Like Eating Glass

Ugh, the week is just starting and I already have tons of new material swamping me. Monday morning we finished covering the abdominal organs in anatomy. This was followed by a histo lecture on the immune system, which was incredibly tedious as usual. Thankfully we had the afternoon off, so I had some time to catch up on sleep and review some more material. This morning (I guess yesterday at this hour), we had two biochem lectures in a row (aka snoozefest) over the cellular cytoskeleton and extracellular adhesion. We had our humanities small groups in the afternoon over the topic of confidentiality. In the afternoon, we had a review in histo lab over blood and hematopoesis, since we will apparently be getting our first homework assignment. We are going to be given 100 images of red and white blood cells in various stages of development and will have to identify them. Captivating.

Pain

What a hectic end to the week. Thursday morning we had two biochem lectures over intracellular traffic, which I opted to skip and watch on recording later. In the afternoon, we had histo lab where we examined red and white blood cells in various stages of development. Everything looked pretty much the same, and the lab only served to escalate our already considerable apprehension towards the topic of hematopoeses. Histology is headache-inducing. Friday morning we had an embryology lecture over the development of the body cavity. This was followed by the first part of a two-part lecture on the anatomy of the abdominal organs. In the afternoon, we dissected the penis. This was simply painful to watch and worse still to perform at first; however, after a while we became desensitized to it as with anything these days. I've been feeling pretty crappy for the past few days, so I'm going to hit the sack before my head explodes. This weekend will just be one giant game of catch-up. Sigh.

Love/Hate Sensation

Today we got our test scores back, and I did fantastically. I almost got a perfect score on the anatomy lab portion of the exam, of which I am quite proud. If I do well enough on the fourth exam, I should have a B for the block.

Yesterday began with a continuation of the abdominal wall lecture, followed by the anatomy of the penis. Apparently we will be dissecting penises (penii? haha) sometime this week... that should be interesting. This lecture was followed by a histo lecture on hematopoesis (blood formation), which was expectedly complex and nerve-wracking. The afternoon was just our weekly group session, nothing special to report.

This morning was our clinical skills class, and we all had to wear professional attire and our white coats. We had an actual patient with asthma come in, and volunteers had to go up and take his history and try to figure out his health issue (this was before we knew it was asthma). In the end we learned that the "patient" was actually a doctor, who also happened to have asthma. It was an interesting lecture and I enjoyed it very much. This was followed by a physiology lecture on the electrical properties of cell membranes, which put me to sleep. Speaking of sleep, a facebook group has been made where pictures of sleeping students are being put it. They are quite hilarious, thankfully I have yet to make an appearance. In the afternoon, we dissected the muscles of the anterior abdominal wall, which was pretty cool. Abby and I will be teaching Pickles and Ahmad what we learned. Now back to finishing my study session so I can get some sleep, as the rest of this week is going to suck.

Getting Better

I think I am liking med school more with every passing day. These off weekends reenergize me and get me back in the swing of things, and I always feel even more ready than the previous testing round. This weekend was pretty laid back; mostly I ran errands, cleaned up around the house, and played Halo: Reach. Friday night we had a large northgate outing followed by a fun afterparty, and Saturday we went downtown to Revolution and chilled out with some drinks and live music. Sunday we went to see "The Town" which was an awesome movie... all in all a great weekend to unwind.

Today's classes were mostly excruciatingly boring, as the morning lecture was a 2 hour lesson on membrane transport in biochem, and the first afternoon lecture was over the physiology of membrane transport. There aren't many things in life less exciting than cell membranes. The second lecture was great, an M2 introduced us to the anatomy of the abdominal wall... we will be getting into guts very soon :)

Feeling Good

Haven't updated in a few days due to the nonstop studying for today's exam. I actually felt really good about the exam since it was pretty much all anatomy. There was one question that was pretty crazy, where they gave us 3 minutes (!!) to draw out AND label all of the arteries and branches in the elbow and forearm (there are nearly 20)... I think I managed to get it all down, but I had to use all of the extra 90 seconds we get at the end to go over our answers. Other than that, things went smoothly. I am looking forward to another study-free weekend filled with festivities and some gaming, which I haven't had time for in months.

Wake Me Up When September Ends

This week has been off to a pretty good start. The weekend mostly consisted of late night study sessions at the new med school campus, which is now my new favorite place to study. Monday morning we went over the bones and muscles of the hand, followed by a presentation where a hand surgeon showed us videos of several different procedures he has recently performed. It was really awesome, and is definitely something I would be interested in doing. Looking around the classroom was funny, because you could spot the people that would never want to do surgery by the grossed-out looks on their faces. Abby and I had the afternoon off, while our tank mates dissected the forearm. In the evening we were brought up to speed on what we missed. We had our quiz at the beginning of lab this morning (!!), during which time we dissected the hand. It was our first morning anatomy lab and was the longest, most tedious lab so far. It was fascinating regardless. In the afternoon we had our usual Tuesday humanities Kumbaya session, followed by histo lab over endocrine glands. This section is going to suck; hopefully there are not many test questions concerning this topic.

In the afternoon I hung out with my close friend Rachel, who is visiting from Florida all week for her best friend's wedding. Tonight will be dedicated to learning all the remaining muscles in the upper limb, and tomorrow will be dedicated to histology :(

One Step Closer

What a jam-packed week. Thursday morning we went over forearm flexor muscles before histo lab, where we examined slides of cartilage and bone. The entire afternoon was dedicated to dissecting the shoulder region. Abby and I had our quiz, which we aced. In the afternoon we had to to teach Mike, Caleb, and Bryan what we did in the dissection. Friday morning began with a histo lecture over endocrine glands, which is a pretty complex topic that I am not looking forward to studying. In the afternoon we went over forearm extensor muscles before anatomy lab. The group we taught the prior dissection to got all the quiz questions right, which is good since these quizzes are helping keep everyone afloat. The lab itself concerned the upper arm and elbow joint, which wasn't particularly difficult, but involved a lot of tedious work. This was definitely a week dense with new material, but given that most of it is pure anatomy, I am not too worried.

There is not much in store for this weekend aside from chores and more studying :/

One Little Victory

We got our test scores back, and I am happy to say that I did much better on this exam than the first. I am finally getting into the swing of things and learning how I need to study for med school.

Yesterday morning we jumped right back into histology with a neverending lecture on cartilage and bone development. Our next lecture was pushed back into the afternoon due to a tornado warning that cut the presentation short. The lecture dealt with the anatomy of the axillary (armpit) region, which is actually very complex since all the arteries, veins, and nerves in your arm have to pass through this area. The brachial plexus is a big tangle of nerves in this area that we have to know like the streets in our hometown. We then met with our humanities group where the day's topic was ethics in medicine. Definitely my favorite discussion so far. This was followed by another anatomy lecture on the shoulder region. It was definitely the longest and most tiring day we've had so far.

This morning we had our clinical skills class where we learned about major symptoms associated with all the body systems that we have to be familiar with when we are questioning our patients. This was followed by a lecture on the upper arm and elbow... this next exam is going to be a very anatomy-intensive, which is great because it means we have no biochem :)

Abby and I had the afternoon off again while our tankmates dissected the axillary region. We have been assigned a new cadaver, and will be switching to a new one after every exam from now on. We met with Pickles and Ahmad immediately after lab to review the dissection because we have lab every day this week, which means that we have to take our quiz tomorrow. It might prove difficult since most of the questions will likely concern the brachial plexus. Time to get studying again...

Take It Easy

Well... Friday's exam was definitely an improvement over the first exam. However, it would be a stretch to say that it was not difficult. I suppose we will find out soon enough how we did. This weekend was spent not thinking about school or exams. Friday night we hit up northgate and had an awesome time at a new club called The Social Lounge. Saturday was spent running around doing errands, cleaning up my place, and taking care of my mountain of laundry. I stayed in for the night with some cold Newcastle and episodes of Mad Men. Sunday morning, I went with David, Christina, and Chip to New Braunfels to float the Guadalupe River. It was incredibly relaxing and the cool water felt great. We finished a 30 pack between the 4 of us, so we had an awesome time. In the evening we drove to Austin, where we spent the night on West Sixth Street (after a hilarious fiasco at a Target store). We slept at David's house and drove back this morning.

Tomorrow, classes resume again and it's back to the grind, but I am going to relax and take in this last day of freedom before the next exam :)

Drowning Lessons

FML. Wednesday night our lab group met with Dr. Chen in the anatomy lab to review test material for an hour or so. I had been feeling pretty good about my progress in studying until then. His questions about the cadaver crushed these feelings to the ground and rubbed them in the dirt. Since the lab practical section will cover everything we have done in anatomy lab since Day 1, the amount of information is unmanageable. We have come to the conclusion that it is impossible for any person to know everything really well. Anytime you walk around and hear people talking, you feel like you don't know anything. This is because every person knows one area really well and just a bit of everything else. I knew anatomy very well for the first exam. I know the new anatomy material quite well, but it has started to overwrite the old material and I am frantically trying to relearn the old material. There isn't much histo on this exam, but up to 20% can be old material and I have no idea how much histo they are going to pull out of their ass from the first exam material. And biochem is probably my weakest subject at the moment, so that is what I am going to study next.

No sleep tonight. Study break is over, off I go....

Time Stand Still

There are not enough hours in the day to accomplish all the shit we need to get done. Our second test on Friday is rapidly approaching, and it seems that new material is piled on faster than the old stuff can be learned. Monday morning we went over glycolysis as well as sugar interconversions. In anatomy we learned about the embryological development of muscle and bone, a lecture which I invited my friend and former anatomy lab partner Elizabeth to sit in on, as she has been interviewing at many different med schools. Abby and I had the afternoon off while the rest of the team dissected the vertebral column. Tuesday morning we covered metabolic regulation and the citric acid cycle in biochem for what must be the 8th time in our lives. Every time I think I will never need to know this shit again, there it is being taught once more. In our afternoon humanities group discussion we talked about ethical dilemmas, which naturally was an interesting topic. This morning was our second intro to Clinical Skills class where we learned how to record past medical history as well as medication and allergies. We have no more class between now and the exam, but Abby and I still have to go to the lab so that Mike, Caleb, and Bryan can teach us the vertebral column dissection. This exam will also be the first with an anatomy lab practical, which will cover all the dissections since class began.

Life needs a pause button.