Revali-DONE
Hello, blog. It's been SO long since I've last updated you. Lots of interesting things have been popping up in my life, but I've just been so preoccupied with keeping my head afloat in med school. I haven't really been paying much attention to anything other than my transes.
I'm sorry.
Anyway, today I just had the urge to write because I just came from my Revalida. For those of you who don't know what this is, a brief explanation: The Revalida, also known as an Oral Integrative Exam, is an oral exam that comes at the end of your second year in med school in which you have to integrate everything you've learned during the year. The format of it is you're first given a written case to read. Then you have 30 minutes (or less, depending how long it took you to read the case) to read up on the case using one book of choice (for most people, it's Harrison;s Principles of Internal Medicine). After that, you begin the oral exam with a panel of preceptors, who will ask you about your primary impression, diagnostic tests, etc. The case also develops during the oral exam itself, so randomly your patient could have HIV or pregnancy or diabetes. Ok, that's enough context I think.
You know, I think this is the most exhausted I've been this school year. My brain has been running on full steam for the past five days, and I still need to keep it in tip-top shape for two more. But I'm really really really tired.
Yesterday I spent nearly the whole day at CBTL in Ortigas. From 8:30 AM to 11:30 PM, Rap and I were working our butts off studying for the exam. I was really miserable already at the start of the day, dreading the work that was to be done. But over the course of the day, random batchmates started trickling into the cafe to study, batchmates from all across the land. We essentially colonized the whole first floor of CBTL. (I bet CBTL hates me. I always ever just buy one drink and then stay for the entire day.)
I'm grateful for having batchmates to study with. Honestly, if not for their presence, I think I would have had a breakdown yesterday from sheer stress. Hayyy. Medicine is such a hazard to mental health, I swear.
By the end of yesterday, I had already given up hope on my exam. There was just no way I could retain so much information in my head. I was feeling so frustrated and sad and angry and, paradoxically, emotionally numb. One thing that gave me hope was listening to my batchmates' pre-Revalida songs. Rap 's choice was U2's "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight," the lyrics of which go like, "It's not a hill, it's a mountain / as we start out the climb... We're gonna make it all the way through the light / But I know I'll go crazy if I don't go crazy tonight." So appropriate.
Even more eerily and wonderfully appropriate was Isa's choice of "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World, the first line of which was "Hey, don't write yourself off yet." I remember listening to it in a dimming cafe packed with stressed out med students, and I was just quietly dancing in my seat. "Everything everything will be just fine."
And true enough, everything was quite fine. When my batch was called, I kept calm. When I read my case, I kept calm. That's the most important thing, they said - keep calm.
My case turned out to be a man with a case of tuberculosis. During the oral exam, there was a slight curveball- he had HIV too! And Major Depressive Disorder! And diabetes, maybe, if you were able to interpret the results of his glucose tests correctly! And his wife is apparently pregnant with tuberculosis - what anti-tuberculosis drugs can you give her? And boom, you're suddenly the manager of his office! How do you prevent HIV in the workplace? BAM now he's super sick and you've just intubated him, not realizing that he explicitly stated before that he didn't want an intubation. How do you explain this to his family? Who can legally consent to the intubation, his parents, children, or his live-in spouse? How do you prevent HIV in a marginalized community as an ASMPH med student, integrating the school's core values??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Yeah, there were a lot of curveballs. But honestly, it could have gone a lot worse. TB, HIV, and diabetes are the most common diseases that you absolutely need to know, so it's not a complete shocker that they came out. I was able to answer most of the questions they threw at me.
And after the test? I asked my preceptors if I passed, and then they said that I more than passed. They told me I nearly got a perfect score!!! I was blushing so much and thanking them profusely as I sheepishly exited the room. AAAAAA!!! SO HAPPY! DID. NOT. EXPECT!!! LORD!!!
After the exam, I learned that everyone apparently got the same case. How strange! Then Rap's mom treated us to a buffet in Robinson's, which was just perfect because I was so hungry. Ugh. I'm pretty happy right now. And tired. Really really really tired.
Good job, self. Time to rest up and prepare for the next battle. Two more days until season finale.
I'm sorry.
Anyway, today I just had the urge to write because I just came from my Revalida. For those of you who don't know what this is, a brief explanation: The Revalida, also known as an Oral Integrative Exam, is an oral exam that comes at the end of your second year in med school in which you have to integrate everything you've learned during the year. The format of it is you're first given a written case to read. Then you have 30 minutes (or less, depending how long it took you to read the case) to read up on the case using one book of choice (for most people, it's Harrison;s Principles of Internal Medicine). After that, you begin the oral exam with a panel of preceptors, who will ask you about your primary impression, diagnostic tests, etc. The case also develops during the oral exam itself, so randomly your patient could have HIV or pregnancy or diabetes. Ok, that's enough context I think.
You know, I think this is the most exhausted I've been this school year. My brain has been running on full steam for the past five days, and I still need to keep it in tip-top shape for two more. But I'm really really really tired.
Yesterday I spent nearly the whole day at CBTL in Ortigas. From 8:30 AM to 11:30 PM, Rap and I were working our butts off studying for the exam. I was really miserable already at the start of the day, dreading the work that was to be done. But over the course of the day, random batchmates started trickling into the cafe to study, batchmates from all across the land. We essentially colonized the whole first floor of CBTL. (I bet CBTL hates me. I always ever just buy one drink and then stay for the entire day.)
I'm grateful for having batchmates to study with. Honestly, if not for their presence, I think I would have had a breakdown yesterday from sheer stress. Hayyy. Medicine is such a hazard to mental health, I swear.
By the end of yesterday, I had already given up hope on my exam. There was just no way I could retain so much information in my head. I was feeling so frustrated and sad and angry and, paradoxically, emotionally numb. One thing that gave me hope was listening to my batchmates' pre-Revalida songs. Rap 's choice was U2's "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight," the lyrics of which go like, "It's not a hill, it's a mountain / as we start out the climb... We're gonna make it all the way through the light / But I know I'll go crazy if I don't go crazy tonight." So appropriate.
Even more eerily and wonderfully appropriate was Isa's choice of "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World, the first line of which was "Hey, don't write yourself off yet." I remember listening to it in a dimming cafe packed with stressed out med students, and I was just quietly dancing in my seat. "Everything everything will be just fine."
And true enough, everything was quite fine. When my batch was called, I kept calm. When I read my case, I kept calm. That's the most important thing, they said - keep calm.
My case turned out to be a man with a case of tuberculosis. During the oral exam, there was a slight curveball- he had HIV too! And Major Depressive Disorder! And diabetes, maybe, if you were able to interpret the results of his glucose tests correctly! And his wife is apparently pregnant with tuberculosis - what anti-tuberculosis drugs can you give her? And boom, you're suddenly the manager of his office! How do you prevent HIV in the workplace? BAM now he's super sick and you've just intubated him, not realizing that he explicitly stated before that he didn't want an intubation. How do you explain this to his family? Who can legally consent to the intubation, his parents, children, or his live-in spouse? How do you prevent HIV in a marginalized community as an ASMPH med student, integrating the school's core values??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Yeah, there were a lot of curveballs. But honestly, it could have gone a lot worse. TB, HIV, and diabetes are the most common diseases that you absolutely need to know, so it's not a complete shocker that they came out. I was able to answer most of the questions they threw at me.
And after the test? I asked my preceptors if I passed, and then they said that I more than passed. They told me I nearly got a perfect score!!! I was blushing so much and thanking them profusely as I sheepishly exited the room. AAAAAA!!! SO HAPPY! DID. NOT. EXPECT!!! LORD!!!
After the exam, I learned that everyone apparently got the same case. How strange! Then Rap's mom treated us to a buffet in Robinson's, which was just perfect because I was so hungry. Ugh. I'm pretty happy right now. And tired. Really really really tired.
Good job, self. Time to rest up and prepare for the next battle. Two more days until season finale.
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