This Week in Med School News

Hey guys, so it's been a while since I've posted, a whole week in fact. That is a bit too long for my liking, so I'll try and be better about it. More to the point, here are the highlights from what happened this week in med school.

---A wild Brachial Plexus has appeared!---

Med school started this week by introducing the brachial plexus. It is a crazy bundle of nerves in your neck that is simultaneously fascinating and infuriating. Combined with that, we have to study epithelium in Cell Biology. Honestly, it's really difficult to tell the difference by looking through a microscope, so I think I'm just going to have to memorize which organs have what epithelium. I actually got really excited when they mentioned squamous skin cells on Futurama this week. You know you're in med school when...

---I found a new way to study.---

I felt like I was falling behind this week, so I started searching for new ways to study and stay ahead. Well, I started studying in the "Blue Room," the 100% silent health students study room and I have to say that I don't think I've ever been so productive. Aside from the fact that I think I'm getting sick, I really feel like I'm on my game right now.

---I decided not to run for my class executive board.---

After talking to my Big Sib about exec board, I've decided not to run for a position. As much as I love doing leadership positions, they are wholly underappreciated and they aren't going to expose me to the medicine I want to practice any more.

---Scott left for Austin.---

Well, ma buddy Scott, pictured right has now left for Austin. The city, not some

dude named Austin. It's that great beyond filled with skeezy hipsters and crazy

Texans. I will miss our fun, but I hope he keeps me updated on his fun in A-town

and reads this blog often...or I will hunt him down.

YOU HEAR THAT SCOTT!

Have fun in Austin.

---I have a one year plan in place.---

My goal over the next year is to get a position TAing the undergraduate neuroscience course over the summer while shadowing neurosurgeons and setting up some research opportunities during break. Hopefully if that all works out, I will be getting paid a decent amount of money to do what I love during my last summer break.

---I went to Physical Therapy for my back and it was awesome.---

My car is in the shop still, but so is my body. Since the accident, you may remember, I have had a lot of back/neck pain. Well, I finally got sent for PT and had my first appointment this past Friday. My physical therapist seems very knowledgable about the spine and actually educated me a lot on what should be going on and what is going on. After doing the exercises he told me to, my back has been feeling a whole lot better. The therapist said that since I'm young and healthy, he could get me as good as new in 4 weeks, with two sessions a week. Hopefully, that's true. Although I've noticed a considerable decrease in my back pain just over the past day so something must be going right for me.

---My Mindfulness in Medicine class started.---

At the start of school, I signed up for a Mindfulness in Medicine class. It's all about meditation and being able to refocus the mind. I think it will be pretty helpful since I've been having difficulty in school with trying to go at the speed I need whether it's fast or slow. For our first session, we ate a raisin and took roughly 5 minutes to look at it, smell it, feel the texture, and taste it. It was very interesting as I don't think I've ever taken the time to observe all of the stimuli that comes along with the simple act of eating a raisin. John, my cell bio lab partner, summed it up by saying, "I've never been so intimate with something in my mouth." I had difficulty keeping my composure after that. It was enjoyable and I look forward to our next session next week.

---We saw a lady with humeral cancer at Grand Rounds.---

All of the patients they show us at grand rounds are outstanding. This Friday, we saw a lady who presented to her family physician with shoulder pain. She had no signs of muscular tear or damage, but it could have just been a sore ligament. Well, her doctor ordered an XRay and saw some strange bone absorption in the head of her humerus. After that, she was sent to Shands and given much more diagnostics. Eventually, they decided that she had a tumor in the head of her humerus and that she would have to have surgery as soon as she could to remove it. They set her up with 3 weeks of chemotherapy and then took her to the OR. It was interesting listening to her talk about how the doctors wanted to just take the whole arm, but she told them to try and save it at all costs. Well, in the end, they removed the tumor and some of the muscles of her arm and fused the head of a cadaver's humerus to her own in a similar way to the picture below.

In the end they were able to re-attach all of the tendons and she was left with full function in her arm. About 3 weeks later, she competed in a windsurfing contest and crashed into the water, holding on to second place, but re-tearing her rotator cuff. She now has full range of passive motion in her arm, but she does not have enough strength to lift her forearm above her shoulder. It was great to see how someone could go through all of the trouble of cancer and end up with such normal function and a great attitude. I was inspired.

---I went to a med school party.---

Last night was the first time I went to a non-sponsored party by people in my med school. It was fun. I met a couple law students and got to know a lot of my classmates better. It was a great night except that a lot of my friends got towed. I ended up driving them home. Saturdays are now my school-free days and I think it's going to be great. After all, I have to get my schedule ready for when football season starts. Now to continue enjoying my Saturday by going to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice with my roommate. There are many more stories from this week, but I'll post them a little later.

40 Hours Down, 99,960 to Go

Dr. Rarey, my anatomy professor, gave us a lecture today to end off our class time for the week. While he rambled on about a lot of things and only really mentioned embryology occasionally, it managed to be simultaneously fun and informative. At the end of it, he mentioned the book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. In it, the author said that intelligence doesn't necessarily make an expert, but that experts were those people that put at least 10,000 hours into their craft to develop who they are today. The number seemed very daunting and inspiring at the same time. No matter what I do now, that number is in my mind, and I kind of like the imagery.

The first week of medical school is over, and all I can say is that I'm saturated. I have learned more information in my first week of medical school than I did in my entire last year of chemical engineering. They say it's like trying to drink from a fire hose. I can say that it is exactly like that. Right now I feel like I've got it all down, but I'm at my limits now and I still have about 4 weeks left just in the first Unit of Anatomy (of three). The brachial plexus (a nerve bundle under your clavicle) is an absolute terror. There are like ten things to memorize in each 1cm part of it.

As far as my studying schedule goes, I get about 1-2 hours of free time each day and probably 1 day a week where I'll only have to study 1 hour or so. People say that medical school is hard. WRONG. Medical school is an Ironman competition. You have to be good at a couple things for a long period of time. Being a medical student rarely tests your intelligence, but it constantly tests your will and ability to study and be dedicated. I think in about a week or so when I get used to all of the work, I'll be able to weave a normal life in here somewhere.

Classes have been good, but it has become apparent to me that study-time is much more time-consuming than any lecture. The worst part of lecture is that our classrooms haven't been renovated yet. We will have nice new classrooms in another week or two, but til then we have to trek all over campus. We even had to walk ten minutes over to the Cancer and Genetics Institute (pictured below). It's pretty, but horribly inconvenient.

In life news, my car is in the shop being repaired! Upon doing a little work, they realized that they have to do a lot more work than previously expected. The total dollar amount of damage went from $2000 to $4000. They're also going to have to work on it for 3 weeks. They said, "at best, you'll get your car back around September 4th." My days crawl by right now, so that is forever away. In the meantime, they gave me a baby blue Hyundai as a rental car.

It's kind of cutesy. I hate that it doesn't have power locks, because that means that I basically can't put anything in back without awkwardly climbing around.

The best part about it is that it is equipped with XM radio. I have been listening to XM classical for a while. It's nice to just let my mind soak up the info I just crammed into it as I muse over a delightful piano sonata. I went to the doctor today to check up on my back and neck pain from the car accident. It looks that my back pain has gotten worse, so I'm going to be sent to the physical therapist twice a week for a month to get rid of it. It was interesting telling my doctor about how my pain "originated in my lumbar spine and radiated along my iliocostalis muscle to my serratus posterior inferior." She didn't seem as impressed as I felt about my terminology dropping. Still, I feel like a badass.

For you cat lovers out there, here are some pictures of CC (Chubby Cheeks), my roommates cat:

This photo is kind of bad, but it shows how I have trained her to not enter my room (through some delightful positive/negative conditioning techniques). She just sits at the edge of the carpet and rubs her chin on the door frame instead. She's not a very good photo subject as she always got too close or ran away. I went into the kitchen though and was greeted by this:

I've trained her through positive reinforcement not to bother me while I'm doing something on the counter, but if I'm not working there, she's all up in my face. When I get home from class and need some sort of release, I'll talk to the cat (if my roommate isn't home). I think she knows when I call her a fatty. I guess it's the little things that keep us sane.

First Days and I HAVE A CAMERA!

So the weekend went by somewhat uneventfully which was just what I needed. Monday came a little too quickly, but I felt as ready as I could be when I walked in the door Monday morning. Monday consisted of syllabus handouts, meeting cadavers, and Cell Biology. We met all of our teachers and learned a little about each of our teachers. Then, the Anatomy professors took us on a tour of the cadaver lab where we will be doing all of our anatomy labs. My group has a 90 y.o. female that was a seamstress. She died of supposed MI or renal failure. A lot of the bodies had died of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) which is apparently the other disease to fear besides cancer as you age into your elderly years. Finally, after a quick lunch, we went over to the brain institute for the presentation of our code of ethics to the Dean and for our first Cell Biology lecture. At the exact moment cell bio lecture was about to begin, the fire alarm began to sound and the entirety of the building began pouring into the staging area in front of the building. 30 minutes later, there was little progress on getting back to the lecture hall, so we all retrieved our bags and went to the MDLs for our lecture and lab. The first histology lecture and lab were all about lecture and lab, so it was nice, fun and relaxing. After class, I went to the Family Medicine Interest Group meeting at Mother's pub where we got free Miller High Life and Cheeseburgers. At the same time, we got to talk to a bunch of residents, family physicians (most of which work for my mom, lol) and sports medicine fellows. It was really informative, and I'm actually seeing why family practice is appealing to M.D.s. It's definitely in my list of possible specialties. After Mother's, I went over to Jeremy's apartment and watched some Battlestar Galactica (my only real means of relaxation this week so far). Three episodes later, I realized I should be in bed, but upon returning home, I noticed the online anatomy quiz that I had to do. By 11:30, I finally got to sleep. The best thing about Monday was that all of my textbooks came in as well as my CAMERA!!!!!

Tuesday, I decided to take my camera with me to photo-log my day, so here we go! I woke up early in the morning at 6am to prep for class. Today was my first day taking the bus into campus. I started the day taking a look at my poor car that will finally be getting into the shop on Wednesday morning.

After mourning over my car, I headed down to the bus stop in front of my apartment.

There aren't many people on the bus at 6:50am.

At 7:10, I arrive at the HSC. It's actually kind of pretty in the morning.

I then went into the MDL (our Multi-Disciplinary Teaching Laboratory). It looked like I was the first one in today although 4 people walked in about 30 secs after I took the picture below.

The MDLs are the staging area for our class. We also have Cell Biology lab in this room. Everyone gets a locker here to put your stuff in. I mostly keep scrubs and books in mine. (the box on the right is the free stethoscope they gave us!)

By 7:20, I head up to Wendy's to have the breakfast of champions (pictured below).

By 7:40, I finished my breakfast and went into the lecture hall in the Medical Sciences Building.

Our first order of the day was smoking cessation orientation. We will in a couple months be sent out into the community to promote quitting smoking. Just another way we med students are helping the community. My classmates were somewhat excited about it, but at the same time, everyone was tired. Kim finally realized I was taking pictures of people when I snapped a shot of her in the next one, lol.

David (black shirt), Kim (left, white shirt), Steve (beige shirt), Kathy (white shirt, right)

We then had some SPICE infosec training, and Avi (the presenter), was actually quite entertaining.

We then all gathered in the MDL to set up our laptops for the network and printing.

It was not fun.

Leslie got bored and wanted to leave (and not get her picture taken apparently).

Then everyone put on their scrubs to get ready for anatomy lecture and lab, OH YEAH!

Next came lunch. I met Jeremy at the cafeteria and he joined me for lunch at the new cancer hospital cafe. It was pretty nice. He then had to suffer through me, Leslie, Jorge, and Sheylan talking about all of our medical stuff like nerds. It was really enjoyable and we actually ran into some classmates there. Finally, we got back, learned about the back, and then headed on down to the lab. Dissection was fun. After we pulled off some of the skin, I rarely realized that we were actually dissecting a person. It was challenging and messy, but very informative at the same time. Dr. Williams did indeed keep an eye on me and was very helpful in finding our vasculature and nerves on the back muscles. Sadly, we're not allowed to take pictures in the lab. My group finished right on time, and we managed to find everything we were supposed to while only minimally destroying some anatomical features. Every was kind of beat and we slowly made our ways back to the MDLs to change.

I then walked my way to the bus stop and waited for my ride home.

Once I got home, I took a shower and tried to wash all of the dead bodies smell off of me...to no avail. I then read over my textbooks some and went to Moe's to get some food. However, you can't eat without studying I'm realizing. I guess I'm going to have to get used to my meals looking like the one below (food, drink, and KNOWLEDGE).

After Moe's, I went to watch some more Battlestar Galactica with Jeremy and Joe, and then I went home to upload all this for you guys. Now it's time to study 2 more lectures, preview 2 lectures, and read a chapter and a half about physical exams. Hooray!

Orientation Wrap-Up

Well, orientation is over, or should i say, the fun is over. Thursday and Friday signaled the end of my first week of medical school and the end of my honeymoon away from actually studying. However, despite the terminal nature of the days, they were still quite fun.

Thursday was our last day of formal school mandated orientation. The day started with the dreaded code of ethics approval meeting. This meeting was where the entire class would look over what the group leaders wrote and make edits based on what they like. Everyone was dreading how long it would take for all of the edits, but surprisingly enough it went over really well. Only two points went to edits, and only one of them was changed. We even got through picking a quote in relatively little time. After that, Dr. Duff gave the Blood Borne Pathogens lecture. It is required of all people working in a medical area so that you know how to be cautious so as not to contract blood borne diseases. Usually it's really boring, but Dr. Duff chose to not answer any of the questions he put up and forced all of the students to guess what was the answer. I learned a little about how to prevent transmission, and I think it's interesting that in surgery, unlike in sex, we are all encouraged to double glove it up with the latex. After this lecture was finished, we got the Medical School 101 lecture. Basically, 5 second year students went up front and gave a presentation on studying, staying balanced, what textbooks everyone used and didn't use, and what resources are available. It was very informative and it changed what texts I bought for my first week. After this talk, Dr. Vidauretta (Dr. V) gave a lecture on our career development. It terminated in her giving us all a Myers-Briggs test. I've consistently been an ESTJ, so it'll be neat to see what it turns out to be. We then had lunch with the first year faculty. I got to sit next to Dr. Williams, a forensic anthropologist. I was so tempted to ask her if her life was anything like the TV show "Bones", but I was able to restrain myself. She teaches both of my major first year classes, Anatomy and Histology. We talked about everything from families to working out to class mechanics. She told me that she'll be keeping tabs on me particularly which, I hope, is a good thing. Lunch just made it clear to me that all of our faculty are out there to help us out, and it's great to have that support network, especially since they're also our teachers. The day ended with 4 talks on ways in which we will be able to stay relaxed and stress-free in medical school. Dr. V, our school counselor, talked about 1-on-1 counseling that she provides. Dr. Harman talked about our Student Advocacy group that helps push for student needs through faculty advisors. Dr. Ritz, our Neuroscience professor from Spring semester, started a Mindfulness program which I'm taking. Basically, it involves weekly hour-long sessions of relaxation and meditation, helping us take our mind off of school for at least a few hours. I'm excited to have that scheduled mental break in my life. The last lecture was from Dr. Larry Rooks; he is the dad of my friend Amy Rooks from high school and he works for my mother. He talked about the Staying Whole In Medicine (SWIM) program where there will be faculty leader inviting us to come hang out and just relax to help prevent mental breaks. The talk was absolutely hilarious. It was easily the best talk of all orientation. At the end, he whipped out his banjo and we had a sing-along with a song he wrote about medical school. It was great. At that point, the day was over and I got to pick up my scrubs and lab coat.

After orientation, I went back to my apartment and tried on my scrubs, felt awesome, and then went out for the nights events. The first event was an around the world dinner where we went to 6 different apartments around town where each had food representing a different nation. America was basically pizza and beer which I thought was hilarious. I met a lot of cool people as we walked around, and once we finished at the last house, we all went out to the last event. It was held at 101 Cantina where med students were given an unlimited bar tab on wells and beer til close. It was amazing. I got to mingle a lot, and my friends Martin and Leslie took me around and introduced me to all of the people that they knew that I didn't. By about 1:30am, I started to head out, but Leslie and Martin felt I was too drunk to drive, so I got a ride home from a girl that was in my sister's high school graduating class. In medical school, a DUI results in an instant expulsion from the class (which I definitely do not want). At that point, I went to bed since I had to get up early to pick up my car.

The next morning, I woke up, called Dele (the person that gave me the ride home) and she took me to get my car. Alas, I had a ticket for illegal parking, but I appealed it to them. Hopefully, they won't be too strict on it since the only alternative was drunk driving. After I got my car, I went home, the days events were a Community Service project at 11am and a BBQ at 1pm. After getting back home, I felt terrible, so I basically passed out and slept through the service project. However, I got up in time to head over to Kanapaha Park for the field day. It was pretty fun, but it rained most of the day. That kind of spoiled most of the outdoor fun. We all parted at about 4, and I went to my house to give my parents my laundry (Heh). I chilled with my dad for a bit, and then I headed back out to run some errands. I picked up some groceries and some school supplies, and then I went to my apartment to put my notebooks together for Monday. The medinfo website where all of our stuff is posted was full of printouts that we needed to read. I felt a little overwhelmed and started printing them out and putting them in my notebook. After printing about 100 pages, I took a break from stressing and went over to see my friends Jeremy and Joe. We watched some Battlestar Galactica and had a pretty good time. By 1am I was in bed, and ready for the weekend.

As far as my car goes, Allstate has agreed to pay everything and I am just waiting for the parts to get into the shop. Once they get the parts, I can bring the car in and pick up my rental car. Hopefully that whole ordeal will go a lot easier now that Allstate is on-board. My camera was in Gainesville Wednesday night, but USPS hasn't delivered it yet. I don't know why, but it should be here for the first day of school on Monday. I also ordered my textbooks which, thanks to Amazon Prime, will be getting to my apartment Monday afternoon, woot! My sister came down from her clerkship in Pensacola this weekend to see family and give me some books. I'm really excited to see her. This weekend should be filled with thrills but my main hope is that I can get some nice and easy fun with a little bit of R&R.

Too Much Fun

Tonight after formal orientation was finished, we all went out to 101 Cantina on University. I had a blast and ended up a little more inebriated than I expected. Look for a summary of the days events a little later as I don't think I can really put together a cogent description right now. Heh.

Day 3 of Orientation

The third day of orientation has arrived and past, and by now I can say that I think I've hit my groove. I've managed to wake up on time every morning. Aside from falling asleep early last night and missing some night time recreation, I haven't been late to any events, and I can say with confidence that I've made a few friends in my class.

The events for the day were far from thrilling. The first part of the day was dedicated to "Diversity" and all that implies. The first presentation was by the two assistant deans for minority affairs and while they were informed about the subject, I couldn't help but feel that I was being preached at. I always come out of listening to diversity presentations feeling bad about being a white male, lol. Following the deans was a presentation by two 2nd year students about diversity in our class and in prospective patient populations. It was actually one of the best diversity presentations I've seen in a while. It started with us filling out a survey about experiences, mainly about discrimination. We then passed our surveys around ten times so we each had some random survey. Then we were asked to raise our hand if the survey in front of us had answered yes to each of the questions. It was shocking just how many students had been discriminated against. Most of our class is pretty fit and almost all of them said they were discriminated against for their appearance at some time. The presenters went on to talk about how to observe and embrace diversity in our professional lives when dealing with patients. It was really entertaining because they played clips from Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs, showing the major problems that each group encountered whether it was dramatic or humorous. Diversity, while it may not seem that important is actually a major influence in almost every part of our lives and I really enjoyed learning how.

After the diversity presentations came the most enjoyable part of the day. One of our associate deans brought in a patient of hers to talk about experiences in the medical field and how they can change your life. This girl, Kelly, and her mom started by showing us a lot of pictures through Kelly's life from when she was a little kid to now, showing us a lot of photos from treatments she went on. Kelly's mom then told her story. In about 2-3rd grade, Kelly was taking part in a language study at P.K. Young when she was given an MRI to look at language development. A Graduate Student saw the scan and that night went to talk with Kelly's dad at their home. Kelly's mom, an oncology nurse, was at work. The graduate student told them that they had found something on the scan and that they had to call this neurosurgeon, handing them a card with a name and number on it. Scared and confused, Kelly's parents worked their way through the bureaucracy and got an appointment with the neurosurgeon. At that time, they were told that Kelly had a brain tumor between her medulla and her pons. The neurosurgeon went on to say that Kelly should most likely have radiation therapy to treat the tumor since surgery was too risky. As she grew up over the next few years, Kelly had radiation therapy to treat her tumor. Eventually she was put on some steroidal medications to deal with some of the side effects. As she underwent these treatments, she ballooned up, gaining 70 pounds in 3 weeks. Due to the radiation and steroids, her bones and muscles became too week to handle her body weight and she was forced to move to a wheelchair. After several years, she developed scoliosis and hip flexor weakness due to a lack of physical therapy while in the chair. She was forced to undergo over 10 more surgeries to put in rods to straighten her back and help alleviate pain. During this time, her family was selected by the make a wish foundation to go to Washington D.C. where they had a blast. Eventually, they came home and still nothing seemed better to Kelly's mom. After all of the treatments they went through, they were still concerned. They began seeing our associate dean for pediatrics and after a while, Dr. Novak (our dean), became suspicious of the results she was getting from Kelly's neurological exam. They took her original scans before the UF Tumor Board and were told that it wasn't a tumor. Kelly never had a tumor. This was confirmed by specialists in St. Louis. After this revelation, all of the departments working on Kelly's case went silent. They were treating a girl with a tumor and now that she no longer had a tumor, they felt no need to be involved in her care. Eventually, Kelly was diagnosed with Alexander's Disease, a very rare genetic disorder involving the degradation of myelin on her nerves. All of the treatments Kelly had been through from radiation and steroids to all of the treatments to curb the side effects were all for nothing. At that point, her family knew what they were dealing with and were able to plan out how to handle her medical care from that point on. After they finished this heart-wrenching story, we, med students, were allowed to ask some questions. One person asked Kelly how she felt about this whole experience. She responded, "I just wish the doctors would say, 'I don't know' or 'I'm not sure, let me look something up' rather than 'you have this, I'm sure'. When everyday is filled with tears and heartbreak, you just become happy for what you have and what you got. If I went and was angry about this or was sad in the corner, who's that helping? No one. So I go out and volunteer wherever I can and do as much as I can, while I can." Her story was so sad, but she seemed so resilient and happy. Just hearing her in all of this was a moving experience. It showed me many of the screw ups that will pop up in medicine, but at the same time, it showed me a truly resilient girl and her family that, through all of the mistakes and all of the pain and sadness, prevailed with a great attitude. I really enjoyed her talk. At the end, Dr. Novak presented Kelly with a College of Medicine pin and a Certificate which was very nice.

The rest of our day seemed menial. We got lunch and watched a presentation on health disparities throughout the U.S. and especially in the Gainesville Community. They showed us the Shands Mobile Clinic that goes out around town offering health screenings and free care, which seems like such a great opportunity. After that we went to the computer testing center to learn how we will be taking tests. We also got our formal pictures taken and were trained in information security. At the same time, Dr. Cooper, our head of evaluations, had our class take a study survey about stress. From what I'm told, they will be using this and other surveys from time to time to gauge how stressful the experience of med school is on our class and how they can help us deal with that stress.

Tonight they have free bowling planned for us which seems really exciting. I will be hitting the lanes and making some more friends in the near future hopefully. In the realm of good news, my car should be headed to the shop on Friday to be fixed and I should be getting my new camera tomorrow. All in all, things are looking up, and I only expect great things coming soon.

And So It Begins...

Monday morning, bright and early at 7:15am, I found myself seated in a room surrounded by over a hundred new faces. While many of these people seemed vaguely familiar, this time may have been one of the first in a long period when I felt like I knew no one. In a matter of minutes, I had made 2 new friends, then 3, then 5, until my memory was overloaded with all of these new interesting people. Orientation began with the dean and associated faculty saying a few words. Eventually, our first 5 hours turned into a fury of associate deans telling us about the "most important" part of our medical school career, their parts. After an hour long presentation about how to fill out faculty evaluations, we were given a moment to breathe. The afternoon continued with more speeches about professionalism and our medical school community. During lunch, the second years came in and played a video for us that they made. It was very funny and was soaked in parody and memes which kept me cracking up. They then split us up into two groups. The first group went to get CPR training while the second got to talk to second years about interest groups and extra-curricular events. I used this time to get to know a lot more of my classmates. The CPR training was interesting, but it was so hurried and strange that I don't think I learned much more than how to beat up a mannequin . By this time, it was 6pm and everyone was exhausted. However, the day wasn't over yet.

That evening, Dr. Good, the dean of our great college, was hosting a dinner at the UF President's house where we as students would get to meet and talk with the faculty. It was very nice and the food was delicious. I met some more cool people and even ran into my old friend, Emily, that was working with the caterers. However, my exhaustion was getting the better of me. After downing a few Diet Pepsi cans and a piece of Key Lime Pie. I decided to head out, but not home yet. The second year students, in hopes of getting to better know our class had invited us all out to The Swamp Restaurant to have a few drinks and socialize. Went there, did that, and met some even cooler people. I had actually met a lot of the second years already, and it was good to see them again. I finally got home at 10:30pm and was in bed by 11pm, since we had another nice early morning on Tuesday.

Tuesday started off nice at 8am. I chose to sit away from people I had already met, and I found some more interesting people. One cool person next to me knew a bit about Student Government at UF and it was interesting to see his take and perspectives on stuff that I had already experienced. Then our first assignment of the day began, writing our code of ethics. Using our own work and other students input, we broke off into small groups and each wrote our own example of a doctor's code of ethics. We then appointed a group leader to share our draft with the other groups. I chose to volunteer for said position because it would give me a better chance to meet more people. During lunch, all of the group leaders were taken away to a small conference room in the Academic Research Building and asked to put together a single code of ethics. This challenge was more difficult than it should have been. So many people got attached to their wording or their phrases that it took us an hour to just finish each point we wanted to cover. We would have to come back later to finish it. At noon though, we took a recess and went on a tour of the Health Science Center. There were a lot of locations that I wasn't even familiar with having been at the HSC for 5 years. Also, I got to meet some neat people that share my end of the alphabet (V-Z). Most importantly though, our wonderful tour guides, Vikram and Elizabeth, made sure we knew everything and anything we could/should know, from what books you'll use or cover to what books you'll never open. They also talked about their study habits and what other people would do. Listening to them talk was simultaneously intimidating and invigorating. However, they showed a clearly strong resolve to helping any and all students they could which is an awesome resource that I am glad I have now. At the end of the day I had to go back to the conference room and finish the code of ethics, but I decided to take a quick trip to steak and shake for drive-thru. By the time I got back, they had finished it. To repent for my excursion, I drove some of my leader-mates to their cars and parted ways.

I believe that I've made some awesome acquaintences over the past two days, and I'm sure I'll make some more over the next semester. Most importantly though, I believe I've found some really cool people that will end up being some of my best friends.

The rest of the week shows countless activities to come, and I can't wait to check them out, starting up again in 2 hours. Time to rest now.

My Car --- Still not fixed. I haven't had time to bug Allstate about it, but I hope to hear from them soon.

Logistics --- I really want to put up some pictures on here to supplement some of the stuff I am saying. As such, I used some Best Buy gift certificates to purchase a camera that is on it's way to my apartment as we speak, so look out for some sweet pictures to come.

Au Revoir Income

Today is my last day of work for a while. Throughout school, I have kept my funds up by working a part time job at the College of Medicine, initially with the Department of Emergency Medicine until I moved to the Department of Neurology to fill the position left vacant by my sister. As of 5pm today, my 4 1/2 year stretch as a UF CoM student assistant will end. I am sad to see these times go. I've met a lot of interesting people and learned a lot about bureaucracy, but all good things must come to an end. Most notably, this end will signify the start my impoverishment. I will no longer have an income and will have to live on borrowed funds. I am not looking forward to it.

In car accident news, things have gone from bad to worse. My trunk light and dashboard stay lit at all times to tell me that the trunk is open (as if I didn't know). Since the damage has rendered the trunk open at all times, these lights have completely drained the battery from my car. My disfigured wreck of a vehicle is now just a disfigured immovable wreck. Allstate refuses to take any action until they have a statement from their insured customer, but given that he was arrested for a DUI when he hit me, I don't think calling his car insurance company is a priority. It looks like I'm up shit creek without a paddle and my raft is beginning to deflate.

On the more positive side, I was contacted by my "Big Sib" from the CoM class of 2013. He seems very nice and said that I could borrow any of the textbooks I might need this year if I don't have them purchased in time. I probably won't meet him til next Friday, but I'm excited all the same.

Now, it's time to get back to work. Hopefully, I can finish all of my work before 5pm rolls around.

T-4 days and Counting...

It's 4 days until I start my next phase of life, medical school. In a matter of about 100 hours, I will become a medical student and start learning the trade that I one day hope to practice. It is all so exciting and invigorating, but these feelings are not without anxiety and trepidation.

Anyways, quick update on life. The drunk driver that hit me in my car accident has yet to talk to his insurance, so I cannot get my car repaired yet. I went to the doctor for my whiplash and neck pain, so I got a high strength ibuprofen and a muscle relaxant. They work beautifully for my neck pain, but it appears that my back pain (which was non-existent at the time of the crash) has now gotten much worse, most notably when my neck pain disappears. All of my forms for medical school have been submitted and processed, and I will be able to register for classes on Monday. My employment at the UF Department of Neurology will be coming to a close tomorrow, and while I am excited to be moving on, I am not excited about finishing the mountain of work on my desk and saying goodbye to all these great people. Of the 5 books they recommend I read, I have only completed one and a half. Sadly, I'm pretty sure I won't finish them by the start of school, but I don't believe I have to. They were after all "recommended" reading. The first book I read as well as the assignments I had to do for anatomy and ethics did teach me some interesting things about the medical profession though.

"America's Social Health," the first text on my list, is about how we as Americans are so in tune with the economic progress and state of our society that we often overlook the equally important social factors (dropout rates, crime levels, healthcare). Additionally, what news we do get about the health of our society often falls under the media that work to sensationalize any stories they find, often obscuring the true nature/sources of the problem. The authors give a wonderful description of social trends across our country combined with a look at social reporting done by other nations. They push for a more robust national social report supplemented by dedicated media coverage in the hopes that our social health as a country with be as well known as our economic health. It is an interesting read for anyone who wants to know about social trends and their place in American lives and political policy.

I also recently completed an assignment looking at what a doctor's code of ethics would look like. The key traits I imbued my version with were based on the doctor I hope to one day be: Honesty, Diversity, Community, Curiosity, Dedication, Patience, Empathy, Humility, and Selfishness. I go into each of these virtues in my actual assignment, because I believe each of them is important to developing a functional medical system without losing focus on the people who operate within that system, patient and doctor alike.

Finally, my anatomy assignment asked me to talk about my feelings towards human anatomy lab. Initially I wrote about excitement since that is what I feel. To me, learning human anatomy in the pursuit of a medical career is like a mechanic learning the basic parts of a car. It is the foundation of all understanding and jargon associated with the field and is a true necessity for any practitioner. However, I find it ironic that we as medical professionals are dedicated to life and its preservation but our first foray into the world of medicine is with the dead. I guess you gotta start somewhere.

Now if only I could get on a regular sleep schedule by Monday, things would start looking better. Heh.

Expect the Unexpected

Expect the unexpected. It's a phrase I've heard a thousand times but never took seriously. We are taught to be prepared for anything, but still that's different than expecting the unexpected. Well, as of right now, I'm 6 days and 5 hours away from medical school orientation, and my life can best be described as hectic. How did this happen I wondered? When did things go from a relaxed summer with nothing but relaxation to these fast paced days? The best explanation I could find was that I got hit by the unexpected, right when I wasn't expecting it.

First on the list of unexpected bothers is demon animals. My roommate has a cat that greatly enjoys fighting...with herself. At roughly 2-3 in the morning each day, I hear loud cat fight noises coming from outside my door, but there's only one cat out there. CC's (the cat's name) self-sparring sessions are somewhat fascinating to me now since the current explanation is that it's due to some level of peripheral neuropathy combined with schizophrenia, but I don't think it will be as fascinating the night before a test or morning rounds. I hope only that she calms down over the next week before the real medical school fun begins. Additionally, I walked into my apartment tonight to find two lights on. Given that my roommate is in Ecuador and no one else is here, I can only guess that the cat had turned on the lights, a confusing situation and definitely unexpected.

Second amongst the milieu of things the hit me by surprise was a person hitting me by surprise. This past Saturday I was sitting at a light when I was rear-ended by a former air force pilot from Williston on his way to his AA meeting. Surprise upon surprise, he had downed 4 drinks before getting in the car. With a week to go before med school, I now find myself with a car whose rear end looks more like a piece of modern art than a function car along with some serious neck and back pain. Today, I had a cervical X-Ray to check for fractures in my vertebrae but right now my pain is in the hands of some extra strength muscle relaxants. Needless to say, both whiplash and insurance companies suck, and I find myself dealing with both this week.

While those aren't all of the problems making my life hectic at the moment, they definitely are the most salient, and they are making this pleasure cruise of a summer take a trip down the rapids before I reach my destination.

Amongst other news, I recently completed my 2 pre-orientation assignments for med school, and I've also finished one of the five books they recommended that we read. I've learned a lot of interesting things that I'd love to share, but that's for another time. Until then, don't forget to expect the unexpected.