Things to Do After the Storm

This is just a little note to remind me of what all I need to do after the next round of tests. We have our last Micro test this Friday, the Micro board next Tuesday, then Path, Pharm, Genetics, and ICM on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I'm not so sure of the order just yet. Anyway, to do:

Find a dentist in the Jackson area. Make appointment. Get the teefies checked out.

Paint the living room. It's a little, er, bright for my taste. I was fine with it when we moved in, but after 6 months the blinding yellow and gold is starting to really irk me. Anybody want to come over for a paint party? I could provide snacks and margaritas. Maybe the margaritas aren't such a good idea. Don't want a bunch of drunk monkeys painting my living room.

Plant the 3 holly bushes I've had sitting in pots in my front yard since December.

Nail up the house numbers. We just realized our house is the only one on the street that doesn't have our address posted ANYWHERE - not on the mailbox or the house.

Largest Bat Colony in the WORLD?!?!

An almost pointless thing I learned while studying viruses for Microbiology tonight. Austin, TX hosts the world's largest bat colony. Bats are really big carriers of rabies in the US. So if your patient comes in foaming at the mouth or in a stupor and happened to have been bit (bitten?) by a bat in Austin, TX they might have rabies.

Peer Pressure

Ha ha. I kid. You will notice I've changed my background and title. I have a few lovely ladies in my class that also have blogs and have recently done the same. I didn't even know you could use these cutesy backgrounds 'til I saw theirs. I know - I'm slow. So anyway, I am a big old copycat and I jumped on the bandwagon.

I have actually been wanting to change the title for a while. "Seriously," while it does apply to countless situations I have and will continue to find myself in over the course of this thing that is my medical education, was getting kind of old. I signed up for that back in the heyday of Grey's. I think we can all agree that show has nearly jumped the shark. I will keep watching it though. I'm just THAT loyal. Ha.

As for "Chasing Zebras," all those in the medical field already know what that means. For those of you who don't, here's a brief explanation. Whenever you go in and get a history from a patient and then present it to your attending he/she asks for a differential diagnosis - a list of every possible thing/ most probable things that are causing the patient's symptoms. If they have a runny nose and sore throat and you throw out something like, I don't know, brain tumor or pheochromocytoma (an incredibly rare tumor on the adrenal gland that EVERYONE in med school is on the hunt for), then your attending will likely say: "Quit chasing zebras." If you hear hoofbeats - it's probably a horse, not a zebra.

Runner's Log

21 minutes - 2.1 miles + a 5 minute cooldown. Woot for 2 days of running in a row. It's really just another procrastination tool though. Shhh!!!

Runner's Log

15 minutes - 1.5 miles
because it was cold, my throat was hurting, AND I developed one of those horrible cramps right beneath my ribcage. 15 minutes is better than 0 minutes though!

Excitement

Kris has been lusting after a new iPod for a while now. Yesterday he broke down and bought himself a new nano. I've also been wanting a new nano even though my 5-yr old mini works just fine. Why, you ask? For the Nike + technology. It hooks up with a sensor you wear in your shoes while you're running and gives you info like how far you've run, calories burned, etc... It's pretty nifty.

The nano comes in 2 varieties. The 8G is $150 and the 16G is $200. That means it holds 2x as much music for just $50 more! So being the genius that I am I suggested to Kris that we just share the iPod. That's what marriage is all about, right? So we decided to go for the one that holds 2x as many songs. I think this will work out alright since Kris and I never work out at the same time - mostly because he never really works out. *I'm going to get in trouble for that one.* he he he.

I think he's mainly planning on using it next year when he's teaching *fingers crossed* during his off period. He can listen to some music while grading papers. I've just ordered the sensor online. It's reasonably priced at $29. The best part is the sensor fits in the sole of Nike running shoes, but if you don't have those you can get this nifty little $5 contraption that fits on any other type of running shoe and holds the sensor. So really for $35 + shipping of course I've just ordered a rejuvenating motivator to my current workouts. That, my friends is exciting.

In other exciting news I used my new crockpot for the 1st time last night and had amazing results. I'm not a big meat-eater. I like it, but I don't like buying it, cooking it, etc... It seems like whenever I cook anything other than chicken it comes out tough and dry.

Enter - the magical crockpot. I'm obsessed. I made a super easy recipe yesterday. It was just 1 big pork roast, 1/4 c. brown sugar, 6 oz orange juice concentrate, and 1 chopped onion. Let it cook on high for 3 hours, then low 3 hours. The meat fell apart when it was done. I was able to "cut" it with a spoon. I just served it over white rice for a simple dinner. I think next time I might add pineapple towards the end for a little extra oomph. It really was good though. I knew it when Kris and I both looked at each other at the same time and gave a thumbs up. (I was studying - or maybe watching Grey's Anatomy - in the next room. He was on the phone with iPod tech support.) This is how it goes sometimes at our house. We eat dinner at the table about half the time and in various other places the other half of the time. Also, if the world was on our schedule everyone would eat breakfast at 11:00, lunch at 3:30, and dinner at 9:00. They would go to bed at 1:00 or 2:00, and get up at 10:00. Ah, life would be ideal :)

Don't Fret.

Don't worry. I figured out the meaning behind the mysterious slide. It was... on the next slide. My bad.

"Since 1987 there have been 50 candidate preventive vaccines for HIV-1, 30 candidate therapeutic vaccines for HIV-1, but zero have proven effective in humans."

This...

50 +30 = 0


is an actual slide from one of our microbiology lectures. What's even better is that the lecturer ran out of time to get to this one. I'm not sure why he ran out of time since he only prepared 162 slides to cover in less than 2 hours. IDIOT. There should be a 40 slide per hour rule.

I'm utterly perplexed as to what this could mean. Usually we don't have slides with such scarce information on them. For the most part the info is correct. I'll have to let you guys know if I ever figure this one out.

Is there any wonder microbiology is my worst class?

Did You Know?

Did you know that the reason Martha Stewart went to prison was due to an anti-cancer drug? It's a little drug known as Erbitux (Cetuximab is the generic name). Apparently she sold her stock in the company that was producing Erbitux the day before the FDA announced it wasn't approved. The really sad part? It turns out Erbitux was an effective chemo drug and it later went on to be FDA approved. Yikes...

Also, for those of you not in the medical field - when we are taught pharmacology in school we learn the generic names for drugs. That's because the trade names are always changing and there's all kinds of combo pills coming out now. So if you ask your doctor about a drug and they get a confused look on their face it's usually because they don't know the trade name. I've seen the residents look up several drugs of their patients and then go Oh... It's just lisinopril and blah blah blah. Just FYI...

Runner's Log

25 minutes - ~2 miles, because I was lazy and walked some.

Also - while running and listening to a song called Tic Toc, I looked down and saw a container of Tic Tacs on the ground. Coincidence?

The Mysterious Case of Gran Torino

What a wonderful weekend it's been so far. So it hasn't been wonderfully productive, but it has been wonderfully fun. I hadn't been to the movie theatre in probably a few months unless there's a movie I'm forgetting somewhere in there. Then this weekend Kris and I ended up going twice!

I spent Friday getting things done around the house - making lists, going shopping, bringing stuff back home and getting everything put in its place. I had every intention of going over a lecture or 2 after that, but then Kris got home and I ran some errands with him. We dropped off his computer to get fixed and then we decided it couldn't hurt to look at the movie schedule. There's so many good movies out right now. The Mysterious Case of Benjamin Button was set to play at 7:00. It was 5:00. So what did we do? We settled in at Chili's for a leisurely dinner. That means appetizers (Texas cheese fries - not on anyone's diet), dinner (don't worry I boxed up half of mine), and dessert (Chocolate Chip Molten Lava Cake - oh my freakin' gosh good). Then we went and saw the movie. I really liked it. Kris wasn't as impressed. It's 3 hrs long, but I didn't get bored. I thought the scenery was really nice, but I've decided it's because I grew up in a Victorian house and I just liked looking at the house in the movie because it's also Victorian.

So then Saturday rolls around and my bestie Julia is in town visiting her boyfriend. I met up with her and another friend for lunch at Primo's. It was de-lish. I got what I always get - the club sandwich. I'm never disappointed. Then we went to Northpark. Julia was on the hunt for a new pair of jeans. We all know how fun that is. It's particularly hard if you have hips AND a waist because jeans designers design for one or the other, but definitely not both. We both always have problems with our jeans gaping at the top. I've decided we should just find good tailors or learn how to take them in ourselves. Seeing as how I already know how to sew I could probably figure it out, but I just haven't gotten around to it what with that whole med school thing in the way. You know how that goes. After about 20 pairs of jeans at 2 stores she finally found the right pair. We also stumbled upon Nine West during a rare sale. They had several pairs of shoes for just $19.99. Lucky day! And wouldn't you know they had some flats that I really liked (and needed) and some tan alligator slingbacks that I also liked and needed. They're both comfy, go with anything, and I think I could even wear the heels without wincing in pain every 5 minutes. It was a productive trip to the mall for sure.

Then I went home, went over some breast pathology lectures, and made some potato soup (yum!). Julia called and we decided to do a double date and go see Gran Torino. Her significant other wanted to see My Bloody Valentine but we vetoed him. Poor thing. Gran Torino was really good, but so sad. I'm not giving anything away other than that. I was really disappointed with the quality of acting (other than Clint Eastwood's). I sometimes found myself laughing at inappropriate moments due to poor acting skills. It's still worth watching though.

And now it's Sunday. I really need to conquer some Pharmacology and Micro today but instead I'd rather play online and do laundry. I'm seriously about to look at some Pharm though. Really. Right now. Going to study. Yep. Not procrastinating at all.

The End of an Era

for Woodrow. I took him in this morning to be neutered. He was so excited to be at the vet and loved the whole car ride over. I felt pretty bad for him, but it was time. He had begun "marking" certain parts of the house. That's just a no-no.

Sometimes he's so good and other times he's so bad. Yesterday I was quite impressed with his behavior though. I took him for a walk and as we walked past the houses with dogs, they barked or whined. He did not. He generally ignored those dogs. He is not a "yappy dog" as my mama calls them. We may go a week without hearing him bark sometimes. When he does bark - watch out. He has what is called a "baying bark." Apparently that's what most hound or hunting dogs have. It starts as a bark and turns into a little bit of a howl in the middle.

He also ignored all the cats we walked past. The only things he doesn't ignore are scents. He'll catch a deer scent and want to follow it into the woods. For just 28 lbs. he is so strong. He nearly jerked my arm out of socket a few times!

Anyway, I'm hoping this surgery will calm him down just a little. He's just a tad bit too energetic for our tastes most of the time. One of our neighbors remarked that he looked like he was on speed as she saw him running laps around our house.

I guess we'll see how it all turns out. I know he'll get some pampering this afternoon - the "good" dog food that comes in a can and lots of petting. We bought him a new bed last week and hopefully he'll get some use out of it for the next few days.

Apparently

I really like folk music. Isn't it funny when you learn something about yourself and go 'doh'... I've always known immediately the songs I liked from the songs I didn't, but never really knew there was a trend. Well, to make a long story short, Little Miss Sunshine came on today and I immediately knew that I loved the opening theme. I went to iTunes to download it and discovered it's classified as "Folk." So I started snooping around at all the folk music and realized I recognized a lot of the artists and had some of their songs in my library. Anyway, here's a new guy I found today that I really enjoy and a link to his music:

Brett Dennen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amwVyRH2B8A

And the link to the Little Miss Sunshine theme by Devotchka
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbZM6ZSlvvY

Anyway - this Sunday morning has been fantastic so far. I meant to go to church, but ended up sleeping in instead. Maybe God will forgive me since I made it to the hospital by 8 yesterday morning. Just had to catch up on some much needed Zzzzz. I salvaged the morning by making blueberry almond muffins and coffee. Yum!

Kris is at a friend's house watching football so hopefully I can get some much needed study time in.

Hope everyone's weekend was fabulous :)

Saturdays with Cloy

Like Tuesdays with Morrie. Get it? Ha. Anyway - today my preceptor partner and I went to "the Baptist" as the patients call it to get more experience and to take our first history. Of course it helps that we didn't even realize we were doing our assignment while we were working on it. A resident asked us to go in and finish a history he had started on a patient while we were there. Fortunately it was a very nice man (or was it a woman? You'll never know thanks to HIPAA. And yes that's how you spell HIPAA. I checked. ) who happened to know 2 of our classmates! It's such a small world.

We showed up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, sort of, at 8AM this morning dressed in our Sunday finest and white coats. My partner tried calling Cloy (our preceptor) who had told us he'd be at the hospital "around 8 or 9." Usually when someone says this to me it really means 7:30. So we got there at 8. Cloy didn't answer. I called 15 minutes later and he answered - very sleepily. Whoops... I woke him up. 2 of the things I hate doing the most are talking on the phone and bothering people. I had done both simultaneously. Awesome. It wasn't really a big deal though. He said he'd be in in an hour and told us to page a resident and tag along. Do we know how to page anyone? No. Did we figure it out real fast? Yep. We paged a resident and he miraculously showed up in less than a minute. I was impressed.

Then we basically hung out with the residents for a little while and got the run-down on all their patients that were currently at the hospital. They ate breakfast and then we rounded on all the patients. That was fun and a lot faster than I thought it would be. They said it was an unusually low amount of patients though, so that's nice. Cloy showed up at around 9:30 or 10. The residents were all really nice and taught us a few things in their spare time between patients. All in all it was a pretty good day. We left the hospital a little before 2:00 and I meant to go straight home and write up my patient's history while it's fresh, but that didn't happen.

I had to take a hot pocket and diet coke break and watch a little tv. Now it's 6:00 and I've been working on this history for too long. I hate how being a perfectionist or OCD, whichever I am, can make me take so long. I just want to get everything perfect and it's hard to get started on things in fear of messing them up. This is not a hard assignment and in just a few years we'll be doing several a day and just spending 10-15 minutes on them probably. There's just some pressure there when you know you're getting graded and you're trying to impress (or at least not embarrass yourself). Anyway - that's what I'm doing on Saturday night. Jealous?

Wise Words from my Preceptor

In my introduction to clinical medicine class we are assigned a preceptor to teach us various skills we will soon need such as:
how to take a thorough patient history
how to perform the necessary physical exam on a patient
how to choose a drug/drug regimen for a particular patient
etc, etc...

I had the opportunity to work with my preceptor some over the summer and then miraculously ended up with him as my assigned preceptor without even requesting him. (I think God's trying to point me towards family medicine or something) Anyway, he's really great to talk to because he got his MD at UMC and therefore understands what we're going through. His academic profile is a lot like mine. Never studied in high school and had really good grades, studied a little (the night before the test usually) in college and made it into med school, then hit med school, studied non-stop without the beautiful grades to show for it. So here's what he said yesterday that made me happy:

"Once I realized that the first two years were all a game and not about education, I quit worrying about my grades and bided my time until the clinical years started."

It's so true. You can learn 100% of the clinically relevant information for a test and then easily fail it. It's all about memory power and minute details. Some people have the gift of an other-worldly ability to memorize. Others don't. I most certainly do not - and that's just fine. I still have the ability to reason and understand which means I will be an okay doctor when I'm out.

So Glad

that I'm in the class of 2011. I sat near a group of M1s (class of 2012) at lunch and they seriously talked about computer graphics and interface problems for about 20 minutes. Then they talked about their favorite cartoons. The shocker - 3 out of 4 of these people were girls. Yikes. I'm not really trying to be mean, but bless their hearts whenever I get around those M1s all I can think about is how happy I am to be in my class.

Now they're talking about organic chemistry. And I'm getting the heck out of here!

Hooray!

I have the pseudoephedrine at last! And it's working!!! I can breathe out of both my nostrils simultaneously!!!

The really great part is that I learned 2 drugs out of this whole deal. Sure, I was supposed to already know them. That's not important though. What's important is that phenylephrine is a pile of crap and a worthless antihistamine while pseudoephedrine rocks. You won't find that in the pharmacology book or class notes we're assigned.

Note to Self

Phenylephrine does absolutely nothing for my sinus congestion. Must rip off one of those pieces of paper at the pharmacy with some good old pseudoephedrine in the ingredient list, show id, sign a legal document, and still have the pharmacist suspect that I'm going home to make meth in my backyard. It will definitely be worth the trouble if I can manage to breathe through one or even maybe both of my nostrils after getting my hands on this banned substance.

Also

Might I add - I just realized that the adult dosing for Benadryl is actually 2 pills. Let's just say I got some much-needed recuperative sleep last night instead of hacking my lungs up and blowing my nose. Fabulous.

Hilarious

Watching the librarians scramble as one of my classmates asks them to help with their faulty printer system. They're freaking out. They actually had to leave their safe little cubbies and DO some WORK!!! I swear there's about 10 of them and I have no idea what they do all day besides complain when you actually ask them to be helpful.

Back in the Swing of Things

We went back to school to day. And what better way to say "Welcome Back!" then with 3 hours Gynecology lectures? I skipped out on the 8am - hey, I'm sick, remember? I was quite impressed with myself that I made it to the 9:00 on time. I even managed to pack my lunch and get it in the fridge at school before class started.

I'm pretty sure I had "strep throat" this past week. The reason I think that is because I definitely had pharyngitis - a swollen, inflamed pharynx and it was incredibly difficult and painful to swallow. In doctor speak this is dysphagia (difficulty swallowing) and odynophagia (painful swallowing). Sore throats are pretty common, but the painful swallowing is more of a hallmark of strep throat. It's caused by Streptococcus pyogenes and treated with penicillin or a z-pack. In hindsight I should have been treated, but hey - it was the weekend and I didn't have any obligation to study. Spending time in bed wasn't too difficult. Now the pharyngitis is gone, but I have acquired sinusitis - my sinuses are inflamed and producing tons of mucous. Yum... I'm pretty sure this combination is also referred to as "the crud." I have actually heard doctors refer to it as that - they were ER doctors though, so I'll let you draw your own conclusions there.

Kris is working at a different store this week. His higher-ups have decided he is "management material" and are giving him a one week trial run at the Game Stop in Flowood. I really hope he gets it since that means a salary and benefits, plus more control over his work schedule. He found out he can't actually start teaching until August (just a requirement of the teaching classes he's been taking), so he's glad to have the opportunity to do this until then. He still has 30 observation hours to complete in the classroom and then he can start looking for a job. Hopefully he'll find one near us - Northwest Rankin, Madison Central, any of those would be great. We'll see though.

Anyway, I now have 143 days till the dreaded STEP. I am off to study land.

Happy New Year!

2009 is here and today I am attempting to get organized and ready for it. I started cleaning up everything Christmas-related on the 26th and I am STILL putting it all away. I have to make another trip to Wal-Mart today for one of those giant Rubbermaid bins.

There's rooms to be swept, rugs to be vacuumed, laundry to be laundered, and dishes to be washed. Plus there's always exercise to be done since it's the obligatory time of year for that sort of thing. I'm thinking yoga tonight since I'm battling a pretty nasty "cold" right now. Running is out with the sore throat and the fact that my head pounds every time I move it too quickly. Kris has this "cold" too, but unfortunately for him he has to go to work.

We both felt like crap yesterday but had planned on going to Bonefish with a group for the last 2 or 3 weeks so we put on our grown-up pants and went. Julia made reservations 2 weeks ago for 8:00. We got there promptly at 8:15 of course and the place was PACKED! There was standing room only and every 5 seconds you had to move in order for someone to scoot by. It wasn't looking good. But after an hour and a half we finally got our table that we had reserved. Kris had a NY strip and I had Lily's chicken (spinach, goat cheese, artichoke hearts) and garlic whipped potatoes. The food was great. We sat across from Hannah and J.R. - Julia's sister and brother-in-law. They live in North Carolina and have been listening to a David Sedaris book on cd which I happened to get for Christmas so we had plenty to talk about. All in all it was a fun night, but when 11:00 rolled around and they were headed to the actual party we were both exhausted. We went home, put on our pajamas, and got in bed. We didn't really intend to fall asleep before the new year, but of course we did.

Mom's headed to our house right now to give us our Christmas presents. I think that's a great way to start off the new year :)

Merry Christmas Eve!

This morning Kris and I were awakened by a crash and the tinkling of delicate glass Christmas ornaments breaking. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Unfortunately it wasn't even our own animal's doings. We volunteered to babysit Jennifer and Andrew's cat for the week. Yikes. Maybe we should start an insurance policy for when Milly visits. The 2 ornaments I was really worried about didn't break - a long spiral glass seashell one from our Honeymoon and the one of a bride and groom for our 1st Christmas from Kris's mom.

Kris just looked at the mess, looked at me, and said "Merry Christmas Eve!"

Then we started cleaning. The cat got a time-out in the bathroom and Woodrow got a time-out outside. We aren't entirely convinced of his innocence. Meery Bob got no time out because she is infinitely cute and innocent. She laughed at the other animals.

Plans for the Day:
Wrap Kris's presents while he's at work
Clean house (why is this always on the agenda?)
Laundry
Bake


That's about it for now. Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Slacker

So, tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I still don't have presents for the majority of the people on my list. Fortunately we're not having Christmas until several days afterward for most of the people on my list. That = major save... Also, my sister and her new hubby are gone to Ft. Lauderdale for the week so that gives me an extra 6 days to pick up their gift. I may just have to stagger buying presents. I'm very thankful that I live less than 5 miles from every mall in the greater Jackson area.

I went on a shopping extravaganza yesterday. I thought I had nearly gotten Kris's shopping all finished up until I came home and he said: "I hope you didn't get me xxxx or xxxx." Of course that was all that I had gotten him. Great :) Guess I get to go return and re-shop today. Or I might just be lazy and save those things for next year.

Here's something to be thankful for - I passed all my tests!!! Now two of them I barely passed, but I passed them all the same. So there. Take that school.

Gotta run now. Slept until 2:00 today (awesomeness) so I should probably start getting ready and being productive.

1 More Test and I'm a Free Woman!!!

Wahoo! The depressing thought that I'm about to study like nobody's business for the next 10 or so hours and then wake up and go at it some more is just made so much better by the fact that I'll be finished taking tests tomorrow at 11:00. Then we have 2 weeks of freedom. I still haven't put Christmas lights on that tree in our front yard and now I'm debating whether I even should with only 1 week left 'til Christmas.

Kris spent the whole night wrapping my gifts last night. It took him around 3 hours to wrap about 6 gifts, but I'm pretty sure it's because he was watching The Dark Knight and because he couldn't find real tape. He had to use a giant role of packing tape. No complaints here. They look so pretty sitting on our mantle and make me very excited for Christmas to get here. I haven't wrapped a single present yet! If it weren't for online shopping I don't know if anybody would even have gifts yet.

Anyway I must now start the cram session and hope it pays off tomorrow even though these particular professors are pretty cruel. Wish me luck!

Want to see what my future esteemed colleagues have to say? Here it is:

These are the facebook status updates my classmates have been posting. For those of you "old folks" reading who don't know what facebook is... For normal people it's a social networking tool. For medical students it's a way to live vicariously through those people while writing down their angsty feelings.

Joseph D Verzwyvelt just placed a piece of scotch tape on his anus....looks like a bunch of flattened footballs to me.

Jeffrey Reeves is confused. It must be the Coxiella.

Emily Faulks is worms WORMS WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORMS!!!

Joseph D Verzwyvelt is thinking he should have went to Antonelli College, I would be on track to the career of my dreams in a quarter of the time of med school.

Heather Gardner doesn't have anything nice to say.

Jeffrey Reeves has the micro blues.
Responses: Kari Giurintano: Are you sure it's not blue/green? It could be Pseudomonas!
Joey Verzwyvelt: Could be Wucheria bancrofti causing epididymitis or as the lay man likes to call it-- "blue balls"

Oy...

As I predicted, the easy test was not so easy this time. It was full of murmurs, thrills, and hypertrophied hearts. I, however, neglected to pull out my physiology book from last year and relearn all of cardiac physiology. You hear that faint dropping sound? That's the sound of my best average dropping down to meet my other sub-par grades. I guess it was lonely at the top.

Something Intelligent

Well, I couldn't think of a very creative name for this entry, so there you go. Hooray for being 2/5 of the way finished with tests! That's almost 1/2 right? The good part is we're actually 1/2 way finished with the actual hard tests. The one we have tomorrow is what I always call "the easy test" when I'm explaining to Kris why I'm not stressed and I'm taking a nap. It goes a little something like this:

A: (watching tv while eating, or doing laundry, or napping)
K: (in a 1/2 kidding, 1/2 serious manner) "Hey you! - shouldn't you be studying? Haven't you been freaking out about all these tests for the last 2 weeks? Why aren't you studying right now? Huh? Huh?"
A: "Don't worry honey. It's no big deal. Remember, I have the easy test tomorrow."
K: "Oh, okay." (goes back to playing video games)

Now to be fair - K doesn't usually yell out me for not studying because he's controlling or manipulative. It's because he has to listen to me gripe about not studying enough or cramming hard enough *occasionally* when I am disappointed with my grades.

Although to be honest I've begun to make peace with my grades. I used to get all hung up about class average and analyzing where I was in relation to it. I've come to realize that I'll just do the best I can, get all this stupid stuff over with in a few months and then begin rotations, where the ACTUAL learning begins. I guess I learn by doing - and there's not much to be done the first 2 years except look in books. The honest truth of it is that when you're applying for residency they don't really analyze your actual class grades very much. They judge you based on one number.

Enter, the STEP.

I don't know if I've written about it before, but the STEP is this giganto test we take upon completion of the first and second years of school. It covers every subject we've taken and often integrates material. It is an 8 hour long test with about 350 questions. It's not just some standardized test our school makes us take. Every medical student in the U.S. takes it and it follows you everywhere - even to your grave. It is the 1st step in medical licensing in the United States.

You know how they gave us 1 day to study for the boards last year? Well they give us 1 month to study for this test. That should put it into perspective. I've scheduled mine for May 29, 2009. Some people are saying they'd be burned out by then and have scheduled theirs for 1 week earlier. I say to them - I'm always burned out. I will probably take a short break after the end of school in April and then go through peaks and troughs of studying. If I get burned out I'll have time to get a 2nd wind, then a 3rd. I'll also have an extra week of studying and since I always feel like I could make an A on the test if I'd had 1 more day to study, maybe this will work.

Rotations start 1 week after that. Then scores come in July. 14 people failed last year. I'm not really sure how it threw off their schedule, but I'm sure it did. The faculty has been pushing us to start studying because they were freaked out. You know what I say? Give us better teachers. Noone goes to class this year - and they're doing BETTER on tests. Does this make sense? No. Does it show how completely inept most of our teachers are? Yes. Now, they are nice people and I hate to talk badly about them because I could never give the same lecture over and over and over for 15 or 30 years. But my gosh... These people make me wish Powerpoint was never freakin' invented. That's a rant for another day though. But even though I've been going to class so far I think I'm comfortable enough with their testing styles to give it a break next block. I'll let you know how it goes.

Wow, that was a long one! That was completely inadvertent. Gots to go study for the *easy* test now. Watch, I'm going to fail it after talking about how easy it is...

1 Down, 4 to Go

Hooray! Even though I didn't have a stellar performance on the first test, it is over! The rest of this week will simultaneously drag on and fly by depending on the day and time. I'm ready for this limbo to end... I'm not counting or anything but I think it's something like 3 days, 20 hours, 14 minutes.

ACE Inhibitors are Perverts

So I'm perusing my *meticulous* notes for pharmacology and see that I have pregnancy written as an adverse side effect of ACE Inhibitors. How exactly does that work?

Note to Self:

Cryptococcus is not equal to Coccidioides. That's all.

Next Week's Forecast - Hazy

I haven't been posting as much lately - here's why:

Monday 12/15/08: Pharmacology Test(all heart meds and antimicrobials) and Genetics Test
Tuesday 12/16/08: Pathology Test (liver, gallbladder, pancreas, dermatopath, heart, all GI)
Wednesday 12/17/08: Introduction to Clinical Medicine Test (mostly heart)
Thursday 12/18/08: Microbiology Laboratory Practical (every bacteria)
Friday 12/19/08: Microbiology Test (mostly gram negative bacteria, worms, and fungi)

Every one of these tests is over material from the last 7 weeks + a 10-25% cumulative component. Oh joy :) Those of you who are in close contact with the BMU (Big Man Upstairs) need to send some love my way.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why is it that everyone wants my time when I have so very precious little of it to give? Now, back to learning drugs...

The Art of Saying No

Today I said no when I was asked to play a make-up tennis match for someone else. It felt pretty good, seeing as how I already got suckered into playing 1 for someone else and I'm probably much busier and will do more in the next 2 weeks than any of the other people that play. That's all.

Hilarious

Watching Meery Bob "milk" Woodrow. She just doesn't understand why he doesn't have any milk for her!

Runner's Log

3.5 miles, 34 minutes even though I walked the 1st 2 minutes. So it's probably more like 3.3 miles in 32 minutes. Either way - I'll take it :)

This Thanksgiving I'm thankful I have the ability to run and for a million other things!

I wonder...

Why do 1/2 of the men in the microbiology department have long ponytails? And 1/2 the micro grad students? It's just weird really...

Our Daily Bread

What we ate last night:
Red beans and rice with turkey sausage
Black-eyed peas
Cornbread
Tami's homemade pickles
Yum!!!

Christmas List Revised

So scratch kitten off the old list and add these to it:

1. Nike + technology for runners - a little chip you stick in your shoe and sync with your ipod that tells you how far you've gone, tracks your speed, helps you beat your best times, etc... So cool!!! Too bad I don't have the ipod nano that you need to work with it. I still have my old ipod mini I got 5 years ago. Can't believe it's still working actually.

2. End tables - but please noone buy me one. I'm very ticky as you probably know :)

3. Lamps - see note above.

4. Art - see note above.

So I guess I just need to buy myself these presents since I'm too ticky to let anyone else pick them out. That's how it works, right?

Christmas Came Early!

Kris got me a kitten - wahoo! Her name is Isabelle, but we've been calling her every combination of Meery Bob, Lizzy Belle, and cat... Meery because she stands up like a meercat and Bob because she looks like a Bob cat. She was raised by a dog and isn't scared of Woodrow, but he does play too rough with her sometimes. She's a lap cat, which is awesome - what I've always wanted but never really had. I think this one's going to stick after my last 2 cat disasters!

Dear Santa,

Here's what I'd like for Christmas this year. I've been a good girl:

1. Spoons!!! - and forks, and knives, but mostly spoons!
2. Viva la Juicy perfume - yum
3. My piano in my house; simple request, no?
4. A kitten - maybe the 3rd one is a charm.
5. Sex and the City movie

Today I made...

chocolate cupcakes - for supper :)

Cheddar's

Kris and I tried a new restaurant tonight. It's named Cheddar's. I didn't have high expectations based on the name, but I was pleasantly surprised. The staff was really attentive. Kris's drink was never empty, and that's saying something. The building is brand new and has a really nice atmosphere, but the prices are really good. You can get a burger for around $4. I had a dijon chicken sandwich with brown sugar bacon and it was fabulous. Kris had a double decker club. We had queso as an appetizer, both got cokes, and Kris even had a beer. All that food and our bill was only $26 before tip. Pretty dang good :) Try it out next time you're in Jackson and let me know if you have just as good an experience- it's on Lakeland Drive beside Dogwood.

Runner's Log

3.25 miles, 30 minutes - felt good!

According to Dr. Rockhold...

The degree of "digitalization" of a patient = How much digitalis you're thinking about putting them on...

Dear Dr. McDaniel,

It's pronounced (ser-um), not (sir-um). Please try to get it straight. Thanks.

Coffee is good

I always have problems coming up with titles for these things, so there you have it. Those were my thoughts when I was posting this. I'm sitting in the library drinking coffee and eating a granola bar - breakfast of champions.

So last night I cooked a whole chicken for the first time in my life. I grossly underestimated the time it was going to take. It took 3 hours. I was thinking 1.5. Anyway, it was pretty delicious. I picked off all the white meat and put into a container to make something else with - perhaps chicken pot pie tonight? Then I picked off all the dark meat and skin for Woodrow. I threw the bones and carcass away after I drained all the good juice that was left in the bottom of the pan. I guess I'll use this to make some gravy. It's not nearly enough for soup. I've decided that since neither Kris nor I eat dark meat or the skin off the chicken it's highly impractical to go through the trouble of buying one and cooking it. So this might be the last time I ever cook a whole chicken - at least I know I'm capable. It was perfectly golden on top and moist and juicy in all the right places, so I was pretty pleased with it.

Probably everybody who reads this already knows my grandmother is in the hospital with a diabetic foot infection. She's actually doing really well. When Amy called to tell me what was going on I thought - oh no, she's going to lose her foot this time. But surprisingly the infection just wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. She had an MRI 2 days ago to see if the infection has spread to the bone, but I'm pretty doubtful. We'll find out today though. I've been to visit the last two days and I reckon I'll keep on going through the week and weekend. The hospital she's in is so close to school and it's really nice to get a chance to see her. Since med school started I haven't gotten to visit with family nearly enough. Usually I would feel guilty for not studying all those hours, but since our next test block doesn't even start for another month I'm just not overly motivated right now. I'll start racking up frequent flier miles in the library next week I guess. I really do think they should supply us with free coffee for every 8 hours we spend in there. I would save about $12 a week.

Runner's log (November 12) - 2 miles, 20 minutes.

Our daily bread - roasted chicken, English peas, homemade pickles (random, I know - but by the time the chicken was done I was too tired to make the cheesy broccoli and rice that I was going to make)

Days 'til Thanksgiving - 14!

Happy Fall!!!

So, it's officially fall! I know this because there are a myriad of different colored leaves in my backyard about 3" deep. I love this time of year. It does make it a bit harder to study when it's so pretty outside though. I just want to go frolick.

Anyway, here's what's been going on. My computer, or more specifically my hard drive, crashed on Halloween. Typical. It's all better now thanks to the techie guys at UMC. I lost all my info and have spent all weekend uploading programs onto my computer so that's been fun. I'm just glad it's all better now.

Kris and I went to Oxford on Halloween weekend in order to go to the Auburn game on Nov. 1. It was all in all a fabulous weekend. We stayed with Julia who attempted to make us cheese toast Saturday morning. We woke up to the sound of the smoke detector going off and her fanatically fanning it and letting out some not-so-lady-like language :) Then we went to the game and watched Ole Miss beat Auburn. We intercepted the ball so many times. It was wonderful!!! Then we hung out in the grove all day and eventually left to go rent scary movies and get chicken-on-a-stick. So by the end of the weekend we had done everything we intended - seen a good game, "Groved", eaten at Ajax (on Friday night), and eaten chicken-on-a-stick. Yum.

Then I went to class all week and Kris worked all week. As for this weekend, Kris went to Oxford Friday for his teaching class on Saturday. He got to do a ride-along with one of his police officer buddies Friday night though. He had to wear a bullet proof vest, but thank goodness he didn't get shot. That's just one more surgery we don't need.

I went and volunteered at the Jackson Free Clinic this morning. It's a clinic for the homeless/people without insurance. All the patients are seen and managed by medical students who report to 1 supervising doctor. So it's a really good place to learn and ask questions and not feel too stupid. We only saw 2 patients because it was so packed, but I did get to hear carotid bruits (pronounced "brew-ees") which are just whooshing sounds you hear in someone's carotid arteries when they're about 1/2 way blocked.

Well, Kris just walked in the door back from Oxford, so I think we're about to do dinner and a movie - hooray! I should really be studying, but I'll do it when we get back :)

Busy Weekend Forecast

Highlights of the Day:
1. running 3.75 miles in 36 minutes - new personal best!!!
2. hearing one of my classmates tell the oblivious girl talking loudly on her cell phone IN THE LIBRARY to "Call him back!" He did it really loudly. You just had to be there.
3. receiving candy from strangers - well, what really happened was the man in line ahead of me at the vending machine got 2 candy bars so he gave me one.

Lowlights of the day:
1. Kris had to go to Oxford for orientation for his new teaching class that starts this next week, leaving me home alone with Woodrow. Woodrow is looking for him and crying. It's pretty pitiful.

Thankful that:
I don't have a cavernous hemangioma on my face, also that I have the ability to walk and run.

Good deed of the day:
Giving my free candy bar to the classmate who told the girl to shut up.

Excited about:
Jen's bachelorette party tomorrow!!! Fun, fun, fun. We're having a slumber party at her house.
Gotta take a bath now!

Just Another Day

Highlights of the Day:
1. Getting on the scale this morning - I've lost 3 lbs. since school started!!!
2. seeing that other people are as freaked out about all the material we're supposed to know as I am.
3. watching Grey's Anatomy. I wish I had a photographic memory.

Lowlights of the Day:
1. having the sewing machine repeatedly mess up (due to an operator error I'm sure) and not being able to hem my pants during the commercial breaks as planned.

Our Daily Bread:
Kris and I had a gourmet meal of honey nut cheerios for dinner tonight. He followed his bowl with a 2nd bowl. I followed mine with a stick of string cheese - and then coffee. We're quite the food snobs.

Let's Simplify...

So, in an attempt to update my blog more regularly I'm going to try a new format. Instead of rambling on for paragraphs and paragraphs I'm going to start sticking to a few little tidbits. Here goes:

Highlights of the Day:
1. wearing my new orange sweater vest - and getting several compliments :)
2. running 3.25 miles (without a break!)
3. making a pretty decent supper - but I cheated...
4. watching Project Runway while preparing dinner

Lowlights of the Day:
1. leaving my iPod in my car during my run - it was a totally unproductive 3.25 miles. I should've been listening to a lecture.

Our Daily Bread:
Tonight we had some of Tami's leftover stew from our trip home this weekend. I contributed by making some cornbread to go with it. Granted it was from the package, but it was pretty darn good! Who knew?

Did You Know?

So I learned 2 interesting things this week. I learned a lot of other things too, but only 2 of them were interesting. So here they are:

Some of you may remember how Dan Quail used to stumble every time he got off the little private jets that shuttle important people like that around. I hear the media gave him a pretty hard time about it. Turns out he has a slight clotting disorder and he was throwing pulmonary emboli after sitting on the plane for hours at a time. Get up and walk around on the plane people!!!

Because nicotine is a non-selective nicotinic receptor agonist (hence, it stimulates nicotinic receptors), it is a very useful insecticide. It causes depolarizing/desensitizing blockade of insect nervous systems. It's also obviously a treatment for nicotine dependence.

I'm in the library and think the tappity-tap of my keyboard might be annoying others, so I'm going to cut this one short. More later :)

What Did You Do Today?

So pretty much every day Kris and I end up asking each other this question. For me it's usually a variation on study and work out with a few extra things thrown in there. For him it's usually work and playing video games with a few extra things thrown in.

So, without further ado, here's exactly what I did today:

8:00 - Woke up and frantically realized that if I was going to make it to my 9:00 I had to leave in 20 minutes. Scrambled to get out the door by 8:33.

9:00 - Attended lecture on MHC activation in T cell immunity. Enthralling.

9:50 - Power walked to the cafeteria to get breakfast and be back in my seat in 10 minutes. Feat accomplished.

10:00 - Enjoyed eggs, grits, and wheat toast while listening to a fancy pants guest speaker with about 130 publications give a terribly boring lecture covering about 30 immune diseases. He was too smart - I was listening but completely unaware of most of what he said.

11:00 - Listened to and simultaneously transcribed pathology lecture on transplants. Could have been interesting, but the speaker , Dr. Cruse, talks so fast we've all dubbed him the "Cruse Missile." He covered 84 slides in 50 minutes.

11:55 - Freedom at last! For some glorious reason most of us got out of class at noon today. I looked forward to relishing the next 12 hours of not sitting in class.

12:00 - Ran 2.7 miles and did a few crunches. Almost died on the walk back to the car due to heat exhaustion.

1:00 - Upon walking up to car notice the passenger rear tire is flat. Yippee...

1:10 - Find can of fix-a-flat in trunk and thank God for a smart father and sister who always told me to carry the stuff. (Mom, you're smart too. You just never stressed the dire importance of having a can of fix-a-flat.)

1:11 - Read the directions and fixed the flat.

1:13 - Realize I have no idea where I've put my cell phone in all this craziness. Had it just 4 minutes ago when I called Kris to say I had a flat. Now it's nowhere to be found.

1:30 - Arrive at Tire Depot (where they think I'm stalking them because I was there 2 days ago to get my oil changed.) They take the screw out of my tire and patch it. All this happened in about 40 minutes and only cost me $20. They also have wireless internet, so I got to catch up on e-mails while I waited. I like Tire Depot :)

2:15 - Go back to school to look for phone. Goose chase ensues. Can not find it.

3:00 - Go home, have a beer, and watch Dr. Phil. It's been a rough day. Then I realize I have not eaten anything so I eat lunch at 3:30.

The rest is just pretty much the normal routine. Kris got home from work. I studied. I did some laundry and dishes. I'm about to study some more. Here are the things I'd rather be doing though:

1. picking out fabric at Hancock's to make a cushion to go on my hearth.

2. dying all of my faded jeans to re-darken them and make them look new again. I just learned how to do this today and can't wait to try it when I have the time.

3. planting flowers

4. hemming all my pants so that they either work with flats or the 3 actually comfortable pairs of heels I own. That would make life so much easier.


So, in a nutshell, those are the things I'm either doing or thinking about doing on any given day. It's a little exhausting.

This One's For You Amy!

This blog post is dedicated to my cousin Amy because she harassed me about not posting since April 6th when I met her for lunch today. I suppose that is quite a while, but I've had a little bit going on! Let's see, what's changed since April 6th...

1. I completed (and passed, thank you Jesus) all my M1 classes.
2. Kris and I got married.
3. We honeymooned in West Palm Beach, FL.
4. We found and bought a house in Ridgeland.
5. I worked in the UMC Emergency Department for a few weeks shadowing doctors.
6. I worked at the Lakeland Family Medicine Clinic shadowing/learning for the past month.
7. We got a puppy named Woodrow and have since lost our cat.
8. Oh yeah, 2 of my good friends got married and Jennifer & Andrew are engaged!

That's about it in a nutshell. I've been trying to catch up on all the sleep I lost in the past year, but since I've had to be at work at 8am every morning it hasn't really happened. I've got to start going to bed before midnight. Tomorrow is my last day of work at the Family Medicine Clinic and we have 1 week off before school starts so I'm planning on sleeping 'til at least 10:00 every day next week. No phone calls please.

Married life is going great so far. It's pretty much the same except you always know where the other one is since you're living in the same house. It's much more convenient for the most part. I also enjoy the fact that Kris takes out the garbage and mows the yard. (I really suck at taking out the trash.) For some reason he's also learned how to use a hamper and is actually much better than I am about not leaving clothes everywhere. It's miraculous. I don't remember that being in the vows anywhere, but the preacher must have snuck that in at some point.

I'm also in the process of learning how to cook a few things. So far I've had a few successes and a few terrible failures.
Successes = turkey sausage and rice casserole, applesauce spice cake with cream cheese frosting (I ate 1/2 of it and have since decided I'm not allowed to ever make it again), baked pork chops (yes Amy, I used Oven Fry and they were delicious!!!), and turkey burgers (not exactly difficult, but they were yummy.)
Failures = homemade caramel cake. The cake was actually okay, but the caramel frosting was a complete disaster. It had a wonderful flavor but had the consistency of an ice cream topping. Another failure was chicken, broccoli, and rice casserole (and you thought that was impossible to screw up). The rice was crunchy and the broccoli was soggy. Yuck. Must learn to cook more. The only problem is that I refuse to cook anything that's loaded with cream cheese, full fat sour cream, butter, and full fat cheeses. What's the point of cooking a chicken breast when you put all that crap on it? I could just as well eat a Big Mac! Therefore since we live in Mississippi, my options are very limited. Oh yeah, did I mention Kris doesn't eat onions? That cuts out the few recipes that are left. Any good ideas (healthy, easy, or cheap) are welcome!

As for our pup Woodrow, we were told he's a Yellowcreek beagle. I think that's just a really fancy way to say he's white with yellow spots instead of black and brown. He's 8 weeks old and we're in the midst of potty training. It sucks - especially since neither Kris nor I are morning people and if you have an inside dog you must be a morning person. I don't like being woken up at 5 am to whincing and having to go find my robe and sit outside with the puppy while I wait for him to tinkle. So I usually just make Kris do it. Did I mention I love being married?

Working this summer has been AWESOME. It does suck to have to wake up at 6:30 during the summer, but it's worth it. They're paying us a good amount and we get to pretty much do what we want. I've enjoyed family medicine more than the ER surprisingly. The family medicine docs let you do more hands-on stuff since the patients aren't as critical. We get to go in and see the patients, ask them what meds they're taking, get a history, do a physical, look in their ears, and listen to their hearts and lungs. I've also gotten to do 4 Pap smears, a bimanual pelvic exam, and removed about 60 skin tags using lidocaine injection, cutting them with Iris scissors, and cauterizing them. I've also learned how to tell when a patient just wants pain meds and when to get a psych consult, which will be very useful in a year or so.

School starts August 4th so I'll be back in action as an M2 (hooray!). I am planning on blogging more regularly then once I'll be attached to my computer at least 12 hours a day.

Love y'all!

Counting Days

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted in a month. Tisk, tisk. Things are going good. We're on the downhill slope. There are 30 days of class left with 4 days of testing left. This is very exciting! It actually affords me a little time to take care of very important wedding business. Most recently we (meaning my mother and I) have:

1. had the invitations and thank you cards printed
2. gathered most of the addresses
3. addressed a few invites
4. picked out a place to alter the dress
5. bought everything to assemble the favors
6. visited 1 florist, received too high of a bid, and are currently getting estimates from several others.

Not too shabby, eh? The main things I still have to do are actually get the dress altered, have bridal pictures made, ask the musicians to play, etc... Hopefully that'll all be done in the next 2-3 weeks. The 1st florist we visited wanted us to pay $2700. That's basically the budget for 1/2 the entire wedding. Not possible. Anyway, hopefully we can get it all worked out.
Kris and I have also started daydreaming about houses. Jennifer is supposed to e-mail me some mortgage info this week so we can get started on that process. I really need a front yard - I have to plant flowers. I'll have a whole summer to nest so I can pretty much get anything that I want to done without feeling guilty for not studying. Hooray!
Speaking of houses, we were very lucky that Jennifer's house in Madison didn't sustain any damage from the bad storms we had here last week. Some places still don't have power. A few of the hotels along I-55 had shingles and large parts of their roofs ripped off. I heard Old Fannin Road looked like a war path. Mom and I were going to take care of wedding business that day, but unfortunately weren't able to get much done since noone had power. We settled for shoe shopping, looking at mother-of-the-bride dresses, and eating dinner with Jennifer at Anthony Z's. It wasn't a terribly productive day, but it was fun.

Hooray, Kris is officially well!!!

Kris had his last doctor's appointment today to get stitches out. Dr. Copeland told Kris he never wanted to see him again. (I think he meant that in the nicest way possible though). That's exciting. I'm heading home this weekend to attend a wedding and Kris and I are going to take our engagement pictures. Hooray! This should be fun. Fortunately his mom's pretty handy with a camera (she always wins a prize at the Natches Trace Festival for her photography), so we don't have to pay an arm and a leg for them.

Right now life is a balance between school and wedding. The wedding was on the back burner, but since it's just a few weeks away - and I know this because I keep getting annoying little reminder e-mails from the knot.com and various other places - it's become a priority. When staring at the brain in neuro lab today all I could think about was what I needed to wear for my pictures. What about the florist? What about the diamond that fell out of my ring last week? It's enough to drive a girl crazy.

You know what else can drive a girl crazy? A cumulative physiology final with 167 questions on it (that's 50 pages thick, y'all!!!). It was ridiculous. We had it Friday. We were supposed to be given 4 hours to take the thing, but we got started 15 minutes late and ended 10 minutes early. Then as we're all rushing to finish, the teacher comes in and tells us he'll give us 30 minutes. So really they gave us 5. But at that point we were all so freaked out that none of us could think straight. I even forgot equations. I never forget equations!!! Anyway, we got the thing back today and the class average was 79. That makes me feel not so bad about my 76. I'm usually 5-10 points under class average, so 3 under is actually an improvement. I can justify anything really.

Must study neuro now. It's bizarre and hard to remember. Oh goody.

More of the Same

Today we have 3 tests. Well, I have 2 left now. I just took 1. It was pretty brutal, but I managed not to have a complete panic attack in the middle, so that's good. I think I'll do better on the next 2. It's out last actual histo written and last histo practical except for the board. I know that probably doesn't mean much to y'all, but I have a deep hatred for histology. Hence, I am very, very excited it's going to be over soon. Physiology will end soon too. Then the dreaded neuro starts. Anyway, I'll pretend to be a normal person for the rest of this post starting... Now.
I got to have lunch with my BFF Julz and her boyfriend Scotty on Saturday. That was a good thing. It's so nice to catch up and see some familiar faces that have known you for a while. Julz is in the waiting process - waiting to hear from law schools. That's not really the most fun place to be. I have no doubt she'll get in though. It's just a matter of where. Scotty is teaching Spanish to Jackson hoodlums. Lord be with him.
I celebrated a very exciting first 2 days ago. Austin and I have been running nearly every day after class. We get on the treadmills and go. When we fist started it was really hard for me to run more than 5 minutes without stopping. Two days ago I ran 30 minutes (3.1 miles) continuously. Hooray!!! I never would have thought that I could do that. Sometimes peer pressure is good.
Another funny thing happened in the gym the day before that. I was running along and sweating my butt off. I tried to ever-so-gracefully wipe the sweat from my head and neck and ended up losing my balance and yep, you guessed it... toppling from the machine. I didn't actually ever fall completely down. The knees stayed above the ground at all times. I do have a nice-sized bruise on my left calf as a reminder though.
You should all be aware that bruises on soft tissue (such as the calf) are often cardinal signs of child abuse, as we learned during a luncheon on the subject the other day. I promise Kris is in no condition to beat me just yet though. We had a choice the other day between a lunch about wound care in war zones or signs of child abuse. We chose the signs of child abuse - figured there would be less graphic pictures there as we tried to scarf down our free lunches.
I am heading to Kosciusko to visit Kristopher tonight. We are going to try and get the honeymoon condo all booked up. We are hoping for either Myrtle Beach or Hilton Head, South Carolina. The Bahamas sounded nice and all, but the thought of spending $1500 on plane tickets made us both cringe. *Perhaps* later in life we'll be a bit more financially stable and be able to take trips like that - a lot :)

Sadie Likes to Swim

Sadie the cat took another dip in the tub last night. This is her second. Unfortunately the water was scalding. I made the mistake of telling Andrew not to turn my hot water heater on too high and now the only way I have warm bathwater is to turn it on completely high. Not his fault, just my poor judgement since I love scalding hot baths.
So, good news are in order. My friend (and bridesmaid) Robin Bryant is now engaged! Hooray! The funny part is that her tentative wedding date is the Saturday after mine. I hope we'll be back from our honeymoon in time for that one. We're planning all that this weekend. I am very excited. Thanks to my grandmother's generosity we can go pretty much anywhere we want to. I'm thinking somewhere warm though, since I hate the cold.
Out of the 7 of us that hung out in high school, 3 are getting married this summer and 2 got married last summer. Julia and Erin are going to be the last sane/single ones :) ha ha. Don't get peer-pressured my good friends.
I was planning on having lunch with my grandmother today, but unforunately we got our 2 hour lunch break taken away. They moved our 2:00 class up to 1:00. There's no way I could have made it all the way to Ridgewood Road, eaten, and made it back to class. Thank goodness my Aunt was headed there so I could relay the message.

Another Quick Update

Kris is out of the hospital - hooray!!! He got out late in the afternoon on Feb 1st. Unfortunately they sent him home with his wound still open and aren't planning on sewing him back together for 2 more weeks, so he's a little confined. Anyway, must study now. 3 tests tomorrow :)

Update

Kris is still in the process of recovering from surgery. They took out his feeding tube yesterday, so that's a good thing. He managed to get out of bed and sit in a chair for a while. Currently they are only letting him eat ice chips, so he's pretty weak. Hopefully today we will graduate to broth - hooray! He's still getting antibiotics, blood thinners (which are shots that go directly into his stomach, no fun), and lots and lots of pain meds. I'm hoping for him to go home sometime this weekend, but that's looking doubtful unless he makes some sort of miraculous recovery.

Of Course It's Complicated and Rare, It's Kris!!!

I'm writing from Baptist Hospital in Jackson. I'll give you 3 guesses.

1. UMC shipped us down the street to practice on Baptists' patients.
2. Kris had a hernia that decided to twist on itself and herniate into his actual abdominal muscles, thereby spilling part of its contents there (and thankfully not into his peritoneum).
3. They have really good cafeteria food here.

Guess #2 is correct. We started out thinking gallstones, then a CT showed a mass which the doctors thought was just a hematoma. Then an exploratory surgery today showed that part of Kris's small intestine decided to get caught up in his stomach muscles and twist and all that good stuff. The smart surgeon took it out though, along with his appendix while he was in there. So that probably saved us another trip. Anyway, Kris is recovering. He's a little unhappy at the moment because of the tube going up his nose and down to his stomach, and also that big gash on his belly that isn't quite closed yet, but other than that, we're good. Just thought I'd give everyone an update. Thanks for the prayers and keep them coming!

On the upside, I found out today I passed my Biochem national board, so I am officially finished taking biochem - forever!!! Not even 1 more class :)

So Much to Talk About, So Little Time

Whoa I haven't posted in a while. I'm between classes right now, so I'm going to make this one snappy. We'll start from today and work backwards. Today has been great so far. I got a speeding ticket on the way to school this morning which was completely pointless because I wasn't even late. This means I shouldn't have been speeding. I'm just meant to be a race car driver, that's all. I will definitely be taking the class so I don't have to pay for it. I just wonder how much the class costs. I was only going 58 in a 45. Blech. Anyway, life will go on.

Today we have a presentation to give to the class. We were given a patient 2 days ago, not a real one, just a paper one. Then we had to diagnose and figure out a treatment plan. It was surprisingly easy for this particular one. I just hope we don't all get nervous and blow the whole thing. Just for fun they're bringing in an attending and a resident to intimidate us.

Two days ago I did surgery on a pig. It was insane. We opened the femoral arteries and veins and inserted catheters (which are apparently just little plastic tubes). We also slit the throat down and found the carotid arteries and vagus nerves on each side. We used those to adjust the blood pressure manually. Anyway, we got to play and inject drugs and watch the effects and all that. Then at the end I made a huge incision down the side of the pig parallel to the ribs and then we used a rib spreader to spread the ribs and they actually went a good ways without breaking. Then we got to hold the beating heart in our hands, watch the lungs inflate and deflate, and then.... We sent the heart into v-fib. Then I grabbed the shock paddles, we charged them. I said Clear! just like on Grey's and I brought him back to life. We killed him and brought him back to life 5 times! It was pretty amazing.

Anyway, class is starting now. Must pay attention.

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 :)

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!!!

Crunch Time!

Well, it's officially crunch time. In 2 weeks and 5 days I will have finished my first semester - hooray! Now, we won't know for a few weeks whether or not I successfully finished the first semester, but it will be finished nonetheless. The only reason I'm able to blog right now is because I've decided to start bringing those little frozen dinners [+ Mom's homemade food] in an effort to save time and money. So, now I have a few extra minutes of dinner break to play.
The money problem is being solved. I'm signed up to do 5 transcriptions this week. At $40 a transcription - I will make $200 this week. Not too shabby, eh? Now, for the studying problem... That's not solved so easily. I just have to study until I can't study any more for the next few weeks and then even if I do badly I'll know I gave it all I could. I'm sorry school is all I talk about, but it's all I do these days.
Today we talked about a disease called "pica." I had heard of people eating clay before, but I never knew there was a whole disorder for it. These people eat things like clay, dirt, chalk, ice chips, etc... Our lecturer even said that at some truck stops you can find dirt and clay for sale - to eat - seriously. He then proceeded to ask the class if anyone had ever been to a truck stop and seen dirt for sale. Then about 5 people raised their hands. So I asked the girl beside me about it and she said that she has 2 aunts that have pica. They prefer chalk, and will bring each other chalk as presents from New York. P.S. - They're art teachers.

Mo Money most Definitely does not Equal Mo Problems

So, there's this rap song and I believe the chorus says: "Mo money, mo problems." (Mo = more, just in case you're not fluent in ebonics like me). The point is, I tend to disagree.
I started out this semester with $10,000. Now there is only $1,000 left. This, my friends, is a problem. UMC sucked out a little over $6,000 for tuition and then another $1,000 went to books and scalpel blades and lab coats, etc... Now there's not too much left. Fortunately, I have signed up to be a transcriptionist for the class. This is how it works:
Our class has this thing called the Note Service. What happens is, we record every lecture and one person is required to attend the class and type that lecture up into concise notes which are posted onto a website we all have access to. Sometimes people don't want to type their notes because either they don't have time or they don't like to type, or they are really slow, etc, etc... Anyway, the going rate is $40 per lecture, so I'm thinking if I do like 4 a week I should be golden in the money department - especially if Kris helps me fill in all the words I couldn't get while I was in lecture :)
Another positive is the fact that apparently there is a scholarship for people from counties that are medically underserved. You get bonus points if you went to public school or your parents don't have too much income coming in. By bonus points, I mean extra $$$ - ka-ching!
Between that and Sumner's grant [thank you Sumner's people, I've been meaning to send you a nice thank you card for that huge chunk of my college education you paid for], I should probably be fine and not have to take out any more loan money before this year is over. Maybe I'll even get to work this summer and make a little bit more.
Austin and I were seriously discussing the possibility of skinning cadavers over the summer for the dental students - because their bodies come pre-dissected, but that's a whole other rant of mine. Anyway, when I asked Austin if we'd get paid per body or what she replies: "I think it's just $2,000 for the whole lot of 'em." For a second I forgot we were in med school and thought maybe we were fur traders or something.
Right now lots of interviewees are coming through for next year's M1 class [God, I hope I'm not with them as an M1 again next year.] and apparently one of them got in because as Austin and I were facebook-stalking her profile we saw that one of her friends had posted this quaint little message:
"Oh my Gosh! - I'm so jealous - you get to be the real-life Meredith Grey!"
These girls have no freakin' clue what's in store for them. No clue. At all. The end.
Back to money though, doctors really have to make a lot, because
1. We don't start working till we're 30 - or 35 for those really smart ones.
2. Most of us have ~ $100,000 - $130,000 of debt from medical school.
3. Those first few years we work, we make ~$30,000 - yes, just like teachers, and last but not least...
4. I'm seriously thinking of skinning people for money - and I've had to clean explosive diarrhea from a dead man's bisected colon. I deserve it.

Hell Week is Over!!!

Well, I say hell week, but in fact it's been 2 weeks of hell. Austin and I realized late last night when delirious on caffeine and pent-up energy that we've been studying 12-18 hours a day for the last 12 days. Ridiculous, no??? Especially considering that I probably just failed the 2 tests I took this morning... They were a tad bit... shall we say - convoluted and detailed. I can now draw every step and intermediate and enzyme of the citric acid cycle and electron transport chain/oxidative phosphorylation. However, those things only helped me with about 6 questions out of 64.
Anyway, on to happier thoughts. There shall be NO studying tonight. I will not look at one electromicrograph, one histology slide, one CT, or one book. Kris and I are having a pretend-7-year-anniversary. This is due to the fact that :
a) The actual anniversary was the day before the last gross test
b) We both forgot
c) We both forgot because we've been together 7 years.
d) all of the above are true.
D is the correct answer. I'm not sure what we're doing, but I bet it will involve dinner and a movie - or maybe ice-skating. I've been meaning to go ice-skating for over a year now.
Oh, P.S. - Kris is now a productive member of society! He has a job! He is working at Game Stop over in Dogwood. I think he likes it, or will like it since he's really into video games and movies, but he's only worked 2 days so far, so we'll see. I'm just happy to see $$$ coming in instead of rolling on out.
Anyway, I'm about to spend the next 30 minutes blissfully returning any e-mails I've received over the last 2 weeks, playing on facebook, and checking out popsugar.com to see what stupid things the celebrities have done this week.
See you all over Thanksgiving! [that's next week, y'all!!!]

Life is Busy, Will Write Again Soon

I am currently shackled to a table in the classroom wing studying my butt off for what will probably be the hardest test we've had all semester in Biochemistry. The test is on Tuesday. This past week we had a gross written, gross practical and developmental anatomy test on Monday, then a physiology test on Friday and now in 2 days another test. Hence, things are not all sunshine and butterflies in the land of Allison.
It doesn't help that I had to spend $500 on repairs to my car this week - that'll get you 1 oil change, 2 new tires, new rotors, a front end alignment, and a plethora of other things. It's riding very good now - as it should be.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Well, it's not quite Christmas yet, but it may as well be. It's been freezing and drizzly here for the last few days. We've had 5 tests since the last time I wrote. Things have gone well!!! I managed to pass them all - even making a 96 on a developmental anatomy test and a 91 on a gross anatomy practical (over the thorax and abdomen - perhaps internal medicine is in my future?)...
Things are getting a bit more difficult, but overall I'm optimistic about it all. This might have something to do with the fact that we're over 1/2 way done and Christmas is looming and I haven't even had a mental breakdown or emotional meltdown or any of the above. That's a very good thing. At the beginning of the year they told us this was the hard part and by the end of last year about 40% of the M1s were on antidepressants. I've only had 2 slight hissy-fits and those were before the 1st 2 biochem tests. I know how to study for that now, so it's not so bad. There are only 4 more big test days before Thanksgiving and then just 4 after that before Christmas. This does not mean I only have 8 tests. This means I only have 8 days of testing - which usually last most of the day and cover 3 - 5 subjects. It's kind of like having my finals from undergrad all crammed into one day. Not fun.
Anyway, on to happier notes. The next test we have is November 5, so I'm taking a break and heading home this weekend. Our class has reserved Hal & Mal's for this Friday night for a Halloween party and I'm planning on going, but I need a good costume idea. Last year Kris was a devil and I was an angel and that worked out pretty well. We might have a repeat performance this year. Anyway, I shall be home this Saturday. I know Julz has already reserved me for dinner Saturday night, so if you want an appointment, you'd better book one fast! Time slots are filling up.

It's All in the Details

Well, there's not much to report here in StudyLand. I took the most miserable test of my life Monday. We started the day off at 10:00 am with a developmental anatomy test covering the formation of the heart (it's more complicated than one might think - it starts out as a single tube!), formation of the digestive system, respiratory system, and body cavity. It was interesting. Anyway, then me and Austin had Back Yard Burger and a panic attack for lunch. It's important to mention the Back Yard Burger part because in order to not have a more severe panic attack before the next test, you must distance yourself as far away as possible from the other (smarter, more gunnerish) people in your class. In our case, the best we could do was the Back Yard Burger a hundred yards away. It worked though, not a classmate in site.
There we reviewed for the gross practical and written test while eating ice cream to soothe our worries from the test before. Then we huffed it back to school and rushed into the practical. The practical actually went pretty well. By well I mean that I only had question marks by 12 of the 70 structures tagged. On the 1st practical I only had 6 smiley faces on my paper. A definite improvement I must say.
All hopes were shattered once we stepped into that written test though. I think I may have gotten the 1st 2 questions correct. I really enjoyed periodically hearing the people around me mutter cuss words or flip pages frantically before lowering their heads to do deep breathing exercises. One of my lunch table buddies told me she prayed over all the questions she didn't know at first, but it just got too time-consuming near the end.
I'm generally a speedy test-taker, but I only had 10 minutes left on this one. Of course I sat out in the hall to see everyone's faces as they walked out. We're in a general consensus. It was a horrible test. It's really funny when you see a few of the "smart" med school kids come out after you with a glazed look in their eye, walking like zombies towards their lockers.
I went home immediately and showered, got ready, and made Kris take me out for queso, margaritas, and a movie. Then I came home and tried to watch all the shows I missed last week online. Because I was trying to cram all the fun from 2 weeks into one night, I stayed up way too late and woke up at 7:35 the next morning. This was not okay because the geniuses on the curriculum committee thought it would be smart to put a mandatory "professionalism" (read, bullcrap) class at 8:00 the day after our horrible tests. The really ironic thing is, the presentation was on time management, and the lady giving the talk was 20 minutes late - just like me :)
Anyway, there is no time to cry over the test, we have another one Monday. This time it's biochem and histology though, so hopefully it will be better.

The Pause Button is Broken

So, this post can't be very long because I need to be ________________. If you guessed studying, you were correct. I seem to be overwhelmed, but unfortunately the pause button is broken. We have a Physiology test Friday and a Gross Anatomy Practical and written test along with a Developmental Anatomy test which is 25% of our Developmental grade. Everyone is borderline in that class, so we all need to do really well. The point is, there is no time. Just for fun, there is also a Biochem and Histology test Monday after the gross test.
Anyway, enough griping. There are some positive things going on. I managed to find a really good study buddy who reads just a slow as I do and doesn't ever confuse me when explaining things. It's nice. We went to Ole Miss and were in the Honors College together, but just didn't ever end up studying together. Anyway, we've been helping each other along through gross. It's a good thing.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to find a mechanic to fix the pause button.

And Then... I Beat the Class Average

So, the 1st 2 biochem tests did not go so well. We're talking 20 points below the class average. I'm no brain surgeon, but that's not good. Well, we got back our last biochem test today and let me tell you, the studying paid off. (And by studying I mean: my car did not leave the garage this past weekend, except for 1 late-night run to McDonald's). Not only did I pass, I *almost* made an A. The only 2 questions I missed on the new material were thrown out due to their amount of detail. So that means the only questions I actually missed were off the old material. Anyway, the point is, I beat the class average. This is a day that shall go down in history.
Also, I might actually be learning how to prioritize. I was planning on going to the fair tonight, but... then I realized I'm playing on Jennifer's tennis league tomorrow night and everyone knows it's a sin to do more than 1 fun thing a week when you're in med school. So instead I stayed at the gross lab with a study group from about 2:30 'til 8:30 with a dinner break in there. We got some learning done - let me tell you.
Randomly, I would like to give a shout out to my mother for all the tasty food she brought last week. It was so delicious, it's all gone *hint, hint...

Fair Time!!!

For those of you not in the know, there was a test this morning. It was 46 biochem questions and 30 histology questions. Also, the questions were a tad-bit nit-picky as usual. I don't really know why I'm surprised anymore. It's probably because when I look back at old tests I see questions like this:

What is GIST?
A. gastrointestinal stromal tumor (***correct, in case you couldn't figure it out)
B. gastrointestinal superman theory
C. gastrointestinal stinky tract
D. gastrointestinal salad trap

Then, for our test, there are questions more like this:
There is a deficiency in the cKIT gene for GIST which leads to an upregulated expression of KT which causes cells to proliferate. What is the cause of GIST?
A. a single missense mutation leading to a defect in the 1st catabolic cascade.
B. a single missense mutation leading to a defect in the 2nd catabolic cascade.
C. a single nonsense mutation leading to the deletion of an entire amino acid.

Well, you get the point. Just rest assured that if you ever need a doctor and I refer you to one from my class, they're all rockstars. We probably have to know 3x as much as our older counterparts, so there...

Okay, maybe I'm still seething a little bit. I'm not bitter though - nope, not at all - ha.

Anyway, now that that nightmare is over, it's on to more important things like cramming everything I've wanted/needed to do for the last week into 1 or 2 days. These include:

1. washing my sheets - don't even want to think about how long it's been
2. going to wal-mart - need light bulbs, haven't been able to see in my room for the last week
3. cleaning house - Jennifer might kick me out if I keep on like this.
4. mowing the yard - if the Kris fairy doesn't get to it first... maybe i'll be surprised later.
5. planting some flowers - if I can remember to pick them up from Wal-Mart
6. going to the FAIR!!!

Yes, the Jackson fair is coming to town. It will be here Wednesday night. While I know that it is not technically the best night to go since the machinery is probably more likely to break down the 1st night due to faulty construction on site, I'm going to chance it. Maybe I'll give a review on it if I survive :)

This Probably only Happens at Our Lunch Table

I have a test Monday, so this is going to be a quick one. Just had to share this hilarious moment that happened at my usual lunch table the other day. There were 6 of us sitting there. We were eating, laughing, and pretending to study the dissection for the day. Then all of a sudden Aprile says: "Raise your hand if you were NOT in band." Not a hand was raised.

I Told Them I Need My Sleep

So, we started physiology today. Now I'm enrolled in 7 courses I think. I don't know anymore. I've lost count. Anyway, so I actually read the assigned chapter last night, along with getting my hair cut, doing a family pedigree for genetics, and making painstakingly detailed notes of a biochemistry lecture. I was productive, to say the least. Well, before I had a chance to answer the 50+ lecture questions before physiology this morning, I began to feel a little bit tired. So, I decided to call it a night and get an early start in the morning. It wasn't essential to answer the questions, but would help with the 1 question quiz in class.
So, when 5:30 rolled around, I hit snooze... then again at 6:00, then again at 6:30 I guess. I don't really remember. Point is, I awoke from a dream at 7:26!!!!!!!! The exact time I needed to leave the house! So, I threw on my scrubs and disgusting gross lab tennis shoes, put some contacts in, threw my laptop in my bookbag and my makeup in the car. Out the door in 10 minutes - not so bad. I could walk in 5 minutes late and not be noticed...
Well, then the train decided to come and hold everybody up. I got to wait on it for about 5 minutes. Then I-20 was bumper to bumper. Then I-55 was the same way. Then I decided to try and park on campus and completely chickened out which made me at least 15 minutes later. So, now I'm parked at a clinic across Lakeland Drive. Hopefully my car will still be there when I get out. Gotta go! I'm in class!

Playing Catch Up

Well, we've officially had our 1st gross anatomy test. It consisted of a written section that took about 2 hours and a practical which took about 2 hours. As expected, the written part went okay for me and the practical was pretty difficult. I haven't actually seen my grade yet because Dr. Sinning is still "trying to decide what the answers are." That does not sound promising at all. Anyway, all of us were so busy studying for the gross practical last week that we've been neglecting biochem and histology. Now instead of enjoying my weekend I'll be looking at biochemistry powerpoints and histology slides. I guess I'll get better at this time management thing as the year rolls on.
On a happier note, when I arrived home today at 6:00, the floors were sparkling and the carpet had those great little roller marks in it. All the tables were cleared of clutter and had been dusted. Laundry was done. Dishes were in the dishwasher. Was it a magical maid fairy? No, it was Kris. What a nice surprise to come home too. Maybe I will let him be a stay-at-home Dad once we're established. Ha ha...
Today's gross lab was pretty much the coolest thing ever, but I think Friday's might be better. Today I cut the lungs out of the chest and my lab partners and I removed them. They were lodged in there pretty good, so it was no surprise when John's lung went flying down our lab table and came to a stop at the end. Thank goodness he didn't drop it. It was pretty neat. Friday we're taking out the heart. Our guy had open heart surgery, so there's no telling what all we'll find in there. Anyway, I must go be productive now - I'm thinking biochem sounds good.

2 Weeks Down, 16 to Go!

Well, I'm now 1/9 of the way finished with this semester. And already I've:

1. cut through human flesh - a lot of it.
2. learned how to take scalpel blades off without maiming myself or classmates
3. figured out that going to class is overrated.

That's about it, in a nutshell. I didn't do so hot on the 1st test, but thank goodness it's a miniscule portion of our final grade. I've figured out a new study method that seems to be working so far, so that's good for the classes other than gross. Everyone seems to be freaking out about gross, but thanks to my love of grammar and spanish, the words just stick in my head. If you think about what they mean, it's pretty obvious where they should be. Of course the serratus posterior superior is on the upper portion of the back! And that means the serratus posterior inferior is on the lower portion. It's not so bad yet, but I have a feeling all those nerves and vessels are going to get a bit confusing as we move into the head and neck area - or even the brachial plexus. Oh well, I'll worry about it when we get there.

So obviously I've started gross anatomy for those of you who didn't know. The first cut was pretty creepy (from ear to ear across the back of the head). The scalp is just not a fun place to cut. Thank goodness my lab partners were eager to do that. From then on, it's been fine. The only problem is that after we leave, I don't get my appetite back for about 4 hours. Everything tastes like formaldehyde - even after a shower.

I survived the 1st week - sort of!

Well, I'm 1/18th of the way finished with 1/8 of the path towards attaining my M.D. Nice, huh? I made it through the 1st week - went to every class, took 3 quizzes, and ate 4 free lunches this week. That's right, medical school = free lunch... from the government no less. The air force came one day to recruit us, the national guard another day, family medicine one day, and I honestly can't remember who the other group was. I'm about all turkey-sandwiched out though, since they all fed us the exact same lunch. Anyway, today in order to get on track and ready for the test (which is Wednesday, pray y'all!), I have to memorize 20 amino acid names, abbreviations, 1-letter abbreviations, pka's, and bonding characteristics. This will probably account for about 5 questions on the test Wednesday which will probably have 75 Biochem questions. Maybe that gives you an understanding of how the week's been. Anyway, on to happier things.

I'm in CUPS right now taking a study break and the couple who made my coffee earlier came back in about an hour after they got off work to tell their other coworkers they were engaged. However, they barely even looked at each other the whole time they were here because they were alerting all their nearest and dearest via text message. Just seemed a little strange to me, that's all. This week in wedding planning I've managed to order the napkins with our names, wedding date, and giant monogrammed initial on them - quite the Southern wedding staple. I figure if I can get one thing accomplished per week for now I'll be fine. For those of you who don't know, I've already got my dress and the bridesmaids have theirs. I found mine in 1 hour! I'm quite the power-shopper. Anyway, it hasn't been altered yet, but I think I'm definitely going to wait more towards the end of this year of school since I've lost 3 pounds just this week due to stress and a steady diet of turkey sandwiches and coffee.

Something VERY HARD begins tomorrow - we get it!

So, orientation for medical school was last week and I lost count of the number of times my classmates and I were told, "It's going to be HARD!!!" Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence everyone. Thanks for royally freaking us out. Seriously, do they think that by telling us how hard it is going to be is going to ease our pain or make it any easier? Do they think we don't know it's going to be incredibly difficult?
I'm sure none of us realize exactly how difficult it is going to be yet, but the truth is it probably won't be as hard for some people as it is for others. Unfortunately, I do not think I will be included in that group. I predict many sleepless nights and drained coffee pots in the future. Speaking of...
We have a quiz tomorrow - on our first day of class, so I have to go study!