Every Med School Student Has Dealt with These 17 Things ...

When I was in high school and even college, I wanted nothing more than to go to medical school. That did not happen, obviously, and although I would still love to do it, it's not in the cards. That makes me sad. It's okay, though, because to say med school is hard is sort of like saying that brain surgery is delicate. No shit it's hard. It's a nightmare – an amazing, bloody, life-or-death nightmare that can make you or break you. Med school students deal with so many things, all of which simultaneously give me FOMO and make me grateful that I'm not the one dealing with them.

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The First Day

I can only imagine that every first-year intern experiences a combination of excitement and utter terror when they start their first day. Good lord, you are a doctor and you will be saving lives.

Losing All Your Friends

Unless they're on the same shift, except then they're not so much friends as they are rivals, competitors, family, and teammates.

Discovering That You Will Not Be Rich

I always laughed at my fellow pre-med students who bragged to other undergrads about how rich they were going to be. Like they were going to just start making mad bank as an intern or a resident.

Realizing How Long It Will Take You to Pay off Those Med School Loans

You will have to do approximately eight million appendectomies to pay for your education. (Rough estimate; probably inaccurate.)

Your First Digital Rectal Exam

Don't laugh. Don't laugh at the person doing it. Someday it will be you.

Famous Quotes

Meaning is not what you start with but what you end up with.

Peter Elbow

The First Time You Suture

You feel, very briefly, like THE BEST DOCTOR EVER.

Sleep Deprivation

You will be sleep deprived for the next 5-10 years. It's fine. You'll be fine.

Rounds Are Not Fun

They are not like “Grey's Anatomy.” Everything at SGH is a lie.

The Importance of Sleep

You will soon sleep anywhere and everywhere. You will learn how to fall asleep in five seconds. Fifteen-minute naps will feel like a luxury.

Three Words: Medical Student Syndrome

At some point, you will become convinced that you have every illness or disease you've come across. Every cough, pimple, and ache is serious business.

The Joy of Diagnosing Everyone You Meet

You will. Family, friends, lovers, cashiers – you'll start diagnosing everyone. They will all hate you.

Hating the People in Another Program

This happens in every group. Even hospital personnel gets separated into cliques. It's like how, in band, the brass section always hates the woodwinds.

Sucking up Even when You Don't Want to

Even if you've never sucked up to anyone in your whole life, you'll find yourself sucking up to at least one of your superiors.

The First Time Someone Ejects Bodily Fluids onto Your Person

Might be puke. Might be pee. Might be poo. Might be snot or blood or pus. But it will happen.

The Surge of Adrenaline

When there's a trauma or an emergency or a new case – that adrenaline will keep you going even if you've already been up for 36 hours.

And the Inevitable Crash

Oh, it's bad. It's so bad. There's not enough coffee in the world.

Saving a Life for the First Time

You are a Fray song. You are amazing. You are awesome. You are an MD god.

Med school students? Let me live vicariously through you. Share your stories. Please. Pleeease?

Feedback Junction

Where Thoughts and Opinions Converge

Exactly!

This article is vert discouraging for people who want to get into med school. Some of them just love the profession and the thought saving lives! It's not always about the money for some of of them. This article can dampen anybody's spirit.

I agree i have all kinds of stories and they do not even exceed the stuff on TV I'm interning right in the ER it's horrific lol

every point was right..starting from the very first one.Our schoolmates, get married..have babies...enjoying holiday in goa/miami/maldives and we just hope in another decade we will get to that point someday. and then we learn..no...we have to learn to love our profession because we have to start enjoying the five minutes "holiday" which we get in between, because the phone buzz will never stop wherever you go, and you are tempted to answer that, because of the beautiful "HIPPOCRATIC OATH" and patient is GOD feeling which gets imbibed in us with time.

My specialty is neurology so as you can see.

For me it was the opposite. I got less worried about my own health, because I learned when something is serious, and when it's not. And about diagnosing people, for me its he other way around, people come up to me wanting a on the spot diagnosis, and it can be annoying at times. (Sorry for any mistakes, english is not my first language) but it was a fun article to read!

Ahem noooi

Well, you better get used to the truth. Medicine is not about money, it's about service to others. I'm a resident and I love my job. What I hate is losing patients. I still think the pay is ok though for my country.

*very

I'm in my 1st year and knowing that I won't be able to earn money well discourages me a lot!

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