I hope y'all had a great weekend! I know I did 😁. I ended up spending it with a special person, who also came with me dressed hella nice to Wake's medical school prom. By the way, the prom was a good time, and the open wine bar was a fabulous (and dangerous 😳) addition. So with that plus having a fun time with my girlfriend and Netflix, I ended up doing absolutely nothing productive this weekend. Now that real life has hit me square in the chin once again, I guess I need to take the rest of today to get some work done and to prepare for my third Clinical Practice Assessment Exam (CPX) this week.
Now this clinical skills test (which I'm actually not mentally ready for yet by any means), will be testing us on the same skills that we were tested on last time. That includes taking a proper History of Present Illness, a complete Review of Systems, a Social and Family History, a Past Medical History and vital signs. However, we're also now going to be taking a Sexual History and a musculoskeletal physical exam. That's the little game that you play every time you go to the doctor for a checkup, you know, where the doctor tells you to push against his/her hands, tells you not to let him/her bring your arms down, etc. I used to think I was such a Hulk whenever my doctor performed that physical exam on me as a kid. She always had me feeling that I was stronger than I really was…but I digress. This CPX won't really be bad or anything, I just have to get my mind straight and prepare for it. I did pretty well last time, so if I can repeat that performance, I'll be fine.
On another note, my whole first-year class has our first Community Practice Experience coming up in a few weeks. This is where we each get paired up with a physician practicing family medicine in different parts of the state (mostly rural areas) and learn first-hand what it's like to practice as a physician in primary care. The experience lasts about a week and in that week, we'll be shadowing the doctor and doing whatever tasks he/she needs to be completed. Now I want you to go ahead and guess where I got placed in North Carolina.
Go ahead, I'll wait.
If you guessed Charlotte, you'd be wrong.
Greensboro? Nahhh.
High Point? Raleigh? Winston-Salem??
Nope, Uh-uh, No.
Try Lenoir. Never heard of it? You and me both. It's some small town of about 20,000 people that lies about an hour and a half west of Winston-Salem, somewhat close to the Tennessee border. Near the mountains and whatnot. And I thought Winston-Salem was in the middle of nowhere. Lenoir makes Winston-Salem look like a metropolis. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? Well it is. It should prove to be an interesting experience, that's for sure. After that week though, we got our Spring Break!
Spring Break is gonna be dope, I just gotta figure out what exactly I'm gonna do and finalize those plans…sooner rather than later. I got DC and Miami in mind…but it all depends on the state of my finances 😅. Speaking of finances, if anyone has several thousand dollars that they're just DYING to get rid of, feel free to send it my way. I'll promise I'll put it to excellent use! Sending a car over to me works too 😄. Haha I'll take whatever donations I can get.
Before I finish off this entry, I want to share something that was shared with me this weekend. I personally found it pretty encouraging as well as rejuvenating. To sum it up, it's a short video that features Dr. Curtiss Moore, a cardiology fellow, giving a motivational message about being a Black Man, M.D. (Hehehe I'm clever). Hope it helps you in some sort of way!
And finally, I've decided to start sharing inspirational messages with you each week. If you didn't already know, I'm a firm believer in the tremendous value of positive energy. I believe that you can change not only your daily experiences, but your life overall just by changing the way you think. It may sound crazy, but it's gotten me this far, so why stop now? In the words of one of my old high school friends, “I aspire to inspire.” With that in mind, I would love to help provide some sort of inspiration to someone out there in order to help him/her catalyze a better perspective of life.
Having said all that, today's positive memo is simple:
Change in your life only comes from a change within yourself.
Stay Blessed!
– Black Man, M.D.