Hanging in as MSIII

I am plugging away in my Internal medicine rotation. Into it 2 weeks and so far am surviving ok. I find i do quite well on exam skills, patient relations, and things like administration/ paper work (soap notes, etc.) but struggle through the pimping sessions. I feel like I suffer from chronic CRS (Can’t remember sh*#) Quick! name the causes of nephrotic syndrome!! GAAAAAAAAAAAA!
The three hour drive each way on weekends gets old fast, but it is better than not getting home at all. I am, to be perfectly honest, amazed that I have made it this far. Call here at BMC is not to bad, about 1 day in 4, but its not all night till I get to surgery in february. That I am NOT looking forward to.
It has been both facinating and terrifying to see the students who have gotten there ahead of me. They seem so thrilled at then end of week one, only to be reduced to near tears by week 4. scarey
any one have any good tips on remembering all the details on patients? do you rely on notes? Knowing your patient well is the way to shine on rotations, but i stuggle to keep a reasonable amount of detail in my brain when I only have one or 2 to worry about at a time.
anyway, haven’t checked in for a while, thought I would sound off a little. Special greetings to Olde Man dave who is just up the road in Dartmouth-- we should do lunch someday!
steve – another olde pharte doc wanna be

Howdy Steve!
I wouldn’t worry too much about your case of CRS. You may not know this but there is another name for that syndrome…junior medical studentitis. In other words, it is pretty much expected that anyone with the short white coat will have trouble sorting through the gazillions of facts crammed into our heads during the first two years.
As for keeping your patients straight, I recommend going to medfools.com. I found some nifty patient tracking documents there that helped me keep everything organized. The other thing I do is print out rounds reports for each patient each day. I fold that critter in half (it fits better in my short white pockets that way) and write their name in big letters across the top of it with the date on it. I’ll then copy the high points from my soap note just below that and then leave room to write in my to-do list for that patient.
Good luck finishing up medicine. It was really, really long for me but, in hindsight, really helpful.
Take care,
Jeff Jarvis
MS-III, UTMB