Room 105

It's been a long sort of week . . . Again.

Monday was a terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad day. (Am I allowed to say that without trademark approval?) It was an unusually long day, due to a new class starting. But honestly, it was largely in my mood. I just felt angry toward everyone for no reason. Or, if I had a reason, it wasn't a very good one. I actually felt the need to apologize to a classmate after snapping at him. Also had a headache most of the day, which didn't help things.

Tuesday was a little less angry; it seemed to fade throughout the course of the day. Maybe I just got too tired to be angry anymore.

By Wednesday, I was over the mood thing. Unfortunately, I'd spent a lot of energy being mad, which meant I had less energy to spend trying to understand the temporal bone. (I still don't entirely get it. It's too oblique, got too many twists & turns.)

Thursday, we had another interview with a standardized patient -- this time, we were required to do Chief Complaint, History of Present Illness, Past Medical History, Social History, Family History, and the Review of Systems. Thankfully, they let us use a cheat sheet; otherwise I never would've remembered it all... I hear from a 2nd year that you eventually get pretty good at it. I think I've already improved from the last time we did this, so here's hoping.

Today I woke up with another headache (last night's headache, I think), but I medicated immediately and it's not so bad now. There's a quiz today, but I'm honestly not worried about it. The way my grade is now, I doubt I'll be getting a "high pass." But whether I get a 100% or 0% on this quiz, as long as I pass the final (which is required to pass the course anyhow), I'll be all right.

Good news though -- the volunteer coordinator from the Franklin Institute called me this week. (It was on Tuesday, and it kind of took a lot of effort to have a friendly, professional phone conversation.) We set up an interview time for next Wednesday. She seemed fairly impressed with me, so I suppose it'll work out pretty well. (The website for the exhibit is here, if you're interested in checking it out.) I'm pretty excited about it... I wanted to see the exhibit when it went through Indy but never did. And I really need a regular weekend activity...

This weekend will be: study for anatomy final, go to bank, study, do laundry (studying throughout), clean bathroom, study . . . .

The final is Tuesday -- not this next Tuesday, but the one after. It's cumulative-- so to learn the entire body all over again, I pretty much need to start now. On a related note, if my nasty mood returns, that may be why...

Sleeping in the Woods

For a short week, it's certainly been an intense one. Tuesday was rough, of course, having messed up my sleep schedule over the long weekend. In the past four days of lab, we covered the entire pelvis and started on the head/neck region. Labs were especially intense -- but I'll omit the details for the sake of everyone cringing at home. Then, appropriately enough, we had a discussion this week regarding our feelings and opinions on the body donor program. Perhaps that was intentionally scheduled this week.

Two more weeks of the head and neck, amd anatomy will be behind us. Stethoscopes should be in soon. (I plan to practice on Kitty. Hopefully he'll be able to stop purring.) We get our white coats in a large ceremony on October 30th. It's only been a month, but it feels like I've been in med school much longer. It's strange that I feel so far into this, and I'm still missing such essential "doctoring" equipment.

Applied to be a guide for the Body Worlds exhibit at the Franklin Institute. I'd be interested to see the exhibit -- the whole museum actually -- and it'd give me something productive to do on the weekends besides study. And it'd help me learn a new part of Philly. So here's hoping good things come of that.

Some Quick Good News

Midterm grades are in, and I did better than the class average -- which is honestly better than I expected! Makes me feel a little better about having a final in a few weeks.

School has been wild. We dissected the entire abdomen last week -- and there's a LOT of stuff crammed into the abdominal cavity! Honestly, we went from spleen to pancreas to intestine to kidneys to lumbar plexus . . . I feel like I'm keeping up all right, but I'm incredibly grateful for the three-day weekend. I wish I had a barbecue to go to or something . . .

All for now!