Test Week Approaches

Alright, so life has been crazy and hectic, but that's mainly due to the impending test week starting this Monday. We have 2 days of dissection, a day for review, a day off and then it's 8-5 testing on Friday. It will probably be the most time consuming test I will have taken since the MCAT. If you're looking for students on the brink of mental breakdown, visit the UFHSC this Friday.

---Mental Saturation---

Well, at this point of learning, I feel that I can't fit any more info into my brain. I'll just blank completely on information that I knew perfectly a week before. Hopefully I can train my brain to bring all that old info to the forefront before I hit test day. Thankfully, there is little to no more information that I have to learn. This week is all about packing it in.

---Weekend Partytime---

I feel that I am partying just a little too much on Friday nights now. I feel completely demolished by Saturday morning and it kind of robs the gator games of their typical joys (although that might be due to the way the Gators have been playing recently). I'm going to try and moderate my fun times over the next couple week to hopefully find a good balance.

---Undergrad Peeps and Piano Bars---

At the Gator game this Saturday, I had the pleasure of seeing my friend David from undergrad. We had a fun time at the game and then went back to Mother's Pub to have a few beers and watch the Alabama-Penn State game with my friend Joe. The game wasn't that great, but David, Joe, and I had some awesome conversations. I learned about the "Angry Dragon" I think it was called as well as David's experience with cougars. Overall, it was a great time. Enough so that this upcoming weekend after my big test, I am probably gonna head down to Tampa/Orlando to visit Dave and go to a piano bar and have some fun. It's just the something I need to look forward to after my test.

---JO Buddies and Trolling---

So I believe some of my new friends in med school are some of the most ridiculous people that I have ever met. For hours on end, we'll carry on talking about Craigslist ads and the term "JOing". Additionally, they have started going on the SDN website (a website for premed students to talk about MCATs and interviews) and trolling ("maliciously playing with" for you non-internet savvy people) the kids looking for info on UF interview days and the school. It's quite hilarious, because no one is more serious about med school than a pre-med student going into interviews and they're being met by the least serious (and probably least sane) people out there, current 1st year students. Hilarity ensues everytime. I love these people.

Regardless of how hard/tiring/burdensome/wild/crazy/overwhelming/sanity-grating it gets, I am having a blast through it all. Med school, FTW.

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.

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.