You might be an OPMer if...

Nontraditional Premed Discussion
1
  1. You find yourself listening to a podcast about repairing a large intestine bowel obstruction while eating lunch at your office

  2. You spend the next hour daydreaming about how cool it would be to actually see that procedure.

  3. You stare up at the ceiling tiles in the same office, see black swirl patterns, and think, “hmm…that looks like chromatin condensing in prophase…”


    **Ok–come on, guys. There have to be more, and I need to laugh today. =) Fill in the blank: You might be an OPMer if…
2

You think alpha-keto glutarate sounds cool!

3
  1. You think a dream vacation would be a cruise in the Caribbean with protein researchers.

  2. You find yourself up at all hours - and I mean ALL hours - on PubMed, combing through the free articles on the mutagenic properties of caffeine in E. coli bacteria. (A project I’m working on for my research seminar class.)

  3. You have just about memorized all the entrance stats for the schools you’re interested in from the MSAR. (Yep. Check.)

  4. You come up with meaningful “life” metaphors having to do with physics concepts. (Yes, I have done this, and incorporated a specific one into an essay I wrote last semester for a post-bac class.)

  5. You are the only one who shows up for physics tutoring on Tuesday nights. (As an adult, I am NOT afraid to admit I need help with something! Unlike most of my undergrad counterparts, it seems.)

  6. You’re more than a year away from applying to med school, and your application is halfway done, and you already have most of your LORs lined up.

  7. You actually like writing lab reports. (OK, this might not apply to everyone, but my background is in writing, so cut me a break here …)

  8. A compliment from a professor on something you did in class totally makes your day. I mean, you’re walking on clouds, in seventh heaven, and nothing can bring you down.


    This is fun! Thanks, Carrie!
4
  1. you are excited by your ability to eat a pizza lunch while attending a lunchtime seminar on - removing a colon polyp, followed by a video of hemorroid surgery. (how I spend my lunchtime yesterday). I even asked a question…“Is he doing a purse-string stitch?”…

  2. You’d rather be posting the OPM board than studying for your next big test…
5

You unpack your spine, brain, eye and eye models and feel like it’s Christmas, nerd Christmas that is

6
  1. you perform a rectal exam and think nothing of it

  2. you get excited when you are asked to perform a pelvic by yourself even though you know it is going to be dirty.

  3. you hear the word “dilaudid” and you think the patient is officially FOS (Full of S*it), figuratively (see #1 for literally)

  4. it feels weird NOT to be studying at night all of the time.

  5. You cannot read a non medical book and enjoy it.

  6. you have soap crayons in your shower just to review anatomy.
7

hehe! I hear ya’!

8

HA! Love it…love it…LOVE IT.


*No matter how tired you are, and how many times you’ve seen the movie, you find yourself staying up until (what time is it? Midnight…great…) to watch “The Blind Side” --just because you DONT have to study for the 1st time in 3 months, and you have NO idea when you’ll get the chance to rest your brain ever again for the next…10 years… gulp


*When counseling a young teenage girl that you mentor, you find yourself relating her journey through self-growth (aka high school) to the life cycle of a cell. “See, Jane, a cell is always moving, always changing–once it reaches equilibrium? It’s dead! So even on a microscopic level, you’re always growing and changing…” blank stare (funny…I found that to be incredibly meaningful…her, not so much…)

9

These are AWESOME!

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…if you find yourself freaking out about the Daylight Savings Time change because it means losing an hour of study time.


…if you find yourself working phrases like “final common pathway” into ordinary conversation.

11

…if one wonders why you were not informed that the dienophile moved next door. The national registry is a farce!

12

…if you know that “dienophile” must surely be an organic chemistry term, but you have no idea what it means…but you are actually looking FORWARD to the class where you will learn about it… =)

13
  1. If while shadowing the attending physician/residents YOU are the only one visibly excited about spending four hours rounding on patients.

  2. Get introduced to the patient as a member of the “surgical team.”

  3. Can freely (and without inhibitions) ask the attending questions about a patient and unknown medical terms without the fear of being “pimped!”

  4. Happy to have an official badge with your picture on it, access to doors at the hospital, and your own set of scrubs!
14

With the exceptions of SHOCK and AWE, Diels-Alder is my favorite reaction!

15

I agree - it rocks!!

16
  • TJJ MD Said:
1. If while shadowing the attending physician/residents YOU are the only one visibly excited about spending four hours rounding on patients.

2. Get introduced to the patient as a member of the "surgical team."

3. Can freely (and without inhibitions) ask the attending questions about a patient and unknown medical terms without the fear of being "pimped!"

4. Happy to have an official badge with your picture on it, access to doors at the hospital, and your own set of scrubs!

When you read a post like this and think "damn I hate you!!!" in the "I'm completely and utterly jealous of you" way.
17

HAHAHA!! These are great. A few more…


…you refer to the enclosed walkways between hospital buildings as anastamoses


…you find yourself becoming fluent in at least one dead language


…seeing the word “abscess” on a patient encounter form makes you giddy

18
  • NightGod Said:
  • TJJ MD Said:
1. If while shadowing the attending physician/residents YOU are the only one visibly excited about spending four hours rounding on patients.

2. Get introduced to the patient as a member of the "surgical team."

3. Can freely (and without inhibitions) ask the attending questions about a patient and unknown medical terms without the fear of being "pimped!"

4. Happy to have an official badge with your picture on it, access to doors at the hospital, and your own set of scrubs!

When you read a post like this and think "damn I hate you!!!" in the "I'm completely and utterly jealous of you" way.



Haha...soon enough NightGod, soon enough!
19

… If you actually look up “Dienophile” when someone posts about it here, and find that it is… (wait for it!)


dienophileThe olefin component of a Diels–Alder reaction.


See: cycloaddition


http://www.organic-chemistry.org/Highlights/2006/14Aug ust.shtm

  • In reply to:
New Dienes and Dienophiles for Intermolecular and Intramolecular Diels-Alder CycloadditionsThe Diels-Alder reaction is a powerful tool for the construction of substituted cyclohexenes. Erik J. Sorenson of Princeton University has developed (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 8612. DOI: 10.1021/ja052383c) a class of hydrazinodienes, exemplified by 1. Lewis acid-mediated cycloaddition to give 3 proceeded smoothly. Protection of the aldehyde followed by sigmatropic loss of N2 led to the product 4. This new class of dienes opens access to cyclohexenes having substitution patterns that cannot be prepared by direct Diels-Alder addition.


20

You just might be an OPMer if . . .


You fracture your tibia, OUCH!


(1) Instead of just being a passive patient whose doctor doesn’t explain anything, you go online to Amazon.com and actually BUY Netter’s Anatomy and two others, and an orthopedic text as well.


You are quite ecstatic to spend your hard-earned $300 bucks.


When the package arrives a few days later, you are enthralled to read all about it! Now you know as much as your doctor, or so you hope – or you will someday!


(2) You vow that you will be the kind of good doctor with great communication skills and compassion for your patients so the patients will never need to order medical texts from Amazon.com in order to learn all about their health condition, because you will already have explained it to them so well …