Med Student Life

Med school is certainly one of the most demanding times in a person's life. Demanding of our time, patience, passion, intelligence, resources, money, and perhaps most important, our personal life. Indeed, personal life doesn't really exist the way it did before medical school. I am currently in my Surgery rotation, which means I report to the hospital by 6am...which, as you all know, means I better get to bed early the night before or else I will be one extremely cranky Student Doctor the next day. But I'm literally at the hospital for at least 10-12 hours a day, mostly running stuff and trying to study for my exams (speaking of which, I have an exam coming up as well, this Saturday, for Internal Medicine).

As a result, I'm not the most exciting person to hang out with these days...if you can even catch me on the phone in the first place. So when a colleague of mine sent me a link to an article entitled "How to Date a Med Student," I knew I had to share some of the advice with all of you in the hopes that you will forgive my less than stellar ability to keep in touch these days. Enjoy! (Click Here for the full article!) And many thanks to Marissa Kristal, a New York based writer who penned the article that I have included tidbits from below. I don't know her, but apparently she is dating a medical student - and let me tell you, she hits the nail in the proverbial coffin regarding the breed of people we call med students.

Note: The italicized portions below are not from the original article, but rather, are my add-ons.

1. Don't expect to see them. Ever.

2. (This is my personal favorite!) They're expected to know everything. Everything! The name of the 8 billion-lettered, German sounding cell that lives in the depths of your inner ear, the technical term for the “no one's ever heard of this disease” disease that exists only on one foot of the Southern tip of the African continent. But ask them if your knee is swollen, or what you should do to tame your mucous-filled cough, or why the heck your head feels like someone's been drilling through it for oil for two weeks straight, and they won't have a clue.

3. “My brain's filled with so much information, I can't be expected to remember THAT!" will be the standard excuse for forgetting anniversaries, birthdays, and, if you get this far, probably the birth of your first-born. (It will also be my excuse for forgetting what you told me yesterday.)

4. You'll need friends with unending patience who pretend never to get sick of listening to your endless venting and complaints. Or, you'll need to pay a therapist who will pretend never to get sick of listening to your endless venting and complaints.