Like this:

(click on image for original source)

“…and I do declare that the sun is shining.”

When I last updated this blog in April 2010, I was fighting my way through Neural Science. Easy class for most of my classmates. Not for me. However, I not only passed, but ended the year on a very high note.

Since then I have:

• Found an advisor for my PhD
• Worked on a summer research project with my advisor
• Finished Foundations, i.e. finished all my basic science classes
• Begun helping out with the Care Net Pregnancy Center here in Burlington
• Been hospitalized and diagnosed with ulcerative colitis
• Worked to regain my strength, health and stamina  (see above)
• Taken two months off due to ulcerative colitis issues
• Completed my first rotation in the hospital: Internal Medicine
• Said goodbye to my med school classmates
• Begun my PhD
• Taken my boards
• Turned 26

I plan on doubling back to discuss most of these in depth. The ulcerative colitis in particular took a toll, and is a big part of the reason I haven’t blogged in so long. Let me assure you that not only am I back to normal and on minimal medications, but I can eat anything and am in better shape than I ever have been.

Now I am in grad school, doing a PhD in Bioengineering with Dr. Jason Bates, an Engineering professor tied to the Vermont Lung Center. What am I doing? For now, I can say that we are working on a computational model of what happens in the lung during an allergic asthma attack. More details in the future.

Doing this MD-PhD thing was one of the smartest decisions I’ve ever made.  After two years of the frenetic pace of medical school, the switch to grad school came at just the right time. It’s still busy in its own way, but it’s nowhere near as busy, affording me more free time. I know of one MD-PhD student at Johns Hopkins, Jimmy Lin, who’s using it to also get an MPH and a seminary degree. I’m nowhere near as ambitious, but I do have plans. Many, many, many plans.

Part of that plan involves The Meager Med Student. When I began it, I vowed I was going to walk my readers through all the details of med school life. But then I had to step away from blogging, and it gave me more time to reflect. I eventually realized that while the details of lectures and medical practice were interesting,  in the end I found my emotional journey through med school more fascinating.

So from now on, The Meager Med Student will switch back to a weekly post on med school life. There will still be details about classes and perhaps one or two funny stories. But now it will be more of my emotional responses to the events of med school and the issues of medicine. More fascinating. More insightful. And better written. Look for updates every Friday, the first being the Friday after next.

All that to say, this blog isn’t dead. It’s just begun. I’m back.

Josh Pothen (UVM’s Meager Med Student)

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