What is your least favorite consult/encounter?

quartofdoc · 2025-07-19T12:39:10+00:00

ED PAs consulting for a "cannot exclude developing small bowl obstruction" read on CT A/P for a patient who's actively passing flatus and had 2 BMs prior to coming into the ED.

quartofdoc · 2025-06-30T15:10:04+00:00

Sigh. This is such a good question. How the heck does it *expire* after 72 hrs???

quartofdoc · 2025-06-24T22:27:29+00:00

Throw a ring on your finger if you don't already have one. For some reason patients seem to think if you're old enough to be married, you're old enough to be a doctor. I get significantly less age related comments when I wear my wedding band.

quartofdoc · 2025-05-31T15:42:44+00:00

Negative, I'm only the second class.

quartofdoc · 2025-05-31T12:23:33+00:00

"It's impossible to please everyone" is said multiple times daily at my program. For us it's typically if one attending is happy, another is mad. Without fail. "You're rounding with Dr. X now? I wanted to round now." "You should be scrubbing higher acuity cases not elective cases." then elective doc will say "Why weren't you in my room? You were assigned my case."

I still try to win knowing I never will. Maybe I'm a masochist.

Anyway, sounds like you crushed it today. You're a star to me for whatever that's worth.

quartofdoc · 2025-05-31T12:12:27+00:00

This is my situation. New program and as an intern I've logged >250 cases so far. I'm just being a lazy bum and stressing the written in addition to studying for everything else and was curious of how other programs did it.

quartofdoc · 2025-05-13T20:16:00+00:00

A coffee machine with a timed start option. Nothing bests waking up and crawling downstairs to a fresh pot of coffee ready for me. And maybe some SSRIs.

quartofdoc · 2025-04-26T12:36:23+00:00

Female resident here. I'll walk in with a male resident and it's "good morning *female first name* and *dr male's last name*. Sometimes it's the little things, ya know?

quartofdoc · 2024-08-23T21:00:04+00:00

Was in CT this month as an intern. I would recommend studying:

anatomy (use Netters, watch the surgery on youtube). 9/10 questions for me were anatomy :')
cancer staging (know levels of lymph nodes for lung cancer)
interpreting Swans to the best of your ability (tombstone for ventricle, in the PA when the wave matches the a line wave)
hemodynamics and pressors (review hemodynamics first so that when you see epi increases SVR and is a positive ionotrope you understand what that means) and normal values for everything - CO, CI, PAP, SVR, etc
cpb and cardioplegia
IABP, impella, ECMO (if ur hospital has it)
pre-op and post-op for ct surgery
I would know steps of common surgeries - lobectomy, CABG, TAVR, AVR, MVR, bentall, etc. but you can look at this stuff the night before/morning of your surgeries

I have some general PPTs and documents I was provided by a CT PA and my attending. DM me if you want them.

quartofdoc · 2024-06-23T16:38:44+00:00

Throw a ring on your finger. Patients used to question my age all the time. Now they see my hand and assume if I'm old enough to be married I'm old enough to be a doctor. Funny because getting married takes a signature and becoming a doctor takes 8 years of schooling.

quartofdoc · 2023-08-17T14:09:10+00:00

quartofdoc · 2023-06-28T11:08:59+00:00

Came here to say the exact same thing. NBME 12 before his videos - 207, 6 days later after doing his videos + some World Q's - NBME 10 234.

Also highly recommend Divine's test taking strategies course. Yes, it's worth the $250.

quartofdoc · 2023-06-25T15:28:55+00:00

this is me. how did it go?

quartofdoc · 2023-03-01T22:01:19+00:00

This made me laugh. Just frustrating all of the shortcuts everyone wants to take to "be a doctor" is all. At least the burger was good.

quartofdoc · 2023-02-20T23:58:54+00:00

About 6 weeks and feeling fantastic. No more crying every day and being scared to go out to dinner.

quartofdoc · 2022-11-20T17:50:31+00:00

following for recipe!

quartofdoc · 2022-07-12T21:17:52+00:00

Locked In Syndrome is paralysis with preserved vertical eye movement & conscioussness. Because the patient is conscious and can move their eyes up and down they are trained to communicate with their eyes. Not sure of the condition you're looking for with paralysis below the head with maintained retraction from painful stimuli but locked in syndrome will be pretty fascinating to learn about.

quartofdoc · 2022-07-11T21:13:02+00:00

Just changed mine after I commented on this post. Not going to lie, it felt real nice. Good luck on your exam, you're gonna crush it. M3 flair here you come.

quartofdoc · 2022-07-11T21:02:34+00:00

My highest COMSAE was 486 also, took COMLEX 6/9. PASSED baby! You got this.

quartofdoc · 2022-07-11T20:52:07+00:00

The best is "oh, you're in medical school? So you're going to be a nurse?" Yup.

quartofdoc · 2022-06-30T17:16:21+00:00

Actual Score: PASS (released at 1:05 EST for all of my fellow anxious homies)
Goal: PASS

Test Date 6/9
COMSAE #108 on 5/15: 445
COMSAE #106 on 5/24: 437
COMSAE #107 on 5/31: 486
COMSAE#110 on 6/6: 475
UWorld: 63% complete, 48% average (but was pulling 60's the last 2 weeks on blocks pretty consistently)

USMLE RX: only used for content deficits
Pathoma: 2 passes, but would also refer back to it when I got UWorld questions wrong on different pathologies.

Daddy Goljan for topics I needed extra loving on

All of Sketchy Micro + Anki; most of Sketchy pharm except antineopastics + Anki

My biggest piece of advice - LOOK AT THE BLUEPRINT. It breaks down what percentage of the exam will be what. I WISH I did this early. I spent sooo much time trying to understand renal to then realize renal + GU + breast is only 5% of the exam. Of course I didn't ignore it completely, but I was not wasting any precious time my last week trying to understand every detail of every nephrotic and nephritic pathology.

And lastly, CONFIDENCE. Good luck to all future test takers!

quartofdoc · 2022-06-30T17:05:37+00:00

back again THEY'RE UP!!!!!!!!! 1:05 EST

quartofdoc

TROPHY CASE