November 2004

Sunday, November 28, 2004
Happy Thanksgiving!
11-20-->11-28-2004

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Well, there isn’t really much to write about this week :o)

We had a quiz on Tuesday, and thus on Monday less than a quarter of our class appeared in school… I don’t think the section director was very happy with our class… I am very glad I went to school on Monday, because there was a very interesting presentation by Dr. Hicks regarding pediatric hematology. I enjoyed it.

After the quiz on Tuesday, I had an afternoon lab, and then back home for break!!!

Break was absolutely WONDERFUL! I slept a whole lot, took the car to the shop, volunteered at Operation Breakthrough, went out with the few people that stayed in town, and even did some academic work. It was great…

Sadly, we have to go back to school now, and in the next 2 weeks we will be bombarded with information… aaack. But, two weeks from now I will be home in Arizona!!! I can’t wait! I miss everyone so much (especially Midnight—my dog).

That’s about it,

I miss you all,


Reut

28 nov 04 @ 11:21 am

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Saturday, November 20, 2004
Cool blood lab!!!
11-13-04-->11-19-04

Hi everybody!

This week was interesting—

On Tuesday we had our Osteopathic manipulation exam, and it went fine— The way our OMT exams work is that we partner up, go from station to station and rotate between being the doctor and being the patient. In each station they have 4 or 5 cards that are facing down with questions on them. You choose 1 card and then have 3 minutes to explain and show how to treat for each question. All in all it is very random, and there is no guarantee as to which questions you will get. All of the questions I picked were ones that I knew (phew!) I got out of there feeling pretty good about the test.

Wednesday was very long. We had Physiology and pathology in the morning, then we had our discussion group and then… we had our 1st blood lab!!! It was just AWESOME! This was the first time I have ever drawn blood, and it felt wonderful to do it! All I need to do now is to practice and practice and keep practicing! On my first try I got into my friend’s vein but when I put the tube on I moved the needle a bit, so I had to abort that one. Then I tried again on a different friend’s vein and got blood out of hers with absolutely no problems! It was just awesome! I had 2 friends draw my blood also—they did a good job too. Actually, one of them did it better than any doctor, nurse or phlebotomist has ever done it on me! I was quite impressed! So now as Dad said, I got a new job—being a vampire!

I can’t wait till a week after next when we have another blood lab :o) :o) :o)

Thursday was hard—We had peds (fun class!), pathology, and 2 lectures of pharm (not with Dr. Hentosh though, so I don’t have any of her cool mnemonics to share with you…) In the afternoon 2 of my friends and I had a pathology presentation. We were very worried about it, but it went just fine.

Today was interesting—3 lectures of Hematology, one lecture of histology, and interdepartmental conference. Just as I predicted, we were chosen to present during the conference. Even though we had to stand in front of 230 some people, it went just fine and was actually kind of fun.

After school I went and volunteered at Operation Breakthrough— This time around, we went there as a group and had a Thanksgiving party with the kindergartners. We read stories, and enjoyed apple bobbing, pin the gobbler on the turkey, we drew turkeys and had a snack. It was loads of fun, and both the kids and we had a good time!

My weekend is going to be devoted to studying—I have a big quiz right before break.
My love to all of you,

I miss you!

Reut

PS—Just a big thank-you to Nany and Aunt Sue for getting me the most wonderful gloves!!! They are just perfect! I love them!

20 nov 04 @ 3:11 pm

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Saturday, November 13, 2004
It's almost Thanksgiving!
11-06-04-->11-12-04

Hi everyone,

This week wasn’t too bad—maybe it’s because I knew that in about a week and a half we will have a break (thanksgiving!!!).

We had tons and just tons of pathology, which is okay. I enjoy looking at the slides, and now (after 3 months of school), it actually looks like something more than a pretty picture with lots of dots and colors… :o) My only problem with pathology is quiz bank. We have a bank of questions that we are required to do for every lecture, and it’s on the computer. We have thousands of questions, and after about 50 or 60 questions I get a major head ache, so that is kind of annoying.

Tuesday was a great day for me—I had only 1 class, and then I spent the rest of the day working on quiz bank (and getting a head ache)

On Wednesday we had a bunch of pharmacology—this time around it was Antineoplastic agents (cancer drugs, basically). Dr. Hentosh did such a wonderful job with it!!! Whenever she comes to class I get a huge grin on my face, b/c she is just SO cool!!!! She has those great mnemonics to remember the different drugs, and w/o knowing it, I pick up complicated names of drugs. I can’t say I am any good at it yet, but I am very determined to become great at it! …Okay, so you want an example for a great Dr. Hentosh mnemonic? Okay. Irintican, a camptothecin analog has a very unique delayed severe diarrhea (in addition to Bone marrow depression, and a bunch of other things). The major thing to remember with Irintican is that horrid diarrhea that comes together with it. Then mnemonics: “Hey man, I ran to the can!!!” Get it? Irinotecan, delayed diarrhea… get it? :o)

Thursday was a really long day—we had Dermatology in the morning (which is getting harder and harder with all the different rashes we have to recognize), then we had microbiology (blah… I don’t like micro too much), and then we had Surgery with Dr. Arnold—he is a very unique individual. Very sarcastic and with a dry sense of humor. He was okay. The afternoon was filled with a lot of labs, which was kinda a drag. I was very tired by that point.

Oh, the other cool thing on Thursday, we organized a cookie sale for Docs for Tots. I made a bunch of posters to put around the school—with cookies and cookie monster—it was cute. We actually made a whole lot of money! It was fun selling the cookies and it was fun organizing the sale.

On Friday we had oncology, which was interesting. Then we had surgery, and then histology. Dr. McWhorter’s lecture was much better this time around!!! I actually enjoyed it a whole lot. Then in the afternoon we had interdepartmental conference, which was actually tons of fun! Dr. Buxton created cases for all of us to present, and our name is called out of a hat, and then we stand in front of the class and have to present our case. This is done in groups of 6, and we have about five or six different cases to go over. In anycase, she didn’t pick my group this time around, but all the other groups that were picked were just so funny! I really had a fun time with this!

On Friday afternoon I had a tutor for pathology— with a bunch of my friends, so I didn’t go to Operation Breakthrough to volunteer. I will definitely go next week. Then, late at night I practiced OMT with 2 of my friends, and it was fun.

Today, Saturday, I have a few things going on—first of all I will try and finish writing all the drugs for pharm—I hate being behind on a class I actually love… Second, I have a mock practical for OMT. I am definitely going to participate in it, b/c the Anatomy mock practical helped me so much to find out exactly where my weak points were and be able to concentrate on them. …and to all of those who are wondering, a mock practical is not a practical that we stand around and let others mock us (… ha-ha, very funny... yeah, right…)

Okay, off I go to work on some stuff,

Much love to all, I miss you SO much!

Reut

13 nov 04 @ 8:33 am

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Sunday, November 7, 2004
10-30-04 to 11-05-04
(I can’t believe it’s November already… sheesh!)

Hi everybody!

We started Skin Blood and Lymph this past week. So far it’s okay… not too interesting, but not too boring… We have a few new classes, and one of them is dermatology. It’s fairly cool—we probably go through over a hundred slides in a lecture, but he makes it seems like a piece of cake. I bet it’s really fun to rotate with a dermatologist (you get to see all kinds of different rashes and growths—very interesting stuff!)

Overall, academically, the only thing I found to be interesting enough to share with you guys is a guest presentation we had on Friday. Dr. Buxton’s neighbor, a lady that has psoriasis (skin disease) came and talked to us about her disease. It was very interesting and inspiring to see how she deals with the disease (both on the practical day-to-day side, and also the emotional side of it)

As everyone knows already, Tuesday was a very depressing day, as Kerry lost the elections. Many of the professors were poking bad jokes and taking jabs at W. For example, one of our professors (who shall remain anonymous) went off at a virus in a shape of the letter ‘W’ infiltrating the nerves. You really had to be there, it was funny, and I don’t do it justice. Just like in the rest of the country, our class is divided in half. So, half of my classmates were on cloud # 9 for the rest of the week… Still, as my friend Karen says—“Yeah, I'm pissed that 50% of our country re-elected that nitwit, but I did my duty—I voted for the guy I thought would do a good job. But more people thought President Moron would do a better job, so they win. That's the way democracy works, and frankly, I wouldn't trade it for any other form of government there is.”

On Friday following the inter-departmental conference, I drove to Operation Breakthrough and volunteered. I spent my time with the little babies, and it was absolutely wonderful! I think next time I’ll volunteer with the 3 year olds. It’s amazing how much I missed kids in general! When I’m home over break, I’ll better go see my kids at my old work place…although at age 2-3 they probably won’t remember me when I come to visit them… Oh well!

I have a bunch of new pictures posted in the picture page, so check them out!!! Click on them to make them larger.

As another quiz is coming this Monday, I better go review my notes.

Much love to all,

Reut

7 nov 04 @ 12:15 am