Gila Monster Spit

So I started studying again tonight after essentially taking a two week bender minus the OSCE and the BSCE2, which are two exams that matter but don't matter but the first one matters more but is still Clinical Skills but the second one is 7 hours and makes you feel like a complete moron that has wasted the last two years, so blah.

But tonight I finally broke down and dug into the antidiabetes lectures for pharm, since that class requires three times the study of pathophys while being half the units because words I'm unfamiliar with (like thiazolidinediones, and no, I didn't make that one up) go straight in one ear and out the other.

But what did stick, and will probably be the *only* thing that sticks from pharm before I'm forced to cram it all back in for the USMLE, is that there's a diabetes drug made from the salivary gland of Gila monsters, which is one of the most random things I can imagine other than that whole "don't freeze your polar bear meat" from parasit.

It also leaves a number of questions... such as... what on earth was the scientist smoking when he decided to try that one out? How many other lizards got screened. Did he go straight to lizards or was there a whole move up the phylogenetic tree before he honed in on that *specific lizard*.

Also... if I get bitten by a Gila monster, and I'm diabetic, will I be half-okay?

Also... this kind of makes a weird conservation argument. Never drive anything to extinction that might treat a disease with some improbable part of its anatomy. Next up... wombat gonads cure struma ovarii. You heard it here first.

Oh yeah, those test things and the whole birthday thing...

Pathophys, despite woefully understudying it this time around, turned out well. That nice busty curve helps a lot.

Pharm would be discouraging in studying twice as hard for this exam as I did for the last one and only boosting my grade by four points until I realized that they threw out 15 questions on the last exam, so I actually boosted my grade by 19 points... that makes me feel better at night.

OSCE: No results, and I suck at reading chest X-rays that don't have anything glaringly obviously wrong with them. I'm also bad at reporting EKGs when the diagnosis seems to be "Patient's heart exploded". "Oh good, ST elevation in 6 leads, ST depression in two leads, one lead is inexplicably missing from this read out, dicrotic R waves, spiking T waves, sawtooth P waves... I mean, did this guy's thorax crack open and an alien spewed out of there? WTF? And 10 minutes to read it and report it."

This is when the more practical types ask me what I'd do when I'm a real doctor, and this is when I even MORE practically answer "panic and page the attending".

The OSCE was well run though, I have to admit. The patients were also super nice. You get feedback from them after 7 minutes (during which I ran out of time on... oh, all of them), and while the clinical tutors were more "Um, you completely neglected to do X" (appropriately), the patients were like "I would feel very comfortable with you as my doctor, and I really felt like you empathized with what I was telling you" etc, so wahoo to fake patients.

Actually, most of the fake patients (and real ones) we've gotten since first term have been really cool. The OSCE chick that was doing rotator cuff syndrome actually locked her muscles when you hit a certain point on the rotation, such that I could feel it tense, so she's not only kind, but a decent actor.

We also had a really good actor last term that had aches and pains related to her husband's recent death, and she was recalling the story well enough, that it half choked me up.

Prior, as mentioned, was the BSCE2. Whoda thought the Carnitine transporter was so important? Not me! I have *no* idea how I did on that one. I needed a 52 to pass, and don't really need to pass, so the fact that I was actually pushing to know the answers rather than bailing after half an hour out of 8 is a testament to just how anal retentive I am. Huzzah.

So we had the whole "drag ishie out to Stuart's Wednesday night as the clock hits midnight on when her birthday starts" that I mentioned (and loved) and the wrestling ON my birthday that still has my arms covered in bruises.

Friday was my birthday at Prickly Bay and it was absolutely spectacular. All hail the Barbie Cake!



Christine found the candle at IGA and built the rest of the cake around it to create me an absolute Anti-Ishie cake that was not only delicious in taste but delicious in irony. A bunch of people showed at Prickly Bay, we had pizza, the band came on and they were great, I have awesome friends, and I got to dance in the rain. Dave's coming to visit me in the US next term, which is my (very awesome) birthday poster, and Krash made me a big poster that she got a bunch of people in the BSFCR class to sign, so it's all been good. People have still been wishing me a happy birthday a week later, which is highly cool, and I've been getting well wishes from my Annex Peeps rolling in, so I feel very and completely loved.

Then it was Banana's, then, I believe, a night swim at the beach, because I don't learn. And plus night time shark jokes never get old.

Next morning was the Sauteurs hash! Woot! And total mudhash it was, and more cuts and bruises to add to my wrestling injuries. I've been wanting to go to Sauteurs forever, and I finally got to see that beautiful beach. Hung out with Grace and Dem for it and managed to score some cheap and great BBQ chicken, nutmeg ice cream, and beer before booking it back onto the bus... for the Unity Ball, which I was needed for pouring wine and champagne, which I pictured as occurring behind some sort of a bar with a shelf behind me. Ha.

I got home, climbed into the shower with my clothes on (again) to avoid carnage, and quickly realized I would not be able to wear a skirt because my legs and arms were torn up, so I figured, nice long sleeved shirt and slacks, no worries, just working.

Whoa. Not only was everyone dressed up like senior prom, but everyone was getting drunk and fast. While there were a ton of nice people who were giving me no problem, and Grace was dropping me homemade gingerbread over the tops of people's heads like she was feeding a fish, there were also a ton of people YELLING that we're too slow, that we're out of the wrong wines, that we generally suck, one great guy grabbing me and squawking "Don't you wish your boyfriend was a freak like me!!!" approximately 6 feet away from my *actual* boyfriend, and then barring that, they just ran into the back to grab our dwindling wine bottles.

Oh, and someone threw a beer bottle down the stairs, and the bar areas were so soaked in alcohol it was hard to walk. I dunno, I wasn't up for the mood of it and was underdressed, so I felt the majority feeling irritated, a little embarrassed, and toward the end where it started turning ugly, like I wanted to chew my arm off to get out of there. But I saw some of my friends and they all looked great.

So it's *definitely* studying time. Or sleeping time, as the case may be. Night!

What a week!

Extreme highs, some good sized lows, but mostly highs, an awesome birthday, a ergh bartending at the Unity Ball (I know I'm a crap bartender, guys but when you yell at people and then run in the back and steal wine bottles, that makes you a complete asshole, flat out), some great quality time with my boyfriend, an 8 hour mindcrushing exam followed the DAY after by my clinical skills major final exam with the fun of trying to get to it in the middle of it, in nice clothes, in a rainstorm. Ew.

More details later. I'm exhausted!

Wanna wrassle?

That's the kind of thing you can only say yes to if it's tossed off at you suddenly.

So next thing I know, I'm spending the non-pharm group part of my birthday at the beach with two of the Prague professors, Dem, Grace, and Mo, and we are all going out WWF smackdown wrestling. Not only do I have a sand burn on my face, but I look like I got the top of my left arm caught in a press.

Two words for that: Awe-Some.

Highly recommend wrestling at sunset on a beach. Even if I did get my ass handed to me. More incentive to work out.

The pharm group was helped by last night's drunken revelries at Stuart's followed by Bananas. I ran into a bunch of awesome people, many of whom bought me drinks, and one of whom had them make an announcement over the loudspeaker in my honor.

This night of irresponsibility (contrasted to all the other nights) left me somewhat half impaired for pharm group, which I helped by coming in late due to the bus leaving me sitting on the curb for a solid half an hour as I tried to conserve the Red Bull flowing through my veins as the only thing keeping me upright.

Came in as Amanda sang happy birthday at me along with the group, and we settled into it as I speculated as to the physiological mechanism of peripheral neuropathy in diabetics while also absently drawing a flower on my ankle. Amanda had written in "Happy Birthday" above my name on the sign in sheet, so that was cool.

Then home and nap and wrestling. Then I get back, shower off the sand salt water, discover bruises, only to have Krash expectedly come over and unexpectedly bring a cheesecake and Dave (a beefcake; rowl).

So good times had by me, and this isn't even the beginning of the party, which is officially at Prickly Bay tomorrow evening.

In the meantime, I get to try to study for the OSCE that I have on Tuesday by studying checklists, and try to pretend the BSCE2 doesn't exist, since unbeknownst to me, it's an 8 hour exam. Lawdy, is that going to suck.

My birthday ROCKED!

Oh yes, it did.

Quickly, to the fellow student that contacted me on the insomnia post, I posted an answer under yours, so I hope that helps.

Continuing... it's been a couple weeks of birthdays here. We celebrated Ashley's for lunch at Coyaba, did Jay's 24 hour birthday bender, consisting of him jumping onstage (after invitation) with the band at Prickly Bay resort and rocking his trombone (no, seriously; he has a trombone; that's not a euphemism for anything) after lunch at La Bo, the surge party at the Victory Bar which we absolutely did NOT have to carry him home from, and so it goes.

For my birthday, let me tell you what my ideal birthday was: I wanted my parents to email me, some nice birthday emails from my friends from afar, a pleasant dinner at Aquarium with my friends here, House night, and then dive the next day.

Simple. Basic. Happy.

My birthday bitchslapped my expectations and I have awesome friends, parents, boyfriend, and cooperative marine life.

All sorts of emailed well wishes, which I greatly appreciate to you guys out there, and thank you. Got a birthday card from my mom via snail mail. Went to small group, which went well, and still was happy, but didn't really feel like it was my birthday, and that was fine.

Met up to head out to Aquarium with Nina, Ashley, David, and Jay. It's a pretty restaurant with good food that I've forgiven for contributing to my persistently troubling ankle sprain I sustained first term. Everyone was wonderful, we had a great meal, and Ashley whipped out the brownies she'd baked herself and stuck in the candles as everyone sang happy birthday.

AWWWWWWWW.

Dave had apparently been in cohorts with my mom, she'd sent him a bunch of presents for me, that he'd finished wrapping (they had to be partially open because of customs), so I could have wrapped presents on my birthday which he whipped out and presented to me at dinner.

AWWWWWWWW.

Then Dave pulled out his present to me. At first, I pretty much saw an SGU bear in surgical top and mask (it was commented that he can't be a real SGU student because he's not wearing a scrub top with shorts and flip flops, like most people in gross lab) that they sell at the bookstore that I'd said I thought was really cute and thought about getting, so I was thrilled he'd remembered that...

Until I realized that strapped to its chest; however, was an American Airlines ticket envelope containing a US dollar, 5 EC, 5 Euro, and 10 tien gulden (Netherlands Antilles). He said something to the effect of him knowing how much I like seeing new countries and getting my passport stamped (I'm a dork), so over Easter, we were gonna do four countries in four days: the US (Puerto Rico), St. Marten (Netherlands), Sint Maarten (France), and Anguilla.

So essentially, my jaw was hanging open for the rest of the meal, the check for which he picked up. Whoa.

And Jay piped up with throwing in the departure tax, since he's apparently known about this and is just that awesome (along with Nina, who's gonna teach me how to make foccacia because I'm addicted to it) at keeping secrets.

THEN it was back to my apartment for House night, which we arrived just in time for.

Woke up the next morning, still encompassed by the awesomeness of my friends and family, to go diving.

Dived the Bianca C, which I've wanted to dive since... well, before I came to the island the first time, and five minutes into the dive, the divemaster pointed up to indicate there was a giant spotted eagle ray above us. We moved toward the forward mast of the ship, which was fairly thick with barracuda, as shown:



This wreck is many degrees of awesome in and of itself, by the way, and it was also my deepest dive at max depth of 125 feet, and to scuba divers out there, yes, I did feel pretty narced. I'm apparently a cheap date.

Second dive was beautiful and involved spending half of it chasing the first sea turtle I've seen since coming to Grenada, which came close enough to me that I could touch its shell.

All in all, a birthday that was supposed to be a "I hope this day is actually less suckful than the usual day to day activity of being under constant stress" became seventeen different varieties of awesome. Thank you to all!

My birthday present...

Is having to attend a neuro small group today! Wahoo! Now, if they want to give me a really *good* birthday present, they'll make attending that small group worth like 100 points that they give me for being so goshdarned awesome that I don't have to prove I know anything.

Come to think of it, could that be my present for physio too? Or instead, really. I'll study neuro, like double time, so I get the hot neurologist knowledge, if it means no physio.

I'll even take immuno, really. Granted, it's only 2 units, but it's 2 of the worst units.

I turn/ed 27 today, which somehow makes me feel closer to 30 (by the slight remainder of my ability to do math), yet 30 feels hideously far away because it'll mark the end of medical school, which feels nothing like close.

In celebration of my 27th birthday, not only am I doing an Aquarium party Tuesday night and diving the Bianca C on Wednesday morning (which couldn't possibly produce ill effects), but I have my first wrinkle! Wahoo! It's in a really awesome place too. There is now a little line across my forehead in my fairly token "What the hell?" expression, which I apparently have made more throughout my life than I was aware of, but it's a badge.

It's also notable that my face has remained relatively unlined until setting foot in a medical school. I'm betting on liver spots, chronic hypertension, and an aortic aneurysm by May.