What is the MIR preparation like when you suffer from an autoimmune disease?

The preparation of MIR exam It takes months of effort and dedication. A few days before the test is held, many students talk regarding what these last few months have meant for them and their expectations for this Saturday.

Some of those applicants who have faced a sacrificed daily preparation full of nervousness and uncertainty, have also had another handicap: suffering from an autoimmune disease.

This is the case of Teresa, a medical student and candidate for MIR 2022. She suffers arthritis rheumatoid, and in addition to the joint manifestations that this causes, during the preparation of the exam vasculitis was detected. “I have suffered from the disease since I was three years old,” the student tells Medical Writing, admitting that sequels like “the deformity of some joints They prevent her from sitting down for the twelve hours of study that the exam requires.”

“Sometimes what is urgent makes you put aside what is important,” he admits to this newspaper. “You put aside your health, but no matter how much you take care of yourself, everything autoimmune and psychological are also closely related,” he says.

MIR and rheumatoid arthritis: “I feel like I’m going slower”

The student assures that during the preparation phase of the MIR He changed treatment up to three times, all of them cutaneous, since some of them produced side effects. “In addition, we must add the corticosteroids, that with the changes of mood that one can already have during the MIR preparation, this accentuates it”, he assures.

Regarding her daily study routine, the student admits that she tries to dedicate the whole day to the corresponding subject, but she never has time for everything. “I feel like I’m slowing downFor example, I can’t spend so many hours sitting down and then I try to read lying down and obviously it’s not the same,” she says.

“I have to bear in mind that if I get up at eight o’clock to study, I’m not 100% ready to study until half past nine,” he says, admitting that “he has a feeling of unease all the time because he can’t study for the day everything you have planned”. For this reason, Teresa feels that “that doesn’t have the same rhythm”, although he admits that “his illness should not be taken into account because he has the same abilities as others and they are not different from anyone else, but it is true that on a day-to-day basis it is more costly for us”.

This has been the difficulties during the Medicine career

Lastly, as to whether her illness has also had an influence throughout the six years of her career, the student affirms that it has. “During the medical career I have also experienced difficulties, perhaps at the moment you do not fall but if you think regarding it you realize it, “he acknowledges. In fact, one of those difficulties that Teresa talks regarding was during practices.

“I can’t squeeze the sphygmomanometer to measure blood pressure and the doctor told me I didn’t know how to do it,” says the MIR applicant. “I have not had any support during those six years and it is necessary,” he says, before admitting that “sometimes when you talk regarding it with more people you realize that you are not the only one and you think regarding the number of people who are in the same situation”.

Although it may contain statements, data or notes from health institutions or professionals, the information contained in Medical Writing is edited and prepared by journalists. We recommend the reader that any questions related to health be consulted with a health professional.