April 2005

Friday, April 29, 2005
End of GI (the anus!) (ha ha ha!... okay...laugh...)
April 24th- April 29th

Hello world!

So, this was a busy week, but a bunch of cool stuff has been going on, so I have plenty to tell you about!

First of all, we had an awesome pathology lecture on Monday. I really thought it was great! ERF gave a great lecture and I just had a great time with it. On Monday, we also had the last anatomy lecture of the year AND the last anatomy lab of the year! It is a bit sad, b/c in this past section I finally figured out how to study for the lab… I stay there until 5pm and just follow Karen, Stephanie, Dr. Thomas/Cole/McWhorter/Nelson around. They tend to go over everything over and over and by 5pm it’s just a handful of people there, and so it’s really one on one session :o) Quite great! I’ll definitely give “pearl” as an advice to my ‘little-sister’ (a first year student) next year.

On Tuesday we had a neat OPP lab—Aaron was my partner again. He cracks me up—just a funny guy. We had 2 lectures also that day—I think it was virology and a rectal/prostate & hernia exam lecture. I got to practice rectal/prostate examination on a “dummy”. That was definitely cool! I would love to do this on a real-live person!

On Wednesday Dr. Joslyn gave us a biochem lecture. She is a local physician, and her lecture was fun. I find that most clinician’s lecture are just so much fun… I think it’s b/c they orient everything around the patient, and not around the basic sciences. Oh, we had tons of classes on Wednesday, I don’t remember them all, but we did have an abdominal x-ray sign out with Dr. Sumad (from pathology). That was just great! I am so glad I waited until the end of this section to go through the sign out, because at this point I have heard/seen discussed most of these diseases. If I would have taken this on the 2nd week, I would have not benefited much from the small group interaction. Good stuff.

Thursday was filled with microbiology. It was sort-of-kind-of fun. I am not a big fan of microbiology, but I can say that it is getting easier on me.

Today was all about parasitology. Ewwwwww some of those nematodes are just gross! :o) Oh, and then we had our Health Care Policy class. I really love that class—it incorporates business and medicine.

Extra activities this week: KCUMB’s photograph competition! A bunch of students (me included) turned in photographs for the annual competition. I think there were about 40 pictures or so, they were all just beautiful! In all reality, I didn’t think my pictures were going to win anything, because the other pictures were just gorgeous, but I was wrong! I won “first Honorable Mention” (right after 3rd place :o) ) I thought it was really fun and exciting, and so I had to call mom and dad and “Shvitz” a little, and now I’m “Shvitzing” to all of you :o) But I did it for fun, not to win anything, so it’s all good. … I liked Dad’s reaction to this: “So… would they give you $3,000 for it?” HA!!! Too funny! I have the same exact sense of humor, and I know for a fact that Saba Tzvika has the same dry sense of humor too! (we all think we are funny, but really, we are not…) To all of you that have seen some of my pictures before, it was the fly on the grapefruit one that I took a few years back-- I named it "A Moment's Rest".

Anyways, that is just about it. This coming week I have my finals and practicals and lots and lots of stuff… so I’ll be extremely busy. A week afterwards we have the end of the year final and clinical skill examination, so I’ll be even busier…

And then…

I get to go home!!! I am SO excited!!!! I can’t contain my happiness! :o) :o) :o) Jigg-dance!

Love to all,
Have a wonderful week!!!

Reut
29 apr 05 @ 4:48 pm

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Monday, April 25, 2005
Better late than never... :o)
April 16th--> April 23rd

Hi everyone,

This entry is coming out a tad on the late side… I had a quiz today (Monday), and spent the whole weekend studying for it, and just didn’t get a chance to slow down.

Chag-Samech to everyone, and I hope you all had a wonderful Pesach! I had a most lovely one, but I’ll get to that soon.

So, overall this week was not bad at all… The best part was actually the radiology lectures! I had such a good time analyzing both X-rays and CT’s. Ultra sounds are a tad tricky for me, but I think I’ll have an easier if I know which angle we are looking from. I wish we had extra small group assignment or small group teaching sessions with radiology—the best way to learn is just to go through many of those…

Dr. Arnold’s surgery is just awesome. I think I’ll end up being a surgeon (… no, not really, but I just think it’s loads of fun!) This week we went through different hernia surgeries. Very exciting stuff!

Overall, pathology and anatomy slowed the week down. There is so much information that we have to go through and it is just painstakingly long. Needless to say, I wish we had an extra week to really get a handle on it.

On Saturday, a bunch of my friends and I were invited to Dr. Karty’s house for Passover. It was just great! Pesach is my favorite holiday—I love the food, I love family, I love sitting around a huge table, I love the tradition, and mainly… I love the songs! We had a wonderful time— and I thank Dr. Karty for making us feel at home.

Well gang, I have got to run to my Anatomy lab, so lots of love and kisses to all of you, I miss you loads!

Reut
25 apr 05 @ 12:17 pm

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Saturday, April 16, 2005
:o)
April 10th--> April 15 (tax day)

Hello everyone,

This week was just great! I was in the best of moods and had a fabulous time! It all started with me waking up on Monday morning (after getting only 5 and a half hours of sleep) with a smile on my face. I mean, there I was, off to take a quiz on quite difficult material and there was no way for me to stop smiling… My classmates did not like that one bit, and after the quiz (which was hard), when I was still smiling and joking and just having fun, they told me I needed to stop. What a bunch of sour hens they are! Can’t one be in a good mood without being scrutinized???

Anyways, Monday was a piece of cake—we had a few lectures in the morning and an afternoon anatomy lab. Not too bad. I had an epiphany in lab—I can’t really tell you about it at the moment, b/c it is a surprise for someone who worked really hard for us this section, but I’ll tell you all about it after the section is over. Let’s just say that I came up with a great idea and went ahead with it.

Speaking of letting you know of stuff—finally finally I can tell you what Tala and I did for James—he has been the sweetest guy in the world and we decided we have to treat him, so for the past 2 weeks I’ve been dropping hints (most of them had nothing to do with the surprise) and overall just messed with his mind, and tomorrow (Saturday) we will take him to his favorite restaurant—Golden Corral. Personally I hate it, b/c it has meats and not too many veggies, but he likes it…

Anyways, back to Tuesday. It was most okay. We had an OPP lab again—sacrum. Again… nothing much to report. Despite having the afternoon off, I ended up going to anatomy lab with a bunch of my friends. It was SOOOOO smelly there. Ewwww. We are doing the GI at the moment, and frankly, this is a smelly learning experience :o) (hey, I was still smiling!)

Wednesday—our professor was sick, so we did not start class until 10!!!! WOW! I still got up early and went to school—lucky for me, b/c I got a huge cookie-on-a-stick from Dorothy—YUM! Not a healthy breakfast, but a really delicious one. Anyways, we still had a full day of classes b/c we had a rotation presentation during lunch, and then pathology labs in the afternoon. By the end of the day I was a starving Marvin, so I had to run home and eat something :o)

Thursday was long and torturous day, but it was still tons of fun. We had a financial aid presentation during noon time. There is only one thing I can say—“Thank heaven for… (no, not seven eleven) Financial aid!” It will be interesting paying it all back, but I have the rest of my life to do that, so that’s just fine with me.

Today was an awesome day! We had neat classes in the morning (I like Dr. Dew’s preventive medicine, it is really interesting), and then we had student organized review for the Clinical skills final. Today we went over Respiratory examination. It was really fun! Like I said before (a good month or two before), I really like clinical skill labs. It is exciting and pertinent to what we will do. Anyways, after IDC, my friend Phuc and I went to volunteer at Operation Breakthrough. It was so nice—I was with the toddlers today. I love them!!! They really crack me up, for they have such personality!

Well, I am off to continue studying.

Love you so much, and miss you!

Reut
PS—Mom and dad, I’m glad you liked the present!

16 apr 05 @ 10:11 pm

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Saturday, April 9, 2005
2nd week of GI... guess who wants to go back to cardio? :o)
04-03-05-->04-09-05

Hello to all and welcome to the “birthday week!” April 3rd—Saba Tzvika birthday, April 5th—Dad’s birthday, April 7th—My birthday. Happiness goes hand in hand with Sadness, and On the 8th it was the 6th “yom Hashana” for Saba Ramiro. I miss him—we all do, but I know that wherever he is, he is proud of me, his “Doctura.”

This week was really weird. We had a funny schedule, and loads of labs.

On Monday we had 2 hours with Dr. Seidler’s biochemistry. Biochemistry is interesting, but in all honesty, I don’t really see myself using it later on in practice. I guess it is a good thing to understand… Later on in the day we had Anatomy with Dr. Thomas. The only thing I have to say in regards to that is that I am really up to my pupik with this Shtuyes! There is just SO much to know and so little time. I looked at the schedule. We are in the 2nd week of this section already, and it is going to be over before I know it. Why can’t I slow time a bit?

On Tuesday we had an OPP lab. It really wasn’t all that interesting, so I won’t elaborate on it. I’ll just say that the story of “kidnapping Mr. Sacrum” was the high point of the lab. Then we had another anatomy lecture—do you see a trend here? The nice thing I did on Tuesday was to go out to lunch with one of my classmates. I’ve been cooped up in my apartment and school for too long! It was really nice to go out.

On Wednesday we had a morning Anatomy lab. A lab in the early hours of the day is just very weird. We have always had the labs in the afternoon, so all morning long I kept thinking it was afternoon. This lab was all about the portal hepatic system, and really it was a hard dissection. It was a good thing Dr. Cole was there to help us out with figuring out exactly what we needed to do.

On that afternoon I came home and had a package waiting for me: Brownies for my birthday from mom and dad! I loved the card that went with it, especially the line that said: “with every bite you give to these yummies, remember how sweet we are :-)” I was sure this was a mom joke, but for the first time in my life I didn’t realize it was really a dad-joke! :oP I loved the brownies SO much! My friends loved them too. Mmmmmm… brownies!

On Thursday I turned 26, and as a special treat we started out an hour later than normal. We were suppose to have an online assignment but the school server had problems, so everything was delayed. My day ended up starting 2 hours earlier, as I hurried to Smith hall to catch a room before the 2nd years snatched everything up. They are studying for the boards and signing up for a study room proves to me much more difficult than before. The day consisted mainly of biochem and embryology. It was most lovely. What can I say? I was at school until 11:30pm… not the best way to spend a birthday.

Friday. Lovely Friday. All and all… filled with anatomy to capacity. But on the plus side, Dr. K’s IDC (interdepartmental conference) was just amazing! I am so happy that she went through it—she has a way of making everything become clear.

My Nany and her table mates (I call them the “dinner table gals”) sent me a really sweet birthday card! I got it today and loved it so much I showed it to all of my friends :o) Thank you, it is wonderful!

Well, it is now 1:12AM, and I am tired but awake. I’ve been having this weird thing where at about 10 or 11 at night I get an energy boost. I am never productive at this point in the day, and not being tired isn’t helping my feeling of wasting my time. I guess it’s okay—everybody, me included, need time to not work.

You know, even though school is almost over, I really miss home. It was so nice being there during spring break, and I really want to be there now. When I chose KCUMB, I knew I was picking a great school, and I had no hesitations coming here. However, even at 25-26 years of age, nothing could have prepared for just how much I would miss my family. Umph. I need to be close to them.

Well friends, as much as I hate to say goodbye, I must,
I will keep you all posted with next week’s entry.

Love you all,
XOXO


Reut

9 apr 05 @ 1:52 am

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Saturday, April 2, 2005
It's Spring!!! :o) :o) :o)
03-28-05--> 04-01-05

So… I was right. Going back to school after a teaser holiday is difficult. But I did it, and I am back into studying mode (almost…)

We are in the last section of the year—Gastrointestinal. So far I do not like it as much as cardio, but that’s just the first week of this section, so it might get better. Our section director is cool Dr. Karius—I’m sure we’ll get lots of online activities and interaction!

On Monday we had a lovely anatomy marathon. I have a love-hate relationship with anatomy. I love it because I enjoy orienting things in my head, and also because it is pretty darn amazing. I hate it because I have a difficult time just memorizing things. Just the other day I was telling my mom that medicine (but especially anatomy) is like a foreign language—you got to keep practicing until you get it right.

That afternoon we had an interesting End of Life section. Dr.B. McCandless lead our group, and it was very interesting. We talked about living will, the need to talk about it with patients, friends and family, and naturally tied it with Terri Schiavo case. Overall it was very interesting. Everyone should think and talk about it. As Mike Myers in SNL would say (dressed up as Linda Richman in ‘coffee talk’): “The Living Will, neither a will, nor living, ‘tawk’ amongst yourselves” (thick new york accent here). :o)

After that (still on Monday) I had to do my Path presentation. It went just fine, but I ended up mispronouncing one word, and ERF made the whole class say it together. He does it whenever someone mixes up a word—pretty effective, we all at the end are able to say difficult words.

On Tuesday we had a cool clinical skills lab—Abdominal examination!!! I had such a great time with this one!!! What can I do, you give me a stethoscope, eyes, hands and a brain and I bound to do something with it! I love clinical skills lab, and really wish we had more of it.

My early clinical experience happened to land that afternoon, and so I drove to a neighboring suburb—Liberty, and shadowed Dr. Peters. Actually, I ended up following one of the 3rd year students around. This was just the most excellent experience I had in a while! Because she (the 3rd year student) isn’t that far a head in her medical education, I was able to enjoy the realization that I too will be doing just that. It was a wonderful experience, and I came out of there determine to conquer any obstacle that come my way. Actually… I called my mom and dad and told them: “Guess what I’m going to be when I grow up!!!” :o)

Wendsday and thrusday were both looooooooong days filled with Anatomy and anatomy lab. Today was a little better, b/c we had some biochemistry which made things interesting and physiology which explained everything. I like these classes a lot better because there instead of just memorizing names you have to learn a process. When comparing physiology/biochem to anatomy, it’s like a story, where Anatomy is just the index at the back of the book.

This afternoon Tala and I were suppose to give James his surprise, but Tala left for a wedding, so we’ll have to find some time next week. Bummer.

In anycase, that’s what’s been going on. We only have 6 more weeks of school :o( That’s sad… first year is almost over :o( :o( :o(

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Reut

2 apr 05 @ 3:18 pm