The CASE Chronicles

Hi! I'm Tolu and I'm a lot of things but for the purposes of this blog, I'm a med student! I write about my adventures and hope to document my journey to becoming a doctor.

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What a fantastic January thus far. Truly. Shonda Rhymes, creator of Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy and more, released a book last September called, Year of Yes. To be honest, I have not read it, but…

2017 is my year of YES.

January has been packed full of exciting adventures for me as well as challenges. Check out my latest post on my whirlwind trip to the The Metropolitan Opera, what it was like to be at a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator's Meeting, traveling in DC, and deciding to participate in the Women's March.

"You do not need people to come with you.

You can say yes.

You do not need to be affirmed.

You can say yes.

Do what is right for you. Do it in wisdom.

2017 will be my year of yes. How about you?"

[thecasechronicles]

Dead Ends are New Beginnings

These past weeks have been the most exciting ones I have spent in the lab. They also have been the weeks where I have worked the hardest and most meaningfully. I started this HHMI experience discus…

[thecasechronicles]

5 Things I See Amazing People Do

I am learning how to be a scientist. Observation is one of the first skills you must develop in this area, I have found. As a student of stem cell biology as well as life, I have not only observed…

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Diary of a Mad, Black Scientist?

The other day I was opening up the -160 freezer to grab some cells. As the liquid nitrogen smoke spilled outside the freezer, and I pulled out the rack with the cells I needed, I thought briefly, &…

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The Czarina is Back.

It’s official. Not being in school is actually amazing. As a person who had been socialized through education since the age of 4, 20 years later, I am experiencing what working life is kind of like…

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Hello, Tissue Culture, My Old Friend

I’ve been working on a new song, The Sound of Centrifuges. Checkout the first verse: Hello tissue culture, my old friend I’ve come to talk with you again Because many cells need splitti…

Say no to imposter syndrome

[thecasechronicles]

1 Month. 5 Cities: Milan, Rome, Florence, Chicago and Boston

It has been quite a long time since I’ve taken a traveling vacation (that did not involve my relatives..!). On breaks, I often head back to my parents’ house and chill, but there is som…

Medical student traveling the world!

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Research Block? Nope. Research Year!

Ready or not, here is the story about how a research block is turning into a research year. I’m also laying this all out here just in case anyone else reading is interested in doing something…

Thinking about a research year? Check this out!

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I had to come to Cleveland to…

I HAD to come to Cleveland to: Learn that it was possible to live more than 100 miles away from my parents. Figure out the parallel parking thing. See that Case Western is a fabulous school for ME.…

[thecasechronicles]

The Stuff in the Basement

It's crazy to believe that I have 3 weeks left of my second year of medical school. We've wrapped up neurology and psychiatry in block 6, and are onto orthopedics. Last week, we learned about somat...

Writing and release

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A Year and a Half in Review

It's been awhile. For Foundations of Clinical Medicine, the "reflection/humanistic" part of our curriculum we are supposed to reflect on how we have changed over the past year. Here is my reflectio...

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Freedom Through Empathy

It has been quite some time since I have written a blog post. There have been many reasons for this, but the main reason has been the intensity of the second year of medical school, and my unwillin...

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When Patients Have More to Offer Than You Do

Year 2 of medical school is underway and so is "Physical Diagnosis 3" or PD3. PD3 is the part of our curriculum where medical students are thrown into the hospital and practice doing full physical ...

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Dealing with Scrubs When You're In Scrubs: Relationships and Professionalism in the Hospital

Welcome, Readers--new and old to the Case Chronicles, a blog that chronicles my time in medical school. I'm back in the ring as an M2, and I'll have a much more orthodox blog post coming soon, but ...

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Like Sands Through the Hourglass...

June 1 - June 8, 2015 This is my last LONG summer break until...retirement? And, I am filling it up with sickle cell research and my Community Primary Care Preceptorship (CPCP). This is summer will...

First week of summer in Cleveland! 

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Running Towards the End of Year One

April, 14 - May 7, 2015 WEEKS 39 - 42 I am now in Block IV of medical school which is focused on cardiovascular, renal, and respiratory systems. Some may say that I am now studying the meat (or qui...

Medical school is coming together a bit for the end of year one

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Music, Medicine, and Healing

March 28 - April 13, 2015 Weeks 37 - 38 Let me start with some current events: I'm excited to be in Cleveland for much of the summer. I'll be participating in the NIH Heart, Lung, and Blood Program...