rotate at Arrowhead. I hope to be back to my pre-med weight of 195 by then. Emergency is one those jock/granola/outdoorsy kinda of specialties where being in good shape will certainly help me feel like I belong.
Along with work on my EM program spreadsheet, I need to start thinking about Boards - and start using my online question bank (USMLEworld) to take practice tests. It's not nearly as stressful as Step 1 last year, but I'm aiming for 600 on COMLEX Step 2 and 230 on USMLE Step 2. The numbers are arbitrary but both represent about a Standard Deviation over the means. Improvements over my slightly lower but quite respectable Step 1 scores will look good for applications.
Back to my EM day dreaming...I mean research.
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