December 2004

Friday, December 24, 2004
VACATION!!!

It is SO nice to wake up at 10 in the morning, so nice to read the 5th Harry potter book for the second time, it is SO nice to walk with Midnight, go see movies with mom and talk to Dad and Omer…it is so nice to go over pathology, immunology, microbiology and cardio material when I want to, and not when I have to! It is just so wonderful! Now that I experienced the wonderful feeling of being on vacation, will I ever be able to go back to school??? :o)

It has definitely been a great vacation so far, and in all honesty, Phoenix is the best city to be in during the month of December… I can’t help it… I just don’t like snow very much!

Well, my movies count so far:
-“A series of unfortunate events”—so very very cute!
-“Meet the fockers”—a great sequal!!! (But I’m biased, Ben Stiller is a cutie pie, I adore Barbra Streisand, and both Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman were GREAT!)

Fun reading so far:
-Doctors by Erich Segal
-If I get to five by Fred Epstein
-Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Year 5) by J.K. Rowling

Fun stuff:
-Macabia with mom
-Shopping!
-Hiking on the trail
-Seeing old friends

What can I say, I am having a blast!!!

Well goodnight to all,

Love,

Reut

24 dec 04 @ 10:55 pm

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Saturday, December 11, 2004
I have completed the first semester of medical school!
12-04-04-->12-10-04

Hi everyone!

Wow, what a week this has been! It started out on Monday on with a quiz, than classes and stuff until Wednesday afternoon. THEN we had pathology practical and today (or rather yesterday, as it’s the wee-hour of the day right now…) we had our final exam. If they want to build in us the ability to function under stress and lack of sleep, I think they are doing a really good job! :o)

Actually, as this section closes, I wanted to say that I truly had a good time. I really enjoyed Hematology- Oncology. It’s challenging and exciting and really makes me think. Not so much Derm though… so I guess my plan of becoming a dermatologist, going off to Hawaii and taking care of skin there isn’t going to work… Ha!! (I’m kidding!).

In anycase, I just finished cleaning my place (it’s 2AM!!). I had to organize all of my papers, and throw away everything I didn’t need. It took a long time because I really wanted to be able to come back from break and have all of my papers organized. But also because I had SO much material from this section (My 5” binder has literally exploded!).

You know, it’s amazing how much stuff has been going on since the beginning of the school year. It’s amazing how close people in our class became. I am fortunate to do what I am doing, and to be here. And lastly, it’s amazing how much I have learned (and hopefully remember :o) ). The past few months were an interesting challenge. Difficult at times, never easy, but most of all… exciting!

Well, in a few hours I’ll be flying off to Arizona. I am SO excited to see my family!

So goodnight to you all,

Love always,

Reut

11 dec 04 @ 2:14 am

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Friday, December 3, 2004
the light at the end of the tunnel-- SLB section is almsot over!
11-27-04-->12-03-04

Hi everyone!

I forgot to tell about my snow “adventure” last week… A day before thanksgiving we had our first snow of the season (about a foot… that’s a lot for me!). Anyways, I had to go do stuff out of the house, and so I was going to go and drive in the snow for the first time (mind you, most of the snow was shoveled by that point). Well, I went down to my car, and much to my chagrin (and you can even add here—my horror), my car was covered with a foot of wet cold snow!!! So I took out my brush/shovel and started working on the car. It took me 30 minutes to get all the snow off of the car and by the end, all of the snow had transferred on to my cloths! I was SO drenched that I had to go upstairs and change cloths!!! I hope I NEVER have to do that again (wishful thinking :o) )

Okay, now on with the week—

This week was full! Because of Thanksgiving, we had extra stuff we had to complete this week, and it was quite hectic! Over all, I was a happy camper, because some of the diseases finally clicked. It’s a wonderful feeling to let the material sit there in the brain and stew until suddenly with no warning, it begins to make a whole lot of sense. :o) Now I’m waiting for some of the blood tests to click. It better happen this weekend, and not after the quiz!!! Ha!

Monday was a very long and difficult day, but we did have Dr. Hentosh for Pharmacology, so I was very happy. She is absolutely great. On Tuesday we had Osteopathic manipulations, and I stayed at school until 5pm. It was a very long day. Wednesday was the actual day the diseases clicked for me. We had Pediatrics Oncology in the morning and then 2 adult oncology lectures and 1 adult hematology. It was awesome! Thursday was a bit more difficult, because we had 3 immunology lectures, pediatrics, Blood lab, which was GREAT!—I drew blood off of Kendle (he has HUGE veins!), and Shellie (she has tiny veins)—and then did an analasis on my own blood. Actually… the computer did the analysis on me… but it was interesting nevertheless. This was the last of the blood labs, and now if I want to keep sticking people, I either have to contact Dr. Karius to plan a time when we can do it, or become a phlebotomist for the summer time :o) (I’d LOVE that!)

Today… we had 2 hours of Dr. Hubbard, with Adult Oncology—Lymphoma is making sense now, and the rest of it is cooking in my brain. Dr Hubbard’s lectures are great—I am so happy he is one of our clinician lecturers. THEN, Dr. Buxton taught Dr. El-sawi’s class, because Dr. El-Sawi had to be somewhere else. Poor Dr. Buxton, she had lost her voice last night and was squeaking. I felt so bad for her! I was so happy that she taught it though, because I really get her style. It’s so interesting to see how each one of the students enjoys different teaching styles, and have a hard time with others.

IDC—was cool. Dr. Karty is always awesome. And then… back home.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day, where I am planning to sit and study in Smith hall. We have our last week next week. That means- a quiz on Monday, classes until Wednesday afternoon, Pathology practical on Thursday, and a final exam on Friday. But, with the end of this section, I get to fly home and finally get to see everyone!

Well gang, I must go to bed,

I love you and miss you,

Reut

3 dec 04 @ 10:46 pm