Legalizing Marijuana

I just watched a documentary recently called "Escape to Canada." It was about the summer of 2003 when for a brief moment in time both marijuana and same sex marriage were legal. Since then same sex marriage is still legal and going strong (yay civil rights!) but marijuana is back to being illegal. It is a great movie and I recommend that everyone should watch it, especially if you want to feel proud to be a Canadian. Even though weed is illegal now there were some very good arguments for legalizing it that I want to bring up. I should probably mention that I don't really have any vested interest in this because I don't smoke marijuana, but I do support legalization for the following reasons.
- It is the most commonly used illicit drug and in places like BC it is the number 1 agricultural crop.
- Massive amounts of money could be saved in police and law enforcement costs if the cops concentrated more on other crimes. Also legalizing weed would dramatically decrease the amount of illicit activity related to marijuana.
- Money made from marijuana tazation and regulation could go to support health care
- There would be increases in tourism (look at Amsterdam)
- In terms of its effects, people who use weed are less violent than drunks and there hasn't been a link yet to lung cancer (and if you are worried about the smoke you can always eat it!)
- marijuana is already used or could be used to treat lots of medical problems: cancer, MS, glaucome, gout etc.

I am sure there are more Pros than I have put in this list and I am purposely omitting the cons, but I think it is still a compelling list! Hopefully one day our country will be progressive enough to break away from the US and establish our own drug policies- which I hope include legalizing marijuana!

"Right of conscience"

This post is all about the controversial passage of a bill in the US called the "right of conscience." The original article can be found here.

Basically the proposition is to expand a health care workers right to decline providing treatments that they are not comfortable with on religious grounds. Specifically abortion and birth control. I am fine with that part of it (mostly). What I am not ok with is the fact that this new law will also allow with holding of information AND referrals for birth control, abortion etc. This is ridiculous. Part of a health care worker's duty is to provide patients the best standard of care possible. This should be regardless of any moral or other objections we may have to the treatment they are asking for (as long as that treatment is legal of course). This makes me extremely angry and is just another reason why we should actually enforce separation of church and state!

Med School is officially hard!

After getting my first test back I got pretty comfortable being in medical school and thought
"Hey this isn't so bad, I can easily do this, I don't know why everyone thinks it's so difficult"
And then came anatomy....
I have never taken anatomy before and while I know where are the organs are I have no idea about any of the muscles, tendons, ligaments or bone. And since everything pretty much looks the same inside a cadaver it is pretty difficult to figure everything out. Oh how I wish it was beautifully colored like in my anatomy atlas. Basically I have to memorize a ton of strange names - like levator scapulae - know where everything is attached and how the blood and nerves are innervating it. The idea of this is overwhelming, not because I find it difficult to memorize stuff but because I now realize I need to take this knowledge and apply it to people! This is learning for life and having gotten a taste of the muscles and skeleton I am scared! Not to mention learning about X rays - I still can't figure out what I am looking at, let alone tell if the fracture is translated medially or laterally.
It's going to be a long 4 years.

Matching and Fears

I just got the grade back from my first test in medical school. My school is pass fail so there is no pressure to get over 90% in every single thing. And passing is only 60%. I know that even if I get 61% I will still become a doctor but I wanted confirmation that I was studying the right way and the right material. I did really well on the first test - in the 80s- without a ton of studying so it boosted my confidence that I can really do this! Next we start learning all about anatomy and the muscle groups so I am going to be way over my head, but a little extra confidence is nice. Anyway, this brings me to the point of my post. Just as I started getting comfortable in med school I talked to some first year residents about matching to my chosen specialty. Turns out only 3/4 of people get their first choice specialty and location! Don't quote me on the numbers but I previously thought it was much higher! So my current fear is not matching to anything at all and then being stuck with a job I don't want in a place I don't want to live in. I have also been volunteering a lot lately and am involved in a ton of clubs, which is fun but I heard from one consultant that residencies really don't even look at any of that stuff. I think I just need to take a deep breath and relax, after all I don't even know yet if I want to be a surgeon or a family doc or anything. In conclusion, the stress is only beginning!

New Pregnancy Diagnostic Test coming soon

Interesting research has been done in the field of prenatal diagnostic testing. Right now the current diagnostic tests are invasive and come with a small risk of miscarriage, but now there might be a new DNA test that can be done to identify babies with Down Syndrome while the mom is pregnant. You can find the story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7654201.stm

It should be available in 2-3 years. I was told that the information I learned about in the next four years would be obsolete by the time I came to practice but i didn't realize information would be obsolete within the first month!

Female vs. Male Med students

I just read an article about comparing female versus male medical students and how they estimate their skill level.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081003122713.htm

Basically the gist of it is that female medical students have the skills but are not as confident as their male counterparts. I am not sure if this is a good thing or not. On one hand it seems like female med students might be more humble and therefore less likely to overestimate their skills and make mistakes. On the otherhand sometimes you have to be a bit cocky to convince other people they can trust you. There is a good episode of Scrubs where the surgeon Turk stops being cocky and says he is a capable average surgeon, which causes the patient to rethink the decision to have surgery. When he returns to his confident attitude the guy agrees to have the surgery.

I am sure there is a happy medium in there somewhere.

Rural Family Medicine

I never thought I would consider family medicine, the lowest paying of all areas of medicine, in a rural area. But the other day I went to a physician panel the other day where I heard what it is like to be a family physician in an urban area and a rural area. It turns out in Canada that family docs can also sub-specalize with anesthesia, OB/GYN, surgical assists, ER etc to create variety and expand their practice. The things they get to do make it seem like family docs have the best of both worlds. In other words they get to build relationships with patients while doing a variety of procedures. I am now seriously considering working in a field like this. And in a rural area physicians get to run hospitals and be involved in group practice with an overhead of 25% and make around $200,000 I am very impressed. I am not totally convinced but it is definitely something to think about!

I am a "real" doctor

I just bought my first stethoscope the other day and the feeling was amazing! I feel like I am officially a doctor now and I spent a lot of time walking around with it around my neck and listening to my own heart beat. It is interesting how one simple piece of equipment can define my identity. I was tempted to buy a lot more equipment like an ophthalmoscope (for looking in eyes) and an otoscope (for looking in ears) but the total would have been well over $1000. However, I am glad I am not in dentistry because their tuition is much higher than mine and they need over $10000 worth of equipment! Hopefully my skills will not suffer because of not buying all the extras but every exam room has most of this equipment anyway. I guess it is official now...I am going to be a doctor.

Old people and Sex

I recently had a series of lectures on geriatric patients including what kinds of foods they eat, delirium, and sex. I was surprised at home many seniors still have sex and even more surprised at the amount of STDs these people have! About 12% of people with HIV are over the age of 50! And most of these people would be new cases because the treatments have not been around that long to increase longevity of those infected in the 70s and early 80s. Because normally men die younger than women the population in a nursing home or senior apartment complex can be 7 women:1 man! So it is assumed that guys will have multiple partners. And since most of these people probably have never had the "safe sex" talk diseases like chlamydia and syphilis are way too common. I just recently came to terms with having to give the awkward sex talk to teenagers, but now it seems like at some point I will have to talk to everyone over the age of 10 about sex!

Dead bodies

I just had my first anatomy lab recently and became acquainted with my own personal corpse. I was extremely worried that I would pass out or cry when I saw a dead person because I have never seen one before. None of that happened though. They were careful to cover up the person's face for now, which helped a lot. Someone they didn't look human though. The skin was a grayish color and all the parts just seemed a bit alien. I am definitely grateful for all the people who donated their bodies to help us learn, but it is a much weirder feeling cutting into a person than a mouse for research!

My first "patient"

I had my first pretend patient interview the other day, and boy am I glad it was pretend! I volunteered to go first because I figured the expectations would be low and I kind of wanted to fail spectacularly so I could learn from my mistakes. Well all of these things happened. I’ll admit that failing horribly in front of everyone was embarrassing but I feel like I have learned so much more by getting a hard case from the start, trying to run with it, and falling flat on my face. The second person to interview a patient that day did remarkably well, but I don’t think they will learn nearly as much from their success as I did from my failure. The goal of this interview was NOT to diagnose anything, but simply to communicate with the “patient,” and figure out why they were at the doctor’s office and try and get a history. Basically I was talking to a young girl who was thinking about going into medical school and she wanted to talk to the doctor about “other things” but was too uncomfortable to say them at first (it turns out she wanted birth control). It took me a long time to work it out of her.

So here is what I learned, briefly…

• Just because a patient’s concern has nothing to do with medicine, does not mean it isn’t important. (I was talking to the standardizes patient (SP) about school and friends and hobbies but in the back of my mind I kept thinking ‘when do I get to the medicine part of this’ – I was so busy trying to do everything I thought I should do that I forgot to listen to the SP and talk about what was on their agenda)

• Interviews should proceed in a logical fashion (I jumped around a lot and asked some very random questions out of the blue, when I should have been asking good follow up questions to get more specific information) Ex. If a patient says they have a boyfriend you should find out more relevant information like how many relationships they have had in the past, what is the boyfriend like, how old is he, etc – this is very important for teenage patients when it might be their first sexually active relationship. I missed a lot of golden opportunities to ask really probing questions because I wasn’t taking the next logical step
• It’s ok to talk to a patient like you would a friend ( I was so wrapped up in trying to be a professional that I missed opportunities to share some of my own relevant life experiences like how I got into med school! – I mistakenly thought that the only advice I could give a person had to be based on statistics)
• Let the patient tell their story
• Reassure the patient that you will not judge them and will keep everything confidential (this can help people open up more and talk about uncomfortable issues especially when it comes to teenagers and sex!)
• Don’t make assumptions! (I made the mistake of skipping a lot of simple questions because I thought I knew what the answers would be already, sometimes I was right but I was also guessing wrong a lot of the time)
• Relax!

I have learned so much from this experience and I am so excited to tackle my next “patient.” Interviewing is a lot harder in practice than it is in theory. Hopefully by the time I talk to real people I will feel less like a fake and more like I know what I am doing.

Prenatal Screening and Myths

I have been learning a lot about the different types of prenatal screening and diagnostic tools available to Canadian women lately and many of the topics featured corrected a lot of myths I used to believe. So I am writing this post to help eliminate some of the widely held beliefs about screening and tests.

First of all I will talk about the different types of screens available:
1. IPS (Integrated Prenatal Testing): What is it? Two blood tests (at 11-13 weeks and 15-16 weeks) plus an ultrasound. What does it test for? Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18, and neural tube defects. Pro: high detection rate for Down Syndrome. Con: 2 tests and results received later than other methods

2. FTS (First Trimester Screening): What is it? Blood test (11-13 weeks) plus an ultrasound. What does it test for? Down Syndrome. Pro: earlier results than IPS. Con: Does not check for neural tube defects.

3. MSS (Maternal Serum Screening): What is it? Blood test (16 weeks plus). What does it test for? Down Syndrome, trisomy 18 and neural tube defects. Pro: Can be used if IPS and FTS were not done. Con: Lower detection rate for Down Syndrome.

MYTH: A good prenatal screen means the baby will be perfect
TRUTH: Prenatal screening is not perfect and 2-3% of all babies have a major abnormality at birth.

MYTH: A positive screen means the baby definitely has a defect
TRUTH: A positive result means the baby is at a higher risk of having a defect, but special diagnostic tests are still needed. The false positive rate of screening tests is about 5% which means that 5% of positive results are wrong.

MYTH: Prenatal testing is just for people who would have an abortion
TRUTH: Prenatal testing can be good for couples because if a defect is found then parents can prepare for a special needs child, and doctors can prepare for the best way to plan the birth and neonatal management once the child is born

After prenatal testing, if a positive result is obtained there are a few more options for couples who want diagnostic testing to determine what is potentially wrong with the child.

Types of Diagnostic Tests:
1. Amniocentesis: This is performed around 15-18 weeks. A needle is used to remove about 20 mL of fluid from the amniotic sac surrounding the baby. This can be used to determine if the baby has chromosome abnormalities (Down syndrome), neural tube defects, blood type, blood disorders (like sickle cell anemia), and infection. Risks: The biggest risk is miscarriage which is 0.5% or 1 in 200 pregnancies. (Note: background risk at this time is 2%)

2. Chorionic Villus Sampling (CVS): A catheter is used to obtain cells samples from the placenta. This can test for chromosome abnormalities, single gene defects (like cycstic fibrosis), and gender. It is usually performed between 10-12 weeks. There is a 1% risk of miscarriage or 1 in 100 pregnancies. (Note: background miscarriage risk is also a bit higher earlier in the pregnancy and risk depends greatly on the physician who is performing the procedure)

I learned a lot while researching all the different prenatal options women have today. I was surprised how inexact some testing is, and how despite the best efforts of medical professionals, not all birth defects can be detected. But I think the key with any medical decisions people have to make is the information they receive. I did not realize how common birth defects actually are, and I think that is how the majority of other people think as well. Knowing the limits of testing is important for setting expectations, both for yourself and patients.

Clinical Skills

I have already learned a few invaluable skills that every doctor should know. I learned how to take a blood pressure using a sphygmomanometer (blood pressure cuff) and how to look in ears to see the eardrum. I learned how to make a half cast and how to tie a square surgical knot as well. The knot tying was a bit complicated but I feel like with a bit of practice I will be able to do this knot blindfolded! Luckily I spent a lot of time when I was younger making friendship bracelets and hemp jewelery so I was a bit ahead of the game. I also learned how to insert an IV, some people got to practice on each other but I just practiced on a plastic arm. It went really well and I hit the vein on my first time. I also learned how to intubate people and did really well on that too. I am excited at the possibilities of learning "real" doctor skills but I realize I have a very very long way to go. I can't wait to go shadow doctors and learn even more.

Miscarriage

I did an intense science degree for my undergrad but I am still feeling overwhelmed after the first week of classes. Right now we are just learning about the general science we need to learn the rest of the body systems. We have learned a bit about genetic diseases and I was surprised how many pregnancies end in miscarriage, aka spontaneous abortion. About 1 in 6 pregnancies end in miscarriage and of those about half are due to genetic diseases. This was really surprising to me and I could not believe how hard it was to carry a child to term, especially once women age. There are so many extenuating factors that influence pregnancy like too much exercise that I didn't even realize. This is especially relevant because I am in that age group where most of my friends will soon be getting married and having children and miscarriages can happen to even the youngest and healthiest women. There is a lot of conflicting evidence available about the affect of caffeine of pregnancy (despite popular belief that any caffeine is bad) and there don't seem to be many reputable online resources that tell women what to do/not to do during pregnancy. I am very interested in learning more about this topic, so if anyone has any interesting articles on miscarriage or pregnancy tell me!

O Week

I am coming to the end of my first week of medical school and I am absolutely loving it! We had our White coat Ceremony a few days ago and it was a little cheesy - big speeches and even one mention of how friendly doctors don't get sued. We got out coats placed on us and everyone clapped and took pictures. I am sure I would have enjoyed it more if my family was there, but they are thousands of miles away. Then we had a nice lunch and got a tour of the computer facility and shown how to log in to everything. All our course notes and schedules are online which is really cool but there are so many websites to remember and a lot of different log ins and passwords. The school I am at is similar to my undergrad university in many ways and it is a bit daunting to start over in a new city and a new school. I am constantly getting lost, don't know where anything is, and I have a to do list a mile long. The book list is ridiculously long and I am not even sure which books are actually important. Luckily the second years are extremely helpful and have been giving us tips and throwing amazing parties for us so we get to know everyone. We have had a lot of speeches and introductions to the curriculum in general and what to expect. One thing I really like about my program is the fact that they spend so much time talking to us about all the support that is available for us - emotionally, financially and so much more. They spent a lot of time talking about how to balance our relationships and they will even be setting up a Q&A for us to talk to physicians who are married either to doctors or non doctors and how they make everything work or how sometimes it doesn't work. We have also gotten a financial lecture, which is really nice because I am a lot more informed than I was before and even though my debt in the end will be staggering (even though Canada is much cheaper than the US) I feel confident now that there are lots of resources for me. I start actual classes on Tuesday so I will be updating my blog with more details of what med school is actually like.

85% is not a tax, it's robbery!

While recently traveling to the US for a day to drop a friend off at the airport, we went to do some shopping as well. The shopping was good and we bought a reasonable amount between the two of us. On a whim we picked up a cheap case of beer and two cheap bottles of wine. While at the border we made the mistake of telling the border guard the truth. Unfortunately there is absolutely no tax exemption for alcohol or tobacco for visits less than 48 hours, which I didn't know. So we went into pay for the taxes on the alcohol, which I figured would be a reasonable amount, like 20% at the most. Turns out the tax on alcohol is 85%!!! When you add the currency conversion the wine and beer would have doubled in price. Ironically the beer was still cheaper than it would have been in Canada. We decided the wine was not worth it and left it behind.

I was in shock at the ridiculous amount of tax the government charged to bring back what I thought was a reasonable amount of goods from the US. I think this is a good example of the difference between the two countries in terms of health care as well. The US revolves around the principles of capitalism and competition to lower prices and produce the best product. This is why the US has the most innovative health care, with the best technology and the latest treatments available. This is why many Canadians go down to the US for treatments. The US health care system is obviously not perfect and would probably work better if it was even more capitalist and encouraged more competition between insurance providers to get better prices. Canada on the other hand is government regulated with all prices set kind of like the alcohol in provinces like BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario to name a few. In the government's attempt to regulate alcohol the price shoots up with taxes and it is almost impossible to compete with the taxes and regulations. The selection also suffers and we are left with fewer choices of beer, wine and spirits than the US. This is paralleled in health care with artificial prices (in this case less than the US but paid for by more taxes from us) and lack of selection (wait lists and limited options in terms of treatments).

Now the comparison isn't perfect but it certainly got me thinking at the differences between how Canada and the US are run, especially in health care. Normally I am very supportive of Canadian health care, but this incident got me thinking. There must be a better way to do things than to have ridiculous "taxes" and complete government regulation. Maybe there is a happy medium between the two systems. I am sure I will update this post once I have a better idea of the ins and outs of the health care system.

New Laptop

For all of my undergrad I had been using a clunky 19 inch Dell laptop. It is still working after 5 years with only a few repairs, and most were under warranty. It is still my main computer but for medical school I wanted to treat myself to a new laptop, a super tiny portable laptop that I could throw/gently place into my backpack everyday and take everywhere with me. I was originally thinking of going with the new Asus eee pc with the bigger screen. I had heard reviews of the 7 inch one being a pain because you had to keep scrolling left and right to veiw webpages.

So these are the three main computers I looked into and frankly I didn't do a whole lot of research because I knew what I wanted and I bought this kind of impulsively.

First, the new Asus eee pc 1000....
Price: $559 in Canada
Screen: 10 inch
Memory: 1GB
Hard drive: 80GB
Operating System: Windows XP or Linux
Battery life: ~7 hours with 6 cell battery
Weight: 1.45 kg
Plus built in webcam

The new HP Mini-note which has had some good reviews
Price: $599
Screen: 8.9 inch
Memory: 1GB
Hard drive:120GB
Operating System: Vista
Battery life: 3 or 6 cell
Weight: 1.27 kg
You can also get it with a Linux OS which would probably be preferable to Vista because I have heard that Vista is quite a processor hog.

Acer Aspire One...new this summer, not a lot of reviews on this one
Price: $429
Screen: 8.9 inch
Memory: 1GB
Hard drive: 120 GB
Operating System: XP or Linux
Battery Life: 3 or 6 cell
Weight:1.26 kg

They are all very similar and the asus eee pc is far better known. And each subnotebook comes with prices plus or minus $100 depending on which OS you choose, how much battery you want, etc. Basically I chose based on price, which the acer is superior in. However I am still waiting for mine to come in the mail, as it is not in stock at most places. The only reviews I read about it were for the Linux OS with the small 8GB hard drive. They were all pretty positive and I have pretty high expectations for my new little laptop. I tested the basic version at a store and it is much smaller in person! I think the keyboard on any of these little guys would take some getting used to. I have heard that the HP mini note has a pretty slow processor and a lot of places are stocking it for around $700 or more which is the same price as a basic normal sized laptop these days (this is the main complaint about this one). Basically after taxes, the Acer is still cheaper than the un taxed price of either of these computers, Mine will even come in a nice shade of blue. Plus at under $500 I can afford to replace it in a few years when something better comes along. And in the field of subnotebooks the competition is getting fierce and I feel that going for too many fancy features defeats the purpose of getting an ultra light, portable laptop. When my old laptop finally bites the dust I think I will invest in an ultra fast desktop, which can be reasonably purchased for around $1500 with all the bells and whistles I could possibly want.

I originally wanted a tablet PC, the kind that you can swivel the screen and write on. However, even though these computers are in the 4th or 5th generation now they are still very expensive and retail around $2500 or so. Plus I am limited by location. Canada tends to be a late adopter in most electronics and getting my hands on a decent tablet for a reasonable price would have been hard. Hopefully when I graduate I will be able to buy a cheap tiny tablet pc (there are rumors of them being made in japan already). But my next purchase will probably be a combination phone/pda for third year like the ones vitum medicinus was reviewing here. Hopefully increased competition will give Canadians more choices in blackberry/i-phone ish things for good prices.

I would probably not use this as my primary computer just because it is very small and doesn't have certain things I might want like a CD drive in certain situations, but it should be pretty good for day to day use. I will be adding a new post with my initial thoughts of the acer aspire and how useful I think it is if it ever arrives! Ah, the trials and tribulations of being an early adopter. I hope this helps anyone looking for a cheap laptop to complement an existing laptop or desktop.

My Formula for MCAT Success

I think the MCAT is one of the most daunting tasks that faces any pre-med. On the day of my actual exam I met many people who had taken it more than once and even one girl who planned to write the test and immediately register for another testing session one month later. But it doesn't have to be an overwhelming test. It's just like any other standardized test (like the SATs etc) and with the proper preparation it is (fairly) easy to get above 10 and even 12 in every category. My strategy will not work for everyone though. It entirely depends on how you study best. I am also extremely cheap and could not stomach the idea of paying over $1000 for someone to teach me stuff I was already supposed to know.

For those of you unfamiliar with the MCAT it is made up of four sections. Three sections are marked out of 15 each: chemistry and physics, biology and organic chemistry, and verbal reasoning. The last section is two essays which are marked and you are given a mark from L to T, which doesn't make any sense...Anyway, you get a total score of 30M or whatever. Schools tend to either have a combined score you must meet or minimum scores for each sections. A good rule of thumb is that higher than 30 is good but 35 or above and you shouldn't have any problems. For the essays, a lot of schools have cut offs of O or P.

My first piece of advice would be to take the test as soon as you can after you learn the material. In most cases this would be after second year of university. That way all the information is fresh in your head and you stand a better chance of remembering everything. I waited way too long and took it in my fourth year, which made it very difficult/frustrating to study.

What worked for me was buying a relatively cheap study manual ($60) from Kaplan/Princeton whatever that covered all the material and included a lot of practice tests. I was lucky and had a friend who took the expensive course so I got all of her practice tests as well. I was also lucky in that I took the electronic test which is only 4-5 hours instead of 8. I found the books that give you a good overview contain way more than enough information than you need to be successful in the test. Buying $500 worth of specific subject books may seem like a good idea but you will never have enough time to go through it all.

My study schedule started about 6 months before I wrote the actual test. I only studied about 1 hour a day if that for the first fews months and then gradually built it up as the test came nearer. In the last few weeks I was doing several hours a day and about 8 hours on the weekend of practice tests. But it was not a strenuous schedule and I suggest that anyone who is taking classes and trying to study at the same time try this method because you do not want to try and cram everything into your head two weeks before the test. The best advice I have is practice, practice, practice! Then when test day comes you will be really comfortable with the format of everything and be able to go through the questions quickly and without hesitation.

But like I said, this method will not work for everyone, but it worked really well for me and I surpassed all my expectations when I actually took the test.

Why do med students need first aid?

Many medical schools in Canada require first year students to take a standard first aid class with CPR before they are even allowed in the classroom. This is a fairly easy but exhausting two day course which must be paid for out of the student's own pocket (a common theme in medicine). At first I wondered why I should have to take a life saving course when I was shortly going to pay a lot of money to enter into a life saving profession. It seemed a bit ridiculous to take all this before I even learned anything at the school itself. Then it hit me. I realized that the reason I should take this class is so that I don't embarrass my medical school. How horrible would it be for me to be at the scene of an accident or emergency and proudly proclaim to be a medical student at (university) and not be able to do anything useful. I truly believe this is the main reason I was forced to take this class. However, I should add that it is a really useful class and I wish I had taken it a long time ago because it is a good idea for everyone to know at least a bit of first aid.

My First Post

Hello blogging community,

After two years of watching and diligently reading medical blogs posted by doctors, medical students, nurses, and other people in health care I am proud to be joining the ranks as a medical blogger. I just got accepted to a Canadian medical school and want to begin chronicling my journey over the next few years giving my tips, tricks, commentary and all my mistakes. I found it extremely helpful to read blogs showing the "hidden" side of medicine when I was thinking about applying to medical school, and now I want to hopefully provide some helpful advice and funny stories to other bloggers and premeds and anyone else who wants to read this blog. I also want to be able to look back on this in a few years and remember what I was feeling and how far I have come. I felt like I knew a lot of the hardships I would be facing in my career from all the reading I have done. However, with only a few weeks until classes start I have already begun to realize how in over my head I actually am! People say applying is the hard part and once you are in then it is easy, but they neglect to mention the vast amounts of papers to sign, forms to fill out, vaccinations, first aid, and other tests you need to complete before they will even let you set foot in the classroom!