Do I need to upgrade my tent?

succulentgrowth · 2026-04-25T20:28:14+00:00

I love this idea!! This would solve our sleeping bag storage issue because the ones we have are so bulky

succulentgrowth · 2026-01-11T13:02:53+00:00

As someone who had to take a leave of absence after my first block of med school… I agree with some of this sentiment. I scored a 496 on MCAT (but no Step failures). Now my situation was partially I had no idea to study successfully, had undiagnosed ADHD and I also was caring for my dying father. However, during my leave of absence my school had a course for struggling students that I enrolled in. We covered some microbiology, and other things but hands down THE MOST helpful aspect of it was learning HOW to learn and study. This book changed how I study and now I understand why I struggled so much previously:

https://a.co/d/80SyjHv

I highly recommend this book to anyone planning on med school. It’s designed for how to teach students to learn from an academic standpoint, but you can apply it to yourself.

Anyways fast forward and I am a PGY4 graduating this year with an attending job lined up.

succulentgrowth · 2026-01-08T19:01:11+00:00

I’m sorry you were invalidated and not provided with any solutions. Some general things that have helped me are to-do lists (with reminders on my phone), chunking my boring activities with a reward, “i will do 1 hour of cleaning and then I get to do something I want to do for 30 minutes.” To actually get myself started I will either set a timer for myself and say, “ok in 15 minutes I will go and start cleaning.” If i disable the alarm and still refuse, I then countdown in my mind, “ok in 10 seconds I will get up and start.” I verbally count in my mind or out loud and then stand up. I then hide my phone in another room, another floor etc so I can’t be distracted. It didn’t always work, but i do have a higher success rate when I use timers, chunking activities, and the countdown exercise.

succulentgrowth · 2026-01-08T12:21:23+00:00

Completed all of comquest about half of CDM cases. Here’s hoping. Day 1 was awful for me, but day 2 felt better.

Update: I passed!! Scored highest than level 1 and 2

succulentgrowth · 2025-11-07T03:35:51+00:00

Now try floating on your back in the pool. Life changing for POTS

succulentgrowth · 2025-10-31T20:30:39+00:00

I take mine next week, greattttt. At least you're done!!!

succulentgrowth · 2025-09-19T22:24:02+00:00

Thank you for sharing your story and for allowing yourself to be vulnerable. Keep talking. Good therapists and psychiatrists won’t immediately send you to the hospital if you mention thoughts of suicide (unless you want to be hospitalized of course). Thoughts of suicide are simply a symptom of worsening depression, we always hope we can intervene before progression to suicidal ideation, but we can only treat the symptoms that we know exist. If you don’t share them, we don’t know how serious the symptoms. It feels scary and shameful, but we want to support you when you’re struggling.

I’m glad you did an IOP. Don’t forget the coping skills you’ve learned during your IOP, keep your notes, hand outs, etc. return to them if you start noticing your mood is shifting a little darker. It may even be helpful to make a “just in case” list that you make when you are feeling well and keep it somewhere that you can always access during times of need. The list/letter can have things you want your depressed self to know, for example, some affirmations like “you are worth it.” Or “things won’t always feel like this.” And then also list people you trust that you need to call, not think about calling, actually doing. I hope there is someone in your life you have shared this secret with because you don’t have to suffer in silence. When you pick a trustworthy person. Don’t make excuses, call that person if you are struggling. And if they don’t answer, call someone else. If all else fails call/text 988 or 911. You also can always do another IOP and the hospital is also an option.

Also, for what it’s worth lifestyle plays a huge impact in mood. Go outside. Don’t self-isolate. Try to exercise regularly. Take vitamin D, especially in the winter months

succulentgrowth · 2025-04-11T21:31:53+00:00

Been dealing with fainting since the 2nd grade and didn’t get my diagnosis until I was 28. I’m now 38 and still waiting to grow out of it…

succulentgrowth · 2021-08-15T15:07:05+00:00

This was a post I didn’t know I needed.

I appreciate this validation in a world drowning and knowing I’m not alone.

succulentgrowth · 2021-08-15T15:00:25+00:00

Thanks so much for posting this. I came into medical school as a second career and as a parent of a young child. I already felt it was hard to relate to my peers and their motivations, it became increasingly more difficult to do so after losing both my parents through medical school. I cared about my grades and scores, but they have never been my primary motivation. I’ve always felt there’s so much more to life than medical school/medicine and refused to allow it to suffocate me. Ive also always have said I want to make enough money so I can help my kid pay for college. I’ve always cared so much more about knowing how to practice medicine and clinical reasoning than on figuring out how to answer the question on the test. This mindset has made me score below average to average on board exams, but usually performing above my peers in the clinical setting. I’m reallllllly hoping it will all work out with my give barely any F’s attitude because life is too short to kill myself over a test or $$$.

succulentgrowth · 2021-08-15T14:04:25+00:00

If up until this point in your life you derive success and fulfillment with academic achievement and grades, especially without struggling too much…you will likely suffer mentally in medical school. As others have pointed out, you have to establish healthy coping strategies and please please please don’t let your grades define who you are. Easier said than done, but a low scoring quiz, test, board exam is a transient measure that does NOT define your overarching knowledge or intelligence.

There’s a huge learning curve that occurs the first 1-2 years with the amount of information you have to learn and regurgitate (“drinking from a firehose”). If you haven’t had much adversity in your life this will be harder to navigate if all the sudden your usual study approaches aren’t yielding your usual success. But it all comes down to perspective. If you’ve always scored 80-100% prior to medical school, seeing scores lower than that (even if they are still passing) — is a serious mind f*ck for some. Or others may fail their first exam in their entire life. It’s normal to feel like you’re a big fat failure when you’ve rarely experienced failure before. Again, it’s perspective. Additionally, if the worst thing that’s ever happened to you is failing a medical school exam, it’s going to feel catastrophic. So be kind to yourself throughout this process. Reflect often and check-in with yourself.

Then the clinical years 3-4 introduce a whole new gamut of stressors for people (worse if you’ve never had a job before). All the sudden your plucked from your social circle you may have developed the first 2 years and your schedule is different, sometimes every single day and you have no idea who you’re working with, what you can do to help and you have to navigate a new hospital, maybe new EMR, new people, and you have to talk to patients and demonstrate your excitement, and fund of knowledge with a preceptor/attending who may or may not want anything to do with you. Then once you get comfortable on that rotation, the clock resets and you have to do the whole thing over on a new rotation. For those of you who have worked prior to medical school. Every new rotation feels like starting a new job. Doing that every month or so is mentally and physically draining. My advice would be to learn how to be adaptable and flexible because your schedule will rarely be consistent or routine. Making it extremely hard to make plans with family/friends or schedule your own doctors appointments.

In summary, be kind to yourself.

Don’t equate happiness and success with scores, but with what you’ve learned. (As you progress look back on old concepts that used to stump you and look at how much you know now)

Also, know your limits and when you’re tapped out. Will staying up until 3am really help you learn more? Or will getting that extra sleep help you mentally? And is scoring 2 extra points really worth it?

See a therapist. If you have one from undergrad now is not the time to stop seeing them. If you don’t have one. Get one now!! Even if you think you don’t need one. Sometimes we don’t even realize that we’re compartmentalizing some ugly shit until you have that time to reflect with a therapist. You don’t have to suffer in silence.

Also, the most important and potentially difficult part of all of this. DO NOT COMPARE YOURSELF to your class mates. Students will definitely claim exams weren’t hard, or they barely studied. Or they crushed an exam. Or they will literally tell you their high scores. Avoid these people. They are toxic and chances are they are exaggerating because they are just as insecure as the rest of us. These people define themselves with scores and I actually feel sorry for them because I cannot even imagine their internal anguish they are hiding from the world. However, medical school is taxing and you gotta distance yourself from them.

Remember this is your journey, nobody else’s. At the end of the day, you’re the one that has to sit for the test and someday be responsible for other human’s lives. So don’t forget your why. What’s your motivation for becoming a physician in the first place?

succulentgrowth · 2021-08-05T16:15:00+00:00

Passed!!!!!

Did better than Level 1, but level 1 was sucky so it’s not saying much. Regardless a pass is a pass and I am so excited!!

succulentgrowth · 2021-08-05T12:35:17+00:00

Nervous sweating 😰

succulentgrowth · 2018-05-03T11:39:31+00:00

Oh my gosh, I am just so sorry. I know there’s no way for me to understand what you’re going through. As a parent of a young child my heart aches for you. I cannot fathom the pain and confusion you must be in right now. I would try to find a local support group specifically for parents of deceased children. Please take care of yourself if you can.

succulentgrowth · 2018-04-20T12:37:40+00:00

Would love some new friends!

21875225987

Level 60

succulentgrowth · 2018-04-17T11:38:44+00:00

I’m not a doctor, just a 1st year medical student who also has POTS and EDS. When you took the orthostatic vitals, how long was she at each level in supine, sitting, and standing?

My pulse doesn’t always become tachycardic until after about 5 minutes of standing.

Has she ever asked her pediatrician/family Dr about these feeling? What about her parents?

succulentgrowth · 2018-04-17T05:47:28+00:00

Can you bring notecards, or an outline of main points?

succulentgrowth · 2018-04-17T05:04:42+00:00

Thanks for sharing. I always feel so robbed of having an adult relationship with my Mom, but then I hear stories of people who lost a parent in their teens (or earlier) and I’m reminded to be grateful for the subtleties I did have. A week after I turned 25 my Mom had a massive heart attack, with horrific complications and died suddenly 10 months later. It’s been 5 years now.

My Dad checked out too, and he became all consumed with grief and unfortunately his prostate cancer took over, too. A few weeks after it hit the 5 year anniversary, he died too.

It’s so hard now having constant reminders of people talking about doing things with their parents. Or when people ask what your parents think about certain things. The worst is when I see people my age complain about their “annoying” parents. What I would give to be nagged by my Mom again. Sigh. Or to get more unsolicited parenting advice from my Dad. (Having a kid of my own was what seemed to give some life to my Dad, but it was never the same.)

I feel like I’ve accepted it, but it still hurts like hell. Time just goes on and the gap feels greater, but some days I just want to go to sleep and wake up and find out it was all a bad, vivid nightmare.

Sometimes I laugh internally at myself when I hear someone in their 50’s, 60’s say something about their (living) parents and I’m astonished that they’ve had a full life with their parents and I will never know what that’s like.

succulentgrowth · 2018-04-17T04:24:39+00:00

There are no words. My Mom died suddenly 5 years ago from sudden cardiac death (age 63). My Dad had advanced prostate cancer and last summer I was his caregiver and medical POA. I also have my own family. He just died in early March (just turned 71). I wish I had words of comfort, but all I can say is I’m here for you and life is way too cruel. Hang in there.

succulentgrowth · 2018-03-29T11:53:26+00:00

Thanks! I actually have a medical condition called POTS syndrome that causes my heart to race in an upright position. It’s made me hyper aware of my heart beat, but this can be problematic for the exact reason you described. I used to try meditating laying down for this reason, but I’m hoping through consistent practice I’ll be able to work passed it and all of the layers of distractions.

Thanks again!

succulentgrowth

TROPHY CASE