September 2004

Saturday, September 25, 2004
We started musculoskeletal unit!
9-17-->9-24

Overall, this was a very long and difficult week.

Musculoskeletal unit began this week; this is an exciting unit, and much more organized than FOM. We did SO many things—we started our Anatomy lab! (and I absolutely LOVED it!!!), we had our first clinical interviews, first pathology case diagnostic, and lots and just LOTS of school. I won’t bore you with any more school-details of this week, because there is just too much to go over. Just believe me when I say that it was a long and difficult week :o)

Yesterday we got our FOM (Foundations of Medicine) tests back—I did just fine, and passed the unit with flying colors! Hurrah! No more FOM!

Last night I went to Yom Kippur services in a reform synagogue. I had dinner with a few families, and that was nice! The services themselves were not to my taste- it was too similar to a church, and there was too much English in the service. What can I say, I have an affinity to Hebrew… But it was nice to get out and be around “non-medical-school-people”!

Today I have to play catch up from yesterday, so I have to bid you farewell and go back to studying. With a quiz on Monday, I must study hard.

Much love to all,

Re

PS- my applesauce turned AMAZING! It is all gone now, and after the fast I’ll make another batch!

25 sep 04 @ 10:23 am

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Friday, September 17, 2004
9-11 through 9-17
No more FOM (Foundations of Medicine)!!!

I just finished the last lag of FOM. All I did for the past week was study for my exam, and despite all the studying, it was still very hard…. Blah! Actually, all I really did in the past 6 weeks was study... so I can’t quite complain. However, since the exam is over, I am not going to dwell about it any longer. This weekend is the only free weekend I get (for the next 6 weeks) where I don’t have any school work at all, so I’m going to enjoy it and not think of the exam.

“Non-exam” interesting aspects of the week:

1) A presentation regarding obesity—Mrs. Weaver was kind enough to share her inspiring story. It is amazing to see that sometimes our society forgets that inside every human body a unique wonderful soul exist. I was very touched by her story.

2) End of Life panel. Wow… this one was a bit hard. I basically sat there trying very, very hard to hold my tears in (and you ALL know I am the first one to shed tears… and a lot of them….). I think that eventually I will have to grow up and face and accept death. But at the moment, it doesn’t stop me from hating it. Yes, I know that 100% of our patients will ultimately die, but I just think that this last goodbye is very difficult. Dad’s famous line is: “I can promise you this—everyone is going to die sometimes,” and rationally I accept that, but emotionally I don’t want to. Hmph! We are going to have many more discussions and such on this topic, and I think that it is something I will just have to get through and process in my mind and heart.

Today we had hospital day—basically, all related hospital sites came and set up booths and introduced themselves to us. In all reality this event was intended to the 2nd years, but it was still quite informative and actually fun. I am looking at a possible hospital in MI, but this is really far a head to think about at the moment ;o)

After we were done with hospital day, I went with some of my friends to Vaughn’s apple orchard to pick some apples. Well, some apples is not quite accurate… it is more like TONS of apples!!! I have more apples than I know what to do with… maybe I’ll make some apple pie with it or some apple sauce (better ask Grandma for the apple sauce recipe…). I left all of the apples at my friend’s place, but I’ll go there tomorrow and get a few, so they don’t have to deal with 32544 tons of apples! It was very fun to walk around with a big bag and pick the apples. It might be the end of the season, b/c it looked like a lot of the apples on the tree had worms and stuff in them, but the ones we picked are great! OH! Now I know what Newton felt like when he got that interesting idea of his regarding gravity… I too was hit straight on the head with an apple. Ouch!

Well, seeing as I am extremely tired, I am going to head on to bed.

Goodnight to all, lots of hugs and kisses,

Re

PS—I begun taking pictures with my camera (35mm, sorry, no digital)—I hope that in the next month or so I’ll finish a roll and put it up here!

17 sep 04 @ 10:28 pm

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Friday, September 10, 2004
9/3 to 9/10/04
Fun week!

We had Monday off for Labor Day, but that doesn’t mean I actually had it off :o) I sat and studied from 8am to 11pm… long day.

Tuesday we had the quiz, and then we had communication lab. It was really hard to go to lab right after the quiz (b/c I was just drained), but I did it, and overall it was informative.

Wednesday was a hard physiology/immunology day, but at night time I went to a peds club/ Docs for Tots meeting, and got chosen with 4 other people to be one of the 1st year representatives for Docs for Tots! I’m very excited to take on this responsibility :o)

Thursday was another hard immunology/pathology/microbiology day. Microbiology was kind of neat—we learned about all sorts of parasites and had a lovely disgusting time with the pictures!!! Ewwwww! Right before lunch too!!! :o) We had Micro lab in the afternoon, and that was just boring….zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz but nevertheless, I like microlab- it’s a low stress environment, perhaps the only low stress environment at the school, so I’m not complaining about it. It was really gross to see all the fungi though!!!

Today was really great—we had 2 pathology lectures, and one pharmacology lecture (that was very very VERY hard to follow!) Besides being a regular class day, today was homecoming of the school- all the alumni came and visited, and the new building they are attempting to finish by last August (LOL!) was named. I doubt they’ll finish that thing before I’m outta here :o) Then we had a great delicious lunch, a few panels with the alumni, and home!!!!!!!!! Before I actually got home, I stopped at Dr. Buxton’s office (immunology/micro), and talked to her about a review session with the class. She didn’t finish one of her lectures and offered to give a session where she’d finish it and go over questions etc. Anyways in class I asked her when she was going to do that, and she said that we as a class will have to decide. Well…as no one was going to do it, I went to her office, found the times she could do it, emailed all my class mates, will count the votes and will figure out the date/time of the review session. It’s nice to organize this little vote…

I just came back from Wal-Mart and I really am going to study soon (I have to, as we have our final examination on Thursday), but I just thought I’d drop a line and say hello to everyone across the world!

Big hugs and kisses to all,

I miss you!

Re

10 sep 04 @ 6:54 pm

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Saturday, September 4, 2004
8-30 through 9-3-2004

Another week has gone by. This was by far the most difficult week—There is just so much (or rather, too much) microbiology and pharmacology. This week we also had a few labs! Micro lab is really cool—I had a good time with it! We got to streak some plates and stain some bacteria (mine was a most lovely Gram (-) e.coli!) We also had “end of life” lab—which was mainly learning approaches to patient-doctor communication at the last stages of life. In this lab we also had a short role playing. This time around I got to be the doctor and ‘act’ the part :o) It was nice. I think that this communication skills course is a very beneficial one. I get free practice with constant feedback from instructors, community members and classmates. It is an interesting concept. Ummmm… Oh yeah, today we had a pharmokinetics lab—basically we had group and worked on problems. It really wasn’t bad… but I think I was one of the few people that had a fairly good time in that lab… what can I say, I took my time with it, really tried to understand what I was doing. Everybody else wanted to get out of there fast, and when they realized there was no way they were going to finish with this in less than 2 hours they got frustrated. Personally, I came in with the attitude of—this is going to take as long as it takes and… this is going to be fun! Actually, it reminded me of Mr. Dillon’s physics questions in high school—just the same general feeling :o)

OPP lab—fun stuff! “Back cracking” It has a name—High velocity, low amplitude (HVLA) but I think back cracking sounds funnier! Great stuff! I need more practice… any volunteers??? :o)

I joined a new study group! These people are great—we basically go over materials individually, but consult on main issues. Furthermore, during the weekend, we will do a major quizzing session. This should be useful because we have a quiz on Tuesday. Thank goodness for Labor Day, b/c we get another study day :o)

As I was walking out of Smith hall today I saw Erin (who is a 2nd year) and she gave me the application for the volunteering I want to do with the Docs for Tots club. Here is the website for the location—I am very excited about it!
http://www.operationbreakthrough.org/
With all the really bad stuff that is going on in the world, this would be my own personal contribution to helping others in our community.

Well, overall this is the gist of the week. Mainly studying and studying and studying, but that is exactly what I’m here to do :o)

Oh one more thing—the sunrises in Kansas City are so different than the Arizona ones! The sky here is usually very dark blue, and the very red sun just climbs up from the flat horizon. It is very beautiful, and I will take a picture eventually.

Okay guys, I am incredibly tired and it is 1:20AM here, so I better go to bed,

Much love to all of you, I miss you!

Re

4 sep 04 @ 1:22 am