Yes, killing a week for post-exam recovery does have consequences; who knew?
Nutrition's started, which is a quickie two unit course that has replaced microbiology in the tight schedule that is our lives, which you wouldn't know from reading this stuff since I typically only write down what I recreate since "Hour 6 of Female Genital Pathology: Contemplated chewing off own face" gets boring.
So far my impression of nutrition has been that it's easier than micro, which naturally gives it huge bonus points for me, and allows me to focus in more on path for the final stretch.
What does end up typically getting neglected, is Physical Diagnosis, which is a shame. One, the lectures are at an awful time, and I'm a terminal truant anyway, and they aren't on sonic, which combined with getting utterly eclipsed by path, and to a lesser extent up until last Friday, micro, means I don't tend to devote the same time to it.
Problem being that Advanced Clinical Skills/Physical Diagnosis (probably combined with path) is one of the most important classes in med school, and includes labs that are generally fun and involve real doctoring, though I still cannot successfully percuss to save my life. Need more wrist action and better aim.
So I'm trying to bring myself to care more about it on principle, since I no longer have trying to maintain micro as an excuse, and for nutrition, they (I hope) are realizing it.
In other news, they seem to have canceled path lab today without any real notice that I saw, which on the one hand is annoying, and on the other hand, justified taking a study break, and prolongs my slides and concept maps another day that I can use to try and get fully caught up for the week so I can start fresh. I'm not sure the likelihood of that happening, but you know.
Oddly, with the advent of yet more classes, I'm beginning at last to feel refreshed enough to dive in, where I haven't been able to focus this last week, and was concerned that the perpetual burnout would trip me until exams, but I think I'm finally getting my groove back.
May 27, 2008
May 25, 2008
Accomplishments this week
C/S exam on Monday: Check
Miss lab on Monday: Check
See leatherback turtles Monday: Check
Tuesday: Go to lab. Screw around all day watching Inuyasha and Scrubs reruns and hastily attempt to do slides for Wednesday: Check
Wednesday: Go to lab. Do nothing else all day: Check
Thursday: Realize you have a study session scheduled Friday. Do nothing for *most* of the day, realize you're wholly unprepared for Friday, and try to inhale female reproductive lectures like potato chips while simultaneously checking email: Check
Friday: Do nothing most of the day. Try to ram in some lectures at the last minute before study session. Go jogging. Do study session. Watch Dusk until Dawn and Clerks 2: Check
Saturday: Realize you've done nothing all week. Go to campus to catch hash bus to perpetuate cycle. See former-fellow hasher attempting to study and peer pressure him into going on hash bus instead of to library: Check
Do hash, get back to apartment early so you can study. Instead, lie on sofa being too lazy to clean out your fresh wounds from hash, watch Wanda Sykes comedy special. Decide to study. Blog instead: Check
The level of lazy I've achieved honestly rivals the period where I was unemployed, except I don't have a Playstation 2 in Grenada.
But I'll report on the hash since, in being both a school event (kind of, but not really, but leaves from campus, so I'm counting it) and in being the only real physical exercise I've committed to since well before midterms, it's the closest I've come to being productive all week.
St. Andrews! Unfortunately, we didn't actually get to see the big waterfall, so I'm going to have to go back for it, which is no hardship; the drive is extremely pretty, the people are nice, and the area's cool, so there ya go.
When I came to Grenada, first term, I really did not expect that our librarian would be running around yelling "BRING OUT YOUR VIRGINS!!!" If I had known in advance, I totally would have applied to this school years earlier. Ta daa:
Dave called this a hash for the vertically challenged, due to obstacles such as this one. Considering it still meant pulling my vertically challenged self over the large logs I couldn't go under, and then having to jump down like a little kid, I'm still going to call being tall a definite hash advantage:
But it did enable me to get a little easier through this grassy uh... thing. And yes, that's a Bacardi shirt. Live it loud, live it proud.
Doing hashes tends to run you through people's yards. Fortunately, they don't seem to mind much.
And no matter how many times I see similar scenery (Grenada's not that big), I never get tired of it:
Mmmm... dinner... or the inspiration for a crappy William Carlos Williams poem. No wheelbarrow though.
Fun tax!!!
Early on in the hash during the most strenuous part, I managed to get a pricker vine wound around my calf, which naturally stopped my progress quite suddenly when it ran out of slack, and took me down like a bear trap. The fall tightened its hold on my calf, promptly ripping it open, a fact at this point, that was unknown to me, since I mainly squawked because I wasn't expecting to fall.
So I'm hiking along when the people behind me go "Uhh.. whoa, you're bleeding. We know to follow you!" and I look down and there's blood just all over my leg, and say "I think this means you *shouldn't* follow me." So for the rest of the hash, as the people behind us varied depending on how fast we were going and how many pictures I was stopping to take, I kept getting the "Whoa!" reaction, despite the fact that it looks WAY worse than it feels.
I also apparently need to get into better shape (duh). This was my third hash and prior to midterms, I was jogging relatively frequently. As I was stumbling along rather effectively, I thought (I hike by creative falling, which consists of sliding around on slippery rocks and mud, while catching myself in a forward momentum that keeps me upright 90% of the time while contributing to my progress with the grace of an epileptic duck), the guy behind me laughingly went "First hash, eh?" To which I replied "Nope. Just a klutz."
But!!! Better a klutz than a virgin!
Look at em! Lined up just awaiting their baptism in beer, which I cheerfully contributed to, since I missed the devirginizing at the night hash, so the other time this little ritual was being performed, *I* was on the receiving end.
Note the clothes:
Pure Carib wash!
Also on this hash, I FINALLY got to end my elusive search for oildown, as they had it at the bar where we finished up. Wahoo!!!
And no, it doesn't taste as bad as it looks. I did pick out a couple pieces of pig snout due to the principle that they still had the hair attached to them (a lady's gotta have standards), but the rest was fine.
Then back home after a long and productive day of doing everything but studying!
No really, I'll study tomorrow.
Miss lab on Monday: Check
See leatherback turtles Monday: Check
Tuesday: Go to lab. Screw around all day watching Inuyasha and Scrubs reruns and hastily attempt to do slides for Wednesday: Check
Wednesday: Go to lab. Do nothing else all day: Check
Thursday: Realize you have a study session scheduled Friday. Do nothing for *most* of the day, realize you're wholly unprepared for Friday, and try to inhale female reproductive lectures like potato chips while simultaneously checking email: Check
Friday: Do nothing most of the day. Try to ram in some lectures at the last minute before study session. Go jogging. Do study session. Watch Dusk until Dawn and Clerks 2: Check
Saturday: Realize you've done nothing all week. Go to campus to catch hash bus to perpetuate cycle. See former-fellow hasher attempting to study and peer pressure him into going on hash bus instead of to library: Check
Do hash, get back to apartment early so you can study. Instead, lie on sofa being too lazy to clean out your fresh wounds from hash, watch Wanda Sykes comedy special. Decide to study. Blog instead: Check
The level of lazy I've achieved honestly rivals the period where I was unemployed, except I don't have a Playstation 2 in Grenada.
But I'll report on the hash since, in being both a school event (kind of, but not really, but leaves from campus, so I'm counting it) and in being the only real physical exercise I've committed to since well before midterms, it's the closest I've come to being productive all week.
St. Andrews! Unfortunately, we didn't actually get to see the big waterfall, so I'm going to have to go back for it, which is no hardship; the drive is extremely pretty, the people are nice, and the area's cool, so there ya go.
When I came to Grenada, first term, I really did not expect that our librarian would be running around yelling "BRING OUT YOUR VIRGINS!!!" If I had known in advance, I totally would have applied to this school years earlier. Ta daa:
Dave called this a hash for the vertically challenged, due to obstacles such as this one. Considering it still meant pulling my vertically challenged self over the large logs I couldn't go under, and then having to jump down like a little kid, I'm still going to call being tall a definite hash advantage:
But it did enable me to get a little easier through this grassy uh... thing. And yes, that's a Bacardi shirt. Live it loud, live it proud.
Doing hashes tends to run you through people's yards. Fortunately, they don't seem to mind much.
And no matter how many times I see similar scenery (Grenada's not that big), I never get tired of it:
Mmmm... dinner... or the inspiration for a crappy William Carlos Williams poem. No wheelbarrow though.
Fun tax!!!
Early on in the hash during the most strenuous part, I managed to get a pricker vine wound around my calf, which naturally stopped my progress quite suddenly when it ran out of slack, and took me down like a bear trap. The fall tightened its hold on my calf, promptly ripping it open, a fact at this point, that was unknown to me, since I mainly squawked because I wasn't expecting to fall.
So I'm hiking along when the people behind me go "Uhh.. whoa, you're bleeding. We know to follow you!" and I look down and there's blood just all over my leg, and say "I think this means you *shouldn't* follow me." So for the rest of the hash, as the people behind us varied depending on how fast we were going and how many pictures I was stopping to take, I kept getting the "Whoa!" reaction, despite the fact that it looks WAY worse than it feels.
I also apparently need to get into better shape (duh). This was my third hash and prior to midterms, I was jogging relatively frequently. As I was stumbling along rather effectively, I thought (I hike by creative falling, which consists of sliding around on slippery rocks and mud, while catching myself in a forward momentum that keeps me upright 90% of the time while contributing to my progress with the grace of an epileptic duck), the guy behind me laughingly went "First hash, eh?" To which I replied "Nope. Just a klutz."
But!!! Better a klutz than a virgin!
Look at em! Lined up just awaiting their baptism in beer, which I cheerfully contributed to, since I missed the devirginizing at the night hash, so the other time this little ritual was being performed, *I* was on the receiving end.
Note the clothes:
Pure Carib wash!
Also on this hash, I FINALLY got to end my elusive search for oildown, as they had it at the bar where we finished up. Wahoo!!!
And no, it doesn't taste as bad as it looks. I did pick out a couple pieces of pig snout due to the principle that they still had the hair attached to them (a lady's gotta have standards), but the rest was fine.
Then back home after a long and productive day of doing everything but studying!
No really, I'll study tomorrow.
May 21, 2008
Perhaps more clarification is in order
Heh, but man oh man, a week of exams is exhausting!
So a bit of a breakdown...
Last Monday was the path exam, as mentioned, and it absolutely lived up to its expectations of being grisly, long, and taking students' hearts/minds with it, which makes it an absolutely perfect way to start off the week, because nothing encourages people to continue cramming for the relentless mental stress of three more exams like gut-punching them with the first one.
On the plus side, thanks to a lot of awesome lab groupness keeping from being the Jill McProcrastinatey that I *normally* am, I managed to drag through path with enough of a safety net that I have some wiggle room with finals.
Some unfortunates got the unique pleasure of having their Physical Diagnosis lab exam on the same DAY as the path exam, which approaches a level of evil that can't be contemplated because mainly everyone wants to go home, sleep, study, or cry. Fortunately that day, from rumor, the graders were kind, because come on... it's hard to question and test a patient when the morning's activities left you questioning whether you want to continue on at all.
I got the 9 am lab exam the next day, and scored vitals and rapport before drawing a complete blank on my archnemesis, the eye, and ended up standing there trying not to fall asleep in exhaustion and frustration or just cry that I wanted a nap (I hate 9 am; I do) as I got barraged with questions and my patient defended me (I did ask him if he usually needed corrective lenses, dang!). I also want bonus credit for noticing the patient's eyes were a little icteric despite having no known pre-existing condition which, after getting drilled on what I meant by "sclera appears yellow but not necessarily beyond the limits of normal findings" (nothing sucks more than being inexperienced and getting a borderline symptom, since you want to get a diagnosis if there is one, but don't have enough experience to defend your diagnosis, and if you make one, you're going to have to), led to the patient getting genuinely asked if he was feeling all right.
I think finding pathologies in patients not known to have any should get extra credit, right? Fortunately, the grading was still kind, and I shuffled home to spend the next day and a half cramming micro flashcards into my gullet until I spewed ETEC, EHEC, EIEC, and EIEIO from every orifice. Gods, I hate E. coli and its multiple-variant diarrhea-ness. It's not inflammatory! It's inflammatory! There's no blood! There's blood! There's no blood and then there's blood! It's self-limiting! It's fatal! It's everything that makes you appreciate why there are so many species of microorganisms because learning 5000 species is easier than learning 5000 variants of shifting pathologies on a single species that is the same species as stuff that's *normally* found in your colon. Gah.
I felt pretty decent going into micro. I did a lot of work on it despite being bludgeoned by path study, and knew full well that almost everyone in fourth term was in exactly the same position of path overkill with micro dearth and they can't fail everyone.
Secondly, thanks to the initiation of the much-reviled TBL sessions based on our need for diversity (riiiiight), we got the 5% that's part of our grade no it's bonus no it's part of our grade. The TBL is to the course curriculum what E. coli is to the course material in that it's something with a shifting presentation that is nearly impossible to pin down without specific training.
Since we couldn't get a solid answer on what the TBL was worth (though the quizzes were always bonus), I treated them as a part of my grade and actually read the 20 page articles so I could take the IRAT (individual quizzes) and TRAT (same quiz, done as your group), and do decently well on them, because I figured if I didn't, they were DEFINITELY going to be part of our grade, and I was going to miss it by a point because of them.
Well, due to the announcement screwups and the general ire of the class at having the whole point of the IRAT/TRAT to teach us that we do better on exams when we collaborate on them with five other people (duh), and taught us to conspire against the department on peer evaluations, they got made bonus points! Which means micro became a gimme.
Even with this announcement prior to the final, I was first of all, afraid they were going to still yank it back, and second, afraid they were going to take out *their* ire on us by making an exam entirely consistent of drawing the specific genome of all 900 types of E. coli.
Exam was fair AND we got the TBL and quizzes as bonus points, bringing the class average to a spanktastic 86% and me to a very happy Ishie indeed. Well, it did today, when we got the results. Friday I mainly felt tired. As did everyone else. Though the responses coming out of the exam were markedly different. Coming out Monday I thought "Well, I was prepared as I was gonna get but DAYAM" with people's reactions being pretty grim, while on Friday, the reactions coming out of the micro exam were pretty much "Well, that was not half as bad as it could have been."
Friday also marked the day every person on campus that wasn't in fourth term got to go to their respective homes, filling the campus and streets with partiers, people carrying suitcases, and grim fourth termers. We slated Friday night for partying, which largely consisted of me lying down on the dock at Prickly Bay so I wouldn't fall off the earth before crawling through a pizza someone had placed on the ground while managing to not get a SINGLE drop of sauce on my clothes. Pure talent, folks. Jay celebrated his victory by playing Pretty Woman on his trombone while standing on the top of his apartment complex. Some of you may have noticed that...
Saturday, I spent the day in St. George's with David helping him shop (or bumming around town; take your pick), ate at Creole Shack and enjoyed the whole bittersweet "this is fun, but you leave tomorrow" thing.
Sunday, Dave left, so I spent the day doing my path slides for Monday, sulking, and frustratingly trying to study for the PD WRITTEN midterm bright and early Monday morning. Oh, the evil. Nothing screws up your weekend like having an exam hanging over it while 50% of the people you know take off.
BUT, the PD exam was way more fair than I thought it was going to be with little on there that wasn't in the notes except for hyper/hypothyroidism stuff which we'd been repeatedly told was going to be on the test, and again, left me a happy Ishie, so for getting completely bear-smacked by this last week, I made out like a bandit.
The thing is on Monday, they had path lecture immediately scheduled after the PD exam. Two of them, in fact. I'd tell you how poorly attended they were, but per usual, I certainly wasn't there. I was in a sleep deprived daze, that I was trying to clear back before the path lab ALSO scheduled that day.
Yeah, so for those keeping track the schedule was exam Monday, exam Tuesday, exam Friday, exam Monday, path lab Monday, slides due Monday.
)*(*)(*)(*@)(*@)(*!!!!!!!
Adding to the excitement was that they picked that day to switch the lab times around on path, so those attending path at 3 would now be attending at 1. Those attending at 1 would be attending at 3. They announced at the beginning of the term that this would be done *sometime* during the term, and it would be announced as to when.
It wasn't.
Anticipating this, a friend and I went down to the path office to specifically ask if the lab times were being switched for Monday's lab, because if so, I needed to print my slides and lose a nap. If not, I could go to the mall, get a smoothie, take a nap, and head back for lab.
"No", we were told. "That's up to the C/S department and they'll announce it when the change is made."
So, I went home and collapsed down onto my sweet sweet comforter. Only to find out at 1:15 or so (ie 15 minutes after my new lab time started) when my friend frantically knocked on my door, that the lab time had indeed been switched, a fact that had been announced on Angel in the preceding hour.
Yeah, that zoo of lost people must have been exciting. Not that I'd know since I figured the time it would take me to stagger into my clothes, run for the bus, catch one, get to the library, print the slides, and make it to lab would probably eclipse the time allotted. D'oh.
Not not not cool.
So now most fourth termers are wandering around in a stressed out, no real break, too much work, too much mischeduling grim daze with any other-termer friends absent daze that does not preclude people to being on top of things. As a result, I am well aware that I am not the only one that has being at least six lectures behind ALREADY to celebrate. Yeesh.
BUT, NO MORE MICRO!!!!
And since I'd missed my lab time already, my nap was sufficient that I primarily needed to wake up to go see the turtles, as noted. And, as noted, it was an amazing experience that cannot be suitably be put into words except to say, you guys have from April until June, and do it do it do it do it!
So what now? Well, I need to find initiative and get caught up just in time to blow it on Saturday where I'm torn between scuba diving, the hash (thanks Dr. Bob!) or both. I'm leaning towards 'both'.
So a bit of a breakdown...
Last Monday was the path exam, as mentioned, and it absolutely lived up to its expectations of being grisly, long, and taking students' hearts/minds with it, which makes it an absolutely perfect way to start off the week, because nothing encourages people to continue cramming for the relentless mental stress of three more exams like gut-punching them with the first one.
On the plus side, thanks to a lot of awesome lab groupness keeping from being the Jill McProcrastinatey that I *normally* am, I managed to drag through path with enough of a safety net that I have some wiggle room with finals.
Some unfortunates got the unique pleasure of having their Physical Diagnosis lab exam on the same DAY as the path exam, which approaches a level of evil that can't be contemplated because mainly everyone wants to go home, sleep, study, or cry. Fortunately that day, from rumor, the graders were kind, because come on... it's hard to question and test a patient when the morning's activities left you questioning whether you want to continue on at all.
I got the 9 am lab exam the next day, and scored vitals and rapport before drawing a complete blank on my archnemesis, the eye, and ended up standing there trying not to fall asleep in exhaustion and frustration or just cry that I wanted a nap (I hate 9 am; I do) as I got barraged with questions and my patient defended me (I did ask him if he usually needed corrective lenses, dang!). I also want bonus credit for noticing the patient's eyes were a little icteric despite having no known pre-existing condition which, after getting drilled on what I meant by "sclera appears yellow but not necessarily beyond the limits of normal findings" (nothing sucks more than being inexperienced and getting a borderline symptom, since you want to get a diagnosis if there is one, but don't have enough experience to defend your diagnosis, and if you make one, you're going to have to), led to the patient getting genuinely asked if he was feeling all right.
I think finding pathologies in patients not known to have any should get extra credit, right? Fortunately, the grading was still kind, and I shuffled home to spend the next day and a half cramming micro flashcards into my gullet until I spewed ETEC, EHEC, EIEC, and EIEIO from every orifice. Gods, I hate E. coli and its multiple-variant diarrhea-ness. It's not inflammatory! It's inflammatory! There's no blood! There's blood! There's no blood and then there's blood! It's self-limiting! It's fatal! It's everything that makes you appreciate why there are so many species of microorganisms because learning 5000 species is easier than learning 5000 variants of shifting pathologies on a single species that is the same species as stuff that's *normally* found in your colon. Gah.
I felt pretty decent going into micro. I did a lot of work on it despite being bludgeoned by path study, and knew full well that almost everyone in fourth term was in exactly the same position of path overkill with micro dearth and they can't fail everyone.
Secondly, thanks to the initiation of the much-reviled TBL sessions based on our need for diversity (riiiiight), we got the 5% that's part of our grade no it's bonus no it's part of our grade. The TBL is to the course curriculum what E. coli is to the course material in that it's something with a shifting presentation that is nearly impossible to pin down without specific training.
Since we couldn't get a solid answer on what the TBL was worth (though the quizzes were always bonus), I treated them as a part of my grade and actually read the 20 page articles so I could take the IRAT (individual quizzes) and TRAT (same quiz, done as your group), and do decently well on them, because I figured if I didn't, they were DEFINITELY going to be part of our grade, and I was going to miss it by a point because of them.
Well, due to the announcement screwups and the general ire of the class at having the whole point of the IRAT/TRAT to teach us that we do better on exams when we collaborate on them with five other people (duh), and taught us to conspire against the department on peer evaluations, they got made bonus points! Which means micro became a gimme.
Even with this announcement prior to the final, I was first of all, afraid they were going to still yank it back, and second, afraid they were going to take out *their* ire on us by making an exam entirely consistent of drawing the specific genome of all 900 types of E. coli.
Exam was fair AND we got the TBL and quizzes as bonus points, bringing the class average to a spanktastic 86% and me to a very happy Ishie indeed. Well, it did today, when we got the results. Friday I mainly felt tired. As did everyone else. Though the responses coming out of the exam were markedly different. Coming out Monday I thought "Well, I was prepared as I was gonna get but DAYAM" with people's reactions being pretty grim, while on Friday, the reactions coming out of the micro exam were pretty much "Well, that was not half as bad as it could have been."
Friday also marked the day every person on campus that wasn't in fourth term got to go to their respective homes, filling the campus and streets with partiers, people carrying suitcases, and grim fourth termers. We slated Friday night for partying, which largely consisted of me lying down on the dock at Prickly Bay so I wouldn't fall off the earth before crawling through a pizza someone had placed on the ground while managing to not get a SINGLE drop of sauce on my clothes. Pure talent, folks. Jay celebrated his victory by playing Pretty Woman on his trombone while standing on the top of his apartment complex. Some of you may have noticed that...
Saturday, I spent the day in St. George's with David helping him shop (or bumming around town; take your pick), ate at Creole Shack and enjoyed the whole bittersweet "this is fun, but you leave tomorrow" thing.
Sunday, Dave left, so I spent the day doing my path slides for Monday, sulking, and frustratingly trying to study for the PD WRITTEN midterm bright and early Monday morning. Oh, the evil. Nothing screws up your weekend like having an exam hanging over it while 50% of the people you know take off.
BUT, the PD exam was way more fair than I thought it was going to be with little on there that wasn't in the notes except for hyper/hypothyroidism stuff which we'd been repeatedly told was going to be on the test, and again, left me a happy Ishie, so for getting completely bear-smacked by this last week, I made out like a bandit.
The thing is on Monday, they had path lecture immediately scheduled after the PD exam. Two of them, in fact. I'd tell you how poorly attended they were, but per usual, I certainly wasn't there. I was in a sleep deprived daze, that I was trying to clear back before the path lab ALSO scheduled that day.
Yeah, so for those keeping track the schedule was exam Monday, exam Tuesday, exam Friday, exam Monday, path lab Monday, slides due Monday.
)*(*)(*)(*@)(*@)(*!!!!!!!
Adding to the excitement was that they picked that day to switch the lab times around on path, so those attending path at 3 would now be attending at 1. Those attending at 1 would be attending at 3. They announced at the beginning of the term that this would be done *sometime* during the term, and it would be announced as to when.
It wasn't.
Anticipating this, a friend and I went down to the path office to specifically ask if the lab times were being switched for Monday's lab, because if so, I needed to print my slides and lose a nap. If not, I could go to the mall, get a smoothie, take a nap, and head back for lab.
"No", we were told. "That's up to the C/S department and they'll announce it when the change is made."
So, I went home and collapsed down onto my sweet sweet comforter. Only to find out at 1:15 or so (ie 15 minutes after my new lab time started) when my friend frantically knocked on my door, that the lab time had indeed been switched, a fact that had been announced on Angel in the preceding hour.
Yeah, that zoo of lost people must have been exciting. Not that I'd know since I figured the time it would take me to stagger into my clothes, run for the bus, catch one, get to the library, print the slides, and make it to lab would probably eclipse the time allotted. D'oh.
Not not not cool.
So now most fourth termers are wandering around in a stressed out, no real break, too much work, too much mischeduling grim daze with any other-termer friends absent daze that does not preclude people to being on top of things. As a result, I am well aware that I am not the only one that has being at least six lectures behind ALREADY to celebrate. Yeesh.
BUT, NO MORE MICRO!!!!
And since I'd missed my lab time already, my nap was sufficient that I primarily needed to wake up to go see the turtles, as noted. And, as noted, it was an amazing experience that cannot be suitably be put into words except to say, you guys have from April until June, and do it do it do it do it!
So what now? Well, I need to find initiative and get caught up just in time to blow it on Saturday where I'm torn between scuba diving, the hash (thanks Dr. Bob!) or both. I'm leaning towards 'both'.
May 20, 2008
Turtles!
But first, a brief synopsis of midterms:
Anyway, so in celebration of 4, count em, FOUR exams in a week, one of which was the dreaded second path exam, and the other was the micro final, we did what any reasonable people would do: packed into a couple buses with these guys to drive 90 minutes north, eat some chicken, drink some beer, and see some freaking turtles!!! Woot!!!!
So we got to do this "usually only see it on the Discovery Channel" thing where we headed to the beach at night under close supervision to see the leatherback sea turtles lay eggs, AND in an unexpected bonus, get to see some of the previously laid hatchlings toddle their way toward the water.
Whoa... I mean, words cannot describe the level of awesome. They had 9 turtles on the beach when they called us from dinner at Bathway Beach (after we'd made the necessary stop at Food Fair before leaving the campus area to stockpile beer for the occasion), and after giving the "no flashes, no flashlights, no messing with the turtles, etc" talk and we followed our guide to one of the laying females, which I had previously known were large, but did not quite have an impression of HOW large. On the way, we saw two little itty bitty turtles making their way to the beach and had to be very careful in our steps because they warned us that there were enough hatchlings on the beach that they didn't want us to accidentally crush one.
So we get to what they consider to be a "small" female, as in having my first mistake it for a permanent rock structure, gathered in behind her, as she kicked out a sand hole, and got to stroke her shell as she laid the numerous eggs. Then, we were off to see two MORE turtles that were simultaneously covering their egg-laying holes with giant flipper kicks, one of which, the guide explained, was going to need to have her nest moved because it was too close to the water. We already knew we weren't supposed to go around to the front end of these massive animals because it disturbs their laying, so we were all huddling back like good tourists when both turtles turned around in their retreat back to the water, and the biggest one came right near us and made a grunting sound as we attempted not to make any sudden movements and I giggled giddily by the sheer awesomeness of the experience.
So it was just flat incredible. And then I prattled all the way home because I was so excited.
Anyway, so in celebration of 4, count em, FOUR exams in a week, one of which was the dreaded second path exam, and the other was the micro final, we did what any reasonable people would do: packed into a couple buses with these guys to drive 90 minutes north, eat some chicken, drink some beer, and see some freaking turtles!!! Woot!!!!
So we got to do this "usually only see it on the Discovery Channel" thing where we headed to the beach at night under close supervision to see the leatherback sea turtles lay eggs, AND in an unexpected bonus, get to see some of the previously laid hatchlings toddle their way toward the water.
Whoa... I mean, words cannot describe the level of awesome. They had 9 turtles on the beach when they called us from dinner at Bathway Beach (after we'd made the necessary stop at Food Fair before leaving the campus area to stockpile beer for the occasion), and after giving the "no flashes, no flashlights, no messing with the turtles, etc" talk and we followed our guide to one of the laying females, which I had previously known were large, but did not quite have an impression of HOW large. On the way, we saw two little itty bitty turtles making their way to the beach and had to be very careful in our steps because they warned us that there were enough hatchlings on the beach that they didn't want us to accidentally crush one.
So we get to what they consider to be a "small" female, as in having my first mistake it for a permanent rock structure, gathered in behind her, as she kicked out a sand hole, and got to stroke her shell as she laid the numerous eggs. Then, we were off to see two MORE turtles that were simultaneously covering their egg-laying holes with giant flipper kicks, one of which, the guide explained, was going to need to have her nest moved because it was too close to the water. We already knew we weren't supposed to go around to the front end of these massive animals because it disturbs their laying, so we were all huddling back like good tourists when both turtles turned around in their retreat back to the water, and the biggest one came right near us and made a grunting sound as we attempted not to make any sudden movements and I giggled giddily by the sheer awesomeness of the experience.
So it was just flat incredible. And then I prattled all the way home because I was so excited.
May 15, 2008
CMV, why do you hate me?
Nope, definitely not a fan of the CMV. I mean, being immunocompetent and everything, it definitely beats out lots and lots of other things for diseases in the category of "stuff I'd rather have than staph aureus in my brain", but as far as learning about it, it's one of those sneaky bastards that causes everything, and when you're studying it in immunocompromised, like everything else in immunocompromised, pretty much everything is attributable to it. It's the sarcoidosis of micro.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have those pathogens which I've long lamented that only have one or two symptoms, but happen to share that feature with 5000 other things exactly like them that some scientist at some point was interested in enough to go "Hey, these two things that cause self-limiting coughs have different molecular structures. Let us create new viral families, genera, and species for them so that students' lives may be made more difficult for it."
Then, there's those horrendous organisms that cause terrible things but I love them, because they have incredibly specific risk factors and symptoms: 'a guy into home canning develops paralys.." "Botulism! Next question!"
I did get a big form of entertainment on the bioterrorism lecture, which really should have been subtitled "The Murderous Jackass Blooper Reel of Foiled Misbegotten Plots to Bring about Armageddon."
The weird part is there's all this stuff people are TRYING so desperately to do to each other, yet the most deadly outbreaks tend to be associated with the abject stupidity of people that weren't doing it deliberately to begin with. You know "Oops, I had the sewage from the Happy Acres Mad Cow Dairy Farm draining directly into the city water supply. Was that wrong? I checked like three times in 'How Not to Kill off Children and the Elderly for Dummies' and it wasn't listed."
But, gotta know all of it for tomorrow's micro final, which has been blissfully schedule for 1:30 PM at my good hour, which means I actually have a good chance of being half with it when I take it.
This also contrasts sharply to my clinical skills first lab midterm, which is one of the easiest "gimme" points on the planet, to which I did all the vitals and questioning perfectly, drew a complete blank on the rest, and then spent a lot of time gaping blankly, hemming and hawing, and being frustrated. Doh. Fortunately, their grading is on the kind side.
Path... everyone wants to know about path... the dreaded second exam, bane of medical school existence. Did it suck? Absolutely. Was it extremely long and difficult with TONS of irrelevant information that you had to discard, come up with a diagnosis, and then come up with features that clarified that diagnosis so you could pick the right one out of a list of answers that ALL had elements of being correct, but one was 'more' correct than others? Yup.
So why am I not more freaked out, nor was I too bad going in? Reputation. I have heard since the first week of first term how unquestionably terrible the second path exam is, have gotten tons of tips from wonderful people that have taken the class, thus when it came up and was terrible and long, it was just about as terrible and long as I was expecting, and now it's over.
This doesn't mean I did *well* or anything; I honestly have absolutely no idea, since I knew vaguely what virtually every question was talking about, which may be the epitome of "giving me just enough rope to hang myself with", because it allows me to be very easily misled, particularly on an exam where time is such a factor.
And it was too, goodness. I knew that going in, and I was STILL racing the clock. I knew it was going to be a close one when for the first path exam, I was looking at the slides for two seconds before putting my head on my desk to await the next changeover, since I was feeling kind of stress-crappy, and on this one, I was still logicking my way through the question and answer choices when I heard the "next slide" click.
Not that it mattered much. Those slides were... whoa. I'd heard different slides, but same diagnostic features; it just may be a different view of the same sort of specimen. On the first exam, I'd look up, go "Oh, that's nutmeg liver", read the question and go "Uh oh." On the second exam, I'd look up, go "What in hell is that mangled mass of tissue? Was this an incidental finding at a murder scene where the victim got put into a wood chipper?", read the question and go "Oh. That is easily the most undiagnostic least representative view of an aortic dissection I've ever seen. Fortunately, this patient is presenting the way he would if he'd waltzed out of the textbook", and then of course, read the answer choices and go "Uh oh".
Oh, and I owe Kwesi like three beers for LAP scores and I get NONE for pseudomonas. Hmph. Makes me almost think there's something wrong with playing path exam drinking games. Nah...
So who knows and c'est la vie. Now all that's left is to focus on micro and then TRY to pull my aching brain together sufficiently to actually study for the Clinical Skills written exam on Monday.
And then? Turtle watching! Wahoo!!
And an additional good luck to all you anatomy and BSCE takers out there, as well as my microbiology-afflicted brothers and sisters. I'd wish you 6th termers good luck, but I have no idea what your exam schedule is, so I'll just wish you a nonspecific good luck and congratulations.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have those pathogens which I've long lamented that only have one or two symptoms, but happen to share that feature with 5000 other things exactly like them that some scientist at some point was interested in enough to go "Hey, these two things that cause self-limiting coughs have different molecular structures. Let us create new viral families, genera, and species for them so that students' lives may be made more difficult for it."
Then, there's those horrendous organisms that cause terrible things but I love them, because they have incredibly specific risk factors and symptoms: 'a guy into home canning develops paralys.." "Botulism! Next question!"
I did get a big form of entertainment on the bioterrorism lecture, which really should have been subtitled "The Murderous Jackass Blooper Reel of Foiled Misbegotten Plots to Bring about Armageddon."
The weird part is there's all this stuff people are TRYING so desperately to do to each other, yet the most deadly outbreaks tend to be associated with the abject stupidity of people that weren't doing it deliberately to begin with. You know "Oops, I had the sewage from the Happy Acres Mad Cow Dairy Farm draining directly into the city water supply. Was that wrong? I checked like three times in 'How Not to Kill off Children and the Elderly for Dummies' and it wasn't listed."
But, gotta know all of it for tomorrow's micro final, which has been blissfully schedule for 1:30 PM at my good hour, which means I actually have a good chance of being half with it when I take it.
This also contrasts sharply to my clinical skills first lab midterm, which is one of the easiest "gimme" points on the planet, to which I did all the vitals and questioning perfectly, drew a complete blank on the rest, and then spent a lot of time gaping blankly, hemming and hawing, and being frustrated. Doh. Fortunately, their grading is on the kind side.
Path... everyone wants to know about path... the dreaded second exam, bane of medical school existence. Did it suck? Absolutely. Was it extremely long and difficult with TONS of irrelevant information that you had to discard, come up with a diagnosis, and then come up with features that clarified that diagnosis so you could pick the right one out of a list of answers that ALL had elements of being correct, but one was 'more' correct than others? Yup.
So why am I not more freaked out, nor was I too bad going in? Reputation. I have heard since the first week of first term how unquestionably terrible the second path exam is, have gotten tons of tips from wonderful people that have taken the class, thus when it came up and was terrible and long, it was just about as terrible and long as I was expecting, and now it's over.
This doesn't mean I did *well* or anything; I honestly have absolutely no idea, since I knew vaguely what virtually every question was talking about, which may be the epitome of "giving me just enough rope to hang myself with", because it allows me to be very easily misled, particularly on an exam where time is such a factor.
And it was too, goodness. I knew that going in, and I was STILL racing the clock. I knew it was going to be a close one when for the first path exam, I was looking at the slides for two seconds before putting my head on my desk to await the next changeover, since I was feeling kind of stress-crappy, and on this one, I was still logicking my way through the question and answer choices when I heard the "next slide" click.
Not that it mattered much. Those slides were... whoa. I'd heard different slides, but same diagnostic features; it just may be a different view of the same sort of specimen. On the first exam, I'd look up, go "Oh, that's nutmeg liver", read the question and go "Uh oh." On the second exam, I'd look up, go "What in hell is that mangled mass of tissue? Was this an incidental finding at a murder scene where the victim got put into a wood chipper?", read the question and go "Oh. That is easily the most undiagnostic least representative view of an aortic dissection I've ever seen. Fortunately, this patient is presenting the way he would if he'd waltzed out of the textbook", and then of course, read the answer choices and go "Uh oh".
Oh, and I owe Kwesi like three beers for LAP scores and I get NONE for pseudomonas. Hmph. Makes me almost think there's something wrong with playing path exam drinking games. Nah...
So who knows and c'est la vie. Now all that's left is to focus on micro and then TRY to pull my aching brain together sufficiently to actually study for the Clinical Skills written exam on Monday.
And then? Turtle watching! Wahoo!!
And an additional good luck to all you anatomy and BSCE takers out there, as well as my microbiology-afflicted brothers and sisters. I'd wish you 6th termers good luck, but I have no idea what your exam schedule is, so I'll just wish you a nonspecific good luck and congratulations.
May 12, 2008
One more day now
You know that period of studying where you know you still have studying you need to do, but at the same time, you kind of wish it were exam time just so you could be done with the whole mess?
Yup, that's where I am.
What I'm learning in path, besides everything that can go wrong with every part of your body, not that that's any pressure, is that I missed the Sesame Street that was brought to you by the letter "I", because I hate and can't remember every disease that starts with it, specifically those that involve four to five words, the first of which is either "Idiopathic" or "Interstitial". "Idiopathic" is turning into one of those apathetic agnostic things: "Don't know. Don't care."
The weird thing is that idiopathic should be my greatest friend of all, because it means I don't have to learn a buttload of tumor markers and cytokines, but it's not, because it's rarely "Idiopathic heart attack". No, it's like every Greek/Latin derived root word rammed together with "Idiopathic" in front of it. "Oh! That patient has Idiopathic interstitial pulmonary fibromyogenic diverticulosis of the anterior inferior periepicardial medial border. It's found in .005% of 90 year old Papua New Guinean genetically predisposed females somehow secondarily to eating the brains of the nephroxides rubber tree wombat. It presents with malaise and night sweats. As does every other disease that anyone has ever had."
There's a part of me that just wants to write in "TB" and "sarcoidosis" for every answer on the test, because they always screw me up by presenting with a slew of seemingly unrelated symptoms that could easily be confused with absolutely everything else. And your clinical case will be a homeless alcoholic smoker, which means they have EVERYthing. Usually simultaneously.
So to pass the time, instead, I end up developing geeky drinking games with my study partners. I get a beer for Pseudomonas. Kwesi gets a beer for lap scores, and Christine gets a beer for Hodgkin's lymphoma, and possibly for blueberry muffin babies (don't ask). I'd say chug every time you see the word "idiopathic", but then we'd all have alcohol poisoning, aspirate Klebsiella and drown in a sea of our own mucus. You see what I'm dealing with over here?
Yup, that's where I am.
What I'm learning in path, besides everything that can go wrong with every part of your body, not that that's any pressure, is that I missed the Sesame Street that was brought to you by the letter "I", because I hate and can't remember every disease that starts with it, specifically those that involve four to five words, the first of which is either "Idiopathic" or "Interstitial". "Idiopathic" is turning into one of those apathetic agnostic things: "Don't know. Don't care."
The weird thing is that idiopathic should be my greatest friend of all, because it means I don't have to learn a buttload of tumor markers and cytokines, but it's not, because it's rarely "Idiopathic heart attack". No, it's like every Greek/Latin derived root word rammed together with "Idiopathic" in front of it. "Oh! That patient has Idiopathic interstitial pulmonary fibromyogenic diverticulosis of the anterior inferior periepicardial medial border. It's found in .005% of 90 year old Papua New Guinean genetically predisposed females somehow secondarily to eating the brains of the nephroxides rubber tree wombat. It presents with malaise and night sweats. As does every other disease that anyone has ever had."
There's a part of me that just wants to write in "TB" and "sarcoidosis" for every answer on the test, because they always screw me up by presenting with a slew of seemingly unrelated symptoms that could easily be confused with absolutely everything else. And your clinical case will be a homeless alcoholic smoker, which means they have EVERYthing. Usually simultaneously.
So to pass the time, instead, I end up developing geeky drinking games with my study partners. I get a beer for Pseudomonas. Kwesi gets a beer for lap scores, and Christine gets a beer for Hodgkin's lymphoma, and possibly for blueberry muffin babies (don't ask). I'd say chug every time you see the word "idiopathic", but then we'd all have alcohol poisoning, aspirate Klebsiella and drown in a sea of our own mucus. You see what I'm dealing with over here?
May 9, 2008
Yup, I'm still alive
And no, am not going through the slow process of blog abandonment... not until rotations!
What I am doing is preparing for the unmitigated hell that is the upcoming midterm/finals season with the notoriously worst path exam on Tuesday, PD lab midterm on Wednesday, microbio final on Friday, and PD written midterm the following Monday, while the 1st, 2nd, and 5/6th termers are also taking all their final exams.
So if you're asking whether this turns campus into a rampaging boiling mass of stressed out, unwashed, scrubs-clad joyless drones, of which I am one, the answer is "yes". Oh, though I frequently do my stressed out unwashed scrubs-clad joyless drone-essness (it's a word now) in my apartment, since the spontaneous resurrection of my computer despite my dumping milk on it, led to a steady migration back from the library, as did the necessity to study group path.
You can also tell it's exam season from the increasing dreariness of collective skype and facebook away messages as they devolve from quirky status updates to various forms of either the more optimistic forms of "We can do this; good luck everyone; only a little more time now" to the less happy varieties of "Please do not attempt to resuscitate my fetid corpse if you find me because it will be the first peace I've gotten since embarking on this misbegotten career choice" and every variant in between. Ah, spring.
It's also telling that now, virtually my only form of social interaction involves debating over which cytokines are involved in which disease pathologies, and my alone time consists of pacing my apartment with micro flashcards like a caged jaguar... if jaguars did flashcards, I mean.
But despite all this, I'm actually feeling okay right now. I'm not sure if it's exam-optimism (if only) or if I'm finally learning to adapt to the general exam stress and adopt a more live and let scantron approach to life. Or maybe it's because I'm heavily in denial. Or it's that for my study session tonight, I randomly ended up dressed like a pirate by accidentally combining a t-shirt with a skull on it with my "crap, my bangs are too long" bandanna, and pirates make me smile, even if my study buddies probably did think I was about to abandon medical school to pillage swag and drink rum.
Come to think of it...
What I am doing is preparing for the unmitigated hell that is the upcoming midterm/finals season with the notoriously worst path exam on Tuesday, PD lab midterm on Wednesday, microbio final on Friday, and PD written midterm the following Monday, while the 1st, 2nd, and 5/6th termers are also taking all their final exams.
So if you're asking whether this turns campus into a rampaging boiling mass of stressed out, unwashed, scrubs-clad joyless drones, of which I am one, the answer is "yes". Oh, though I frequently do my stressed out unwashed scrubs-clad joyless drone-essness (it's a word now) in my apartment, since the spontaneous resurrection of my computer despite my dumping milk on it, led to a steady migration back from the library, as did the necessity to study group path.
You can also tell it's exam season from the increasing dreariness of collective skype and facebook away messages as they devolve from quirky status updates to various forms of either the more optimistic forms of "We can do this; good luck everyone; only a little more time now" to the less happy varieties of "Please do not attempt to resuscitate my fetid corpse if you find me because it will be the first peace I've gotten since embarking on this misbegotten career choice" and every variant in between. Ah, spring.
It's also telling that now, virtually my only form of social interaction involves debating over which cytokines are involved in which disease pathologies, and my alone time consists of pacing my apartment with micro flashcards like a caged jaguar... if jaguars did flashcards, I mean.
But despite all this, I'm actually feeling okay right now. I'm not sure if it's exam-optimism (if only) or if I'm finally learning to adapt to the general exam stress and adopt a more live and let scantron approach to life. Or maybe it's because I'm heavily in denial. Or it's that for my study session tonight, I randomly ended up dressed like a pirate by accidentally combining a t-shirt with a skull on it with my "crap, my bangs are too long" bandanna, and pirates make me smile, even if my study buddies probably did think I was about to abandon medical school to pillage swag and drink rum.
Come to think of it...
May 4, 2008
Whipping through GI
And I don't mean the study, I mean the lectures... hmm... buncha slides not covered in lecture that are covered by the objectives, and the pictures we're not covering aren't on Sonic or anywhere else, but just know them for the exam in a little over a week. In the meantime, we're going to run the lectures long anyway, WHILE racing through the bowels so quickly that it makes me think the leading cause of polyps is the tissue thrown back when the instructor burns off his tires.
Unlike micro. In micro, the GI tract must be lovingly addressed since there are 6 billion things that give you diarrhea and 6 billion more things that give you *bloody* diarrhea. Incidentally, number 6 billion and one for the latter is medical school, and I'll let you guess the mechanism. Gonna be a lot of people with that after the exams, I think.
So that's pleasant. On the plus side, I've finally discovered that I'm working well in a small group for restudy, where usually I avoid group study like the plague since I either end up bored, distracted, or panicked, but being able to work it from 8 pm to 1 in the morning or so is totally working for my night owl schedule.
Doesn't keep me from staying up all night, periodically wandering around the apartment complex though. Can't let the security guards think I've gone sane or anything.
So what's new? Other than the constant studying due to the approach of upcoming exams? Well, took a break last Monday to go to dinner in St. George's, and ate at Crabback, which I recommend. Since the name was inviting, decided to have crabback, goat curry, and rum punch, and then in an attempt to find the post-first-hash ice cream place/bar/house of moonshine, so I could show Dave, ended up walking from St. George's back to my apartment, a distance of somewhere around 4 miles. Only to remember that perhaps the place we were looking for MAY have been on the other side of the restaurant we'd been frequenting. Oops. Still, a nice walk.
In the interim, I've been busy breaking my computer, achieving a sort of functional grieving over my computer, regaining the use of my computer, and then dancing around singing "So Happy Together" because I have an unnatural attachment to my laptop.
So what did I do? While painstakingly trying to protect it, I was trying to bus my cereal bowl to the kitchen, and insodoing, flipped it directly onto my keyboard, which is apparently contraindicated by the manufacturer, something they should totally put on the computer as a warning sticker "Caution: Dumping milk and cereal concretions into electronics is bad for them."
I immediately ran for towels, uttering profanity in my wake, and thought things were good until my computer made a grinding noise. So I took out the battery and dried it out, no luck when I turned it on later, with continuing to have no luck, and resigning myself to study at the library, and never be able to procrastinate on facebook again, when lo and behold, my baby came back to life! And then, all I had to do was completely reinstall the sound care software, which I'd screwed up. And that was fun. And now I can use my computer for its original purpose: pausing Sonic Foundry with every intention of studying and then spending the next two hours watching YouTube. Leeroy Jenkins!
Unlike micro. In micro, the GI tract must be lovingly addressed since there are 6 billion things that give you diarrhea and 6 billion more things that give you *bloody* diarrhea. Incidentally, number 6 billion and one for the latter is medical school, and I'll let you guess the mechanism. Gonna be a lot of people with that after the exams, I think.
So that's pleasant. On the plus side, I've finally discovered that I'm working well in a small group for restudy, where usually I avoid group study like the plague since I either end up bored, distracted, or panicked, but being able to work it from 8 pm to 1 in the morning or so is totally working for my night owl schedule.
Doesn't keep me from staying up all night, periodically wandering around the apartment complex though. Can't let the security guards think I've gone sane or anything.
So what's new? Other than the constant studying due to the approach of upcoming exams? Well, took a break last Monday to go to dinner in St. George's, and ate at Crabback, which I recommend. Since the name was inviting, decided to have crabback, goat curry, and rum punch, and then in an attempt to find the post-first-hash ice cream place/bar/house of moonshine, so I could show Dave, ended up walking from St. George's back to my apartment, a distance of somewhere around 4 miles. Only to remember that perhaps the place we were looking for MAY have been on the other side of the restaurant we'd been frequenting. Oops. Still, a nice walk.
In the interim, I've been busy breaking my computer, achieving a sort of functional grieving over my computer, regaining the use of my computer, and then dancing around singing "So Happy Together" because I have an unnatural attachment to my laptop.
So what did I do? While painstakingly trying to protect it, I was trying to bus my cereal bowl to the kitchen, and insodoing, flipped it directly onto my keyboard, which is apparently contraindicated by the manufacturer, something they should totally put on the computer as a warning sticker "Caution: Dumping milk and cereal concretions into electronics is bad for them."
I immediately ran for towels, uttering profanity in my wake, and thought things were good until my computer made a grinding noise. So I took out the battery and dried it out, no luck when I turned it on later, with continuing to have no luck, and resigning myself to study at the library, and never be able to procrastinate on facebook again, when lo and behold, my baby came back to life! And then, all I had to do was completely reinstall the sound care software, which I'd screwed up. And that was fun. And now I can use my computer for its original purpose: pausing Sonic Foundry with every intention of studying and then spending the next two hours watching YouTube. Leeroy Jenkins!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
