Between Love & Hate

Wake up, eat, study, eat, nap, study, eat, study, sleep, repeat.

Welcome to the next 2 years of my life.

Swallow It

Yesterday morning we had our first physiology class. It was extremely interesting and focused on the physiology of the cardiovascular system. It was a very cool lecture and didn't seem very difficult. We had the afternoon off, during which time I mostly studied and also taught Pickles and Ahmad the content of our previous anatomy lab. I relaxed for a while in the evening before studying again...

This morning we went over cardiovascular tissue in histology lab, which was pretty excruciating. This is easily my least favorite subject and it is a lot of information to absorb. In the afternoon we had a short anatomy lecture on the vertebral column given by a pair of M2s, which as with our last M2 lecture was incredibly interesting. The remainder of the afternoon was spent in anatomy lab. Pickles and Ahmad got a perfect score on the quiz due to the excellent preparation they received from me and Abby :) The lab itself was a dissection of the back muscles, and we had to flip our cadaver over in order to do this... it was an interesting task to say the least. The rest of the day has been spent studying (mostly). I am looking forward to the weekend so I can catch up on sleep (and studying)...

The First Cut is the Deepest

Ouch. Just got back my first test score, and it was much less than satisfactory. About the only good thing I can say is that my excellent quiz average gives me an overall passing score. Barely. The class average was a 74 with a standard deviation of 8 points. Most everyone I know got a similarly shitty grade. Hopefully the next test will be much better and will pull my average out of the dirt. Next test is a week from Friday and will mostly cover the cardiovascular system.

Monday morning we went over the anatomy and embryological development of the heart, which is a pretty complex subject... lots of minor details to remember. In the afternoon we went over the painfully boring subject of purine metabolism in biochem, and continued with pyrimidine metabolism early Tuesday morning. Later in the morning we covered cardiovascular histology, which seems to be the least painful histo lecture so far. In the afternoon we met with our new humanities groups which now include nursing students, and our case studies seemed to focus on doctor/nurse conflict and doctor's ego.

This morning, we had our first "Intro to Clinical Skills" class, where we are basically going to learn how to take patient histories and perform physical examinations. It seems like an awesome class and I am looking forward to it. In a few weeks we will even be examining actual patients, not just each other. After that we went over the anatomy of the deep and superficial back region, which was fairly straightforward. In the afternoon we had anatomy lab, where we were finally able to dissect the heart. It is an interesting feeling to hold a human heart in your hand. Unlike most of the dissections we have done, the interior of the heart is so sturdy that it maintains appearances almost identical to textbook images. It has definitely been one of my favorite labs so far.

Salt in Our Wounds

Well. I don't even know what to think about that stupid test. I was up the entire night and didn't get a single minute of sleep. I went to the histo lab at around 3am to review slides and spent about 4 hours in there... It was a pretty long night.

The test was divided into two sections, one was multiple choice and the other was a powerpoint presentation in which we were shown various histological or anatomical images and had to answer questions about them. The multiple choice didn't feel like it went too bad, however the powerpoint section was just horrific. I spent three days studying embryology only to have a grand total of 4 questions over it out of 150. The other students seem split between those that thought the powerpoint was very difficult or those that thought the multiple choice was very difficult. I don't think I met a single person who felt good about the whole thing.

We went for drinks right after the test, then I came home and slept for about 12 hours. Yesterday I woke up early and went out to get things done. I ran errands and stopped by the mall to take advantage of tax-free weekend. I also cleaned my apartment and did laundry. Last night I went to northgate where a bachelorette party was happening. Definitely some crazy stuff went down, including a guy donating his boxers to the bride-to-be and another guy stripping down on the Corner Rooftop Bar and dancing for her.

Today is going to be a laid-back and relaxed day before the mayhem ensues once again. I don't know when we find out our test grades, and I don't really want to know.

Brain Stew

study study study... must keep studying... stimulants... embryogenesis... pericardiacophrenic arteries.... junk food..... need sleep....... must stay awake.. histo histo histo.... caffeine... eosin & hematoxylin

tonight is going to suck.

Won't Back Down

Shit is starting to pile up. This weekend was entirely spent studying and trying to get caught up, which is starting to seem like an exercise in futility. Caleb printed out all the notes for our first test. He printed out six slides per page. The notes completely filled a big 3-inch binder. Holy crap. Pretty much everyone is starting to freak out about this first test, and although I feel totally unprepared for it, I am not feeling any anxiety yet... yet. I know somehow I will be ready come exam time, even if it means not sleeping for a few days.

Monday morning we went over protein translation and regulation of gene expression. Biochem is incredibly boring and I have discovered I am more productive skipping class and getting more sleep, and then watching the lecture at double speed in the afternoon. We had a very long lecture over muscle tissue in histology that afternoon. I got my car back with a brand new clutch (that cost me a grand :/ ) but it has never felt better to drive! Tuesday morning we went over nerves in histology and had our humanities discussion in the afternoon. Apparently after this week, we are breaking up our humanities discussion groups and reorganizing, and joining with students from nursing and pharmacy school. That should be interesting :)

Tomorrow we don't have class until 1:00, and we have Thursday off. So the plan for tonight is to stay up till around 4 or 5 studying and then get 6 or 7 hours of sleep before histology lab, where we will be observing muscle tissue. Time to meet this test head-on.

Luck Be a Lady

Friday the 13th... normally I'm not a superstitious person, but this day has changed my mind.

After an amazing Thursday night on northgate, I was driving back home around 2:30 when my clutch gave out... I ended up stranded on the side of Harvey Mitchell Parkway half a mile from my apartment. I had to call up my buddy/tankmate Caleb and we drove to Walmart to get a tow cable so we could pull my car the rest of the way to my apartment. The irony here is that his car would not start that morning, and I had to give him a jump start. Of course we had to hit up Whataburger afterwards.

In the morning we went over RNA transcription in biochem, followed by histology lab. We reviewed slides of epithelium and skin, which was actually quite interesting. After lunch we had histology lecture over nervous tissue, and then we had our quiz. This is when I decided today was going to be a shitty day. Since I use a Mac, I had to borrow one of the med school's new laptops running Windows 7 in order to take the quiz. Halfway through the quiz, the computer randomly shut down. I had to wait until everyone finished so that they could get me another loaner. Before taking the quiz I had to wait so they could re-upload the test to their server for me. I finished taking the quiz, and when I clicked on submit, the new computer crashed. It wouldn't let me log back in, so they had to bring me a third laptop. After waiting once again I was finally able to retake and submit my quiz, but what should have been a 10 minute quiz ended up taking over an hour.

After class, we hit up the Dixie Chicken followed by O'bannon's. I went home, took a nap, and then woke up and started studying again. At around 11, people started calling/texting me so I found a ride and went out to northgate again. It wasn't as much fun as last night, but it was still a great time as usual.

Bottom line is, Friday the 13th sucks. I have to wake up early tomorrow to get my car fixed, so it's off to bed for the night....

Life in the Fast Lane

Busy busy busy...

Tuesday morning we went over DNA replication, chromosomes, and enzymes/catalysts in our biochem class. In the afternoon, we had a medical humanities class where we discussed social conventions surrounding disease, what actually defines a disease, and how society labels many things as diseases that may not actually qualify to be termed as such. We then had a group discussion about doctor/patient relationships and ethical dilemmas. After this session we had histology lab, where we examined many slides of connective tissue.

Yesterday we had the morning off because the students at the Temple campus had a clinical skills presentation to attend. In the afternoon we studied epithelial tissue in histology, and then had gross anatomy lab after that. The lab was amazing as usual. We started off by taking our quiz... Abby and I were sent in alone to our tank and were given three colored pins which we had to use to pin 3 selected structures in the body. We aced it, and secured the group's grade, for now. The actual dissection was long and tedious, but the beginning was awesome because I got to detach and remove the lungs from our cadaver. The rest of the lab involved separating and identifying all the arteries and nerves inside the main chest cavity. It was a very long lab and we didn't even finish yet; we will have to go back to lab some night next week in order to finish things up.

This morning we went over enzyme regulation in biochem and learned about the skin in histology. Not a terribly exciting morning, but we have the entire afternoon off!! Therefore it will be spent trying to catch up on all these lectures and studying my ass off for a quiz tomorrow. We may be going out to northgate later tonight, but we shall see what happens...

Weekend Wars

I didn't have much free time this weekend to write a new post due to having so much to do (also I forgot about it), but I will try to summarize everything here.

Friday morning was our first histology lab, which basically consisted of looking at a bunch of tissue slides and identifying visible structures. Microscopes are no longer used in lab, instead all of the slides are now digital in unbelievably high resolution. It is possible to zoom in all the way on individual cells in a single tissue sample, very cool. In the afternoon we had histology lecture where we went over connective tissue.

My parents came up that afternoon to bring up the rest of my stuff for my apartment, and we spent most of the weekend cleaning and setting everything up. Friday night everyone hit up northgate and had a great time. Saturday a group of the M1s went out to Lake Bryan for a big picnic, and then went out kayaking on the lake. It was pretty fun, but most of us left early to catch up on our studying. Sunday was entirely devoted to studying.

Today, we had anatomy in the morning, we went over the lungs and development of the respiratory system, and then covered the autonomic nervous system. The first lecture was given by an M2 which was pretty cool and much more interesting than most of our classes so far. After that I had the day off (but spent it studying), as my lab partner Abby and I were not scheduled to be in lab for this session. Our next lab is on Wednesday, so one of the dissecting teams (Danyal/Ahmad) is going to have to teach us everything that they learned during that dissection. Abby and I will be quizzed over this material at the beginning of Wednesday's lab, and whatever grade we achieve is applied to our entire tank group.

I have a lot of catching up to do since the weekend was mostly spent setting up my apartment, so now I must get back to my studies.

Death and All His Friends

WOW. Yesterday was our first day working with the cadavers, and it was an experience unlike anything else. For about the first 10 seconds after the tanks opened, everyone just stood there mindblown and silent. I still find it incredible that a person would give up their body just so that we can use it as a learning tool for our future careers. It was an amazing experience; unfortunately due to legal restrictions I cannot go into any further detail on the cadavers other than to say that there were 17 of them.

The way the lab works is that we are broken up into groups of six, each group gets their own tank with cadaver. Within each tank group, we are divided into 3 teams of 2 people. Yesterday being the first lab, we were all there. However, from now on it will be much different. Two teams will be assigned to perform the day's dissection, while the third team gets the day off. However, prior to the next dissection, one of the two dissecting teams will be assigned to teach the third team everything that they learned that day. At the beginning of the next lab, the teams that did not dissect have to take a quiz over what they were taught by their fellow group members. Whatever grade that team makes is the same grade that the whole tank group gets. I think this is an excellent system, because it forces the dissecting teams to focus hard enough that they can teach the material to the other team, while the home team has to do their best to learn everything that they are taught, since the whole group's grade depends on them. Each lab a different team will get the day off, and a different team will be assigned to teach. It will rotate around all semester.

Today obviously could not compare to yesterday, and was rather boring for the most part. We had biochem all morning once again, with a different prof than before. We went over a lot of thermodynamics and acid/base reactions which I thought was strangely basic to be covering in med school. Didn't we learn this in Chem 101? In the afternoon we had a class in professionalism, followed by a guest speaker who was a colorectal surgeon (nice). The afternoon was spent moving all my shit into my new apartment, as I have been living in a temporary unit with some other guys. The move took most of the afternoon and now I am exhausted. I am excited, however, to finally be living on my own for the first time in my life. I feel it will be a great experience and the best thing that I could do in med school. Now I have to get studying for histology lab tomorrow, good night to all.

Circles

Last night was a verrrry long night. Our reading assignment for biochem was basically to relearn our entire first semester of biochem from undergrad. DNA replication, transcription, translation, as well as cell biology and signal transduction. A lot to cram into a single night, and then we had a quiz over it all in the morning. All of our quizzes and exams are now computerized, which was a new and pleasant experience. Today we had biochem all morning, basically reviewing everything that we read the night before. In the afternoon, we had a humanities session, where we broke up into small groups and discussed issues such as bedside manner and ethics. We will be having these meetings once per week, apparently.

Tonight was spent mostly going over the anatomy of the pectoral region and breast in preparation for anatomy lab tomorrow, where we will begin dissecting our cadavers. I am excited beyond anything I have felt in a long while. I will get into more detail about how dissection works within our groups later, but I will say that I am part of a 7 person team working in shifts. For now I must sleep.

Let the Flames Begin

Today was our first official day of class. We had a lecture on embryology followed by a lecture in gross anatomy. Sunday was mostly spent reading and trying to get ready for these lectures. Embryology lecture covered zygote and gamete formation, as well as fetus development. Gross anatomy covered the anatomy of the pectoral region and breast.

Tonight I have several long reading assignments for biochem and histology. It seems this first week is going to be spent relearning the entirety of our undergraduate classes. Gonna be a long night, and the first week barely started...