Study, Study

Block exams this week...I was all diligent about making myself a study schedule, and haven't been horrible at keeping to it.  This morning I woke up at 7:30 and stumbled my way through three sections of biochem (that I was supposed to finish yesterday) and three of kidney physio.  

Now I have three days to do physio practice problems, but today there is still the matter of trying to catch up on biochem and neuro.  To keep up with my schedule, I'll need to get through about six sections' worth of flashcards each today.  Ugh.  

I went shopping with my mom yesterday and managed to procure two new tanktops from Martin and Osa for just $12 a piece, plus 30% off.  Sweet.  Also (finally!!) found a couple of pairs of khaki dress pants that might work for my externship this summer.  Now I just need a couple of dressier looking shirts and I'm set.  

Back in the ER

The title was going to be a throwback to "Back in the USSR," but I really couldn't find a way to fit "Big pediatrics hospital ER" into the lyrics.  I've got about another half hour left in this shift, which I wasn't all that excited about when I came in today, but has actually turned out pretty well.  I've just joined on to do another study in addition to the ones we've been working on, and in this one I actually get to recruit patients myself, rather than just paging doctors when something promising shows up.  Gives me something else to do, anyway.  Also, the head of the student research program is here today and just let me listen to a severely asthmatic little boy.  Crazy how bad this kid was--I wanted to tell him that I had asthma too, but he was pretty out of it.  It's all been grand, but unfortunately, it's prevented me from doing the serious catch up work I was planning for this afternoon.  

Last night I was all ready to be uber-productive, but then D got home from work around the same time as I got out of school, and we took a nap together because those 6-4 days are killer.  I woke up and did a marginal amount of studying, but then my mom called, and the whole family (who have been in DC all week for spring break without me, boo) was going out to dinner since they'd just gotten back to town.  They invited D and I to join, so of course we did.  Then we helped them take their rental car back to the airport.  Then we picked up a copy of Quantum of Solace, since it just came out on DVD.  And a copy of Sleeping Beauty, because I'm obsessed and those dang Disney people are about to put it back in "the vault" to prevent me from buying it ever again.  I also need to get my hands on the Sword in the Stone before that goes away too.  

In addition to the studying that's going on for our block exam next week, we've had an interesting little round of Problem Based Learning modules this week.  It's actually been rather enlightening--essentially reviewing physiology by discussing an actual patient case and figuring out what's wrong with this person in light of what we know about physio.  Unfortunately, it's brought to light a really interesting question for me--when do we actually learn how to apply all this stuff?  I mean, if you asked me right now how high hematocrit affects blood flow or how exercise affects oxygen's diffusing capacity in the lungs, I could pretty much tell you with no trouble.  But if you showed me a patient with symptoms of one of those problems, I feel like I would be completely lost at where even to begin.  I guess that comes as we go--and it's one of the reasons I'm really excited about my externship this summer.  I'm hoping (and have been told this is pretty much true) that it will be a huge help because I'll learn a lot about the day-to-day act of diagnosis, but at the same time I'm still not required to actually know anything so I don't have to feel pressured to study.  It's just flat up learning how to do things like take histories, do physicals, and apply the findings to diagnose (along with all this science stuff I've supposedly learned this year).  Should be interesting--and, hopefully, help me answer this question. 

Summer Plans

Just found out that I got in to the pediatrics externship program I applied to!!!  I get to hang out at a children's clinic for the month of June, and I couldn't be more excited.  Not to mention the $1000 stipend involved...

No other real news today other than how insanely productive I'm being on the study-front...found my groove again and now I have a whole new reason to look forward to the end of school. :-)

I love it when I remember stuff

Since it's back to the grindstone tomorrow, I've been spending the past few days starting to study again, a little bit at a time.  It's nice, because when I get to study at my own pace instead of being constantly harrassed with new material that MUST be done RIGHT NOW, I actually enjoy what I'm doing much more.  I've almost finished a cursory review of our first neuro exam material (thank you, brilliant neuro professors, for making our final cumulative--from last October.)  and I'm honestly pretty surprised by just how much I remember.  Granted, there is at least as much that I don't remember in the slightest, but it's familiar at the very worst.  It's just so refreshing to get to wake up when I want, do what I want during the day and throw some studying in when I get bored or feel like it, as opposed to just force-feeding myself.  

The great thing is, the next two weeks will be much of the same even though we're not on break anymore.  This week is what we call a PBL week where we just have some small group work at random times--no 8:00 AM lectures, and the only lectures at all are for ICM (which is, well, pretty much a blow-off anyway).  I think I might actually go to the ICM lectures for once, because honestly they're usually somewhat interesting--it's just that when the choice is to sit listening to some quasi-interesting but non-tested material for 3 hours or to spend that 3 hours getting some quality studying in, the choice is usually pretty obvious.  Anyway, point of the matter is that this next week is essentially going to be kind of like spring break all over again with just a few school-related activities to do, and next week is block week, which means we get the whole week off to study and take our exams on Friday.  After that, life will be grand because we'll be back down to only two classes!!  No more neuro.  Thank you, God. 

I have to say, though, that I have needed this break more than I think even I knew.  Just getting back to a normal sleep schedule has been fabulous.  Now, tonight, F is coming over to study and we're going to be incredibly girly and rent the Twilight movie.  Reviews to follow. 

Break

Saturday afternoon I spent some time hanging out at my mom's house, and my little sister's boyfriend looked up at me at one point and noted, "I can tell you're on break.  You're happy."  I'm hoping "happy" wasn't exactly the right word (since I feel like I'm relatively happy most of the time), but he did also point out that he could just tell I wasn't stressed, that I didn't have any work to do, because of my overall demeanor.  I think sometimes you don't realize how stressed you are until you aren't.  

As a result of this conversation, I am planning to spend as much of this week as possible doing whatever I want to do whenever I want to do it, and just generally luxuriating in relaxation.  I'm starting by spending today in "the big city" (about 2 hours away) w/ my friend F, doing some shopping and eating out and just having fun and not talking or thinking or even remotely associating anything with medical school. 

Slaving Away

The rest of my class is officially on Spring Break (as of noon--or ten, if you skipped lecture today), and I intelligently decided to sign up for a research shift from noon to six today.  Two and a half more hours of sitting in a conference room in the pediatrics ER, shifting through the admits to find kids who might fit the criteria for the studies we're doing (specifically, possible appendicitis cases, little kids who fell off of something, or anybody with a broken/dislocated/mangled shoulder).  Since I haven't attended biochem lecture for the past few days, it's kind of a nice chance to catch up on the notes/flashcards that I need to do, but at the same time I wonder why in the world I decided to do this to myself.  In fact, I'm wondering why I decided to do Spring Break the way I did--not that I mind the fact that I'm not going anywhere (I really prefer to do nothing at all, more relaxing that way), but that I know I'll probably spend a decent amount of time preparing for our block exam that's coming up in three weeks.  Because that's what happens when the professors decide to make the neuro final cumulative even though it started last October.  

Tonight, though, I'm forgetting about all of that and going home to have dinner, drink wine, and watch a movie with my friend F.  My fabulous husband is going to cook for us, and I can't wait to sit back and not think about school for a bit.  I think everyone in my class is starting to burn out a little at this point, so a week off is definitely, definitely in order.  In addition to the reviewing I'm hoping to start, I'll be taking a day to go shopping in "the big city" with F and hopefully catching up on some much needed sleep.  I might-gasp- even read a book for fun. 

The good news is, it's finally starting to warm up and feel like spring, and I went out to the store last weekend and bought a bouquet of tulips that are currently sitting on my dining room table, and they're lovely.  It brightens things up when you know you're not going to have to freeze every time you step out the door.  It also motivates me to clean up my yard/deck so I can start enjoying it out there as soon as the temperature gets about freezing.  I'm really looking forward to sprucing it up--as well as pretty much every other room in the house, since we just got our tax refund and now I have no credit card payments or car payments and can funnel some cash into things like curtains and rugs and artwork and drawer pulls.  You know, check the whole bit about spring break--I'll probably be found mainly at Home Depot. 

Getting Fit

One of the myriad things that happened in my last month's hiatus was my acquisition (finally!) of a Wii Fit, thanks to a dear friend who was insane enough to be driving around out in the middle of the ice storm about a month ago.  I didn't write about it then, because as soon as he retrieved it for me, our Wii up and died (see below).  So it had to get sent off and fixed and now is back, and I finally got to try out the Wii fit for the first time a couple of nights ago.  Let me tell you, folks, I consider myself to be a pretty in-shape person--I was a gymnast growing up and in college, and while I haven't been exactly religious about it since I began medical school, have been at least relatively attentive to my staying-in-shape needs.  So let it come as no small thing when I say I was in significant pain the day after my first little twenty minute workout.  

The thing is, it didn't feel like I even did anything!  Ten reps each of some strengthening exercises, two cardio drills and as much yoga as I could do (you have to unlock a lot of things in the game before you have access to an entire workout).  When I finished, I even thought it had been too easy that I wasn't going to get as much out of this as I thought. Clearly, I was wrong.  Apparently the whole stress on balance and center of gravity and core strength worked my body in ways I was not only unused to, but completely unprepared for. 

Final review:  If you, like me, have little time and money to get to a gym, I highly, highly recommend Wii Fit--just don't go into it all naive like I did, lest you not be able to move the next day.

Adventures in MacLand

I took my poor Mac back to the Mac guy immediately following my block exam two weeks ago.  He informed me it would be done by the next Monday.  Monday, he didn't call.  Tuesday, he didn't call.  Wednesday, I got fed up and called, and he informed me that he needed my system password.  As in, he had clearly opened up my machine, not been able to access it, and decided that it was not worth calling me even though multiple days had passed since he had told me it would be done.  I finally got the computer back the following Friday after the most frustrating three weeks of my life.  Since then, I've been making efforts to reload everything from my external hard drive, and it's pretty much back to where it was with the exception of the ridiculous number of pictures I still need to transfer. Hopefully I'll actually update a little more often as a result. 

In the other saga of "Everything I Touch Dies," we also finally have our Wii back now.  It had decided a few weeks ago to just up and stop playing any discs, which was unbelievably frustrating as it serves as our main source of entertainment that doesn't require money.  It has now returned as well, and one of our good friends located me a Wii Fit, so the yoga will commence!  (As soon as I have time to set the thing up.)

I spent this afternoon doing my last few hours of preceptorship in the NICU, which was fabulous again.  I love the fact that I got credit for holding a baby for half an hour today.  I also got to help out with a circumcision, but really, there wasn't much going on, and I got to leave early.  Probably a good thing, since I'm a good three lectures behind on neuro and need to catch up before tomorrow.  Which is what I'll go do.