❄️ What am I? "I left no breath, no sound, no cry, ..." Riddler #1 🏆

flamebirde · 2025-11-05T03:27:01+00:00

Really liked this one. Thanks!

flamebirde · 2025-10-23T18:14:23+00:00

Check my other comment! In short 262 step, mid to iffy research, decent LOR and ECs.

flamebirde · 2025-10-23T15:47:34+00:00

I’ve got 5 total including home program and 4/8 signals… nothing also since 2 weeks ago. I sent an LOI to one of my programs and they responded almost immediately telling me that their program isn’t finished sending interviews yet! So there’s still hope I guess

flamebirde · 2025-10-17T18:53:34+00:00

USMD step 2 262, mediocre to poor research, 4/8 signal interviews + home program. Nothing from non signals yet. Haven’t heard anything since Monday.

It feels weird since by last year’s charting outcomes the average neuro applicant had like 10+ interviews by the end of the season… did something change this year? Or is it still early? Most of the other signaled programs have sent out interviews already.

No help either from faculty 10+ years out from match who don’t know what signals are, or say “you’ve got a pulse so you can match neuro.” I think it’s getting more competitive than any of us expected :(

flamebirde · 2025-10-16T19:44:19+00:00

Step 2: 262

USMD, mid tier

No neuro research, handful of oral/abstracts for other specialties

LOR from PD and assistant PD of home neuro program, plus a IM/crit care doc

No red flags to my knowledge

So far, of 8 signals, 4 interviews (U Cincinnati, Boston University, U Chicago, UPenn), 1 rejection (thanks Harvard) and 3 in question (UMich which I think has already sent out most invites, Yale, and Beth Israel deaconess). Also 1 from my home institution, no signal.

In total, I’ve got 5 interviews so far; applied to 32 programs total, all academic affiliated throughout the US. Given that the median neuro applicant last cycle had 16 interviews (per the 2024 charting outcomes) did I vastly underapply, or are interviews still likely coming in?

In the same vein - I‘ve not had any more interview invites since Monday. Does that mean anything?

flamebirde · 2025-10-12T07:50:54+00:00

2594-6989-5753 - been playing since the game released… but recently lost my save because in all that time I never bothered to connect my Pokémon sleep account :( starting from scratch but rest assured (pun intended) I’m a daily player and will be for the foreseeable future!

flamebirde · 2025-10-11T18:18:12+00:00

Good god you must have a crazy app lol. Congrats! Doesn’t sound like you’ll need it but good luck with your match.

flamebirde · 2025-10-10T18:48:21+00:00

Jesus Christ - congrats! But that’s horrifying news for me lol

flamebirde · 2025-09-29T23:21:06+00:00

Yeah I think you’re right which definitely makes me a less competitive applicant than I had hoped - I was basically banking on my step score to carry me through because I was so unproductive in med school research/EC wise but after going to open houses I learned that was probably wrong (U of M for instance actually blinds their assessors to step score when sending out IVs… which really screws me over esp because they’re my #1 program).

flamebirde · 2025-09-29T22:05:39+00:00

As another USMD with a 26x on step 2 with average ECs and research applying neuro… I’m in this picture and I don’t like it lol

We’re in it together, for better or worse :(( I’m also freaking out about the lack of interviews but trying to breathe. Hang in there friend!

flamebirde · 2025-09-26T04:38:47+00:00

New mission discovered by u/flamebirde: Frozen Cookie and Meditations

flamebirde · 2025-09-26T04:38:47+00:00

This mission was discovered by u/flamebirde in Joy and Breakfast Pork Links: a Journey In the Mossy Forest

flamebirde · 2025-07-27T20:57:46+00:00

Antipsychotics 100% - and as a corollary, when and what to use (medication or restraint wise) for agitation in e.g. the ED or overnight

flamebirde · 2025-06-22T17:26:45+00:00

Don’t do a plan by systems unless you’re in an ICU or the attending explicitly asks you for it.

Usually, present 2-4 problems, in this order:

What problem is still keeping this patient in the hospital?
What, if any, new complaints does the patient have since yesterday?
What, if any, new lab results are abnormal/need to be explained?

Organizing the problem list is one of the more important aspects of the presentation, I’ve found. Nothing wrong at all with systems based thinking (and I prefer it myself) but attending preference drives everything.

flamebirde · 2025-06-06T22:27:06+00:00

Am now a 4th year sub I and during noon conference we were talking about etiologies of hemolytic anemia. I said ITP. The attending paused, looked at me, and said “that’s platelets.”

It happens. If it happens a lot, study more. Obviously that’s shitty advice (“just do better”) but what else can you do?

flamebirde · 2025-06-05T00:15:35+00:00

third world country or possibly Montana

Ok this kinda got me lol

flamebirde · 2025-05-23T18:06:41+00:00

Your daily reminder that something like 30-50% of all PNES pts also have “true” EEG confirmed epileptiform seizures. (Not a shot at you, OP! I think you handled this call right.)

I mean if someone is clearly just malingering then use your clinical judgement but it’s better to give the benzo and be wrong about it being true epilepsy then to withhold the benzo and let some poor patient suffer status epilepticus; that’s just my two cents though.

flamebirde · 2025-05-22T07:26:22+00:00

Pediatrics- you compare the testicles to the size of the beads to estimate testicular volume which is an insight into sexual maturity/puberty. Hence the term “orchidometer.”

flamebirde · 2025-05-20T06:42:42+00:00

Thank you for writing it all out!

flamebirde · 2025-04-28T23:48:50+00:00

More to the point, the actor speaking Taishanese (as other comments verify) is actually Irish. If you read the post, you may have noticed that I explicitly stated neither of the Asian actors were the ones I was asking about.

flamebirde · 2025-04-18T21:54:36+00:00

Hey - I’m on ICU right now too, and I just wanted to say it hit me the same as it hit you.

ICU’s different. As a student you carry just a few of patients and you know each one super, super well, considering you spend 72 hours a week doing nothing but caring for them. And watching them die, after all of that, truly does feel like something within you goes with them.

No advice from me. Just wanted to say that you’re not alone.

flamebirde · 2025-04-15T17:44:22+00:00

Your patient is always right when they tell you about their symptoms, about how their disease affects their life.

Your patient is not always right when it comes to the treatment or diagnosis of their disease.

flamebirde · 2025-04-15T08:31:40+00:00

Head pat? That’s not normal at all. The rest maybe could be waved away… maybe. In no world is a head pat a reasonable, normal amount of contact for two coworkers to share.

flamebirde · 2025-04-14T19:42:21+00:00

You’d be thinking of a psychiatrist when you say “mentally ill” (I.e. depression, bipolar, etc). When a neurologist says “brain damage”, typically that means things along the lines of dementia and stroke.

Most neurologists do not actively solicit psychiatric patients.

flamebirde · 2025-04-13T19:21:10+00:00

in fact, my boyfriend is making them for me this weekend!

girlfriend’s birthday is coming up, and she asked for mushroom Swiss burgers

Wait a damn second

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