Sunday, December 16, 2007

Back to the Real World

Ahh.... It's fun to be a normal person again. Tonight I get to go to... (gasp, wait for it....) Wal-Mart!!! I can even spend time looking at things other than the 5 frozen meals I used to grab on the go. Today I slept 'til noon. It was bliss. I spent all last night watching reruns of shows on ABC that I never got to see the 1st time. All is right with the world.

We got back our scores from the tests we had Monday in Gross Anatomy and Developmental Anatomy. I somehow managed to pass them both. I thought I'd made a 50 and an 80 on the Gross written and practical, but ended up with a 74 and a 74 - weird, huh? Class average was a 79, which is the lowest class average we've ever had on any test. I also thought I'd done terribly on the Developmental test, but ended up with an 83. Surely to goodness I passed those boards and never have to take those classes again.

The white coat burning ceremony was Friday night. All of us were running on about 2 hours of sleep, but it was a good time. If I can figure out how to post pictures on this thing I'll try. We didn't burn our white coats that we received at the white coat ceremony at the beginning of the year. Those are the nice ones we'll actually wear our 3rd year when we get to practice being doctors on unsuspecting patients. Instead we burned the nasty white lab coats we wore in gross lab all semester. I tried washing mine the 1st couple of weeks, but then decided it wasn't worth the time or trouble. It also made Jennifer's laundry room and garage smell like dead people and she didn't like that too much. So, I think my lab coat went at least 2 1/2 months without being washed. It smelled great :) It looked even greater - blech.

Thanks to everyone who prayed for me and called me and texted me during this stressful time. I really appreciate it and I know that's what got me through the week without going completely bonkers. Kris surprised me with a new kitten a few nights ago. She's tiny and black, but seems to be turning a dark grey. Jennifer named her Sadie. She's a cutie :)

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times.

This week shall be written down in Allison's little black book of THE WORST WEEK EVER!

It started with 6 hours of testing on Monday. This included 25% of our developmental anatomy grade and 25% of our gross anatomy grade. This 50% came from 2 written tests and a practical - with decapitated heads everywhere. Great fun - lemme tell ya... I must say I enjoyed gross overall, but honestly, by Sunday night I was ecstatic that it was the last night I'd ever have to spend in lab looking for some miniscule artery or nerve. I hope it's the last night anyway. I don't think I did too well on the written part of that test (I'm thinking in the 40-80 range), but there's really no way to tell. I'd had about 8 hours of sleep over those last 3 days, so I can't even really remember what was on the test.

Anyway, after that exhaustion, Austin and I decided we needed to do 2 things - eat and sleep! So we grabbed some Mexican, shoved it down our throats, and went and conked out at her house for about 4 hours. We woke up at 10:30 (because we'd set our alarms - for 10:30 PM - in order to get up and study for the Gross Anatomy National Board Test (which I just finished taking), but we were so exhausted we just ended up going home. Then instead of studying when I got home I decided to catch up on Grey's Anatomy while I was in the tub, and since the last 2 episodes were a "to be continued" type deal, I couldn't watch one without the other. I literally hadn't seen tv in weeks - probably about 5-6 weeks. I still don't know what the whole deal was with that mall shooting I vaguely heard about and that television writers' strike that may or may not still be going on. I have absolutely no clue what's going on in this crazy world.

Yesterday we studied all day - not really knowing how to study the entire human body in one day. Some of our fellow classmates were able to read through the entire Board Review Series book (conveniently written by our very own professor). We want to physically hurt those people. But that's beside the point. By the time I got home I was mentally exhausted, sleep-deprived, and all around just freaked out about my 1st board test. (If you fail it, you fail the class.) Then I get to find out that my cat, Gracie, got hit by a car and died. Kris gave her to me last year for Christmas when she was so tiny she could fit into my hand. I've had other cats and dogs before, but those were more of "family" animals that we all shared. This is the 1st one that was all mine. I paid her vet bills, got her fixed, bought her food, and scooped her poop (most of the time. Thanks sister :) ) She kept me company when Julia was in England and I was in an apartment all alone. She liked to sleep on my pillow just above my head every night. She only drank running water - or water from my glass. All around, she was just a silly cat and I'll miss her.

It was enough to throw me off of my studying for a while and I was really worried when I went into my Gross Board earlier today. I didn't get any studying done this morning because I was so upset and wasn't hungry, so I didn't eat a good lunch before I went into this test. I think it all worked out though. I didn't freak out during the test and I had plenty of time leftover. I don't know if that's just because I didn't think the questions through, or because I knew the right answers. I guess we'll see when I get back to school after Christmas break. I've heard only 2 people from UMC have ever failed and you have to miss way over 1/2 the questions to fail it, so I really hope I'm not one of those people. I don't feel like I am. The questions seemed easier than any of the ones we ever had on a test, I just couldn't quite remember the specific innervations and blood supply of every single muscle. Whatever though, I guess that's over and it's on to the next. We have our cumulative biochemistry test Friday. That'll be another 20% of our biochem grade. So this week I've had 45% of gross, 25% of developmental, and I'm about to have 20% of my biochem grade determined. I'm slightly stressed. My sister says it's inhumane the way they treat us and I'm very much obliged to agree.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, but I really felt the need to vent!!!